I'm thouroughly loving the Helix at the moment, but as I like to push the boundaries of my equipment I wonder if we can stretch those boundaries even more by adding some suggestions!
If there's a better place/topic to do this, please excuse and tell me.
1: Seperate Power Amps.
In my rig I run the Helix direct from the XLR to the PA and the 1/4 jacks to the poweramp inputs of my Peavey Bandits for monitoring. The power amps are quite essential to the tones of the amp so it would be ideal if you could pick a preamp, send 1 path direct to the jacks and feed the other path through a power amp and cab. Using the pre+poweramp blocks through another poweramp seems to make things quite harsh sounding.
2. Custom quick edit menu.
Most of the time all I want to edit on the fly is the channel volume of the amps or the mix of the effects. Best case scenario would be if you could customize the functions of the 6 knobs under the screen to whatever parameter of whatever block in a 'main' menu for that preset. It would make for a little less menu-diving.
3. 7-band parametric EQ with display.
As a Pro Tools user I would love to be able to use it's stock 7-band EQ in my presets. And while we're at it, lets use the giant display to show the EQ moves in the spectrum. Although I do think you should listen to what you're doing instead of seeing it, I find it much quicker and easier to point out certain frequencies when looking at the diagram. This diagram thing would also work great with compressors and gates btw...
4. Trails from preset to preset.
When I switch to a different preset my delays and reverbs get cut off. Probably has to do with the 2 processors giving everything already, but if there's an option to make them spill out over the next preset: yes please!
5. More amps!
I love the fact that updates carry some new amp or effect options with them, so here are a few more suggestions:
-Victory Silverback
-Victory Kraken
-Marshall JMP-1
-Peavey Classic series
-Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+
-PRS Archon
So these are my current thoughts about.
What I really like about the list above is that nothing is really essential as most common fx processor issues are solved within the Helix. I used a G-System before and it's been a massive upgrade! The only thing I kinda miss from that unit are the delay spill-overs.
Ah well. Dare to dream. ;-)
Greeting from The Netherlands!
Sebas Honing.
