cmichael1

Success! Thanks for the help folks! I had never tried Stomp mode before - strictly used snapshots. Funny the FW allows assigning a function to Bank yet doesn't display on the scribble strip. The manual and tutorial videos say to "touch but not press" the buttons to assign. Pulled my hair out for hours trying to get that to work. Turns out it uses capacitive touch sensing which doesn't work with my footswitch toppers. Even if Global Stomp Select is changed from Touch to Press. To me it seems easier to use HX Edit. Unfortunately it's proving awkward switching between Preset/Snapshot mode and Stomp/Bypass mode in real-time. All my presets use snapshots. Anyone know if it's possible to assign specific looper functions like record, stop, play to buttons in snapshot mode for instant access?

Update: I gave up trying to assign a block to a footswitch the way the manual suggests. But I think I found a way to do it in HX Edit. I right-click on the Looper block and choose Bypass Assign, then choose a Footswitch (say, 1). Unfortunately it still doesn't work. It says it's assigned but all of the scribble strips on the Helix are still blank.

Hi, yes I know I need to somehow assign the looper block to a footswitch. The Bypass Assign section of the manual mentions this but it's useless as far as figuring out the procedure. I've wasted many hours unsuccessfully trying to do this. Assuming I could assign the Looper to a footswitch, how would it be used? Can it be added to the other snapshots of my presets?

Yes, I definitely added a looper block to my chain. That was easy. I'm not using an external MIDI controller for my looping functions so I'm not sure how to make use of the control change codes. As far as, "press the assigned switch then the display will change...". I don't know what that means. What desired switch? The looper logo appears in the signal chain. But I can't figure out how to assign it to an unused snapshot or bring up the display with the six looper functions.

Hi Folks, I need some help getting looping to work. I've spent a number of hours watching every related YouTube video I could find. Plus reading the manual, experimenting with buttons, menus and functions in HX-Edit but I'm still unable to get it to work. I'm using FW v3.8. Perhaps the UI has changed with 3.8 and the videos, posts, etc are no long applicable? I do find the YouTube videos seem inconsistent in what they recommend, what their scribble strips display, etc. It's quite frustrating. My goal is to get the 6-switch looper working and figure out how to assign it's functions to various Helix footswitches. I'll assign it to an unused Snapshot to activate the looper UI on the unit. My application is to loop clean guitar inputs so I can put the guitar down and use HX-Edit to create and tweak presets without having to spend all day setting down my guitar, tweaking, picking it up, testing, setting it down again, etc. One video says to activate the looper you hit the fourth button in the top row, which has a blank scribble strip. Why would a random blank button be used to activate the looper? Makes no sense to me. Another video recommends hitting the Mode button. My UI doesn't even have a mode button so that's a dead end. Once, briefly, I did get the UI to display "6 switch looper". I don't know how I did that but it failed to bring up the looper controls. Instead I recall it displayed various useless commands like Page, Value, Back, etc. That's not what I want. I've never since been able to get it to display that "6 switch looper" option so I guess the point is moot. Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hey guys, just got a Helix Floor. I notice the expression pedal is so stiff it's kinda useless. I must stand up and apply about 1/3 of my body weight to budge it. At NAMM last week a Yamaha/Line 6 PM guy pointed me to a hole on the side for adjusting the clutch resistance. He said the unit should have come with a hex wrench. Mine came with a USB cable, doc packet, cheat sheets and AC cable. I don't remember seeing a hex wrench. Anybody know what I'm looking for? Is the wrench in a box, a bag, etc or just loose in the shipping box? I guess I could order one on Amazon. Anybody know what size it is?

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated. I had the Preset Mode Switches set to Preset/Snap. From that mode the only to restore the "normal" Preset mode is as Lawrence said, by changing the Preset Mode Switches to "8 Presets". In that mode, hitting both Bank buttons puts it into 8 Snapshot mode. To exit back to Preset mode you can either hit Cancel or high both Bank buttons again. But there's apparently no footswitch method (besides Global Settings) to toggle between 8 Preset mode and Preset/Snap mode.

I'm using Helix with v3.5. I set Snapshop mode to manual return: "Global Settings > Footswitches" > Knob 4 (Snapshot Mode Switches) to "Manual Return". As expected, Snapshot mode stays activated when I enter it by pressing both Bank buttons. But it seems there are two problems now. First, if I change Manual Return back to Auto, it fails to behave as before. The bigger problem is I can't find a way to cancel Snapshot Footswitch Mode. At first, FS6 displayed a Cancel option. Now it always says, "Preset/Stomp". So the scribble strips are permanently set to Shapshot mode (with four presets on one row and four snapshots on the other). I suppose I could do a factory reset but that seems extreme. Is there another way to cancel the mode to restore FS2-5 and FS8-11 to Presets (no snapshots displayed)?

Excellent, thanks!

Thanks for the info folks, very helpful. I'm still trying to understand the reset modes. Is the 10/11 reset recommended any time a preset is loaded (esp a new one)? As a new Helix user, I'm looking at replacing my existing system 100%. I play a repertoire of around 75 classic rock covers. We're picky about nailing the original sound from the records. Creating all new patches seems a rather daunting task. If I stumble upon one that totally nails a particular sound, I'll gladly take it. As far as presets sucking, I think it's mostly that specific, well-known variables need addressing, as we know. That includes guitar/pickups, monitoring (cab, in-ear, near-field) and listening environment (bedroom vs studio vs venue). Variax should help address the guitar contribution (considering one) without having to shoot IR's or anything. I think the rest mostly affects tone and ambience. That's fairly straight-forward to adjust for, at least for me personally. The hard part is the historical research into the setup including cab, mic, room, amp, reverb/delay, dynamics and any complex modulation effects. Lost all my 80's GP mags. I'm totally OK paying a smart person to handle that. Not that I couldn't do it myself. But my misspent youth was wasted tweaking knobs. If I need to fine-tune the tone of a patch for my situation, no prob. Thanks again for the input!

I'm looking for the pre-3.50 presets. For example: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_IIluwIIHLcT9FdQ3BHlBC_ws0rgIf-m-jgV1aNJhyM/edit#gid=0 I didn't attempt to restore the backup. Certainly some of the earlier presets must sound pretty good since it was a very popular product. And no doubt they were created by players with more time and experience than myself. Anybody have a link to an .hxb file with these or others?

Yes, I did perform a factory update after updating to 3.50. But it didn't appear to have changed any presets. Anybody know if there were any new presets added between 3.11 and 3.50?

I just got a Helix and I have a question about presets. The default firmware was 3.11 so I immediately updated to 3.50. Prior to that I backed everything up to a backup file. After updating to 3.50 I notice none of the presets has changed. I compared them to a list of 3.50 presets and it's identical. First question, could the unit have come with 3.11 firmware yet 3.50 presets installed? Second question, were the 3.11 presets identical to the 3.50 presets? If not, I'm assuming prior firmware versions included lots of great presets which were permanently overwritten by the new 3.50 presets? If so, where can one obtain all those legacy (pre 3.50) presets? Thanks!