zooey

Isn't there at least one "expression" pedal out there that in addition to outputting midi also has LFOs? Can't think of its name, but it was mentioned here recently.

I've changed over to 4 snap and 4 stomp switches mode, and have been gradually converting my most-used patches to work that way. It's working pretty well, but I do also hit the Mode switch to access more stomps, which I definitely use. Helix Pro, with its 20 footswitches and scribble strips, should be about right (;-)

Yes, but also depends hugely on the amp and its settings, and on the IR itself.

Bingo Phil, thanks. I figured it had to be something like that, even though I most certainly didn't mean to switch to desktop. I also missed the link back to mobile when I looked, probably because the desktop site on a phone isn't super legible or convenient. So, sorted, cool.

It's possible I'm not remembering right, but didn't it used to have a more mobile-friendly layout? I have to zoom in now, and ignore the columns on the right that scroll off screen. Are there settings for this?

Odd that all 3 amps are guitar amps, no FRFRs.

For me, the #1 thing is that Helix is a pleasure to use and to play through. I don't feel like I'm anywhere near having exhausted its possibilities, so the fact that Axe devices have more models just isn't super relevant to me. Of course I'm interested in what (sims of) cool boutique amp A and obscure antique amp B sound like, but that's always going to be true, no matter what you have available, and doesn't detract in the slightest from the just plain Fun I'm having with Helix. As has been said many times, here and elsewhere, Fractal, Kemper and Helix all sound really good, and all deliver an unimaginable wealth of (somewhat different) features. But day to day usability is a huge thing, and IMO it's pretty clear that the Helix UI is in a league of its own.

I was working on a snapshot-based preset, thought it was in a pretty good place, but there was another amp block strategy I wanted to try. So, I copied the current amp block, and went fishing for a different sort of sound there. After a bit, I decided I wanted the original back, so I pasted the block I had previously copied back in. That changed the settings for the amp block, for sure, but most definitely didn't restore it the way it had been when I copied it, in the current snapshot or the other three. Note that ALL amp settings on the first page were controlled by snapshots, and a few on the second page too. Is this a known thing with copy/paste and snapshots? What exactly gets copied and pasted when most block parameters are controlled by snapshots? In some ideal world, maybe, the block's settings for each defined snapshot get copied, in addition to all its static settings, but that's clearly not what happened, and the result in my case was useless. In the end, I just reloaded a saved copy of the whole preset, but that's not the point. Is it documented somewhere how this works? If not, could we get an official statement explaining it?

http://www.dairiki.org/HammondWiki/LeslieRotationSpeed

I'm certainly with you on the cost of most of these things being absurd, but 25% of the Amazon reviews on the EX-P give it one star for the mechanical linkage between the pedal and the ppot breaking pretty quickly. I suppose you could carry a spare or two.

I hear this all the time here, and while on one level of course I understand, and I do use those controls, another (bigger) part of me says that if the speaker and cab emulations are actually true to the real speakers and cabs, there shouldn't BE any content above guitar cab range that needs to be filtered out. Maybe it's that what we're used to hearing on recordings isn't what guitar cabs actually sound like in the real world. Whether it's through off-axis mic'ing or processing, more highs in particular get removed than what happens when you just play the amp through the speaker. Only hole in that theory is that many of ARE pretty used to the sound of real world guitar cabs, and we still like to pull "excess" highs out of emulated cabs. Or maybe it's that in their infinite wisdom, amp sim makers often build their amps and/or cabs with more highs than in the real world, because removing frequencies is easier and more natural sounding than boosting what's not there, so those "excess" overtones give us flexibility, even if they mean we often have to filter some of that back out. Back on planet Earth, I just adjust things until I like it, so as you were, carry on.

That's just gross, sorry. Nice idea, but way more warts on it than I want to deal with, at least for now. We really need some other way of mixing switch types, and/or as I keep mentioning, having the Mode switch cycle through multiple different layouts instead of toggling between just two.

I remember the Field Coil being one of the amps that has some low-level duration at any volume level, like there Mesas clean channel, as talked about in the thread about that. Sort of doubt that's what you mean, but try the Twin or HiWatt for instance, memory says those are both pretty clean at low gain.

@spankygtr, the warranty on Helix is transferable, IF you have the ORIGINAL purchase receipt from when it was bought new, which is actually pretty cool. If SA can't provide you with that, then personality I would return it, even if you get this particular issue sorted, maybe unless it was seriously impressively cheap, which I haven't seen happening. Even used, Helix is too expensive to run that kind of a risk when there are alternatives, you just might have to wait for them to show up.

Agreed. All we can do I think is tell L6 that some people notice and are bothered by it. Ideally we'd file an actual bug report, but that should include a list of models that have the problem, since it isn't only this one. I honestly don't remember where else I heard it though, and I'm too busy to check them all. Another useful experiment would be to swap out preamps and power amps, make sure we know where there problem really is. That might also provide a partial workaround for some use cases.

Hmmm, interesting. Haven't had a Mesa in years, but I never had any problems with the one I had. (15" JBL combo, serial # B0015, so old it had label maker labels on the back panel. I'm a complete idiot for ever having sold it, whether I still wanted to use it or not...) Anyway, I'm not a fan of the model-the-defects-too school of thought. If there's an opportunity to genuinely improve the world, those are rare enough, take it. (Sort of similarly, it helps nothing to make models of tiny amps way quieter than models of bigger ones, reality it not, just means you have to compensate elsewhere.) OTOH, is not only Mesas that do this, so unless it's a characteristic of certain amp topologies, not brands or models, which is possible, it's probably a modeling defect, not overzealous emulation. In any case, if L6 is considering a v2 version of the amps with this behavior, I hope they get rid of it.

Update: Happened to be editing a patch with both "real" rotaries as switchable FX last night, compared them again, and also the Fender. In the context of that clean Twin patch anyway, I definitely preferred the 145 over the 122, and a little bit over the Fender also. Note that you really want to use any of these in place of a cab, not in series with one, or it's way too dull, which it sort of is anyway, probably realistic. I lowered the Mix control very slightly, like 97-98%, to give it a tiny bit more top without diluting the rotary-ness too much. As always, just my $0.0002,YMMV.

FWIW, I always have the pad on for my main guitar, so even if doing that is helpful for some people, I'm already there, hearing it. It really doesn't sound or behave like overload or clipping anyway IMO, more like crossover distortion or something. It's just there, at any level, no matter what you play, its unnaturalness is part of why it's objectionable. There is some chance it's an accurate model of the real thing, which I guess you can check if you have one. But if like to believe that Mesa, of all amp makers, wouldn't let something like that pass.

^^^ this, for better and worse. Local stores, even the big one, seldom have the actual thing you're looking for unless it's the flavor of the month (or last month, really), and genuine expertise is scarce. Advantage of ordering from them anyway is you can return it for free if need be. Been to a book store lately? Tried to get a cab?

To put it differently, you can't actually delete a preset, in the sense that that preset SLOT doesn't go away, there are a fixed number of them in the Helix hardware. All you can do is replace it with "nothing", and an empty preset with that name is recognizably "nothing". I've considered renaming it to "" (empty name), not sure if you can do that or not, and anyway, life's too short, we all no what "New Preset" is.

I think some bass fuzzes mix a low-passed and probably compressed clean sound with distorted overtones, going for solid bottom with fuzz on top. You could try home-growing something like that with Helix's routing options.

I know it's an emulation of an emulation, but I like the Vibe best. Not super fond of any of them though, seems like too much modulation, or something, like an effect. Leslie is a hard effect to do, as witnessed by the fact that there are a lot of VSTs out there trying.

Anyone have any experience with Helix Depot? Hadn't heard ot it until today, they have a few free IRs and presets up, wondered if they're a reputable source for such stuff. Thanks.

Got an email that this is the last day of a 30% off sale. Their "Recabinet IR Library v3 and v4" has 18 guitar cabs, 4 bass cabs, and 8 mics, 24 bit WAV at 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, and 96 kHz. It's $14.99 even without the sale, almost a no-brainer, if they're compatible, but I don't see detailed specs anywhere. Anyone have any experience with these, or know if they'll work in Helix?

Interesting. To me the Axe sounds the most present, but there's so much variability possible in settings, really I think this says more about your good ear for this than the units themselves.