DBCrocky

I am using The Sherrif tube preamp pedal on a Helix Fx loop. It has a stereo plug for external control. The tip is bypass, open is no bypass, closed is bypass. The ring is channel, open is clean, closed is dirty. In order to set the pedal to clean/no bypass, I need both tip and ring to be open.

So the external Amp switching gives you the options of Tip Ring Tip and Ring But what if I need neither the tip nor the ring on?

I completely understand your dilema, I really wish Line6 would put the bank up and bank down on the top row. Anyways, since you don't need those buttons at all, I suggest making a little cover for them out of some scrapwood, spray paint it black, and velcro it down over the bank up and bank down buttons. Low tech but it works!

Wah pedals are great for getting controlled feedback. A wah is basically a volume boost in a narrow frequency band. The frequency is controlled by the pedal. So you can use the wah pedal to tune in on the frequency your guitar note(s) will feedback at, and get a nice controlled feedback.

If you are on a PC (as opposed to Mac) you should check out the Midi-OX software http://www.midiox.com/index.htm

Exactly - but I wouldn't want to move the Tap switch from the bottom row, you might often need that mid-song. I solved the issue by velcroing a strip of would between the Bank buttons and the first snapshot buttons. Not sure why Line6 tolerates people harassing folks for discussing Helix features they like and don't like. Maybe they think they get brownie points for quelching all opinions that Helix is not absolutely perfect. What an unfriendly forum!

I am not sure what my registered product is, lol. Back in the 90's, I hated Line6 because I thought the Kidney Pod sounded awful. Then I bought an MM4 because it was a good deal - you got like sixteen effects for $250, and you could have four of them available at a time. What I didn't expect is that I would absolutely fall in love with the sound of these effect models. They where/are full and lush and sweet, you can practically swim in them. I bought the DL4 on the strength of the MM4, then the FL4?, then I bought the rack equivalents of these pedals. To this day, I prefer Line6 effects over any thing else, including Roland/Boss, Digitech, TC Electronic, or even individual classic or boutique pedals. More recently I bought a JTV-59 Variax and a Firehawk FX pedal to get control of it. Love the JTV-59, and have since also acquired a Variax standard Strat. Hate the Firehawk FX, this product was a rip-off and Line6 has no business continuing to sell it. All of your bottom row switches are patch switches with the unavoidable dropout, and you have the choice of two completely lollipop user interfaces to try and program the thing. It sit's in my back room, I'd sell it but I'd feel bad about doing that to someone. So when the LT came out, I got one. I love the Helix's effects of course, I also love it's user interface and ease of programmability, it's effects loops with easily controllable in and out levels, it's midi implementation, the programmable switch colors and it's indispensable Variax control. Don't like the Bank Up/Down buttons as you now know, as someone pointed out, it's a rare minus out of many pluses. I ain't rushing out to by a Boss multieffects unit, but it pains me to see them get this one thing right that really irritates me on the Helix. The other thing I don't like about the LT is that it is a pedal board. See, I know this will distress many of you fanboys, but I am still not fond of Line6's amp/cab models on their own. I really want to, I have a small-ish practice room and I have everything going through the PA. One guitar rig is simply a Two-Tones LeClean with a Hall of Fame Reverb and a tuner, and it sounds spectacular. Just like it was a Fender Amp in the room, everyone that hears it comments on how great it sounds. I tried the LT straight into the PA, and found it fizzy, gritty, and flat. So I put my Soldano GTO Supercharger pedal in the FX Loop, and used it as a preamp into a cab simulator, and wow, night and day. Guitar player friends who would never think of using a modeller can't believe how good it sounds without an amp. However, I started playing with some folks in their practice space, and the other guitar player can't deal with me coming out of his monitors, and his board is crap. I saw someone that said he had success with modellers by taking them into an effect return of a tube amp, effectively just using the tube power amp and speaker. So I tried this into my Boogie MkIV, using the Helix's preamp models, and it's pretty good, definitely usable. So the undeniable conclusion is that I am still, in 2019, a tube guy. So with my heavy Boogie residing in another place, today I am building my dream guitar rig. I purchased the Helix Rack and Floor Control. I will run no amp or cab sims on the Helix, I will run tube preamps on the Helix FX Loops and take it out into an Egnator Tweaker running 2 6L6's into a 12" Celestion Creamback. The Rack will let me keep all the connections neat and permanent, and I won't have to run a bunch of cables to my preamps and amp from a floorboard. Wish me luck! So yeah, I guess I should figure out what my ONE registered product is and get to registering the other ones, LOL!

LOL. The first row is much easier to use in mid song, because you can rest your heal in front of the button and then just step down to hit it. On the top row, you have to stab at it while standing on one foot. The front row is the prime real estate on the board, and one of it's buttons is wasted on a button that you are only going to need in between songs. Also, you end up hitting snapshot 1 alot, and it's easy to accidently hit the Bank Down button, and then you are in a world of hurt, trying to recover while playing (and maybe singing :o). I velcro a strip of wood between the bank up/dn buttons and the next buttons to prevent this. I mean, wouldn't you rather have bank up/down on the top row, and five snapshots available on the bottom row? I know I would. Wow. Do you have a shrine to the developers in your bedroom?

You see it on their FC300 midi controller on the Boss GT100, and now on the Boss GT1000. Bank Up and Bank Down belong on the top row of footswitches! The reasons why are obvious. Will Line6 ever figure this out?

I own both a JTV-59 and a Variax Standard. Line6 missed the mark not putting a Variax input on the HXFX. The minimum to get that kind of control is still the Helix LT at $1k. There should be a inexpensive device for controlling the Variax, even a dedicated rack mount one controllable via MIDI would work. And BTW - don't tell me you can get a Firehawk - I have one and it is a worthless piece of crap I wish I never spent my money on. It has no decent programming interface, the Bluetooth sux and so do the buttons/one line display. Line6 should give me my money back for creating such a crap product.

Can I use the Variax volume as a master volume that stays the same across patches yet?

No Variax input = Too Bad Still have to buy a minumum of Helix LT to get Variax control. Oh Well

The MIDI command has NOTHING to do with the Effects Loop Block. In the above pic, you are attempting to setup the switch that controls the Effects Loop to also send the MIDI command. This is not what you want. 1) you need to hook a MIDI cable from the Helix's MIDI OUT to the H9's MIDI In. 2) You need to make sure the H9 is configured properly to receive Program Change (PC) messages. You will need to refer to the H9 documentation for how to do this. Part of this will involve telling the H9 what MIDI channel it will receive the PC messages on. Best practice ,if you aren't sure, is to pick a different channel than the Helix Base Channel, which is typically factory set to Channel 1. 3) You will need to setup the Helix to send a PC Message on the Channel that the H9 is configured to receive on. That is done in Command Center, in an Instant command slot (the ones with the lightning bolts). You will need to set the same channel you setup for the H9, and the program number you want to set the H9 to. Be aware of switching snapshots while in Command Center, the commands can be different for different snapshots within a preset on Helix. Make sure you are setting the command in the same snapshot that is the default snapshot for that preset. Change to the preset. Go into Command Center. Pick one of the Instant Access (Lightning Bolt Slots). Pick the Command for Sending a Bank/Prog change message. Set the Channel to the one that the H9 receives on. Turn the Bank 0 and Bank 32 paramters to "off". Put in the Preset Number you want to set the H9 to. Save your preset.

Put the 11rack on a Helix effects loop.

I wouldn't think loading a corrupt backup would brick a device such that a hardware factory reset (Holding switches 9 and 10 while powering up the device) couldn't fix. You should ask Line6 for those specs. Let them know you'd be willing to sign on non-disclosure if that is what it takes. Then report back here. It would be interesting to know how forward thinking of a company Line6 really is.

Anyways, enough users complaining clearly indicates there is a problem with the Helix tuner. I don't understand why some folks feel the need to be Line6 defenders on every issue. This isn't religion. Line6 doesn't need people to stomp out negative opinions of product features on their forum.

This video sez otherwise:

Soldano GTO

So the there are two CC type of commands. The first is the CC Momentary command, you press the footswitch and it sends the Midi CC message. The second is the CC Toggle type command. You put in two CC values. The first time you hit the switch, it sends the first Midi CC message, the second time you hit the switch, it sends the second Midi CC message. I am having a hard time understanding exactly what you are asking for. I am sorry, but watching a 20 minute video on the Boss RC 505 is not in my future. I did look that the rc505 manual and I see that you can assign CC#1 to #31 and CC#64 to #95 to various functions within the unit. What exactly are you trying to do. Or - what MIDI messages are you trying to send on what action?

That's not fair, I gave two examples, and the Spider V was not one of them. And no it would not mean less specific detail in the modelling. The Helix has two DSP's, so one way to achieve gapless preset changes is by only allowing one per preset. When you select a new preset, it is loaded into the unused DSP, and when loaded, you switch to it. And so on. Your reduction in flexibility is that you lose the bottom half/second DSP of your preset. You would have to program your preset only on the top part of the preset user interface now available. There would be change in the blocks available or the quality of those blocks.

Most certainly, given similar hardware, having gapless presets would come at the tradeoff of less power/flexibility within a preset.

It's all a matter of taste. Personally, I don't like to hear reverb, but without it the sound is just too dry. So I usually select the Plate Reverb, shorten the decay and then dial in just enough that the sound isn't dry, but you don't really hear it unless you REALLY listen for it.

You would use the Command Center and the Instant Access slots (they look like lightning bolts). You select one of these, then select a snapshot using it's footswitch. Then use the knobs below the display to modify the MIDI command you will send for that snapshot. Then repeat for other snapshots. Then make the snapshot you want as the default for the preset active, and save the preset. Now when you select the preset, it should select that snapshot, and send the MIDI command for that snapshot. What may be happening for you is that you don't actually have a MIDI command set for Snapshot 2. It's a quirk that when you are in Command Center on an Instant Access slot, and you select a Snapshot for which there is not MIDI command set, it will just keep the last command in the display, even though it is not really there. To put it there, change one of the values using a knob, then change it back and save the preset. You can see the above as follows: I started with a new preset, went to Command Center and selected and Instant Access slot. Then I selected Snapshot 1 and put in CC#1 Value#1. Then I selected Snapshot 3 and put in CC#1 Value #6. Now if I select Snapshot #1 I see CC#1 Value#1, and if I select Snapshot #2 I continue to see CC#1 Value#1. Then if I select Snapshot 3 I see CC#1 Value#6. From there if I select Snapshot #2, I continue to see CC#1 Value#6. There is no MIDI command set in Snapshot #2, but it looks like there is!

I have only worked with the latest Helix firmware, so keep that in mind, but this is definitely possible. Go to the Command Center, and select one of the Instant Access slots (the ones with the little lightning bolt icons). Select a snapshot (use the footswitch for that snapshot). Now put in the MIDI command you want that snapshot to send using the knobs below the screen. Then select another snapshot (using it's switch), and put in the MIDI command for that snapshot. Continue for the rest of the snapshots you want to use. As you switch between snapshots, you should see the various commands you have put in for each on the bottom line of the display. Now SAVE the preset! That should do it for you!

This just isn't true. There are ways to achieve gap-less preset switching and some units out there have achieved that. The Boss GT-PRO, which is about 10 years old had them and I hear the new Headrush pedal has them along with delay spillover between presets. At least you didn't get one of the Line6 Firehawk FX pedals, that waste of money had gap-full presets with no way to get over them, along with the added fun the choice between a terrible Bluetooth programming interface or a terrible button and one line display programming interface. You can, of course, with some more in depth programming, change parameters on an amp block like drive, tone, volume with snapshots and controllers to coax several different sounds out of an amp block. If, like me, you have a few MIDI controller preamps and a nice real live power amp and cabs, you can get several different sounds within a preset by changing preamp sounds with MIDI commands or by changing preamps. These are, however, work-arounds, and I play the game because I want extra features that the Variax/Helix combination gives me. But if you want to create a set of five to twenty carefully built presets, and build songs/banks that allow you to switch between those presets without gaps, the Helix might not be the product for you.