zooey

Before upgrading to firmware 2.10, I wanted to list the known problems, and their best available workarounds, so I knew what I might need to do if any of those issues affected me. Realized it might be useful for others too, so here it is. Just to be clear, this is 100% unofficial, I don't speak for Line 6 or this forum. It may turn out that some of this info is wrong. By all means post back with any additions or corrections you know of, and I'll try to keep this original post updated. (That'll be slow during the work week.) Please post blame, rumors, development philosophy, and general info on upgrading Helix firmware elsewhere. Keep this thread about actionable tips for working around known bugs in this release. #1 SYMPTOM: Some presets don't import correctly, one or both paths are empty. I'm not clear on the scope of this, but I think it affects some presets exported from earlier releases, and may affect some exported from 2.10 too. If you actually-for-real know of problems with presets exported from 2.10, speak up. REFERENCE: http://line6.com/support/topic/24096-import-or-export-corrupt/ WORKAROUND: None so far. Affected patches need to be recreated by hand, from the info in the preset file or other sources. #2 SYMPTOM: Some stomp mode switches lose which block is selected after import into 2.10, causing their light's on/off state to be backwards. This may also have happened with some earlier firmware updates. REFERENCE: http://line6.com/support/topic/24047-updated-and-lost-most-of-my-patches/?do=findComment&comment=184293 WORKAROUND: Touch (don't press) each of the affected switches repeatedly until the correct block is selected, save the preset, repeat for each affected preset #3 SYMPTOM: (Some?) presets exported from earlier firmware lose EXP 2 from the scribble strip REFERENCE: http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/effects-controllers/helix/pre-210-snapshot-presets-can-eliminate-exp-2-f-r844 WORKAROUND: Step 1: 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. Step 2: Plug a 1/4 cable into EXP 2 Step 3, Short out the cable briefly, repeat for each snapshot Step 4: Save the preset Step 5: Repeat for each affected preset Step 6: If you had Global Settings > Preferences > Snapshot Edits set to Discard before this, put it back like that #4 SYMPTOM: (Some?) input blocks don't show the Variax model in the editor; it's correct on Helix itself. Maybe "global reset changes the "Per Preset" Variax Settings (2nd page of input block) back to "Global". REFERENCE: http://line6.com/support/topic/24139-210-editor-not-showing-input-block-parameters/ WORKAROUND: Think you have to reselect the correct one and save, repeat for all affected patches. CAVEAT: I don't have a Variax, and I'm not that familiar with them or Helix's integration with them, so this item is kind of vague. Any solid contributions are welcome.

Personally, especially since you're new to Helix, I'd install 2.01 instead of 2.10, 2.10 is significantly, broken, at least for some people, and basically 2.0.1 isn't. You won't have the 3 newest amps, but you also won't have to research the 3 (I think) known bugs in 2.10 and their partial workarounds. It'll just be a less confusing experience. I'd be very surprised if a bugfix successor to 2.10 didn't appear some time soon, so you're not giving up on it, just waiting until the dust settles. This is an unusual situation, first time a release has had this degree of problems since I got mine back in April.

I quite often pull some low end out early in the chain, and/or in the amp itself, and quite likely add some back in post the amp, for exactly that reason. It's worth a try if you haven't. But cool that the Dumble handles that sort of thing well.

Really, the process needed is the same whether the convertor is part of the firmware, part of the updater, a separate installed app, or an online web app. L6 knows about all this, or we wouldn't have made it this far, and besides, it's standard practice. Also, there wouldn't be all those version numbers in preset files if they weren't planning to use them for just this purpose. Some stuff slipped through the cracks this time is all, it happens. Maybe they really wanted it out for the holiday weekend (which I have to say IS a nice thought), maybe there were some internal miscommunications, maybe someone kidnapped the heads of engineering and QA, who knows. But I am sure they know how this sort of process needs to be built, and they'll be on the case shortly.

@will, using firmware 201, importing your Starz preset I get nothing but the title, no blocks in either path. Another data point in this somewhat unhappy saga...

You're right that the software has some homework to do to adjust existing presets to the new world. In most software that's done in place, without the export-import process, but the net process is the same when everything works right. The way I've always written such stuff is to store a "data format version" in the data, and write a series of transformations from version 1 to version 2 to version 3 etc, so no matter how old a given bit of data (preset in this case) is, all and only the steps needed to migrate it up to the current version run. It seems likely that L6 does something similar. If you look in a preset file, it has fields for device_version, appversion, and one just called version. As to what's going wrong with the different aspects of presets that aren't upgrading successfully sometimes, or to put it differently, why L6 thought they had things handled but wrong things happen in some cases, at this point it's only speculation. I'm sure they'll put significant attention on it as soon as possible. People love the new amps and features, but this upgrade is clearly causing problems for a significant number of users, the most I've seen since I got my Helix back in April, and that's not good for anyone, L6 included.

I do something similar. Are your work area and live setlists both loaded at the same time? If so, just load a patch from your work area, then Save, and choose the live setlist as the destination. Not that this situation is ideal, it's clearly not, just as a workaround until this all gets sorted.

Yeah, the wetware is always in need of a major upgrade, not just an update!

In the end, what did you think about the IRs vs built-in cabs where you had both?

Not variax guy, but does that global settings change really mean it suddenly ignores existing settings in each preset? If so, it seems pretty lame to have it change after an upgrade, and also like you might get your per-preset settings back if you put back the global.

Ownhammer is weird, they have samples for many but not all of their cabs, sometimes more than one in different styles. 3Sigma has samples of every cab, using what sounds like one of two different performances, with I assume the same amp and the same settings for it. While that seems ideal, in practice it doesn't make it much easier to make a decision, for me. I know I'm going to adjust EQ and amp settings based on what I'm hearing and what I want to hear at that moment, so the big picture of any cab's frequency response is going to get evened out to some degree. The net effect of any given cab is on how hard it is to get things in the right ballpark, and I think most importantly, on the smaller scale peaks and valleys in the response once you have the approximate tonal balance you want. I have no idea how to judge those things based on samples of someone else's amp, settings, playing, and music. There are a few I have actual experience with, but not many, and most of those not for years. Net for me is either don't buy any, or pick a kind of at random assortment based on what I know of the source amp's reputation (which is likely more about the amp than the cab), maybe influenced a little by the samples they provide. Did some digging around, turns out I have a crap-ton of free IRs, most from this huge thing called 'Great Impulses Set', 324 MB, almost 6,000 files, all supposedly free, and they are from what I can tell. Don't remember where I got it, apparently back in 2012. I've tried a few, but not most of them. From one point of view I shouldn't buy anything until I've looked through all of that. From another, I should just pick a reputable manufacturer, an amount I'm willing to spend, and make my best guesses. Or maybe I should shut up and play my guitar.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd really prefer it if IR demos would... - Include non-metal examples, unless they think that's all their stuff is good for - Use the same amp and performance with the different cabs, so we can hear the difference IN THE CABS Not rocket science. Sheesh.

I think if you have Global Settings > Preferences > Snapshot Edits set to Recall, then you only have to save once for the whole preset, instead of having to save each snapshot separately. That's how I'm set up anyway, but if you're not, and you have a lot of this work to do, might be worth temporarily changing it, then putting it back when you're done.

Still thinking. I put a bunch in their cart to see the total, and saved that cart (great shop feature!), but I didn't have time to actually listen, I'll go back when I can do that. Even then, it seems really hard to know what I'd think of any IRs with my guitar and playing and ear, based on somebody else's playing and amp settings. Maybe need to decide based on general ideas, and try to cover a lot of ground, hoping some of it works out. Weird biz. Sometimes I think I jus shouldn't play this form of roulette if that's how I feel about it. It's not like I I find Helix unusable with the built-in cabs and the random free IRs I have.

3Sigma now has 20% of everything w code BLACKFRIDAY, 11/25 - 11/27.

I do use snapshots though, which apparently is one requirement for it happening, so I don't get off that easy. We'll see.

Hmmm, too bad, that's actually-relevant bug #3 I know of in this release. I'm still going to update when I get time, can't help it, want to play with those new amps! It is inconvenient though. If it won't import my current fave patches from the previous release I may have to roll back until the smoke clears.

Play both with the phase of one inverted. If the results are identical, there should be no output at all.

Which switch state lights it up has always been controlled that way, by touching the switch to make a different block "current". Are you saying that patches imported into the new firmware sometimes lose which block that is?

What is it they say, a successful patch is one that increasea the bug count by less than its line count...

Just to clarify, does it seem that the new firmware doesn't EXPORT reliably, or doesn't IMPORT reliably, or doesn't IMPORT presets from EARLIER releases reliably? I've read a bunch a msgs about this and it's not 100% clear to me where the problem actually is.

I know that fremen, and lots of people love your stuff, thinking on it (:-)

@hef, do you mean this recreate it manually by looking at the parameters in the preset file? Or do you have some sort of preset repair tool?

Individual presets are JSON, you're right, it's setlists (and maybe bundles, haven't looked) that are compressed. I wrote I web-based thing to inventory usage of each IR (and each block type too, cause why not), but it only reads preset files because I don't know how to extract ZLIB w the tools I know. I could ask people to export presets, zip them, and upload that, but I thought it wasn't worth it, nobody would care. I wrote it for myself, to know which IR slots I could free up. Really Helix or at least the editor should have that built in.

Yes, that one. Funky, but apparently it works. You know what they say, All God's children got bugs (:-) (I'm a programmer...)