Verne-Bunsen

Hello all, Curious if any of you have encountered this behaviour. Helix hardware supports a 26 character file name, but HX edit only supports 23 characters (apologies if those numbers are off, I'm not at my Helix presently and am going by memory...). So a 26 character filename on the Helix will only display 23 characters in HX Edit, but the rest of it is still present on the hardware. UNLESS you "click" on that IR in HX Edit. As soon as you do that, the last characters from the filename are immediately and irreversibly removed from the Helix hardware. They cannot be added back since HX Edit won't allow the extra characters and there is no avenue for editing the names on the hardware. The IR must be deleted and re-loaded in order to get the full filename back. Everything about this seems odd. Why should the editor have a different filename length limit, and why should it impose it on hardware that has a higher limit? Has anyone else encountered this? Thanks, VB

I have the guitar straight into the Trio+ input, then the Trio+ FX Send to the Helix input. The last block in the Helix audio path is an FX Loop with the Send going back to the to the Trio+ FX Return. The output of the TRIO+ then comes back to the Helix FX Loop Return which in turn goes straight to output. In this way, the Trio+ gets straight guitar signal to work with, Loops on the Trio+ will be the Helix output, and the audio from the Trio+ goes straight to the output without further processing. To maintain this path AND get it out from in front of Helix would require 2 FX Loops, which I'd like to avoid (all my other loops are filled). I have never tried it as you describe, but if it works well for you it may be a good option for me. I think I'll try that. Just keeping the FX Loop at the end of the Helix path, Send to Trio+ input, Trio+ output to Helix Return.... If I do that and then re-arrange my other pedals a bit to allow for the Freq-Out to be in an FX Loop then I can go straight in to Helix with the guitar again. Good stuff, I'm excited to toy around with it...

Is it working properly at the rehearsal space again or has the problem persisted?

Very true, and that caught my attention in the James Santiago video as well. I have run the Arbiter first in Helix and manipulated the input impedance, but yet the sound I get is much like his with the Tube Screamer in front of the Fuzz Face. I have a couple of devices (Digitech Trio+ and FreqOut) in front of Helix and I wonder if that isn't playing havoc with the Fuzz Face? I had thought the adjustable input impedance would be able to rectify that, but perhaps it doesn't work that way if it's "wrong" coming in to the unit? Will be an interesting thing to try.

If I were attempting such alchemy, I'd take a good look at 3 Sigma's Electric Guitar Impulses. Seems like they've taken that particular pursuit to about as high a level as it can go.... https://www.3sigmaaudio.com/electric-impulses/

I like the Plexi Bright in Helix a lot, but I have had no luck getting good fuzz tones with it, whether with Helix fuzz or with actual fuzz pedals in a loop. I have had much better luck with the JTM45, which seems more agreeable with fuzz tones. I mostly use an Earthquaker Erupter as opposed to the Helix’s Fuzz Face, but this video really knocked my socks off. Makes me want to spend some more time with it....

Many thanks to those who replied to my comments regarding splits/merges. It's "on my list" to do some recording and troubleshooting and approach Line 6 with something more concrete, I will be sure to post when that happens.

Despite the convenience and versatility, I have stopped using splits before amps because they mess up my tones in ways I haven’t figured out how to compensate for. With what I read in your post I’d suspect that may be part of your issue. I contacted Line 6 regarding Helix’s handling of pan law (what happens to the signal when it is split) and they reported that a hard A/B pan should not have any impact, but that has not been my experience. Using an A/B split to switch between two amps makes both of them sound different than if the split were not there. Even if a split is merged before an amp, it still sounds different. I know lots of peole are using parallel paths with great success, but I can’t get on with it. For what it’s worth, splits after the amp (such as for two cabs or parallel reverbs/delays) seems to be fine for me. It’s something about interaction with the front of the amp... Hope that is of some help!

Listened to it tonight while wrapping up a new Warmoth Tele project, excellent listening in the shop! Subscribed on Sound Cloud, looking forward to more!

That looks pretty slick! If you put it together I’d love to hear about it. I have a PedalTrain Terra for Helix with pedals, and as you say it is a frickin beast...

You can definitely get sounds that nail the e-bow/Sustainiac sound with the FreqOut, but what you can't do is actually excite the strings the way those devices do. Your note will still decay and ultimately cut out.

Solid Seinfeld reference there. I have a Malekko Spring Chicken on my board, supplementing for Helix’s lackluster spring reverb, would certainly be nice to free up that FX loop...

Indeed: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Best Wishes to all y'all!

Apologies for adding to the derailing of this thread (pun intented, but unavoidable really...) but I can really relate to what you are saying about “too many toysâ€. I’ve been in a near constant state of option-overload with Helix. Good problem to have but there it is. I never really had multiple tube amps at any given time, so when I was playing tube amps I knew exactly how to wrangle every sound it was capable of out of the thing. I’ve been trying to take more of that approach with Helix of late, and I’m working with just a couple of favorites to really get the most out of them. It’s almost a relief, haha! Thanks for the post and thanks for the recommendation, I haven’t even touched the Derailed Ingred yet...

That is not the case on my unit, plenty of volume on tap with the tube screamer. What is the rest of your patch and rig like? Any chance that the footswitch that's toggling your Screamer on/off is also doing something else?

This thread, which seems to know what it's about, lists it as a 1971: http://line6.com/support/topic/19961-helix-amp-model-gallery-real-controls-vs-invented/ Beautiful guitar and amp you have there!

I think they are very serviceable. I don't get on with all of them, and of the ones that I do like they don't all work in every scenario, but that is most certainly true of "real" dirt pedals as well. I get a lot of use from the Minotaur, the Timmy and the KWB. I also like the octave fuzz.

Man, I wish I could get to where you are! You mention a Mesa 4x12, so to run with that example I have 8 IRs loaded that are all Mesa 4x12s. They have names like "110 412 C MES-ST V70 OH1F" which tells me the IR slot number (for file management purposes), that the cab is a 4x12 closed back cab, specifically it is a Mesa Standard Slant cab, it is loaded with 70w Vintage 30s, and is Ownhammers OH1F mic mix. The other 7 are different cabs, different speakers, different mic mixes, and I use different ones for different sounds with different guitars. Add to that the fact that there are also Marshall, Bogner and Orange 4x12s loaded, and that in addition to that there is a similar variety of 10/12s, 1x12s, 2x12s and 4x10s, and yes, all of those pieces of information are necessary to find the one I'm looking for. "Mesa412" won't cut it. When auditioning a new IR library, loading them directly inevitably results in the end of the original filename being truncated, and in a batch of similar IRs it is the end part that is unique. So if I want to know which ones I like when auditioning them, I have to change the names before loading them. Which gets cumbersome when you're checking out a lot of stuff. In short, if you're only using a small handful of IRs, the current filename length restriction is a non-issue. If you like an assortment, it's a major stumbling block. It may be a limitation of the filing system as you point out, I can't know.

I found this one, it's a bit old but relevant. https://line6.ideascale.com/a/idea-v2/820789

I know just what you’re talking about, I’ve encountered it with Tele pickguards. Interestingly, I’ve also encountered it on at least one Les Paul with a bound neck where moving up and down the neck sometimes resulted in a noticeable static noise. With the Teles I’ve had good luck with anti-static sheets (dryer sheets), but I never have figured out the neck binding static. It seems to come and go though. I keep my guitars in a humidity controlled cabinet, but it could still be a function of a dry environment (I’m in southern Arizona, USA) or other environmental factor. Like you I have encountered these issues with standard amps as well as with Helix, so I’m inclined to say that it isn’t a Helix issue. Wish I could do better than just commiserating with you, hope you get it sorted!

Is the noise present only when you are playing, or does it occur in the background even when you are not playing? Is it present in all amp models? Is it more prevalent in clean or dirty amps? If possible, a recording of the noise would be helpful.

Hear hear! Finding creative ways to abbreviate the relevant information without getting to a point where it is no longer decipherable is a challenge in and of itself. It’s bad enough when you are doing it for your favorites, but more frustrating still when you have to rename a pile that you just want to audition so you can actually tell what you’ve got loaded...

I agree regarding the splice function. I turned it up to check it out, heard the bizarre artifacts, scrunched my face up as though to say "...wha...?", and turned it promptly back to zero. Not for me. Which is fine. I've been running it before clean amps and after dirty ones, results have been most enjoyable.

I just updated tonight and must say that the Cosmos Echo is my favorite thing so far. Just replaced all of my delays with it. It's killer. Great work across the board on this update, and a big high 5 for the Cosmos Echo!

This may or may not be of interest to you, but here is a thread where I describe a workaround allowing the use of the toe switch on an external expression pedal by using both Helix EXP jacks: http://line6.com/support/topic/26725-toe-switching-with-an-external-exp-pedal/ I've gone back to using the onboard expression pedal and toe switch for wah and two externals for other stuff, but I really liked this approach when I was using it.