ricksteruk

Agreed - MIDI sync is needed!! And looking forward - is there anyway Ableton Link can be implemented? Maybe Helix V2 hardware could aim in that direction. Edit - on the Midi front I'd like to say that I highly approve of the learn mode on 2.1. Thanks :-)

MAN OH MAN! I've just been introduced to Ableton Link thanks to this thread and Group the Loop - it's just like magic that keeps all the stuff in time :) How awesome it is!! I can run loopy, whilst someone else runs group the loop, and another iOS machine could be a drum machine or metronome. I just tried it out on a couple of my iPhones and it's so spooky changing the tempo from one device and it altering the other.. and them staying in time. I just need the new Helix update to come out today and I will probably explode. :P

I've used an additional gate later in the chain sometimes too. It made me wish that the gate block could be set to trigger from the Helix input signal rather than the block input signal - the gate later in the chain can chop a bit too much away for my tastes. (or maybe Helix can already do this and I didn't notice). I think my old Digitech GSP1101 used to be able to do that and it worked better.

Group the Loop looks really good! So cool that the dev got 48kHz update to you the same day!!! The joys of a 1 man dev team eh! :) I'm trying to find a manual for Group the Loop so I can check out all it's features - but can't find one.. maybe you can help? I was wondering how it would play with Helix.. can Group the Loop access any of the Helix USB outs or just 1/2?? It would be cool for example if a metronome / drum loop could be sent out of USB 3/4 for example and then out of Helix Send sockets to a stage monitor, whilst the main looping action took place on USB 1/2 which was routed through the Helix XLRs

Ahh yeah - similar thing happened to me with my H&K setup after I did a Helix reset. NOTE TO SELF - MAKE SURE TO CHECK GLOBALS AFTER DOING NEW UPDATE THIS WEEK :)

I agree totally, mono reverbs (especially spring and plate) would be very useful for when DSP gets tight. Also, I would like to see some new higher def and more lush reverbs a la Big Sky for those drifty moments. So I want simpler reverbs and more complex reverbs. :)

I can't see why we can't just have a mode where we can freely choose to put Stomps or Snapshots on any Footswitch we choose - like 10 Stomps mode but with the ability to add Snapshots to that if we so desire. I guess it would be too confusing? Those MASSIVE camera icons wouldn't be clear enough to tell us it was a Snapshot right?

Hope it works out Dennis. They were all out of stock when I looked, so I ended up getting the Novation 25 key Gigbag / backpack. It's really good - a little snug at first, but then I hear the actual Helix backpack is snug at first too. https://www.amazon.co.uk/NOVATION-BAG-25-ACCESSORIES-BLACK/dp/B006KEILD8

Ahh joy! The good old FRFR argument :) Lol. I totally agree that if you are playing just electric guitar you do not need the extra frequencies provided by the tweeter that's in your PA speaker at all.. a good guitar speaker covers the frequencies you need. And as Wicked Finger says - a well chosen modern high powered guitar speaker will actually have very little coloration/distortion/compression to the sound - no more so than the LF drivers in your PA cab. The difference (advantage/disadvantage) is the crossover.. a crossover might technically have some negative side effects to the sound - but a big plus is that by sending everything above about 1.5kHz to the tweeter you will get a much better spread of upper mids / highs from the PA speaker than a guitar speaker, which tends to be a bit beamy in the HF. However, you can get round this problem with guitar speakers by using a Mitchell Foam Donut that helps disperse the HF from the guitar speaker better, so that the off axis response is now almost exactly the same as the on axis. Given the choice, when playing guitar I prefer to use Helix with my tube combo in 4cm, so naturally it makes sense to use the combo's power amp and speaker rather than carry an extra PA wedge. I've tuned a Helix cab block so that it very closely approximates what my guitar cab sounds like - so my FOH sound I send on XLR is basically what my guitar cab would sound like if it was miked up. To do this I had to spend a bit of time tuning the Cab block, with a PA speaker sat next to my combo and dialled the cab so it sounded the same as the amp. Now it's set it works very well. However, I have several PA speakers that I can use with my Helix too for situations when I don't want to carry a guitar amp, or instead want a single box that can do vocals, guitar and play background music. If I didn't already have and love my tube amps I'd probably just get a PA wedge speaker - as they are pretty cheap when compared to good tube guitar amps.

I have to agree! I've had so much fun playing guitar since I've had Helix :D

Yes this is very annoying indeed. I contacted tech support and they said the Ext Amp works with "most amps" I replied asking which amps it actually worked with... as it clearly does not work with Marshalls or Mesas to name but two of the major brands. I did not get a reply to my question.

I agree! This was the first thing I tried to do - put a couple of snapshots next to some stomps on the bottom row. I still haven't figured out the best way to run my Helix now I can't do that.. some songs need stomps on lower row, some need snapshots. Seems a pain to have to keep changing modes. Another wish for me would be that a stomp could be set so that it's bypass state was not recalled by a snapshot... Like the way that every other single parameter is.. you have to choose to assign them to a snapshot.. or not.

I think the AKG C214 is a great mic. It really doesn't sound a lot different to the 414. I have a pair of old Rode NT2 that have been my main home recording mics for about 18 years now. They always sound good to me. The NT1 is similar sounding but with a fixed cardiod pattern - I've used those quite a bit too and I think they work well - and have very low self noise.

Voted, Yes please :)

I use 1/4in to feed my stage amp, XLRs (with a Helix cab) to FOH - and headphones for late night home practice. I found it was important to choose "XLR" as my Headphones Monitor (Global Settings / Page 3 / Knob 4) - if it was set to Multi there would be a bit of nasty phase cancellation as the 1/4in and XLRs are sending slightly different things due to the cab block.

Is there any official word on this problem? DI? So far I've just not used phantom at all, I'm just using Helix with a dynamic for stage type use as I have several other recording boxes - but it might be nice to be able to if one day I happen just to want to plug in a Condenser. Would be gutted if it blew (especially if Helix is out of warranty by then.) Maybe I should just try it now to see if it blows whilst it's within warranty :)

The way it's working at the moment - yes MIDI send should be off by default. MIDI receive??... not sure about that maybe on is best default. It would be good to split the send and receive as stephane suggests. Also I think maybe the PC message sending order should be reversed, so that Helix sends the auto PC first when the Preset is recalled, and then sends any Instant messages within the Preset / Snapshot afterwards.

I think you might be having the same problem I had with 2.0 which reset my global settings - the Helix is auto sending a PC when you select a new preset.. Preset 001 sends PC1... these PC messages seem to be sent after the Snapshot PC messages, so they appear to override the Snapshot PCs. You need to go to Global Settings / MIDI/Tempo and switch Knob 4 "MIDI PC Send/Receive" to Off EDIT. I think Phil M helped me before as well :)

Yes that should work fine. You just need to plug the volume pedal into Send and Return sockets add a Send/Return block on your Helix chain (Path) wherever you want to insert your volume pedal. The advantage over a traditional board is of course, that on different Helix presets you can choose to put your volume pedal wherever you choose.

Ahh that's great! I quite often hit that bottom left bank down button when I'm singing / playing and trying to hit the button for solo - good that now the snapshots will stay there! I just used to use 10 stomps before to remove the bank button. Can't do that now and still use snapshots. Saying that - I do wish it was possible to customise the stomp mode so that snapshots could be freely assigned to foot switches. When I'm singing I really need them to be on the bottom row.. and sometimes I need momentary stomps for very quick on/off passages. I need both stomps and snaps to be available on the bottom row in an ideal world.

Yeah - it's super easy on the actual Helix itself :)

I was a bit worried about updating to 2.01 - as when I had updated to 2.0 it failed the first time I tried - and displayed some very odd hieroglyphics on the Helix screen. Thankfully second time 2.0 worked. However 2.01 worked first time, no problems and all is well :)

You don't need to add gain blocks before the outs.. if you select the XLR or 1/4 output you can assign controllers to their level directly.

Are you using all 4 FX sends? If not maybe you can use one of those as your 1/4 in output to your stage amp. Then you can just put a SEND block just before the XLR output. That way you don't have to use Path 2B just to get to the 1/4in outs, and you can use it for parallel FX or whatever.

Nice! Great to hear some more good news. I've not yet taken out my Helix with my folk band where I play double bass, mandolin and a bit of guitar - but I think I should judging by your result.