jeffsoble

I just uploaded my preset for Scattered, created on Helix floor, and I think you’ll like it. I have a lot of experience creating David’s tones. There are 3 Snapshots… As you pointed out the end solo is broken down into 3 pieces. On the album, the 1st section is played on a classical guitar, but live, David plays the entire solo on his Black Cat Strat, with mild overdrive from a Tube Driver on Section 1, heavier overdrive from a Tube Driver on Section 2, and he added a Big Muff Ram’s Head on Section 3. Hope you enjoy it!

I appreciate the responses guys, thank you! I have a friend who works at a guitar store and he’s going to bring another Helix unit to my house to hook up and we’ll be able to make a comparison. Having said that, I’ve been doing a lot of research and I’m now getting a funny feeling that there may be nothing wrong with the unit. As a matter of normal preference, I like a lot of midrange and bass in my sound and every comparison review between the Pod and Helix has said that the Pod has a warmer tone. If that’s the case, I’m going to always prefer the Pod.

I knew that going in, so I don’t that’s the issue. In fact, I’m leaning heavily towards my unit being defective at this point. In the past 24 hours I’ve been testing things by over exaggerating the settings to various amps/effects…. going max with all low and midrange settings on the 10-band EQ for example, and there’s no change at all to the tone. Even if I’m not using it correctly, there should be some kind of change to the tone, even if it’s a bad change. I’m getting no change at all. I’m almost 100% positive now that it’s bad hardware and needs to be replaced.

I’m going to try to record later today if I have the time. Hopefully that’ll help.

My Gilmour patches are based on his actual signal chains. There are 2 websites that have documented his entire career unbelievably well and accurately… https://www.kitrae.net/music/music.html https://www.gilmourish.com Obviously since he’s either being professionally recorded or on stage and I’m in a bedroom studio I’ve adjusted the settings to accommodate my surroundings. Have you recreated any professional signal chains in either the POD or Helix? If so, how did your settings compare? I was messing with things again last night and realized that a good way to describe what I’m experiencing might be to say that the tones from the pod had better tube warmth and were actually cleaner, while the Helix is more naturally distorted and lacks tube warmth. Does that help to give you guys ideas on how I might be able to make adjustments?

Hello, I’ve moved over to the Helix from the Pod HD500X a few months ago and from day 1 have had trouble producing good sounding tones. I had mastered the POD. All of my tones achieved exactly what I’d hoped they would. Included in those were many Gilmour tones, a lot of which I uploaded to the forum and were apparently well liked by many here. I say this only to illustrate that I’m not a complete novice when it comes to producing good signal chains. Having said all of that, I’ve had nothing but problems with the Helix and at this point am not sure that there isn’t something wrong with the hardware. My tones sound tinny, and in the background, like part of the signal isn’t being processed. Volume isn’t an issue, I can make it loud, but any sense of low or midrange part of the signal isn’t there. I run everything through an interface so I hooked my POD back up to test the Helix side by side with the POD and that all other pieces of producing the sound are equal. 1 of the signal chains is for a song called 5AM. On the POD it always sounded great, full with a lot of depth and midrange, and it’s still did with this test. The same tone built on the Helix sounds awful. Again, in the background, tinny and light. I’ve tried everything I can think of to fix this. I’ve deliberately manipulated signal chains to over exaggerate the bass and midrange and it still sounds the same. Does anyone have any thoughts on something I may not have done in the initial setup? Something in global settings causing this? Thanks!

Thank you for the suggestions. I’ll check it out! i appreciate the advice!

Hey everyone, I have another question that’s puzzling me as I try to learn how the Helix works v the Pod HD 500x. I’m trying to build some Gilmour signal chains. On the Pod I built pretty much every signal chain David has ever used during his career and had really mastered getting the tones exactly where I wanted them in my bedroom studio. With the Helix I obviously have many more options and flexibility so I’m using the same basics that I originally obtained from Gilmourish.com and kitrae.net (David Gilmour tone building) and making adjustments to fit my space acoustically. So far though, everything sounds muddled and in the background and I’m not sure what’s causing this. Again, sound engineering is not my strong suit with all of the additional parameters in the amps and effects pedals, there are pieces I’ve never worked with before and really don’t have confidence that I’m using things properly. I have my Helix running into a Focusrite interface then to my monitors and the computer to Cubase. My basic signal chain is…. guitar/noise gate/compressor (using a few different types)/tube driver (different settings depending on the song)/big muff (only on some songs)/Graphic EQ/volume pedal/analog delay/dynamic delay/reverb/Hiwatt amp (have tried settings from different eras)/cab/yamaha rotary speaker. I haven’t tried anything with modulation yet but obviously I will to get certain tones. And no matter what song/chain I’m on it’s coming out the same, muddled, in the background and lacking general volume when I would’ve thought I’d have a lot of extra headroom. I have several questions… 1. Should I be using a pre-amp and/or a 2nd amp for more power? 2. Is the fact that I don’t know how to deal with all of the additional parameters causing at least part of my problem? 3. In fact, my tone is beyond breakup without having the volume I would expect to have available. The basic sound I’m trying to achieve is there, it just doesn’t sound powerful. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Jeff

Thank you guys, I appreciate the help!

I have Helix Floor. So if I’m understanding you correctly I should just set the front of the bottom path to accept either “multiple” or “guitar” and go from there? Do you duplicate the entire chain or will the system know to pick up the effects from the top? Or is there a way to direct the signal post effects to the 2nd chain where the 2nd amp sits? thanks for your help!

Hey everyone, I’m not too educated in the engineering side of things and I’m pretty new to the Helix (coming from the Pod HD 500x) so I really need some help. I’m trying to set up a Bonamassa style signal chain with both a Fender Twin Reverb and Dumble amps. I placed a noise gate, an LA-2A compressor, and a Tube Screamer and a basic analog style delay in the chain. I then went to place the amps in the chain and even did it with the amp/cab combo, which I never normally do, to save DSP and the system wouldn’t let me do it. I have to be doing something wrong. I know people use signal chains a heck of a lot more complicated than that. I normally use a much longer chain myself but usually only with 1 amp. What am I doing wrong? Thanks Jeff

I just looked at that thread you sent me. I forgot that you can open HD Edit offline. That’s actually perfect. Like I said, I don’t want to transfer the patches at all. I’m really looking forward to playing with the Helix and creating new much more complex and powerful signal chains. I only want to have it to remind me what amps and pedal effects I used in specific situations to use as a starting point in Helix. thanks for the guidance.

Hello, I’m not trying to copy the presets verbatim per se. I know that the Helix is much more powerful and uses different file structures. All I’m trying to do is be able to have a guide on how I built the signal chains in Pod so I can have a guide to recreate them in Helix. For all of my Gilmour tones, that won’t be a problem, there are famous websites that tell you how he builds his signal chains and I have those on record. For almost any other tone I’ve created over the years though, like any of us, I spent a lot of time experimenting with things to come up with my patches, and I want to have them on the Helix. No different than if they were in an analog setting. If I have no other choice, I’ll screenshot them in Edit, I was just hoping there was an easier way. Thanks

Hello, I’m a long time user of the Pod HD500X and am about to invest in the Helix (finally and I can’t wait!). I know that I can’t transfer the patches over but I was wondering if there was a way to access the information for all of my patches and set lists in a manner other than taking a screenshot so I can recreate the tones on the Helix. I know that I’ll have an infinite amount more flexibility now but it’s a good starting point. I’ve created a lot of great patches and tones over the years and don’t want to lose them. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Jeff

Thanks very much! From everything I’ve read and heard I’m about to go from bicycle pedals to a jet engine. Can’t wait to get it and start playing around!

Hey all, I currently have the Pod HD500x and am about to upgrade (finally) to the Helix and have a question with how it interfaces with a real tube amp. As I’m sure many of you know, on the pod you can use an external amp, but it’s a global setting, so you have to hook up, set the settings such that you use the external amp on every patch or you set the settings to not use an external amp at all. As far as I’m aware, it can’t be chosen on a patch per patch basis. So my question is whether the Helix works the same way or can it be set up and used at your discretion, whereas I could use my tube amp for 1 song, then on the next use a modeling amp, going back and forth through a show??? Thanks for the help. Jeff

I’ve had the Pod HD 500x for years and I love it. All I’ve added to it are and extra expression pedal and a Mooer Elec Lady, which is the best Electric Mistress clone I’ve ever heard. Having said that, if I could afford a Helix, I’d be all over it. In the Pod, we have 8 slots. In the Helix, you have 32 if I’m not mistaken. In other words, you can set up pretty much any type of signal chain you can dream up.

As stated previously, a lot of people, if not most, will run their acoustic straight to the PA, however, there is an acoustic amp in 1 of the expansion tone packs (I can’t remember which one off hand). An acoustic amp is really just a pre-amp that helps to boost your natural signal, which you can tweak if you have an acoustic/electric. I use it and I love it. I set up a small signal chain and use the same one for all of my acoustics; 6-string steel, 12-string steel, 6-string nylon and ukulele. guitar : noise gate : tube comp (just a wee bit of compression to give it something extra) : graphic EQ : acoustic amp. Incidentally, the acoustic patches that come with the pod are fun to play with for effects. I’ll plug a tele in and run it through “steel strings” for example and you get a neat sound. I’ve recorded using the “guilded choir” patch with an acoustic and a strat, using an E-bow. It created an awesome double tracked lead sound that I’m using on the album I’m recording.

The short answer is that there’s no way around that issue. That’s just the nature of what we do. Different guitars (and pickups within the same guitar if you customize) all have different outputs. And that same rule applies to everything within your signal chain, as well as, any and all environmental interference. That’s why bands have a huge mixing desk in the perfect acoustical spot and perform a sound check for every gig, even if they’re playing the same venue several nights in a row. The environmental conditions are never the same. We all deal with those issues in our home studios and at our gigs, just on a smaller level. If you have good base levels in your signal chains the amount of tweaking you have to do should be minimal. And of course how you tweak and what you tweak will be different depending on whether you’re setting up to record and how you record, or if you’re going to play live.

Thanks guys!

I’m a guitarist by nature that knows how to play bass but I wouldn’t call myself a bassist. I own only 1 bass guitar, an Epiphone Viola, which I chose originally simply for the fun of playing it and because I’m a big Beatles and Paul McCartney fan. However, now I’m writing and recording and am getting more serious with what I want my bass tone to be on my recordings. To this point, I’ve only used the standard patches that came with the unit, most of which I don’t particularly care for. Can anyone help me with creating custom bass patches? I want a sound that’s very much classic rock in nature. Something like what you’d hear by Pink Floyd or Eric Clapton. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the advice!

Hey there, I have the 500x and am using the FX Loop for the 1st time with an Electric Misstress clone, the Mooer ElecLady. Can someone please recommend the best loop block settings in the editor for send, return and mix. Also if I understand correctly to gate the pedal I can’t do it digitally, I have to do so with an actual analog box. Is that correct? Thanks for the help!

I have set up several tones using the Bender (Digitec Whammy) but the tone comes out extremely squeaky in a piercing sort of way instead of just bending the note. Has anyone come across this and/or can anyone please help me figure out what's wrong? I've used this effect in analog and another digital application and it's definitely not supposed to sound like it does here. Thanks!