HonestOpinion

Got me reminiscing about my first impressions when I received my Helix. The qualities you mention are certainly in there but that is definitely not what struck me initially. As a matter of fact I had to acquire some knowledge and experience with not only how the Helix worked but also how it interacted with my monitoring system and PAs before I was truly satisfied with the sound or "feel". What struck me initially was the incredibly well designed user interface, the I/O options, scribble strips, and the sheer potential of the system. It was also abundantly clear that flexibility was a prime directive in the Helix's development(with the exception of lacking multiple routing splits). You could use any combination of pedals you wanted, if you wanted three delays and five EQ blocks, that was up to you. You were not forced into using only a pre-designed set or order of pedals with a rigid allocation scheme for available DSP. That was a really appealing approach to me. Also felt like it was a high quality device, built to last.

My experience has been similar. I have some 3Sigma as well as some other acoustic IRs and generally have to turn the blend down low. I have also gotten good results from not using an IR at all and just some compression, EQ, reverb/delay, and sometimes chorus blended in. Also always have an expression pedal volume block and also a gain block assigned to a footswitch for an extra volume boost for solos or a lower volume patch where required. I find it helps to keep a healthy signal level coming from the acoustic guitar as well. I have struggled with some presets picking up more string noise than I prefer but can usually EQ it down to acceptable levels or if those efforts are unsuccessful I just create a new preset with blocks that play better with the acoustic. Btw, anyone happen to know exactly where that bit of buzzy piezo nastiness is located? That area of the frequency spectrum that makes it sound more artificial and less pleasing to the ear. Some might say the "piezo quack" . I tend to sweep for it with a parametric and adjust per whichever guitar I am using but curious if anyone knows exactly where those frequencies tend to reside.

Yup, only the current global EQ setting would need to be have DSP allotted. There is already btw a parameter that allows you to select which outputs you want the global EQ to affect which provides some flexibility at least for those who would like to have two or three global EQs active simultaneously.

I would have thought only the currently active global EQ would eat DSP as well. The prevailing wisdom on the forum for quite a while now has been that the single global EQ preset that is currently available stays resident and takes up DSP at all times, active or not. At some point that was extrapolated to "if we had multiple global EQs available they would all have to be resident at all times". That has never seemed like it should be the case to me either.

Another powerful and free DAW option. https://www.tracktion.com/products/waveform-free

Definitely a high enough percentage that much as I would love to see multiple global EQs, would only want them if only the one in use was taking up any DSP.

I wonder if there is an updated list out there?

Does this still happen after you restart your Stomp? There is often a rebuild process that occurs one time after shuffling presets around as you describe.

There's more than one "James Tyler" logo on there? Hadn't noticed :-) I hear you on the pricing for some of the traditional guitar companies. It has gotten exorbitant and that could well have been the sticking point but as mentioned some of the stuff at the middle-bottom of the line might have worked and Line6 would not have had to reinvent the wheel. Those companies already knew how to make a very playable inexpensive guitar. I would have preferred the flexibility of selecting a guitar that could have for the most part replaced one of my more frequently used gigging guitars and would have been willing to pay a bit extra for it. I never tried one of the USA made custom Variax models which were an option if you wanted a higher end guitar and maybe they are fantastic but at that price point I would tend to look at other brands first. To be honest though, I have been playing mostly PRS guitars for years and perhaps nothing else would have fit the bill. For the most part the sweet spot for Line6 is probably to keep making fairly inexpensive guitars with Variax electronics installed and offer a few high priced models for those with the means and inclination to buy one. Time IMHO for a Variax electronics reboot though. There is a lot more they could do with them and I think they would fly off the shelves if they found a way to merge their modeling with a hex pickup(tired old debate). I never felt the original Variax and even the JTV(still have and use one) were exactly the right guitar for me. Just not overly fond of the build on them. It is the electronics and especially the interoperability with the HX ecosystem that are so compelling, the guitar itself left me nonplussed. Although I enjoy playing and employing the JTV for limited use it is not a "primary" guitar for me. Very cool when used with the Helix and PC+ and incredibly useful for alternate tunings but not an instrument I want to play all the time. Could just be a personal preference thing. Haven't tried the new generation of Variaxes, I would not be surprised if the build has improved and there is the potential for them to get even better now that Yamaha is involved. I have always been impressed by how well Pacifica guitars played and sounded for a relatively inexpensive guitar.

After changing Global Settings>MIDI/Tempo>'Tempo Select' = "Per Snapshot" as phil_m suggested you may also want to set Global Settings --> 'Preferences --> 'Snapshot Edits' = "Recall". At least while you are editing. This will retain the different BPM values as you set them in each snapshot, requiring only one save when you are finished editing the preset. Probably the most convenient mode for editing a preset. The other option, Global Settings --> 'Preferences --> 'Snapshot Edits' = "Discard" can require a save in between the editing of each snapshot. If you click away from the snapshot and return to it without saving first with the "Discard" setting, the snapshot will have reverted to its last saved state and your changes will be lost. You may find this is your preferred mode for a live performance. Btw, related to the above snapshot settings although not particularly relevant to BPM settings is the ability to prevent any parameter from being bypassed by a snapshot. Including it here if for no other reason than to remind myself it exists. The options for assignment in the HX world have gotten crazy good. There are also some interesting settings for deciding what happens if you click the same snapshot switch a second time. Snapshot Bypass instruction from the manual for preventing a block from being bypassed from a snapshot switch: Helix Floor / Rack / LT Select a processing block, press ACTION, and set Knob 5 (Snapshot Bypass) to “Off” to disable snapshot control of that block’s bypass state HX Effects Select a processing block, press ACTION, and press the “Snapshot Bypass” switch to disable snapshot control of that block’s bypass state HX Stomp From Edit view, select a processing block, press ACTION, press PAGE >, and set Knob 3 (Snapshot Bypass) to “Off” to disable snapshot control of that block’s bypass state Helix Native / HX Edit Right-click (Mac: control-click) on a processing block and uncheck “Snapshot Bypass.” Alternatively, right-click (Mac: control-click) the Bypass button to uncheck “Snapshot Bypass.”

I feel the same way about Variax + Helix + Powercab. Having everything in your signal path from guitar to amp communicating. Genius! Probably never happen, especially now that the Line6 family now includes Yamaha guitars, but one thing I wish Line6 had done with the original Variaxes was partner with for example Gibson/Epiphone, Fender, ESP, etc., to install Variax electronics in a line of their guitars. Maybe that would have pushed the price up too high but I would have paid extra to get a brand of guitar I love to play with or without Variax electronics installed.

Great solution, wish I'd thought of it :-) It addressed the OP's question better than I was able to. I don't think of spillover as combining a dry and dry/wet signal but I guess that was just the ticket. Good ears!

Tested this on the Helix and watched the video link you provided but I am not sure I see what you mean. Not to question your assessment of how the Surf Rider pedal works but are you sure what you like about that pedal is "spillover"? I thought the Surf Rider pedal in the video worked pretty similar to a Reverb block with its parameter(s) assigned to an expression pedal on the Helix. Maybe I missed something. Seeing as how an expression pedal is "continuous" I don't how see it would have accomplished the behavior you describe unless it was able to detect for example the depth or mix at only the first position of the pedal and generate those trails as it then moved to ramping through the depth setting as you depressed the pedal. Sound possible but unlikely. It would make more sense to me that the depth parameter would instead change dynamically in real time(like the Helix reverbs). It might not be spillover but perhaps some other settings that might explain why you like that pedal's behavior. Maybe someone else here can provide some specifics on how to get you closer to that. One suggestion might be to experiment with your Reverb block's Predelay and Decay settings to get this working more the way you like it when used with the expression pedal. Lastly, switching between two snapshots with two different but fixed depth settings is probably not what you are looking for although it offers a less flexible option that would provide spillover between the two snapshots. As you mentioned, make sure 'Trails' = "On". With the new 'Preset Spillover' global option you can use this approach with presets as well as snapshots now.

Your statement is a little confusing as you say you have been "powering up and down" but also "just powered up for the first time today". Maybe "today" was the key word there. If it was the first time you restarted it since the upgrade, a rebuild is normal and it is a one time operation that is part of the upgrade process. It shouldn't happen again. If that was not your first restart since upgrading, did you restore any setlists/presets copy any of your existing presets to new preset slot locations or import any presets from backups, CustomTone, Marketplace, etc.? This can cause just those presets to be rebuilt on the next restart.

The bug was there in 3.0 as well.

You're right that can happen on occasion with a dirty or failing switch but in the 3.0 and 3.01.0 firmware this is definitely a known bug.

All I can offer in the way of a different way to do things is you can copy and paste multiple presets at one time by highlighting them so depending on how full your setlist is you could potentially move an entire setlist up one bank in one fell swoop. Should take less than 30 seconds. Just highlight and copy the presets you need to move all at one time, select the starting slot for your move and paste. Keep in mind you will overwrite the presets below the paste point depending on how many slots you have available vs. how many presets you are pasting. Good idea to backup the setlist and even the individual presets(those can also be highlighted and exported all at once as individual files) first in case you get something wrong in the cut & paste operation. Another way to do this operation would be to copy all your presets to a different empty User setlist, again starting at the second bank.

Scotty: I've never beamed three people from two targets onto one pad before! -- Scotty

For what its worth this is a bug that should be fixed quickly and I think it will be. Surprising it was not caught in beta as it is such a basic piece of functionality. Maybe so obvious no one thought to look for it. Bet they will next time. Or perhaps Line6 knew about it but determined that hitting their release date with a later bug fix to follow was a preferred path. It is almost comical to see a device this powerful and sophisticated, having just delivered polyphonic processing, unable to scroll properly through its own banks. You know that was not their intention. Others may not be feeling your sense of urgency as thankfully it is a bug with a simple workaround that imposes a minor or no inconvenience on most players. Personally I thought this would get fixed in the 3.01.0 release but they were trying to address an urgent issue with corrupted output and perhaps this bug is more deeply embedded than it would appear at first blush. It might have required more time, effort, and QA then they could afford before releasing the other, much more critical, bugfix in 3.01.0.. Hang in there, a fix is surely coming(probably in short order) and in the meantime, as I'm sure you already know, the 3.0 update has some awesome new features to explore. Although minor in the scheme of things this is very visible; not an esoteric bug only impacting a couple of users. You can safely assume Line6 is well aware of it and driving themselves to get this resolved. I sincerely doubt any additional urging from users will be required.

Have you also tried rebooting your Mac and then a different USB cable and swapping USB ports?

Adoption has been slow but with an ever growing number of players migrating over to modelers, incorporating polyphony, multi-timbral, and synthesis capabilities will become more and more natural to increasingly tech savvy players who will essentially find it to be just an extension and enhancement of what they are doing already.

I agree, the ability to identify and separate the processing for each string through a mono pickup in real time with minimal lag is definitely coming. My main point over the next few paragraphs though, intended more in the spirit of a suggestion to guitar manufacturers rather than a rant, is we need to move to hex pickups as the norm. Modern processors just have the capacity to work far better with them. Don't get me wrong, I welcome having polyphony that works with all my mono pickups guitars but it is legitimate to ask, why do we even need it, other than as a bridge for older legacy guitars. We have hex technology now. Hex pickups and cables can be produced relatively cheaply and for everyone outside of the coil-wind cork sniffers(some legitimate sniffing going on there) are essentially a standard pickup with six wires connected to the poles instead of having them bridged. Pickup technology has been strangely calcified for decades now. Adoption of new tech for the guitar has dramatically accelerated in the past decade or more with the arrival and development of, at long last, convincing modeling and digital processing. Modern digital modeling is in some respects akin to what CGI enabled film companies to do; rendering spectacles that simply weren't possible prior to its development. The other components feeding modelers, namely the guitar, now have to adapt as well. We have the hardware and algorithms that can vary things like the pitch, level, envelope, applied effects, etc. of each string individually yet pickup technology still lags behind unnecessarily hamstringing processors . Arguably the current modeling/processing technology works best when the signal for each string is provided separately yet we still have primarily mono pickups. At least on the guitars most people prefer. Hex pickups remain a specialty item that require either a guitar manufactured with one(not many made) or a klugey after market solution such as a Roland GK pickup. Why is that? Long after we have developed the ability to track and process six discrete channels in our processors we still provide monophonic pickups as the standard. I believe that if six channels(or seven or eight depending on the guitar) were the norm there would be benefits to having the channels separated even if you did not use any guitar "synthy" or poly type effects(but you would want to). As a matter of fact poly would become the standard with mono being a "legacy" effect. A few examples: Your strings' levels could be adjusted on the fly so that high and low strings blended together better taking Fletcher-Munson into account and able to adapt and customize the differences between for example high and low string levels after they leave the pickup. Individual strings could have sustain or compression applied to keep them ringing or damping more in sync. Alternate tunings would be readily and instantly available on any guitar. Individual EQ could be applied to each string(a little to fiddly for many I know but could be very useful in a studio setting or for acoustic guitar tracks). With hex pickups different strings can easily be processed by different effect or even amp/cab blocks. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. The possibilities are endless and some have been implemented in hex guitar synth systems but not explored nearly as comprehensively as they could be. Partly due to the fact that this technology is still "exotic" to many players and consequently device manufacturers when, with the modelers now available, it could be part of a standard setup. Look at almost any other area in technology, networking being particularly analogous. Adding more "pipes" for data almost always results in gains in performance, expands the uses possible for the technology, and drives innovative future software development. Having this as a standard would have long since pushed modeling companies to leverage and develop the multitude of creative things that can be done with six discrete channels to play with instead of one. Instead this is still primarily the domain of the guitar synth where we have barely scratched the surface. Easy enough to provide hex pickups on every guitar with an optional switch for monophonic for those who prefer the old standard. Some might see that as opting for a modem over your fiber optic connection though. If hexaphonic pickups became the standard I would not be surprised to also see some very interesting six channel amps and effects and even surround sound systems and monitors would be developed as well. Gonna require a fat wallet for those. As I believe someone else here commented all you have to do is look over at your keyboardist's rig. Those who tickle the ivories have enjoyed polyphony and multi-timbral devices as a standard for decades now while the guitar still treats it like an oddity. Important to note btw, that it is not just about polyphonic but multi-timbral options as well. Not to beat a dead drum but why, long after we have developed the ability to process each of those channels/strings separately, are we still providing a conveyance(the pickup) with only one channel when our source(our guitar's strings) has six?

Glad to see you got it worked out!

Have to agree with others here although unlike codamedia I may start with a forum search and then widen it to a browser search engine, depends on my mood. The search on the forum often seems to miss entries and has also been better or worse over the lifecycle of the forum There were times, particularly for a while after they did the major rewrite/change in the forum website (when they lost the emoticons, grrrrr) where the forum's search engine essentially did not work at all.

First thing to do is install HX Edit 3.0 with all checkboxes checked. You likely have an old editor version. Updating the firmware is only half the update process. Doesn't hurt to uninstall your other HX software and drivers first, especially if you have experimented with multiple versions.