HonestOpinion

The forum does have moderators although for most topics forum members will steer them back on course themselves when necessary. When people start acting overly earnest, speculation grows too wild, or people start whining and getting tiresome there is a tendency for things to get lightened up a bit with off topic posts. It is a little bit like people waiting in line together at the motor vehicle administration and chatting about the weather in the meantime. As there is no way for anyone but Line6 to tell exactly when the new firmware will arrive this topic has become somewhat informational(occasional bread crumbs get dropped) and also somewhat of a time-killing placeholder until the software arrives. If that is not your cup of tea you may prefer to avoid this topic and keep your eye peeled on the official pinned 2.8 thread(s) or follow it so you will get a notification automatically.

Along with a few amp models and effects that certain people are excited about there is also the new expanded capability to use the MIDI functionality like a keyboard for triggering events in for example a DAW; this will include templates for some popular software. There is new Variax and Powercab functionality and some other features as well. The most significant element of this update is that they say they are reworking the entire Helix product line's codebase to provide a "CORE" development architecture that will hopefully allow them in the future to add new features once but that can be pushed out to all devices with minimal customization and without requiring significant separate development efforts for each Helix device e.g. Helix, LT, Stomp, etc.. The hope is that this will not only enable shorter firmware release cycles but also provide an economy of scale that prolongs the time Line6 finds it profitable to continue developing for this platform. More bang for the buck, everybody wins. The 3.0 update rumored to be coming at some point in the future will be more new feature based and less about consolidating the code base. Take a look at this post for more detail on what is coming in 2.8:

My bread came out the the toaster this morning with a perfect image of the Helix charred into it and there is an inexplicable new crop circle in my back yard.

LOL, I don't practice Santeria.

Hmm, did anyone else see the whole L6 site go down for a few beats there? Not to start any rumors or false hopes but I have seen this happen before right before they drop the new firmware...

Sounds like the issue is something else because it is also happening on the Helix but make sure you have the 2.71 version of HX Edit installed. Probably did this already but if you have not restarted the Helix since your firmware update do that. The presets will rebuild upon the first restart. Take a look at the global settings for your Mission L6-H pedal, especially the polarity reverse setting. Maybe a setting has changed and is causing a problem. Check the obvious issues by swapping the cable to the expression pedal out and making sure all cables are plugged in snugly. Does this happen when you create a new preset or only on preexisting presets?

Good to know, thanks. If prior releases are any indication downloading the HX Edit package will include matched versions of the editor, drivers, and the updater, even if they are numbered differently. It still appears that users downloading components separately leads to the lion's share of upgrade problems every time there is a new release. Making backups, downloading these three components as a package(usually named "HX Edit") and then matching up your firmware is probably still the best way for most people to ensure everything is in synch. That way you don't wind up with mismatched versions of for example the editor and the firmware. As always follow release and upgrade instructions and make backups before you change anything.

Definitely agree it should be fun to pick up an instrument and a guitar that plays well seems like a good start. Always loved GP tabs although I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of beginners these days prefer the almost infinite number of guitar tutorials available free on Youtube. Wish they had been around when I was first learning. Whoa! Let's not jump straight from getting something "playable" to a daily visit with a guitar tech to discuss intonation, true temperament, string alloys, and the perfect setup. All I'm saying is it is no fun requiring a complex system of pulleys and levers and the aid of hydraulics just to be able to chord an open "G" or "D" when you are first starting out. Sure there may be some buzzes, intonation issues, etc., just try to get a guitar that plays as easily as possible (strings reasonably close to the neck). You had a "Squier Bullet Strat" starting out, that's a great starting guitar, ha, sheer luxury. My first guitar was a nylon string Sears model with horrible action, it drove me to the trombone. My first electric was a Japanese made Strat copy, pretty decent guitar actually and that's when I started to enjoy playing. There's many a great "looking" guitar languishing in a case in a closet, or collecting dust on a stand because it plays like crud. Not every kid is going to be the same but for most beginners start with a good neck and fretboard and then worry about the rest. Amost a moot point these days anyway there are so many great inexpensive guitars to be had. Most beginning players without much to spend can find something that hits the mark in the major categories e.g. playability, sound , and looks.

Hat's off to you for tenacity and perseverance, clearly in your case it was meant to be. I'll grant you for a driven musician one string tied to a nail on a board is sufficient but an instrument that is difficult to play is probably the most discouraging thing for a new musician.

I give the same advice to parents looking for their kid's first guitar that Spikey laid out. Don't get an expensive guitar to start unless you have a genuine prodigy(consult a real guitarist for confirmation on this, all parents think they have a prodigy :-) ). Looks, sound, and everything else take a back seat for a new guitarist to a playable neck. So many new guitarists drop the instrument when they get one of those cheapos that require a vise-grip or a car parked on top of them to get the string to touch the fret. Playability first!

Try phil_m's suggestion first! Not sure if this is the issue but you can try the following: Go to the snapshot that is not behaving as expected Highlight the wah block and go to Global --> 'Bypass Assign' Turn the 'Switch' parameter to the expression pedal input you are using. The default is "EXP1". Check and see if the 'Position' parameter is somewhere around 5% or lower(activates as pedal is moved towards toe-down position) or wherever you have it set for the snapshot that behaves the way you like. Match the 'Position' setting to be the same as the snapshot where it is working the way you want it to. Save the snapshot As others have indicated going forward make sure your global settings for snapshots (retain, discard) are set the way you like them as well as the behavior for the expression pedal. This will get you consistent and anticipated results creating and switching between presets and snapshots. Also, since the wah's 'Position' parameter can't be assigned to snapshots it should be the same in every snapshot if the global setting phil_m pointed out is set correctly. If it is then I would also double-check your settings for 'Min' and 'Max' on the wah and make sure they are not funky. If all else fails it might be worth reinstalling the firmware. Save presets first.

Don't want credit where it is not due, that is not my video but one made by a very helpful Helix user. I think the reason he assigned his MIDI commands first to stomp switches was to take advantage of the MIDI auto recognition feature of his amp. I believe at some point in the video he mentions that the MIDI recognition on his amp was not working correctly when he started by using the snapshot switches. Essentially he just used the first step with the stomps to identify the MIDI commands he needed and then removed the stomp assignments and replaced them with snapshots. Anyway it sounds like you got it figured out and you got advice right from the source when DI chimed in. Always a great thing when the guy who helped develop and shepherd the Helix provides instruction.

Although it is for a Hughes & Kettner this video does a nice job of walking you through setting up snapshot MIDI channel changes for many other amps as well.

Probably already aware of this but along with some of the proposed solutions above if you find yourself out of snapshot and stomp switches there is always the option of adding an external MIDI switcher. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/search.php?s=midi+switcher

When it comes to bards I'll take Shakespeare over Rothbard any day of the week. "Bah humbard" :-)

You are correct about the "select spots"; there are effects such as the compressor and envelope filter blocks ( e.g. Mutant filter, Auto filter, Tron Up) that are designed to be touch sensitive and respond to your signal level but as others indicated there is not yet the capability to assign any effect parameter to input level. There is a well supported Ideascale idea for it if you want to vote it up: https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Auto-wah-or-auto-EVERYTHING-for-Helix/727014-23508

Absolutely, Vai, Malmsteen, Satriani, Eric Johnson, and the list goes on are all examples of phenomenal technicians who are lucky to have more than one song that anyone but fellow guitarists can remember. Forgot to mention, in addition to a good song you need to be a great, competent, or at least interesting singer or have one in your band as well. Instrumentals rarely get the same kind of attention.

Seems like the biggest trick is writing an iconic song and being in the right place at the right time. I know a lot of phenomenal guitarists who can convincingly play some of the most complex material ever written but writing a song that can sell millions of copies and being lucky enough to get the breaks, promotion and production, have the right look, have a cousin who works at Warner Brothers or plays for Metallica, catch the imagination of the public, etc.; that is the part that nobody has figured out how to put in a device yet. When they do I will be the first to buy it. Its one thing to play like Hendrix, its quite another to be able to pen "Voodoo Chile" or "Little Wing".

Any AES/EBU cable with XLR plugs should work. You don't have to buy one from Line6. Also a regular XLR cable will usually work in a pinch, just use as short a one as you can get away with.

Snapshots is also the only way to get the Trails parameter option working on your delays and reverbs. Just turn the 'Trails' parameter on in the delay/reverb block. Unless you absolutely require a preset switch snapshots are definitely the way to go. Near zero latency and trails.

I think I remember the posts and presets you are referring to. Definitely a great effort by that individual but something that adjusted automatically on the fly would be ideal. Not expecting to see something like this anytime soon if at all. As rd2rk and brue58ski mention to make it automatic would probably require a properly calibrated mic setup such as the ones used for "pinking" a room anyway. The whole idea is to make things easier so that would have to be a dirt simple process.

Wouldn't it be grand to have a "Fletcher-Munson" block that automatically compensated the EQ so that a patch sounded roughly the same at any volume? Sort of a much more sophisticated version of what a "Loudness" button attempts to do. I could see something like this coming around eventually. It would make patches easier to design at lower volumes and more predictable moving them from design phase to stage. A real ear saver.

Agree 100%. This might already be in place but best case scenario, development and QA testing are bound at the hip like Siamese twins. Ideally when a new feature gets added to the product, it should also get added to an automated test harness that includes all prior functionality. This product line is way too complex at this point to expect alpha/beta testers to catch everything manually.

Very much agree that these small changes accumulate and can sometimes become substantial. I like to see the big changes keep coming as well. My interests definitely align with IR creators, as well as musicians who have produced a recording, in that I want to see their creative output as well as my own rendered and delivered with the maximum quality possible as it was intended. All of that has to happen unfortunately within the reality of cost constraints which is why I am always happy to see storage and processing costs go down while their capabilities increase.

YouTube videos are your friend right now along with the manual. Below are a couple of links for a list of Helix videos from Line6. Just jumping into a preset and poking around the Editor or the device itself will be eye-opening. The Helix interface is highly intuitive up to a point. After that the videos, manual, and forum can be very helpful. In answer to your question, when you download a preset such as "King Of Tone" from the Downloads page it is composed of references to blocks/effects that are already loaded in your Helix as rd2rk mentioned. Think of a preset as containing the pointers to various blocks on your device, their settings, and other crucial info such as routing, I/O, etc.. Also you want to be updated to the latest editor/firmware version in general but definitely if you are going to start downloading presets that may refer to effects or amps that were not yet in earlier firmware versions. https://line6.com/helix/resources.html