zooey

^^^ This!

Thing is, if it's a problem with 201 exports, alone, nothing to do with 210, you'd think it would have been discovered long before 210 came out. Still could be true, but that'd be weird. Or maybe people exported from 201, but didn't try importing those files until they needed to, after upgrading to 201. But it seems like SoMeBoDy would have done that and run into this.

Please make sure this gets reported to Support, so they have it on their radar for the next upgrade.

Couple things about this thread... I did end up submitting a ticket myself, pointing them to this thread, just in case some of the issues mentioned here hadn't been reported directly by the people who saw them. (I still haven't updated, don't have time to deal with this stuff, so I haven't run into them.) Today I got this reply: Also, it was my intention to keep this thread updated as a reference when new issues were discovered and (hopefully) worked around, but other happenings in my life have bumped that plan into the "predictable problems" bucket. Not happening. I've seen some other issues go by, but just don't have the time or brainspace to fully document them here, especially when I'm not on 2.10 myself to work through any steps and make sure I understand the issues. Search the threads here for potential problems and solutions, there are lots of helpful folks putting it through its paces. Hopefully all of this will be moot soon with a new release.

See the first paragraph of my last reply. Or I'm not understanding what you mean.

It's interesting that they think older firmware should be able to handle exports from 2.10. Obviously it won't recognize the newer amps and stomp, but I guess they think it'll be OK with entire new sections of data, like the new expression pedal, bypass, and switch color settings. Interesting.

Bottom line: Use 48kHz, 16-bit, mono, .WAV files if they're available, either 1024 or 2048 samples. If not, the Helix app converts all IRs to that format, so no worries. More blah blah, if you care... IRs are kind of a digitized sample of the audio response of a cab or acoustic space. 16 and 24 bit are the number of bits used to encode each sample, the number of discrete vertical steps used to digitize the audio. In the real world, audio isn't stepped at all, it's a smooth curve. 24 bit IRs approximate that smooth curve more closely than 16 bit. Here's a pic of that stepped approximation. You can imagine that the finer the steps are, the closer the digital version is to the original analog curve. 44.1, 48. and 96 kHz are the sample rate, how many samples per second are taken. Higher sample rates are higher fidelity, particularly at higher frequencies, but Spikey is right that CDs, typically the highest fidelity we're exposed to these days, are 44.1kHz. Since the theoretical limit on high frequency response is half the sample rate, 44.1kHz audio allows for response up to roughly 22 kHz, beyond what (most people think) humans can hear.. You've no doubt run into the fact that us guitarists often limit high frequency response much lower than that anyway. 1024 and 2048 aren't sample rates, they're the number of samples in the IR, i.e., its length, the time it lasts. Cab IRs are very short, where ones intended for reverb are much longer. They have to be, to represent the decay characteristics of larger acoustic spaces like a concert hall. Helix doesn't support longer, reverb-style IRs, just short cab ones. Cab IRs with 2048 samples are in some sense higher fidelity than 1024-sample ones, but they require more DSP power. I haven't compared 1024 vs 2048 versions of the same thing myself, but some people say they sound some flavor of better. If you have access to some IRs that are the same except for their length, listen for yourself and see if you hear enough difference to spend the extra processing on it. Helix uses 48kHz, 16-bit, mono, .WAV files internally, so any greater resolution in any dimension doesn't get you anything. If that format is available from whatever provider you're looking at, just use it. The Helix app automatically converts all IRs to that format anyway.

Really I think this comes down to the clarity, or lack thereof, of the downloads page. Yes they want to make sure everyone reads the instructions, but the actual download link for the thing you probably want gets lost in a sea of huge type, and the alternative items you might want but probably don't should be tucked away and labeled as such.

Pressing a switch that turns on a block doesn't automatically select that block on the Helix screen, never has. Personally I think that's a good thing, I can have the focus on the EQ while I turn other things on and off, for instance. That's the opposite of what I thought noxdaz10 was saying, but that could be a misinterpretation on my part. I thought he was saying the the block DID enable and disable, but the switch light didn't indicate that. Need a bit of clarification here to best help, if anyone can.

Not sure if this is the issue, but for stomp switches that switch more than one block, each switch has a "current" block, and the light is on when that current block is on. You can cycle the current block setting through each of the blocks the switch affects by touching it, not pressing it. You'll see the current block highlight in the flow diagram. If this is happening with switches that control only one block, I don't know what's going on, never had that happen. Some people have a switches become unreliable, but that means it doesn't actually switch anything, which you're saying it does, just doesn't light up. Right?

Set Global Settings > Preferences > Snapshot Edits to Recall, if it's not that way already. This lets you save the whole preset at once when you repair it, instead of having to save each snapshot separately.

Not at my Helix so I can't look, and I don't use the editor enough to know by heart, but I think he's saying that there's no global settings screen in the app, so you have to take pics of them on your Helix itself.

Agree, Pedal Edit mode is great for checking out IRs, wish you could have more than 128 of them loaded at once. One HUGE plus of IRs vs cabs is that you can change which one is active per snapshot. Each different cab is a different block type, can't change which one it is with snapshots or any other controller, where with IRs, which one is active is just a parameter change.

Not that I'm aware (I'm not official of course). You'd think/hope that functionality would be built into the required upgrade and rebuild steps.

If you really have preset corruption, please do send the affected files to Line 6 support. The more broken files they get, the more likely it is that they can see a pattern in which ones fail and which don't, which is a very real step towards finding the actual bug(s) causing the problems.

I sincerely hope not. Really doubt it, probably would have heard about it here. More likely people are just settling into their purchases and deciding it's not for them for one reason or another. It happens with any gear, modeling or not. Upgrade hassles aside, it's a great unit on so many levels. Hope you can see fit to see it through, I think you'll dig it!

Hey fremen, those sorts of troubles can be really tough I know. Best wishes (:-)

Resetting globals apparently does or may do some fixup that's part of the upgrade process. Yes it's goofy that the upgrade itself doesn't just do that, and goofier still that there's no way to save your current settings as a file that can be imported after an upgrade or in case of disaster, but that's How It Is, for now. More or less ditto for restoring presets, and it's not that big of a deal, so I'd just go ahead and do it. You're in an easier situation than most since you don't have your own presets you need to reload, so just proceed.

In the unlikely event that anyone cares, I didn't end up buying anything. I spent a while with the Ownhammer and 3 Sigma freebies, and clearly liked the Ownhammers better. They're not on sale, so no hurry, and I think they never are, so foo on me. All the 3 Sigmas had a high-end thing going on that I didn't care for, even the ones furthest off axis. It's quite possible they'd work well in a mix, I don't trust my perspective on that, but for now I just liked the sound of the OH ones better, and they sound more like me. They were also more varied -- except for the tube (read bass-heavy) vs solid state variations, the 3Sigmas all sounded very similar, just less bright as you move away from the center of the cone. Just my $0.00002, but there you have it.

Everyone hopes this aspect of the Helix ecosystem will become more sane at some point, and I think that's likely. In the mean time, IMO the most sane way to manage IRs is to rename them with a 3-digit numeric prefix, so they can be sorted in that order in the file system on your computer. From there, you can drag them onto the editor, and there's a reasonable chance they'll end up in that order there, and in your Helix. I'm not 100% positive, but I think there are sometimes glitches in that drag-drop process, but in any case, the prefix makes it easy to see any that end up out of order and move them. It's easiest if you start that process on your computer, since there are auto-renumber tools that work well. I'm on Windows, and I use one called BulkRenameUtility. Its interface is a little funky, but once you get used to it it's very powerful, does this sort of thing really well. No clue what's available on Mac, but I'm sure there's somethign similar. If you've already got un-prefixed IRs in your Helix, then it's probably best to number them there before exporting them. It's tedious but worth it, and you only have to do it once. Another layer of this that you may or may not want to do is to add some indication of where each IR came from. Once you move them to the directory you'll drag to the editor, they won't be in their original source folders any more, so I find it helpful to add a 2-character manufacturer prefix, for example , OH=Ownhammer, 3S=3 Sigma, etc.. I keep a text file of those prefixes and manufacturers for reference if I forget. If you do that, put it after the numeric part, so you end up with names like '025 OH 412 MES-ST V60 414-.wav'. Not that you asked, and of course you should do whatever makes sense to you, but I use the following directory structure: - Library - your collection of stuff you might use some day, NOT what's loaded in Helix -- IRs --- Ownhammer - directories for each source --- Studio Cat --- etc -- Presets --- fremen - directories for each source --- Glenn DeLaune --- custom - your originals (mine are loaded in my Helix, so I don't really do this, but you could if you had more than fit) --- etc -- Setlists - firmware 1.12 - backups of your actual Helix contents from this firmware revision -- 2016-09-24 - separate dated directories for each time you back up --- IRs --- Presets --- Setlists - firmware 2.0 - ...etc HTH.

Very close, you're right, hard to quantify whatever difference there is. Interesting.

Basically, I'd go line level XLR if you don't have any reason not to. Line vs Instrument is just higher signal level. Looks like the PE can handle either, just adjust its input level so it doesn't clip. Line would provide somewhat better environmental noise rejection since the signal is hotter in comparison. Re XLR vs 1/4", XLRs are balanced, so any hum from AC lines etc theoretically gets rejected. Balanced also lets you lift the ground, to avoid ground loops.

I spent a while today picking a bunch of 3Sigma IRs. I started by listening to cab samples, but quickly (again) felt like I couldn't tell squat from that, so I mostly picked "interesting" cabs, plus some standards. I also checked reviews of some of the real cabs. I want to pretty much settle this question, get some (or not), and stop thinking about it, so I was shooting for a wide assortment. $100 was my very upper limit, and also about the same as the Ownhammer Studio Mix collection I've lusted after. That came to 24 cabs, which as I understand it each have 5 mic position variations, each with tube and solid state amps, all of which are some mix of multiple mics, like the US Custom freebie from a bit ago. Not that the numbers really matter, but in comparison it looks like the OH Studio Mix collection has only 3 different cabs. I wouldn't have thought one 2x12 cab would be that different from another with the same speakers, but to hear random internet players say it, the cab itself makes a huge difference, which would be points for the 3Sigmas. OTOH, the Studio Mix collection includes a total of 70 different speaker combinations, with between 5 and 8 mics for each, plus 6 mic mixes. Their free Mesa sample has 34 separate IRs, including 6 predone mixes, vs 10 mixes for 3S, but that's all you get. Then I listened to the main demo video on the 3Sigma site, and the Studio Mix demo, just as music, not comparing specific cabs. On a gut level I liked the Ownhammer one a lot more than 3Sigma, though the 3S cleans were very nice. Not really fair, because the OH one is Pete Thorn, who's just really great, and it's music I like more, but it seemed punchier and more immediate in general. So now what? Today's the last day of the 3Sigma sale, so I have to actually make up my mind if that's what I want. The OH stuff isn't on sale, and never is as I understand it. Any thoughts?

I'd go the other way around, have the big knob control the 1/4" outs for your monitoring, without affecting the XLRs to FOH.

#3 is already reported and acknowledged by Line 6, the reference I gave is to their KB article about it. For the rest, I'm pretty sure at least some of them have been reported by the people who experienced the problems. I haven't upgraded myself, so I'm not the right person to do that. But you're right, people who have experienced these problems definitely should report them to official Line 6 support if they haven't already. My intent was more to gather the current workarounds, not to raise issues with Line 6.