musiclover7

Me too. I fall into a couple of these categories, maybe even partially into a 3rd. Over all, I am mostly a 1, with elements of both 2 and 5 tossed into the mix. Really, I think you need a 6th category. The experienced, 40+ player who is a boutique, analog tone tone snob, but is on a money/time budget. This person likes a lot of what the helix offers, but probably would only be truly happy had they spent 10 grand acquiring the creme Dela creme of the best pedals made over the past 50 years, however, they lack either the patience or the money to set about acquiring them. I know a few players, luthiers, techs who have spent years working on their rig and would never be content with the helix. These are my colleague's. We don't play hard rock. We use very little distortion if any, so most of the amps in the helix are just lame for our purposes. That said, we are finding enough to like, to keep us in the game with the helix, keep us digging/reaching, and yeah, at times overlooking/disregarding. We've owned other multi effect pedals and none have have been a perfect fit, but we like the idea and application of all in one box solutions, enough to keep buying and hoping. The helix is the best we have found so far. I am a player first and foremost. I feel like 75-80% of the helix wasn't built for a player like me, but they gotta appeal to the masses I know, and the other 20% might just be enough to satisfy me.... I am happily married to a wonderful fox, and I've got 2 lovely daughters.

Or even just add tone parameters on the current verbs so we can darken them up.

A model of the Neunaber Wet pedal would be Awesome!

Well.. I just figured that out actually. Add a volume/pan gain pedal to the end of your chain, and then move/drag it down and a new stereo path will appear immediately below the current. you can then grab the split and move that to create a new stereo path altogether if desired.

I myself have not yet figured out how to add an additional path immediately beneath the one I am on, but what you can do is start out with the '4 tone switcher' template, and have each tone run into the next by changing the inputs and outputs. That will get you more stomps to add into your chain, though I suspect you will run out of dsp before too long. I have not figured out how to modify a current patch, and add an extra stereo path like what you get in the 4 tone switcher. There is probably a way, but I haven't figured that out yet. If anyone knows, please share. In any case, starting they way I mentioned will get you the extra stomps you are after.

If you ask me, the Helix could really use 1-2 more ambient verbs. Maybe an arena verb, or just something large and warm. The room verb is to stale, and I can't get the tone I am after with the chamber. Bit too bright and airy. I am getting good results with the plate for now. Just my 2 cents.

I like it as is. Maybe in a future release they shrink the camera icon to just take up 4 char, giving us 12, but I am good either way. I don't need elaborate names though for my snaps. I use abbreviation, like LD for lead etc, which has been enough so far. As long as you can differentiate, that is the main thing.

I have been using the plate so far myself, which I thought was odd, as it is not usually where I wind up when I am reaching for big, warm sounding reverb. It is in the helix though.

Thanks. I do not have a strat anymore, though I know it is a key part of the sound. Would be could if there was some pickup conversion available loke a means of going from humbucker to single coil via modeling within the helix, which is perhaps what I was/am after. I'm fine when it comes to inversions and technique. I will give these suggestions a shot today in any case.

I feel like am posting a lot in here lately, but what can I say. I have questions, and I am passionate about tone. Anyways, I am wondering what others lean toward for big, vibrant, lush reverb within the helix. Not overprocessed like the cave, just big, clean and warm sounding. Not too much high end reflection. A believable verb. Those words will have to do. Any advice appreciated.

I thought I heard one of these at first amongst the og presets, but now I can't find it. I am looking for a solid rhythm funk preset, James Brown style. I am not having much luck making my own... nothing sounds right. Anyone have one, or know of one. Did a little searching through the online presets, but am striking out.

I had a similar experience at first. Just about all of the presets sucked for me... totally gave the impression that this was not a pedal for a player like me, but rather geared for the heavy rocker to metal type players. Me, I want fat, clean tones and pristine effects. These were rare amidst the presets. I went through them all and found 7 or so that intrigued me. Follow the advice of others, and move on to making your own presets. Unlike others, I don't really use the amps much. I focus primarily on the effects. I have gotten some pretty killer tones out of the helix even without amps, and I have been playing a ton lately which is a strong indicator that I am loving it, though I still have not made up my mind on keeping it. I think maybe you and I both expected tone heaven for the money, and maybe tone heaven is forever doomed to exist only in our imagination. Truth is, there are a lot of amazing tones to be found in this unit though. Abandon the presets and start digging. There is gold for sure!

Thanks all!

Thanks... That is helpful.. I downloaded the free pack from Ownhammer as well, but it did not contain a Helix folder. Last question. Do I need to use ones specifically designed for helix, or can I load others?

Trying to figure these out. I get the gist of them, but here are my questions... please help if you can. I down loaded some of the free ir's from OwnHam and am trying to use them. They contain folders for kempler, axe fx, but none for helix. When I open the core folder, I am greeled with like 30 wav files. Is every one of these a separate IR? Attaching a screenshot. I guess I am wondering how you all are using these things with the helix? How do you choose which one to go with? Is there something else I am missing?

That's cool. I have found that using the effect returns is giving me the best results. I got deep with the eq as well. I have tried to fuss with impulse responses, but have not been able to figure them out. The ones I downloaded contain a folder with like 30 wav files. I am not sure if I am supposed to load them all up separate or what. I will give the taylor a shot. There is still a bit of a change running acoustic into helix, even through the effect return. However, it is way less noticable, and once in, you can doctor the sound a bit with effects, and improve it. I don'T need much with my acoustic guitar. My main thought was to maybe get a decent lead snapshot to kick on here and there, and also maybe run my vocal into the helix, and get some compression, maybe chorus, subtle harmonizer on my voice for acoustic gigs. I have given this a shot and am semi into it. I am learning. Compression for me is still a mystery. I know what it is supposed to be for, and what it does according to the paper. My ears hear conflicting thing's though. So I find myself recording a loop before all the effecta, and then spending the next 10 min or so moving knobs around until I get what sounds like a good tone. Then I bypass everything and compare. I think it would be great if some additional effects were added that were geared for the acoustic guitar. The compressors in the helix don't seem to really blend well with my acoustic, but then again, I don't know too much about how to use them. I really wish we had some sort of guide or manual entry for each effect, with a little snippet about the effect, what it aims to achieve/purpose (or maybe just something unique about it), and then a breakdown of what all the settings are for. I find myself doing a fair amount of guessing in some cases.... like the scale option on chorus, or sensitivity.. Anyways, I am in way better shape today, than I was a few days back and am feeling encouraged. My plan is to switch back over to the zoom g5 in a few days and see how that treats me. I'll make up my mind on the helix then. Side note, I have played for like 4-6 hours a day now for like 7-8 straight days, which I have not done since when i was studying jazz in college.

That did it.. Thx!

Not sure what I am doing wrong now, but after turning the helix off and back on, this is no longer working. Perhaps I spoke too soon. I timed my loop earlier with a stopwatch at 2min. Not sure why this is not working now.

I figured it might be useful to someone. ;)

This might be obvious to some, but it was overlooked by yours truly until this evening. Anyways, I thought I would take the time to share. If you are like me, and you like to use your unit as a practice device, lay down verse and chorus, and solo over that stuff until you have your chops in order, then having an extra min long loop is going to be valuable. For some reason, I assumed that the half time would simply turn a 1 min loop into a 2 min loop with a huge frequency drop to boot. Seems however, that you can just start things out in 1/2 speed, and get yourself a full 2 min. I have not played with it enough to know if there is any decrease in quality. Hard to tell for me, as I have my acoustic out this evening, so the sound in the room changes drastically when I am not playing and just listening. Sounds good though!

Yes.. it is definitely usable. Also.. just discovered that if you start your loop in half speed when engaging the looper, you actually can get a 2 min long loop rather than just 1. Hot dog! Revelation after revelation this evening.

It is definitely much improved through return 1, vs guitar in, or Aux in. It is really close. Almost true bypass, though not quite. There is still a subtle change, and it is not an improvement to my ear. Still, definitely usable. Thanks for the help!

I am struggling with this still. For now, I am engaging no effects, running from my Cordoba GK Studio straight into the aux in of the helix, out the 1/4 mono to my amp. I play for a bit with the helix, then a bit without. I am bypassing the RavenLabs pmb1 at this time, just in case the effects send on that unit is a factor. Interestingly enough, it is even more pronounced now without the pmb1. Not only is there a big difference in over all db, but when I add gain to the helix output to make up for it, it does not bring back the smooth airy feeling that I get when I just run straight into the amp. I wish I had an easy means of sharing what I am talking about here, but my recording options are slim atm. Still trying though...

Holy shmoley! I am at work now, but can'T wait to get home and give that a shot. My acoustic has active pickups, and I have been running into the guitar in. Will try it on the aux asap.. Do you happen to have a link to one of those acoustic IR's.

I did mine day 1 as well and highly recommend the update. I would not wait.