ricksteruk

Maybe are you using a compressor in helix? that might cause early feedback. Also in 4cm it's worth remembering that Helix's Send/Return sockets should be set to "Instrument" - not Line - or you'll be feeding way to much signal in to the front of your amp... But of course your amp's FX loop is either running at -10dBV consumer line level or "pro" +4dBU level - which means that it will be sending a very hot signal level back into Helix if set at Instrument. I always turn down the Return level on my Send/Return block to about -15dB when using my amp in 4cm with its FX loop at -10bBV

I've just reverted to 1.12 and am now upgrading to 2.0 again. Had some problems updating to 2.0 - the first time I tried it failed and said something like "unable to update" on the Helix screen. Then I tried again and it appeared to work - except the text on the Helix screen changed into some weird hieroglyphics about halfway through the update.. It seemed my presets weren't opening properly in 2.0 as I was playing earlier today and just a few minutes ago I plugged USB into Helix to do a bit of recording and Helix froze up. So I've just done the downgrade/upgrade as I typed this - and it seems to have worked - no hieroglyphics this time! Hope the presets will work now. One question.. on the updater screen first page it says to press buttons 9 and 10 whilst and powering up Helix, but then on the next screen it says to press buttons 7 and 8... do you do both? Or is one of those messages wrong?

I just reloaded in my previous presets that I'd saved just before I upgraded firmware to 2.0 and they are not quite sounding the same. Haven't got time to go through them all with a fine tooth comb right now - but it looks like the Bypass (Footswitch) assignments have not always carried over properly - so some blocks are on when they should be off. One Preset sounded like it had a dirt pedal going when it should have been clean to start with. However - as robbieb61 says I'll probably be rebuilding my 40 odd presets now using snapshots where necessary.. some of them are just 1 sound for the whole song so they won't need to change.

I'd much prefer it if there was an option to have the Snapshots on Stomp switches as well. Perhaps just have a similar selection option for the Stomp switches as for the preset switches. One thing I find at gigs is that the bank down switch 7 sometimes gets hit when I'm trying to hit switch 8 (whilst I'm also singing) and then I've got to try to find my way over to Switch 6 to cancel the bank up/down preset selection. It is really annoying. I tend to use the 10 Stomp mode now to avoid this issue - but this won't work with Snapshots :( (And I can't do DI's MIDI hack as I need the MIDI out to feed to my amp to switch channels)

Yes it could also be a loose tweeter connection / a dry solder joint on the tweeter. I had this happen on one of my studio monitors.. it just needed touching with a hot soldering iron to re-flow the solder and all was well.

Amazing update! Well done DI and the team :) Well worth the wait! Pretty much covered all the important bases there guys. snapshots, tuner granularity ;), improved MIDI ccs, MESA model I'm really looking forward to the power of snapshots especially. I would still like the ability to route Send / Return blocks to other things like i/4in outs, XLRs, Digital, USBs, Paths to increase Helix's power even further - but that just seems like small potatoes after the massive amount of stuff in this update.

Maybe this is being caused by digital clipping and it's setting off a protection circuit in the tweeter? If you bypass all the FX blocks in Helix (or create a new blank preset) is the level a lot quieter than your normal patches?

This would work - but of course if the vocals are coming through the XLR outs then they will get turned down with the Big Volume Knob as well... so you'd need to add some rather big gain increases on the vocal path to compensate.

Yes - that is what he is saying - you should not dial in big level increases when adding amps and FX or you may risk clipping.

You are not alone! If I want clean.. Helix can do clean.. if I want crunch... Helix can do crunch, If I want hi gain.. Helix can do hi gain. If I want a freeze sound? I'm out of luck More varied effects please!

Yes you are right roscoe, the crossover will be removing higher frequencies from the bass driver using a LPF as well as removing lows from the tweeter using a HPF..... that is unless your speakers have really rubbish first order filters (would look just like one or two caps and a resistor - as opposed to a well populated looking circuit board. And most modern FRFR speakers that you guys are using will still have such a crossover in them just like the ones in your Crate speakers. Unless it specifically says that it is bi-amped like my RCF712a do (they have a 500W RMS LF amp and 200W RMS amp for the HF) it will use a single amp and passive crossover. As you probably know by now Roscoe - I find this whole guitar FRFR thing a bit annoying.. they are simply made like other PA speakers.. yet people seem to think there's something else going on.

I suspect that the problem is that it takes Helix a short time to load the preset, so as your PBC is probably sending CC messages immediately after the PC message they won't do anything as Helix is just not ready. But if you press the button again on the PBC, the Helix preset is already loaded in, so Helix will be able to respond to the CC messages. That's what I reckon is going on.

BTW Roscoe did you try the speakers yet?

I really do agree with this! As I am someone who has maybe spent as much time behind a live or studio console as I have on stage I really do see modellers like Helix offering the ability to achieve results very similar to what is possible in the studio. In a live band situation there is this slight problem that a real drum kit can generate 120dB of ear splitting pain when up close which the rest of the instruments need to compete with. We can either go the traditional route of providing a solid back line sound and wedge monitoring on stage for everyone to hear, or we can go modern and keep the stage volume down (of off!) and go for In Ear monitoring. Or go further and use an electric kit.... the silent stage is a reality for some folks. But there will always be people who want to "Keep it real" - and the good thing about Helix is that it can fit in to both approaches!

Yeah stereo is the business! I just looked up the Mesa Simul-Class2 : Ninety! What a beast!!! 8 x 6L6 tubes and 3 x 12AX7's. it does look to me though that it is specifically designed to colour your sound. A mixture of ClassA and A/B, with Deep, Half/Drive and Modern modes... Shame there's no "just make it louder and please don't try to F**K with it" setting!! I do like a little tube warmth, but you can overdo things. My H&K power amp is very neutral sounding.. these sometimes get criticised for being "too hi-fi" but I kind of think that's a good thing on a modern amp where a lot of the tone is meant to come from the preamp. Sure it's great when you can crank up the volume on a classic amp and get the power tubes roaring, but not many of us have the luxury of playing venues big enough to take that sort of volume.

You do yours first.. then I'll do mine ;)

Woot! Looking forward to the update on Monday :D

I agree! I'm really loving using my Helix in stereo (and in 7cm) with two of my guitar amps. The routing options you have in Helix are just awesome - as is the UI and the FX. I have to say the modelling is pretty good. I have dialled in Helix amps to mimic the preamp section of my amp, and on occasion after A/Bing between them for a bit whilst I tweak the Helix one I end up playing away thinking I'm on the real amp and when I look down it turns out I was using a Helix amp!

Yeah Backup rig! I need to set mine up for such, but it's got a lot of built in backup options available My main amp is a H&K Switchblade - a 4 channel MIDI controlled tube combo that can store 128 presets and has Reverb, Delay and basic modulation. I just need to make sure I set up a few basic patches to get me through a gig, and then stuff it's supplied MIDI controller in my bag. If Helix dies, the H&K will get me through a gig ok. My other amp in my stereo rig is an old solid state Award Session Sessionette 75 combo. It has a great clean tone and a pretty cool FET drive channel. If the H&K goes down I can use that as the power amp with the Helix preamps I have set up on each preset to mimic the H&K's tone. If both the Helix and the H&K die I could just the Sessionette - or give up and go home before that blows up as well ;)

Did you do his mod to your pedal?? If not then yes... it will go 0% at heel down to 50% in the middle and back to 0% at toe down - like all other non L6 , or non modded correctly pedals.

Sure that would work fine. I currently have two amps connected to my Helix - a H&K Switchblade and an old Award Sessionette 75. The preamps of both amps are in Helix Send/Return loops, so I can route my guitar through either preamp.. or both...through one then the other The power amps of both are connected to the Helix stereo 1/4in outs, so I can choose to use one amp, or the other.. or both. Running an amp with a load box is basically the same principle as just running the preamp in like I am doing - Hey you could even run 4 amp heads with load boxes into Helix and choose between them :) The only problem you may have is HUM! I tried my Laney AOR with my H&K and it made a nasty ground loop hum. To cure this I need to buy a hum buster box - instead I just tried my Sessionette and it worked like magic so I'm just using that for now.

Did you accidentally plug your guitar into the Aux input? I've done that before, and if the preset you use has it's Path is set to Multi input you wont notice. (till you switch to a preset that isn't multi)

That's great! Glad you've managed to get it to do what you wanted :)

Hey Matt, just looking into this for you since your message yesterday and it's possible yes. do you have a Rockcrusher? If so here is what to do: GUITAR --> HELIX Guitar in (of course ;) ) (Helix Pre amp FX --> Helix Preamp blocks --> post Preamp / pre D25 Poweramp FX) HELIX SEND 1 --> DT25 FX RETURN (also marked as Power Amp in) D25 SPEAKER OUT --> ROCKCRUSHER SPEAKER INPUT - marked FROM AMP (choose either 8 or 16 ohms - same on both devices) ROCKCRUSHER LINE OUT JACK --> HELIX RETURN 1 (post D25 Poweramp FX if you want) (IR / Cab simulator) HELIX XLR OUT --> PA system (also it's best to connect a speaker wire from the Rockcrusher speaker out to a Speaker cab just in case you flip the rock crusher's bypass button!) That puts the power section of the D25 in Helix's Send/Return 1 loop. It should work OK!! Good Luck :)

Hi - resurrecting an old topic here.. but just asking if it is possible to disable the Cabinet Simulator on the XLR output? Looks like this can be done by sending 0 on MIDI CC# 82 right? Is it possible to do this via the front panel at all or just by MIDI?