HonestOpinion

Two notes, as DD pointed out, double clicking, or even single clicking a preset for export is sufficient. In other words a preset just needs to be highlighted not selected as the active preset. The same applies to copying and pasting presets. Additionally you can export all the files in a setlist at the same time as separate preset files (extension *.hlx) by highlighting them and hitting the Export link in the librarian's menu or just right-clicking and selecting 'Export'.. You would do this "bulk" export using the same method you use for most highlighting actions in your OS, by for example (in Windows), clicking on the first preset in your list, then Shift-Click the last preset in your list, this will highlight all the presets in the range. Now just do the export into the directory of your choice. I name the directories the same as the setlist they are exported from. Note: Just for clarity, particularly for new users I think it might be clearer if the commands at the top of the librarian in the editor were labeled "Export Preset" or perhaps just "Export" for preset exports, and were named "Export Setlist" for setlist exports. A minor detail but probably the way the export labels would appear if they were for instance commands in a pulldown menu.

Best option would be the "Save As" button gave you full navigation capability between setlists or within the setlist as you currently have on the Helix. That way you can not only save within the current setlist but to another one if you wish. I leave the implementation up to Line6 but If the Editor were to mimic the current Helix 'Save As' function it would present you with two dropdown menus, one displaying your setlists and the second displaying the presets from the setlist selected in the first dropdown. Of course it could just put you in a "Save As" mode and use the existing dropdowns for set and preset selection in the Editor.

The Editor needs a "Save As" function in addition to the "Save" it already has.

Frampton playing 'Black Hole Sun' and getting some crazy thick tones with an auto-wah(envelope filter?) and even throwing in a little talk-box at the end.

Yep, sounds like you got it, "clones" is a good way to describe a snapshot, with each clone "looking" the same(from a distance anyway) but capable of a different personality. If I understand your question correctly pressing on both FS1 and FS7(the Bank switches) at the same time will cycle between banks, presets, and snapshots. Instead of doing that I have been using 'Global Settings' --> Footswitches --> 'Preset Mode Switches' = "Snaps/Stomps". This gives me four snapshots on the top row and four stomps on the bottom. When I need to select a preset I just hit one of the bank buttons and that brings up the presets. Once I select a preset the Helix goes back into snap/stomp mode. I could see eventually just switching to 8 snapshots though. There is really no reason not to as a snapshot can really do everything a footswitch in stomp mode can do and more. My rule of thumb is that I switch presets for different songs or when I want to substantially change my "virtual" guitar rig, say from a Fender to a Bogner. Although sometimes I combine different amps in the same preset and switch "rigs" with a snapshot. The other time I switch presets is when I cannot fit all the blocks I need into a single preset for all the parts within a song(very rare). In that case I will switch presets during the song. I use snapshots whenever I can though because, as mentioned in the posts above, they offer lagless switching and spillover("Trails"). The snapshot is my preferred method for switching parts within a song, e.g. verse to chorus, or rhythm to lead. I recommend you use snapshots whenever you can and save preset switching for anything fitting the conditions in the paragraph above this one.

Yep, might depend on the unit but I would hate to find out mine was one of the affected ones, especially out of warranty. Best practice in my opinion, don't hot-plug it with phantom power engaged.

I agree with your assessment of Frampton. I actually saw him on a recent tour and besides just killing it on his old material he played a Beatles tune and Soundgarden's 'Black Hole Sun' for encores. He has clearly been progressing as a guitarist and has incorporated some more advanced fusion techniques into his playing which are a nice addition to his always great melodic sensibilities. Might be dismissed as not heavy enough for many folks and the industry did over-market and over-play him back in the day but his ability on guitar to me is undeniable.

He was an unexpected choice to join the band but is actually really good with 'Dead & Company'. A better guitarist IMHO than he often gets credited for. Good guitar lesson!

It is only necessary to do a restore, at least according to Line6 if you want to get the latest Factory and Template presets. Otherwise the update occurs "in place" and retains all your old setlists and presets. If you decide you want the newest Factory/Template presets you definitely want to get a full backup before doing the global reset footswitch combination that will restore them. As far as your HX Edit app crashing. It sounds like you updated your firmware to 2.53. Did you update your HX Edit package to 2.52. If not this may be why you are seeing editor crashes when you try to backup. If you have the correct version of HX Edit(2.52) and the firmware(2.53) installed and the editor is still crashing I would try rebooting the computer and perhaps trying a different USB port. Also, make sure you don't have the Line6 Updater and the editor up at the same time.

You cannot change blocks between snapshots, only bypass/activate them or change their parameters. The whole idea behind a snapshot is to have all of the blocks in a preset already loaded up into the DSP, whether they are active or not. This is what allows lagless snapshot changes with spillover. Swapping, deleting, or adding blocks is only allowed when setting up a preset or when switching from one preset to another. These actions cannot be executed by switching snapshots, you need to switch presets in order for blocks to be swapped for another amp/effect, deleted, or added. One way to think of snapshots is as if you had eight identical pedalboards, all with exactly the same pedals on them. Each pedalboard though can have a different combination of pedals activated/bypassed as well as having their controls set to different settings. Each of these "pedalboards", all with exactly the same pedals but different bypass states and settings, is a snapshot. You can't really delete a snapshot within a preset but you can copy one snapshot over another. The reason your snapshots appear to be "synched" is probably because you have not assigned the parameters you want to change to snapshots. You do this by pressing down on the parameter button and turning (on the Helix) or by assigning the parameter to 'Snapshots' in the editor. If you don't see a pair of square brackets e.g. [parameterValue] appear around the parameter's value you have not successfully assigned it to the snapshots and whatever its setting is will be the same across all snapshots. Once the parameter is assigned properly it can have a unique setting in each snapshot. Another detail that is useful to know is that setting 'Global Settings' --> 'Preferences' --> 'Snapshot Edits' = 'Recall' will retain your snapshot edits as you switch between snapshots. Just remember to save before you switch to another preset. If you set 'Snapshot Edits' = 'Discard' you will have to save your snapshot each time before you switch to another snapshot to retain your settings. Otherwise when you return to the snapshot it will be in the state it was last saved in. "Save" procedure when editing snapshots 'Discard' - Save every time before switching snapshots and all snapshot changes will be retained 'Recall' - Save once before switching presets and all snapshot changes will be retained

Don't know if it will help you get this tone but the 'Obi Wah' effect in the legacy effects is based on an Oberheim VCF.

To me this means that the various guitar/pickup models available on the Shuriken will not show up under the 'Variax Model' parameter on the Input block(when Variax is selected) until you actually connect the Shuriken to the Helix, and then connect the Helix to a Mac or PC and launch Workbench HD. Hopefully this action somehow updates the firmware and you don't have to do this every time you want to see the Shuriken models under the 'Variax Model' parameter. Don't own a Shuriken so I can't confirm that. Note: One of the improvements in a recent firmware upgrade was to allow Workbench HD to operate via the Helix VDI connection rather than the old method which required you to use the VDI to USB adaptor that came with your Variax.

It looks like the 2.53 version of the firmware just dropped so theoretically you could use the version of the Line6 Updater contained in the latest HX Edit (2.52) package to upgrade to the 2.53 firmware.

The 2.53 firmware has just been released. This version was released to fix an issue that was causing certain users to have problems with the upgrade. I don't see a 2.53 version of HX Edit so I am assuming at least for the moment that the procedure to update will be to download and install HX Edit 2.52 and then upgrade to the 2.53 firmware. A little confusing because Line6's Frank Ritchotte put out a post earlier this week saying that if you already upgraded to the 2.52 firmware you would not need to do it again when the fixed version dropped. So probably don't need to do anything if you are already on the 2.52 firmware but not absolutely sure how to proceed here however given that the new fixed firmware version is 2.53 rather than 2.52(which makes sense). Should we folks who are already on the 2.52 version of the firmware upgrade to 2.53? I am certainly tempted.

Hmm, I got exactly the same message but without the 3rd line. ;)

This could be completely unrelated to the new firmware but I am on HX Edit 2.52 as well as the 2.52 firmware. At rehearsal this evening I hit the amp button on my Helix to jump to the amp block and for the first time ever my screen went completely blank. I had to restart to restore normal operation and everything worked normally for the rest of the evening. Hopefully a one-time glitch and quite possibly unrelated to the update. Disconcerting though.

This is kind of interesting. I got a message from Ideascale on Monday that an Idea I submitted was moved to "Completed" status. This was the idea I submitted for eliminating the Legacy category(NOT the Legacy effects) and instead including Legacy effects in their respective Mono or Stereo categories with an alternate font, color, or other type of designation. I don't remember ever seeing a "Completed" message on an Idea before. Don't want to get my hopes up, this could be anything from a new clerical thing, to a mis-classification, Line6's way of saying "nice idea, not going to happen", or it could I suppose mean that this will be a change in the next firmware. No clue? Has anyone ever seen their Idea marked "Completed" before for a feature that has not appeared yet? https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Include-Legacy-effects-with-HX-effects-with-a-special-indicator/921132-23508#idea-tab-comments

I am not convinced this is solely from reworking the mobile version although that is certainly possible. Too many people including myself have been having intermittent outages for the last few days on their PCs, Macs, laptops, etc..

On the Input block do you have the "Variax Settings" on the second page of the Variax parameters set to "Per Preset"? Even though this parameter is set from within a preset it acts like a global setting and will effect all other Variax presets. You want this parameter set to "Per Preset".

Agreed, a welcome change as far as I was concerned allowing for a comprehensive single page view of all options. Btw, I meant to say "You might find you don't want those "thicker" sliders back (rather than "thinner"). Corrected.

Not sure if you could find a combination of settings that would do it another way but using the RCA --> 1/4 adaptor cable should work and as you say that way you can control everything from the Helix including the level and assigning a footswitch to kick in the returns when you wanted to pipe in external music. Just put the returns block right before the output block so that you don't have any other blocks in your signal path, particularly a mono block like an amp, interfering with the stereo output of your external music source. You also have the option of using a couple of sends as well.

As a general best practice if you are only using the Helix's expression pedal I highly recommend against changing the default for the volume block to EXP 1. You probably only want to do this if you need to accommodate an external pedal(s) setup that you wish to configure differently. The reason being that the Helix and LT automatically set up Volume blocks on EXP 2 and Wah blocks on EXP 1 by default. All you are going to end up doing is causing yourself additional unnecessary reconfiguration every time you add a volume and wah block in the same preset. And as has been pointed out, you will have to remember that most Factory or third party presets are going to have the default configuration for volume and wah(which will now be different than your alternate setup). I generally plug my additional expression pedal into EXP 3 to cause minimal disruption to the Helix default assignments on their internal pedal. From a logical standpoint it would have made more sense to me to make the Volume block default to EXP 1 and the Wah to EXP 2 but that is not how they did it and generally it is simpler to let the Helix/LT manage this assignment unless you have additional expression pedals attached and need to modify it.

You might find you don't want those thicker sliders back. On effects or amps with many options they would force you to scroll through multiple pages. This puts all the controls visible on a single page.

Yep, the site had problems last night again.

Judging by reports, the mic input circuitry seems to be a bit fragile. There are two main rules. Make sure you don't use a shorted cable, and don't plug or unplug the microphone while the Helix is on and set to provide phantom power to the mic.