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Good idea! EDIT: (unintentionally posted before finishing): Except what happens if you then turn it on with a footswitch? It has to have the new parameters by then.

Really high output pickups maybe? Try the input pad, or some other way of lowering gain at the start of the chain?

What speakers and amp are you using? Have you played a modeler through them before? If this is your first time with a modeler and/or an FRFR speaker setup, it can take some getting used to. If you're not using an FRFR rig, I'd recommend it. Helix is really designed to deliver fully produced sounds, you just need to amplify it into the room, not alter it further by sending it through another layer of processing like a guitar amp. If you're using it only as an effects pedal, playing through a guitar amp, then you may want to bypass the amp and cab in Helix, since you're already going through that stuff in real life. Anyway, don't worry about the factory presets. Play with the controls, adjust things til you like it. That's the bottom line, what you like, in your playback and musical environment. All of that said, what are you hearing that you don't like? FWIW, personally, I love it. Took a while to get comfortable, but like most (but not all) folks here, I really like the sounds I'm getting, and the ease of use and flexibility are game changers. Give it time, explore, take nothing for granted, I bet you'll find your happy place(s) in there :)

Honest guys, if there's an input GAIN difference between 1/4" and XLT, it's only that, a difference in gain, meaning how hot the input signal has to be for a given output level. Max power and max SPL simply do not change depending on which jack you're using. If the limit light is on on the speaker, that's as loud as it goes, more or less. If not, you've got some more room, turn up the output level on the Helix and have at it.

Thank you, handy. As originally said, that should be a sticky maintained by Line 6 until the manual gets updated.

Yes, you're right. TBH, that's always puzzled me completely about the whole idea of having one physical pedal masquerading as two. I don't see how any pedal configuration options could get around that as long as toe switching is in play.

Surely you can fake a bright switch with EQ before and/or after the preamp and/or power amp and/or cab.

Of course it's awesome that new firmware comes out with new toys! All I meant was that if some feature is a drop-dead must-have, do the research and shop for it. Don't get a box without it, hoping that'll change, especially if what really matters to you is the near term or right now.

My Alesis Alpha 112s, 1000 Watts supposedly, seem deafening in my small basement, but in a huge barn not so much. In my case, it wasn't a matter of input gain, the limiter light was coming on. Didn't sound awful or anything, just more compressed than usual, and duh, turning Helix output up didn't make it that much louder. If the Altos have a limiter light, check if it's going on. That'll tell you if you're actually out of headroom.

So how were you getting clean sound without distortion then? I'm confused, but then again, that doesn't matter in the slightest :) Glad you're sorted.

If your patches are stereo, then going out of 2 inputs and into your 2 speakers separately will preserve that. That's what if recommend, since it gives you the option of stereo if you want it. If your patches are mono and you're sure you'll always want them that way, it may be simpler wiring to go to one speaker, then come out of its parallel out to go to the other one.

Isn't there a screen magnifier tool somewhere, maybe in Accessibility options? Not ideal, but many great but older VSTs have the same problem really badly.

Maybe I don't know what you mean, and I don't use pedal-controlled volume blocks much so maybe I'm wrong, but I think the current arrangement lets a patch have both volume and wah blocks be controlled by the pedal, pretty much how I'd want it. By default, the pedal controls volume. Pressing the toe switch enables the wah, and switches the pedal to control it. Isn't that how it works? Isn't that what you'd want in the 99% case?

Agree, there needs to be a persistent place for info that's new since the last user guide. Line 6 really should provide that info on a clearly accessible place.

So up w Mesas and the like, but not wildly more?

Never buy gear for what you hope it'll do in the future.

Great post, all aspects. I read it to my wife, she wanted me to post on her behalf, "Yeah, what he said".

Where does the decimal point go in the price of a real one? Always nervous (and a little offended honestly) when you have to write for pricing...

Wasn't familiar with JOAT amps, but they look delicious! Second the motion for a Helix version, definitely!

I had been holding off on updating until some of the more intrusive bugs were resolved, and it seems that they have been with 2.11, so I was going to go ahead. I was doing some housecleaning and patch reorganization before backing up in preparation for that update, when I ran into this.

With firmware and editor v2.01, when I change snapshots on Helix, some parameters don't update in the editor. They do when you load a preset, but not a snapshot. The ones that are acting like that are Hum, Ripple, Bias, and BiasX. I haven't done an exhaustive check of every parameter of every block type, but those I happened to notice. Anyone else see that, or know anything about why that might be, other than a bug I should report?

An overdriven 100W tube head through a 4x12 can be seriously f-ing loud. Realistically, it seems like you'd need a pretty massive FRFR rig to keep up with that. I'm sure my two Alesis 12" + horn + "1000W" bi-amped amps wouldn't come close. That's a budget rig for sure, but still. You might need something with a tube amp, so you could let it overdrive some without solid state clipping. OTOH, many musicians these days don't want to jeopardize their hearing with 130db stage volume, so they find ways to keep things a bit more reasonable. Bottom line though is that I'm just fantasizing. You're going to need to make your best guess and try it with your band. That's a pain since it's expensive, but probably realistic. I've never tried either one, but the Mission and the Atomic CLR both have good reps for pro use.

Best to write down ALL your global settings before doing an update, in case any of them change, for any reason, documented or not.

Do try working with Support on this. Not a Mac guy myself, but I'm under the impression that some people have this working.

According to the (really broken) product info page on their site, they have an "Integrated 2-channel mixer with dual XLR 1/4-inch combo mic/line inputs and independent level controls". So they may look like XLRs, but they'll also accept 1/4" plugs.