zooey

Don't I remember that there's a setting to discard snapshot edits automatically unless you explicitly save them? Would that fix some of this? I haven't played w snapshots much at all yet or I'd know that already, but some of their limitations have made me unsure how to use them without losing functionality I have now, namely... - The way you have to navigate between presets, snapshots, and stomps seems awkward to me, extra switch presses, stepping on two switches at once, yadda. - The limitation of only 8 snaps. It's not the number really, it's that my current life is 10 switches mode, which I think would work as 5 snaps and 5 stomps, except that you only get 2 banks of 4 snaps. - The fact that you can't have a snapshot that DOESN'T remember the active blocks, only parameter changes. Need that because my bottom right switch is almost always Boost, just a volume parameter change. If one row was snaps, I couldn't do that, and I do actually want 5 stomp switches, so Boost can't go in that row either. Don't get me wrong, I love Helix, and snapshots too, in theory, but either I haven't figured out how to best use them, or some some usability tweaks are needed.

Go for it! I'm a big fan of the Amplitube Mesas, though I've been sticking to Helix since I got it, it's so much more practical anywhere but at home. Love those AT tones, not just but definitely including the Mesas.

At minimum, there should be a global setting to do what the dummy plug does. Glad there's a workaround today, but it's a predictable problem, and that solution is goofy. This seems related to the fact that if a footswitch turns block A on and block B off, then you recall a snapshot that turns one of those off, they're now out of sync (really, IN sync, opposite what you wanted), because the footswitch still just toggles both of them. It's much less clear how to make that better than the wah issue is. Snapshots are great, but some of the current behaviors are not.

Will the US dealer stand behind it, seeing as they sold it to you knowing where you were, and it's not exactly cheap?

Birthday!!! Yay!!!

I think you'll need to control the mix of a split or merge block to handle that, so whether the effect itself is bypassed or not, you're not hearing its output.

Why is that inherently the way it is? Just because the up and down switches aren't there shouldn't mean you don't want auto-return to stomp mode. Am I missing something, or is this just a current limitation that will hopefully be removed in the future?

Not -1? Isn't -2 a whole step? Or am I having a brain freeze?

It would be somewhere between hard and impossible to replicate a 31-band curve generated by an RTA using a 4 band parametric w hi- and low-cut filters. You just don't have enough points of control, even if individually the controls you do have can be very specific. That's one of the reasons I've been slow to try the IK ARC thing on my FRFRs -- what am I going to actually do with that result? I think the big reason 31-bands are prevalent for RTA and PA use is that the controls effectively double as a readout of the resulting curve. A parametric is way more abstract, especially if the bands overlap at all. If you IdeaScale a 31-band (might as well be available both for global and as a block), I'll vote it up.

Win 7 here. Followed the instructions to the letter, bricked my Helix, until it occurred to me to try a different USB port. That failed once, then succeeded on retry, no problems since. I've since discovered that I'm not the only one who's had similar USB problems, maybe chipset compatibility, who knows. But in the end it worked out, and the upgrade has a number of importantly good new features.

Be aware the a bundle contains all setlists, including the factory ones. In particular, a bundle is NOT a good choice for backup before an upgrade, because you're probably going to want to keep the updated factory setlists. For that reason, and just for flexibility, I personally don't use bundles at all, only individual setlist exports. I know of no great advantage to bundles. Re IRs,as I think you know, presets contain only the IR slot number you selected, not the actual IR, or its name. That's true of bundles and setlist exports too. Be aware that Helix also often renames IRs when importing them. For those reasons, it's important to organize and back up your IRs separately. I've been experimenting with using BulkRnameUtility to add a 2-digit sequential Helix slot number at the start of each IR name, in the file system on my computer, before importing them, and loading them into the slot corresponding to that number. That way, I know which files are where, and can re-import them quickly just by sorting the directory by name and dragging them onto the Helix app. Downsides of that approach: - Reorganizing or replacing IRs is a bit of a chore. I'm not a heavy IR user (yet), just exploring, with a few (awesome) exceptions, and AFAIK there's no better choice, so I just live w that. - Sometimes Helix strips that prefix off on import. Only IRs I've seen that with are all of the (very useful) ones from rosecoe5. There's been some talk that that might be because Helix uses the Title field from the .wav file if it has one. I can't confirm that, because on Windows 7, I don't see a Title field at all, while rosecoe5 does on Windows 10. Not clear how to deal with that if you're on Windows 7. On 10, assuming that theory is right, you could go through each one and set its title to be the same as its filename. I don't know of a tool to set title metadata in bulk like you can the filename. Don't do nothing about organizing an backing up your IRs. There will probably come a day, when you next upgrade at least, where you'll really wish you had made a plan. It's heartbreaking to lose presets you care about like that.

Interesting idea, voted, but unlike the global EQ, a cab IR doesn't typically come last in the chain, to I'm not sure exactly how that'd work. To put it differently, suppose you had 128 global IRs, and could choose which one to use, anywhere in the chain you want, more than one if DSP usage works out. And that's what we have today :)

Any comments about this thread?

Every snapshot always include on and off settings for every block, right? That's what keeps you from using one footswitch in snapshot mode as a volume boost. My boost switch typically just turns up the level of the final output block, but you could do the same thing by enabling and disabling a gain block, or any other block with added gain. But if snapshot switches always store every block's on/off state, it can't ONLY be a gain boost that works regardless of what else is on and off.

What was thinking I'd like is 5 Stomps in the top row, and 5 snapshots in the bottom row, and when you hit the Mode switch you see presets. There isn't any way to do that, right? Max is 4 Stomps and 4 Snapshots? That's what I meant by the (poor) title of this thread. (Even more ideally, I'd like 4 snapshots and one stomp in the bottom row for generic Boost, but I realize the only to get what with the current firmware is with a loopback cable, like DI suggested.) Can you be a little more specific about what your settings give you? You see 10 switches, but what's on them? Stomps? What do you see when you hit the mode switch? 8 snapshots, plus Up and Down buttons, which when you hit one changes the 8 switches to showing the 8 presets in that bank? And when you choose a preset, you see its 8 snapshots, and hitting Mode again shows 10 stomps again? That's probably not right, I'm just not clear on how switching between presets, snaps, and stomps actually works.

Touch (not press) and hold two switches, Helix will offer to swap their assignments. Wonderful feature.

Dunno, but I do know I like it! I'm not even a death metal guy, like at all.

I've been trying to figure out how to integrate snapshots into my current flow, and so far, I'm afraid I might not be able to make good use of them without sacrificing functionality I currently have without them. Please excuse if these are dumb questions that'd be easily answered by experimenting. I haven't had much Helix time since I (finally) got the upgrade to run, so I haven't actually played with any of this yet. I did look at the release notes and the global settings, and understanding of they work is based on what those seemed to imply. My pre-2.0 life is in 10 Switches mode. Bottom row often has 4 drive levels (really 5 including all switches off), plus a generic volume boost. Top row has FX, say Compression, Tremolo, Chorus, Delay, and some wildcard. The drive levels in that setup are awkward in that you have to shut one off and turn another on -- snapshots would be perfect for that, pointing me towards one of the half snaps and half stomps modes. Two problems: - As I understand it, there's no 10 Switches mode with snapshots. Am I right about that? Max 4 snaps and 4 stomps available? Seems like an unfortunate omission. - To do what I currently do in 10 Switches mode, the bottom row should really be 4 snapshots plus a Boost switch, which does parameter changes only. Is there any way for a snapshot to NOT store which blocks are enabled and disabled, so it affects only parameters? Alternatively, it'd be cool if there was another global footswitch mode where you could freely mix snapshot and "normal" footswitches. You'd choose which action you wanted independently for each button, rather than the fixed layouts we have today. I get that the UI for that might be tricky, needs some thought Blue-sky imaginings aside, am I missing something about how snapshots currently work, or how to use them? Any other thoughts?

Yes, the standalone firmware is one of the files you can download, first one actually, if I remember right. If you do that, there's an Offline option in the updater that lets you not sign in. Whether you do Offline or not, the top option in the updater lets you pick a local file to upgrade from, instead of having the updater do the download itself.

One idea I've used sometimes is a More switch, doesn't turn anything on or off, just jacks up a lot of the other blocks somehow. It's "more footswitches" in the sense that each of your other footswitches now does two things, kinda. For instance, a crunch-level OD could get more drive, chorus gets fast speed, etc. Main limitations are the of course there are combinations you can't do -- everything is either More'd or not, all at once -- and you can only 8 parameters to a switch (a limitation L6 has said is for our sanity only, and which I hope will be removed some day). Other than that, no, I'm not aware of any way for a single patch to have more than 10 footswitches available.

An Action to separate a combined Amp+Cab into separate Amp and Cab blocks with the same settings would be very helpful, not just for people who didn't want the cab at all, but also to be able to choose them separately.

Don't know what's in HO's link, I solved this on my own hours before I saw his reply, or had a chance to post here about the solution. But still +1 for all available resources, and HO's presence and help in general.

Hah, got it done. I tried a different USB port, failed again, but retrying worked. Cool. The original port I was using is the one I usually use for Helix, and it does work in general. But come to think of it, I've also had an apparently unusual problem trying to load a bunch of IRs at once, so maybe it mostly works, but is some sort of lame. Unfortunately, I ate up most of my music time on this bs, so I only got to actually explore the new stuff a little, but there's always another day.

So far i'm completely dead in the water. The 2.0 update went as below for me. FYI, I'm on Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, direct USB 1 connection, no hub (older i7 laptop, but at least not USB 3).. - Downloaded 2.0 installer, and the Helix image file as recommended by some, seems more robust than having the updater do it - Compared checksums of both downloads to make sure they weren't corrupted, both matched - Ran the installer - Ran the new updater in offline mode, using the image I had downloaded previously - Helix said update failed, reboot and try again - Restarted Helix, completely blank screen - Restarted it again, info screen was the mix of Helix and Helix rack reported by some others (it's the floor version, and yes that's the image I downloaded, says so right in the file name) - Tried updating again with the same local file, same result - Rebooted Helix, tried updating again, this time in online mode - Said the update completed successfully, and Helix would reboot automatically, but it didn't, sat there with a blank screen - Rebooted it manually, blank screen - Rebooted it again, back to mixed floor and rack info screen - Ran updater again in online mode - Said the update completed successfully, and Helix would reboot automatically, but again it didn't, sat there with a blank screen - Rebooted it manually, back to mixed floor and rack info screen - Rebooted again holding down switches 9 and 10, just showed mixed floor and rack info screen, didn't reset or rebuild anything I could see - Rebooted again holding down 5 and 6, same result, no reset - Rebooted again holding down 6 and 12 (safe mode), blank screen - Ran the updater again from there, same result, said it completed and Helix would reboot, but it didn't, just sat there with a blacnk screen - Ran the updater again, and installed 1.10 firmare, as the OP report L6 support tried to do - Update failed, blankd screen, updater said to power cycle Helix, click Continue, and try again - Rebooted Helix, mixed rack and floor logos again - Clicked Continue, tried 1.10 update again from there, same result, said it failed - Tried the 1.12 update, same version I was originally on, same error - Uninstalled both editor and updater, rebooted PC, reinstalled Helix, which installs updater - Ran the updater, said it succeeded and that Helix would restart it didn't, stopped in an odd state, with a tiny icon that might be a Helix next to an oval with a thingy in it that might be a speaker, or something? - Left it there for a long time, no change, so I rebooted in manually, same mixed Helix and rack logos, only this time with a stripe of pixelated garbage added from just above the center of the logo to the right edge of the screen. - Rebooted again, mixed logos, entire lower half of the screen behind the logos filled with garbage. Rebooted again, garbage gone but still mixed logos. - Tried installin 1.10 again, said it failed, should retry - Tried 2.0 local file again, said it succeeded, but Helix didn't reboot, blank screen - Rebooted it manually, mixed logos still - Even though it's a weekend, tried calling Line 6 for support pressed 2 for customer service as requested by the phone system, it said "I'm sorry, I don't understand your response", which I assume/hope was because that dept is closed. Now what? Really quite annoyed, and really don't want to to have to send it back to Line 6. Arg.

Yeah, you're right about no phantom in the speakers of course, I should have been clearer. I was thinking about the possible case where Helix and speakers end up on separate AC circuits, or for some other reason have a grounding issue that an iso box might help with. Wondered if that was something people had run into much, and if an iso box helped. In the end, I did decide to get 2, among other reasons because if you don't have a spare Thing, your Thing will break. Not t h a t much money.