zooey

Yes! Icy metal stairs on the outside of a club! With that ever-so-lovely eau-de-dumpster-liquid scent wafting by! Good times!

Thanks for the welcome and the steers Colonel :) Couldn't duck work, under a lot of pressure there. I have a while to decide if it's for me... I'm aware of Glen's stuff, and I'm sure it's great, but for now I'm a do-it-yourselfer, as usual for me. My back's not really great or really screwed so far (crosses fingers, toes, other handy appendages, knocks head and other wooden objects). For now the plan when I'm in the "studio" is to put it on a waist-high rolling cart thing full of Stuff that's down there, and not footswitch it, at least mostly, at least while I'm fiddling with patches. But since I never really stop doing that... Not totally clear on the living room plan yet. I actually play there a lot these days, sitting on the couch, with my laptop on a kind of coffee-table in front of me. Problem #1 is that I don't think Helix and laptop will fit there, certainly not with the other crap I should get rid of that's there now, maybe without it, maybe. Problem #2 is that I'd like to be further away from my computer; even humbuckers pick up some interference hash from it, and I'd like to know what's inherent in my guitar and Helix vs a close-by laptop that won't be there really. (And yes I aware of the danger of building patches in headphones, can't be helped for now, we'll see how it goes. I never took my Amplitube patches out of the house, so I never had to fully come to grips with that.) Re speakers for when I do eventually get out, I picked up a pair of Alesis Alpha 112s on ebay a while ago, pretty decent I think, and what I "could afford". (How those words can come out of my mouth at all, on this of all days, mystifies me completely...) I don't have a lot of experience with them, but they're pretty well respected, especially for the money, and pretty high power, so again we'll see how that goes. If I really can't figure out how to live in both phones and speakers, I guess I'd have to give up messing about on the couch, but that'd be a shame. Hoping to get some strategy together that's close enough to that it can be adjusted reasonably easily for a given room, which I'd probably want to do anyway. What do you use? Are you using Helix professionally? (I gigged as a musician and sound guy for many years, haven't for a long time though.)

@datacommando, thanks for the IR tips and the videos link, will check them out when I can.

Not that anyone cares but me, but Helix has landed! Can't actually do anything with it until I get home from work, but it's here. Woohoo, down the rabbit hole!

Thanks again. When I get a chance I'll try to write up this collection of info, for Helix Help and/or The Support FAQ. Won't be right away though, slammed IRL.

Thanks SH, appreciate it :) Guess it's my programmer background that wants to make sure I know how to get back to the priro state when you do some sort of global reset-like thing. - Does backing up or restoring all presets back up setlists too, or are those separate operations? - Does backing up or restoring "the entire 'bundle' of presets" back up both user and factory stuff, or just user data? Can you save and restore only user data, or does it always include factory too? - Can you back up your user IRs, or just keep track of them yourself and reload? Can you do multiple IRs at once, or only one at a time? Thanks again.

Hmmm, guess I'm thick then, not the first time. - The 'How to update the Helix's firmware' topic doesn't mention backing up or restoring your data at all. Neither does 'HELIX Support FAQ', 'Helix Reset Procedures and Troubleshooting Tricks', or the tutorial videos. - The 'Impulse Response (IRs)' topic doesn't mention backing them up or restoring them per se, just loading them. That may be all there is to know, but I'd like to know for certain if you can a ) save what's currently in your Helix, and/or b ) save or load all of them at once. - Didn't see any other topics that looked relevant. - Searched that category for 'backup' (no hits) and 'back up' ('Reset' and 'Looper' topics only), no luck. Help?

One specific set of things I'm concerned about, which I'm not sure is well documented in the manual, is the process of backing up your data before updating the firmware, and restoring it after. Obviously that doesn't matter when it first arrives, since there's nothing in there but factory stuff, but right after that I won't want to lose my settings. I *think* I've heard that... - Presets and global settings need to be backed up and restored separately. - IRs can't exactly be backed up, in the sense that you can save a package that restores them to the exact state they were in in one step. You have to back them up and/or import them one at a time, taking care to put them in the same locations they came from. Not sure if you can actually back them up, or if you just need to keep track of what you last loaded into Helix on your own, and do it again after updating. Not really clear on any of this. Other questions: - Is there anything else that needs separate backup and restore besides presets, global settings, and IRs? - Do all these types of info always get erased by firmware updates? - Can all types of backup and restore be done from both Helix itself and the Helix software? - Do you back up to a computer connected to Helix, to USB drive attached Helix itself, or are both possible? If someone could please either point me to complete and accurate step-by-step info on all this, or explain it here, I'd appreciate it. I checked the Helix Help site, didn't see it there, which would probably be a good addition. Didn't try to dig through the (huge!) FAQ thread, only have 30 days to decide if I'm keeping it ;) Thanks.

Thanks folks. Onward it is then, more or less, with the Cheat Sheet and this page in hand maybe :) Re Amplitube, for now I'm going with the theory that I'm using Helix instead, making making some IRs from it down the road. I really do like it though, hope Helix can feel as good. We'll see!

FWIW, part of what attracted me to the Helix was that I didn't want to need a computer, and the UI on it is generally considered quite functional. Outside of having a keyboard for typing names, what does the editor do so much better than Helix itself?

Helix is coming tomorrow. I'd hoped to read the manual before it arrived, but didn't get a chance. Everyone says it's easy to understand, but I'm wondering if there's some quick intro that would get me up to speed more quickly in my limited time. Is there some core resource I should inhale? Do I need to worry about that at all, or should I Just Do It?

I tried bypassing the buffer, and it was a little less bright, but not wildly so. My conclusion is that the big difference is between my two guitars, which is a complete non-surprise. It was different enough that I'd built a new set of Amplitube presets for it, but I thought I'd feel at home going back to my main guitar and its "old" presets. However, it appears my perspective has changed from a month of the other one. That happens over time, for various reasons, just have to roll with it. All of this is kind of irrelevant anyway, since I'm off into Helix-land tomorrow if all goes well. Worth keeping this experience in mind as I go. If anyone cares... - The buffer is after the volume control, to isolate it from the cable - I ended up using the old Tone-Q filter, and I like it a lot

Pic is there now. Nice rig :) Big though...

Understood, that's why I want a buffer, to isolate the guitar from the changing outside environment. What I don't get is why the buffer seems to matter so much with such a short cable. There may be something else going on, but I don't know what.

Yes, the low output impedance of a buffer is the point of having one, for exactly that reason.

Yes, still gone. Maybe try a different image hosting service?

Thanks guys. I'm aware of those ballpark cable capacitance numbers. However, my most common setup recently (Helix arrives tomorrow, in theory!) is a quite short (~1 meter) cable into the instrument input of a Focusrite 2i2, which you wouldn't think was enough cable to make much difference between buffered and not, but that's not what I hear. I haven't tried bypassing the buffer yet (it's currently hard wired in), but comparing my buffered main guitar with my completely passive one, the high end difference is striking, and I'm a lot happier with that aspect of the non-buffered one. Doesn't make sense to me. (Both guitars have 3 humbuckers, FWIW. Secondary one is an G&L Ascari GTS HB3, main one is a bastard child built from various parts with a mix of Duncan and Dimarzio pickups and custom wiring.) Michael, am I right that the "c-switch" you're talking about is a multi-position switch to change the cap used for the tone control? Did you put that together yourself? The only references I found were in German, relating to Helmuth Lemme's work, not commercial products. In any case, as I know you understood, I'm talking about a fixed cap for overall tone shaping, not the tone control, which is a whole other thing. I've used various incarnations of the Lawrence Tone-Q for years, but a) TBH, I never used the tone control that much in reality, and b) at least in part that was because the control taper really sucked, and c) the new wiring for my guitar (reason it was in the shop) uses the current Lawrence equivalent, and unless it's mis-wired, which I should check, I don't like it, will try an old one I have around, see if I like that better. Bottom line I guess is that I should just experiment w different size caps and see what I like. I was asking about others' experiences in part to get a ballpark on what size caps to try. I'll also try bypassing the buffer.

My main guitar has an active buffer in it (Stratoblaster clone), to keep the tone consistent as you turn down the guitar volume. It's been in the shop for a while, just got it back, and in the mean time I've been playing another guitar with no buffer. Apparently I've gotten used to that sound, since it sounds to me like my main one has too much in the way-highs. What I'd like to do is keep the buffer for that tone consistency, but add a fixed cap to roll off some of that very top end. Has anyone done that? Any idea what size capacitor would be appropriate? Thanks.

Pic is "gone".

I've looked at this too, GREAT controller, really pretty much the best. Turns use (not setup) of pretty much any rack gear into a Helix-like experience, with more footswitches. Pretty gosh darn expensive though, and you still need whatever you want to use to actually process audio. Seems like it'd be a little redundant or unnecessary with a Helix, but not entirely.

+1,000,000 for undo/redo. Speaking of which, I really wish Helix and Amplitube and similar hard- and software would implement... a) Back and Forward buttons/shortcuts, just take me back to the last preset I was on, or forward from there b) Compare, to toggle back and forth between the current preset as edited and the saved version Those two features are super simple, and would make working in these environments a lot more fluid.

Helix really needs the ability to export and import all that global stuff, for exactly this reason, and as backup in case your unit dies and gets replaced. Not to mention some future universe where you travel with no physical rig at all, put a Helix in your rider, and show up w a USB stick containing all your stuff, which you can load directly into it without a computer (:-)

Hope you're right spikey, I'm ready! (I hate Revalver 3 for the same reasons I hate actual Peaveys, haven't heard 4, and IMO Guitar Rig blows for organic guitar tones. Winners for me are Amplitube and Scuffham, by miles. Haven't tried Kazrog or Bias.)

+1,000,000.

I'm hoping you're right, and optimistic, or I wouldn't have bought it. AT4 is considerably better than AT3, new cab room, Marshal models, etc.. If you're still using, it's worth the upgrade IMO, though I did get it at the intro price. Do you have the AT Mesas? Really great IMO. But I've gotten happy with a number of other amps too.