tagwap

I agree that It would be better if they were set to be more responsive. You really have to whizz them around to get them to move fast and then you completely lose all accuracy. For example, on a model of a phase 90 it's annoying to have to literally turn the knob about 7 times to get from the slowest to the fastest setting when on the pedal itself that would be covered by about 280 degrees of movement. It would be great if they could be tuned to be more appropriately sensitive so that less turning of the knob does much more than it does presently. You really have to whip those knobs around quite a few times to get from minimum to maximum settings. Surely it would be possible make it so that one complete turn goes from min to max without losing the minute control that you get from moving the knobs slowly.

This concerns me too. Thankfully Line 6 have been excellent at getting issues sorted every time I've read of a failure. To be honest though, with such an expensive unit i'd be much happier with a 5 year warranty like boss stuff.

I love Helix in every way...except the tuner! Not a problem, just use a polytune clip like I have been. Well I took a different guitar to gig today and the polytune was in my other guitar case so I was forced to use Helix. Before the tuner was inaccurate but now...however accurate it may be it is unusable. Just far too jumpy all over the place. Impossible to get it to settle to tune to and whatever people say there's simply no need for it to be that way. None of my other accurate tuner pedals jump and flit all over the place like this, I tried an FX8 for a while and the tuner on that was great just like my polytune, my polytune clip and the boss tu-2. Smooth and accurate..that's simply all we want. I find it amazing that it seems to be such an issue when they've got everything else on the Helix so right. Oh well, Like you say.....flogging a dead horse. Shame because in EVERY other way I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HELIX and even sold on my fractal stuff that I bought to compare to stick with it.

In my opinion the delays are brilliant in Helix but the reverbs are for the most part very poor, especially the spring and hall reverbs. Absolutely nowhere near as good as my strymon flint.

I too would prefer the look of actual pot knobs to set levels instead of the current sliders. It'd be great if while you were making the adjustments the screen would switch to a graphical representation of the pedal/amp with knobs moving. It'd also be great to have the EQ's show up as graphs while editing them. It would make it much much easier to see what you are doing in the normal guitar gear way. Most other systems (fractal,zoom, etc show knob representations.) Just my preference.

While I am grateful for the update as requested the fine tuning seems very jumpy for me too. To say that it's simply a problem caused by the string vibration variations doesn't cut it for me. It doesn't mean a tuner can't be stable. My other tuners (polytune mini 2, snark, polytune clip) don't jump around anything like the Helix and are very stable. I'm sure people will say "keep using the polytune clip then!" well I will and it's not a problem, I just don't understand why this seems to be so difficult for line 6. Plug a boss TU-2, Polytune, Korg pitchblack etc into a helix fx loop and see if it jumps around and won't settle like the Helix tuner. They don't.

You may want to check out the Laney IRT-X

Thanks guys. These answers are really really helpful.

Hi Fellas, A question for those in the know: I'm currently trying a few FRFR solutions. I have been through Laney IRT-X, Yamaha DXR10, and Alto TS210. All sound useable to me but they are all way too bassy and trebly at initial use. I know that it's common practice when using these types of FRFR speakers to cut the treble and bass quite severely. I decided that the best approach may be to cut them in line with a guitar speakers frequency spec, so I went on the celestion website and after getting the info for my favourite G12H30 Anniversary speaker, I followed its frequency spec and used global EQ to cut treble to 5KHZ and bass to 75HZ. It seems that even this is not enough and futher cuts are required to get a tone that is not too ice picky or bass heavy. My question is this: Why is this necessary?! I know FRFR speakers have a much great range than guitar speakers but if the Helix is modelling guitar amps and guitar cabs/speakers so perfectly and accurately then where are these extra frequencies coming from?! Surely the helix should just be sending guitar cab range frequencies straight to the full range speaker yet it seems to not be the case. Thoughts? I'd also appreciate any other advice or tips for using these FRFR monitors with Helix. EG: Is it better to make the cut adjustments with the cab/ir block or with the global EQ? (I've also heard that adjusting the mic closeness can help but haven't had a chance to try that yet.)

This right here seems to be exactly the problem based on answers and responses from the line 6 peeps. What use is minute accuracy if you can see it?! Hopefully it'll be an easy fix to add granularity. In the meantime i'll keep using my polytune clip. It's a shame this hasn't been addressed yet but I still love the helix!

@Digital_Igloo Thank you very much for your honest answer. I really genuinely appreciate not simply being fobbed off about it. The Helix is a great unit. It's a shame there wasn't time to sort the reverbs in time for release as it's an important feature for my style of music, but if it's on the agenda for the future I'll patiently look forward to it. I'm in it for the long haul with Helix and am loving the new amps and fx added already. Nice to have an honest answer and know that the intention is to improve them. If we could get polyphonic pitch shifting as well i'll be a happy chappy!

Does anybody else find the reverbs really quite disappointing on Helix? I used to use a strymon flint and an eventide H9 on my old pedalboard but sold the H9 to fund the helix and the verbs were so so much better. I'm sure plenty of people will say they are fine, which they are if all you are using them for is just adding a bit of space to the sound but when set higher in the mix or longer for ambient sounds they are really quite poor. The spring reverbs especially sound absolutely terrible to me especially with a high mix. Instead of sounding 'classically springy' like great fender amps with that authentic 'drip' at a high mix it basically sounds like a muffled laser beam, plus I can't really hear much difference at all between the 2 spring models. I've tried adjusting all the high/low cuts etc to make it sound better. No "drip" at all, just a muffled "zzzzzap". Hopeless for songs like John mayer's 'slow dancing in a burning room' or brad paisley's 'working on a tan' for example. Likewise the hall and plate reverbs just sounds pretty flat and dull to me. The hall reverb on the flint and the h9 were so rich in detail and 3d in depth. I know I could use an external verb pedal into the helix but that defeats the object of an all in one for me. I'd need a decent power supply plus a pedalboard to accomodate them etc. From what I've read they just ported the verbs over from the HD series. It's pretty disappointing if that is true, that they didn't take the time to do new ones to make the most of Helix' capabilities. I really hope they plan to release some upgraded verbs in the future. For me this is the one area that has been a let down in an otherwise amazing unit. Despite the disappointment with the verbs I have no regrets about selling my whole pedalboard to get the Helix.I absolutely love it in every way except the reverbs. The delays are great. I'd love to see more including a model of the carbon copy with it's full 600ms of delay since the helix bucket brigade one tops out at 300ms. Also the overdrive and fuzz pedals are the best i've ever heard from a modeller and to be honest the first digital overdrives that i've ever been happy to use. Don't take this post as a whinge. The Helix is amazing and a dream come true in usability, sound and routing options. It's just a shame to not bother with the verbs when the rest is SOOOOOO great!

Updates will likely become more frequent once they get the editor all up to speed. You can't really complain when they choose to give you free amps and pedals when their schedule allows. If you really feel so entitled perhaps you would be happier moving on to another product.

Yeah, how great would it be if when you adjust any EQ on the actual helix it switches to that visual view. It makes it so much easier to see what you are really doing to the EQ.

It's not a silly idea. Loads of people have little glow clocks on their pedalboards and course it's easier to glance down than fumble around to check your phone. Not sure it would work on the Helix though with no internal battery.

Your title implies that you have one to offer. Irritating clickbait.

Editor looks cool. Glad to see they are using actual images of pedals (like the phase 90-alike in the picture). I understand they want to maintain the same icons to match the Helix display but it could be very helpful to have those actual pedal icons in the signal path image at the top so you can see at a glance which mod it is before clicking on it.

I feel that some support should definitely be added for use with iPod/iPad/Phone audio. Just because this is a 'pro level' device it seems like a silly reason to omit a feature that so many used and found useful! I don't understand the line 'not appropriate' to include a 3.5mm jack input for mp3 players. Lots of people use Helix regularly to practice at home way more than they actually gig out with it. Why limit us with such an expensive piece of gear. I hope that future firmware updates will either allow you to control the volume of iPad when connected via usb, or ideally allow you to select from a main menu to be able to use the AUX in input as an mp3 player and automatically route it to play the mp3 player alongside (but outside) of the guitar signal chain. Should be easily achieveable.

Once an effect is highlighted you need to press the action button to move it, not the joystick button! Edit: just realised you probably know that already but were struggling with the habit of pressing the joystick since it would seem intuitive. I've done the same thing a few times. It'll all be much better once the editor is available.

REALLY impressed with the flexibility and options available for the new tremolo and phaser. EXACTLY what I was hoping for. What a great company that listens to it's customers. The Timmy model is great too. Next up, more ambient delays, reverbs with a 'freeze/infinity' function like on the Eventide H9 please, as well as polyphonic pitch shifting effects. Those would be the icing on an already delicious cake!!!

That statement was issued AFTER Robbie made his comment as you can see from the date stamps so yeah, like that!

Exciting stuff! Looking forward to the new fx more than the amp.

How come it's jumped from 1.04.3 to 1.6? Where was 1.5? Hopeful for some new FX.

Often adjusting the channel volume on the amp itself won't get you loud enough to match to other patches so I have been using the output block patch in that case.

Handy tip (as some amps are apparently naturally quieter than others): When you select the output for the patch on the editing screen you can click on that output block and adjust the entire patch's volume. You can level them all out to how you'd like them. It seems a bit silly that line 6 didn't do this with their presets. The volumes are all over the place.