HonestOpinion

Helix tuner still needs fixing or at least a more stable, quicker, easier to use "performance" mode.

Probably just personal preference but I have to say the Marshalls remain among my favorite and most used models on the Helix. I wouldn't mind another.

Take a look at this post as well in the event that Onsong is being triggered by an unintended MIDI message being sent. You may need to change the MIDI settings in 'Global Settings' http://line6.com/support/topic/31267-external-midi-patch-changing/?p=239988

It looks like you are using your left and right XLR channels for different instruments (bass & guitar), essentially leveraging the fact that you can route the stereo XLR outputs as separate mono channels. Is it possible that for example the right XLR channel had a bad cable or was not plugged all the way such that everything started summing to mono out of the left XLR channel? That would be the default behavior for only the left XLR output being plugged in and might make it appear as if the snapshots were misbehaving.

Cheers, the forum seems to be fully functional again! That is probably self-evident to most as you can see new posts and topics once again. The forum has been having some difficulties the last couple of days. Just wanted to say to any new users on the forum that have been having trouble getting in or adding topics or posts, it is not usually like this. They were probably doing maintenance or upgrades. Maybe I missed an announcement but I think it would be very helpful for Line6 to make an official comment or a popup message to inform users when they are having issues that persist for days on the forum or are doing planned maintenance that will interfere for days with forum operation. I think it is probably really disconcerting to new users in particular who don't know what is going on and may think that either it is always like this, or that there is a problem with their browser, connection, etc.. Do what you gotta do but a shout out never hurts. Anyway, my thanks as always to Line6 for this incredible forum and glad to see it properly back online.

Thanks for that link. It really brings home just how substantial an amount of DSP amp/cab models consume. It still might be useful if there was a way for users to see each block's DSP consumption directly on the Helix. These numbers in the webpage links and Excel sheets may be subject to some degree of change as code is optimized or or models are modified. Hardly something I would want to see a major development effort on but if those numbers were easily available they would be interesting to see. They would make it a bit simpler to decide what to swap out when you are trying to add something to a preset with maxed out DSP.

A built in SDHC memory card capability could also be used for other things like for example an extensive IR library or additional presets, setlists, etc.. It would also make transferring setlists or backups from one Helix to another a breeze.

I made a similar decision and got the Pageflip Cicada but I wouldn't mind having the Helix have a couple of presets set up for a page turner backup if the Cicada fails.

JLondon said he's getting "every single Helix forum post". Seems unlikely he would have followed every topic. I guess it could be something other than the notification settings but that seems like the first thing to check. Anyone else have any suggestions?

In answer to your first question I am currently unaware of any way to "bank" or page through more than one "group" of 10 footswitches. As you are probably already aware of you can assign multiple blocks to the same footswitch. The default should definitely be that the MIDI command assigned to a footswitch (not an instant command) should NOT fire when selecting a snapshot. One question, you don't have your MIDI command assigned to an instant command (lightning bolt) as well as a footswitch do you? This will definitely fire off as designed when a snapshot is selected. Snapshot selection fires off MIDI instant commands (lightning bolt) but should not fire MIDI commands only assigned to a footswitch. Btw, I use OnSong as well on my iPad. Are you using Helix MIDI commands with the PC based version of OnSong or are you using an iPad. If you are using an iPad I am curious how you connected from the Helix to the iPad? UPDATE: I went and tested this behavior on my Helix and I am not seeing a MIDI command assigned to a footswitch sent when I hit the up&down buttons and select a snapshot. The MIDI command is NOT being sent when I select a snapshot (this appears to be correct behavior) but works just fine from the assigned footswitch once I have the snapshot selected. This is what I would have thought would be the anticipated normal behavior. I should stipulate that I am testing this through the USB connection to my DAW and am not using the MIDI output. I am wondering if you may have something misconfigured, unless you are using the MIDI output and it behaves differently than MIDI across the USB connection.

The primary interest I would have in separate preamp and power amp blocks is that is where time based effects like delays, reverb, and certain modulation effects have traditionally often been inserted in conventional analog guitar amp FX loops. I suppose this could be accomplished by allowing some kind of routing insert on the Helix without actually splitting preamp and power amps into separate blocks but if they did decide to split it out it would also satisfy those who would like to mix and match. Don't know how often I would make use of the mixing and matching but I can definitely see the virtue of being able to insert effects between the preamp and power amp assuming it makes an appreciable and sometimes preferable difference in the tone in the digital realm. I would definitely opt for a routing/insert option over splitting out the blocks if this effort was to monopolize a substantial amount of DSP, memory, or development resources. If major compromises are not required however it seems like a perfectly grand option to have.

Could be your notification settings. Click on your name when you are logged into the forum in the upper right hand corner and go to 'My Settings' --> 'Notification Options'.

Was trying to get my head wrapped around this comment. This potentially implies a couple of things to me - the attack setting is relatively short/fast such that the compressor kicks in almost immediately when the threshold is crossed, and that the "LA-2A" is set to a hard knee as there is no gradual ramping up of compression (there is no "Knee" parameter on the LA Studio Comp or the original "LA-2A" so this may be as originally designed?). Thanks for testing this! I have not seen any response from Line6 regarding your testing. If your testing results check out, particularly regarding the issue with compression ratio it would appear that the "LA Studio Comp" model might be well served if revisited by Line6 and tweaked/fixed. I have also never seen a response from Line6 regarding how the 'Emphasis' parameter was implemented. As you point out and I have also asked in the past, if it only affects the 15khz area similar to the original "LA-2A" compressor it was modeled on, it will have little bearing on the sound of a guitar which does not generally extend in any significant way up into this range. That means this control really only exists to provide accurate modeling of the original "LA-2A" device and perhaps for use in some specialized scenarios on the Helix where this frequency range actually comes into play. That would be fine, I am just curious as to how it was implemented.

Great link, thanks! I assume the developers have a method for indicating the DSP usage by each block as it provides a developer with critical information to encourage code optimization where necessary.

The presets may have been designed using an FRFR or perhaps they provide a mix of presets designed on both FRFRs and guitar cabs - whatever was handy at the time in the Line6 "lab". Who knows? I guess the point I was trying to make is everyone's monitoring system, ears, and tone preferences tend to be different, so dialing in a baseline that you like via the Global EQ may be a better quick and dirty way to audition factory presets than expecting them to automatically sound golden through your particular FRFR or guitar cab.

Wondering if the Looper which, when I use it is often my first block, determines the impedance set by "Auto". I assume it does. Will have to keep that in mind and maybe revisit some of my presets.

Freakin' psyched that that HX reverbs are coming and particularly that they have mono versions. The mono version option becomes even more important if as phil_m indicated the new reverbs are DSP intensive. It has been mentioned here before that mono effects may use half as much DSP. The HX reverbs have been at the top of my wishlist for quite a while. Fantastic that it is slated hopefully for the next update!

I pretty much never use factory presets although sometimes they are helpful for providing preset design ideas. It occurs to me though that setting the Global EQ to a general setting that works with whatever specific equipment you are using for monitoring (FRFR, guitar cab, etc.) might be a better way to audition them. Easier than rolling through factory presets and trying to EQ each one. If I ever have the time and energy I might just have to revisit the factory presets using this method.

Totally agree with this and the fact that the tuner seems to work a bit better when set to "Guitar" instead of "Multi" is a little disconcerting. Why is this? Seems like it shouldn't make a difference. Makes you wonder if anything else is going on with the input block, even if there isn't. Perhaps more to the point, it appears that functions that require more total time to process and require a sort of "averaging" of, ideally, several data points, such as the tap tempo and tuner could be improved on the Helix.

Thanks for posting this link. I wonder if this generator is truly as quiet as they claim? Every gas powered generator I have ever used is fine for a full band but too loud for busking and would be prone to angering neighboring businesses.

I wasn't aware that this was an issue as I rarely to never use parallel paths to switch amps. This sounds like a bug/issue that needs to be addressed. When I want to use multiple amps within a preset generally I will use a Super Serial X2 route and just distribute up to three amps and the rest of my blocks across the connected paths as the available DSP dictates. I then use snapshots to switch between the amps. This method does not require a split for the amps although you still may need one if you want to run two amps simultaneously.

:)

Agreed, the error is not indicative of the root cause and makes it difficult to track down as a result. I have seen lots of these "erroneous" messages in many applications and operating systems over the years. Often it is because there was error handler code with "traps" that caught and handled a wide assortment of possible errors but without handling each error specifically enough. Another issue can be the error code reporting the symptom rather than the cause. Error codes like these can contain verbiage that is so general or flat out incorrect that although the error handling is able to perform properly and catch many possible errors and prevent a full crash of the application, it doesn't do much to point you to the root cause. For example, HX Edit or the Helix may have run out of memory handling the 1k file in this case but that does not tell you what caused the problem. That message may also lead the user to think the memory on their PC was inadequate rather than it being an issue potentially with a file that impacted HX Edit's or Helix's memory space. My favorite error codes are as specific as possible regarding the error's cause and better yet issue a message with advice on how to address it. More explicit instructions can be misleading too however if all of the possible causes and fixes are not captured. Another virtue of extremely specific error handling is that it can launch a subroutine that can potentially handle the exception and still complete the bulk of the operation successfully while simultaneously informing the user of what needs to be remedied. My experience has been that error handling can be something that matures over time in a product that continues to receive periodic updates.

I think I may have seen this happen before. I don't remember the exact details but my vague recollection is that it had something to do with trying to import or export multiple IRs at one time and what was causing it to fail was an empty IR slot. Try breaking down the group of IRs in half repeatedly and reloading them until you find out what specifically is failing. You don't have a zero length IR file by any chance?

Here is a really good link on the (Code 39) error you are getting: https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-fix-code-39-errors-2623185 It could be you have a bad registry entry. A fairly extreme measure for a failed driver install but one of the things you can try is restoring to a recent restore point (if you have one) before you first updated the Line6 driver. I suppose you could do a registry backup using regedit and try to find the bad entry(s) and manually delete them but I wouldn't know where to start there. This all assumes a bad registry entry is even the issue.