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Well, I find quite a few of the default settings to be quite enjoyable. You can save template presets with all your favorite amp parameters then you would never have to go through the pain of turning a few knobs on the amp models again...

$99 each on sale at Sweetwater currently.

I use the Plexi Bright model with my Strat and Tele. I prefer the low/mid/high and master set to 10, drive around 7-8 to taste for that mid gain crunch. It won't sound like a LP cranked, but it will sound like a Strat cranked. You can still back off the volume on the guitar and it cleans up a bit. It is my favorite Marshall setup in the Helix I have at the moment.

I think that is why. The high gain crowd are using hot pickups which brings up the baseline noise quite a bit. The baseline noise is what is messing with the gate on how it opens/closes. That can have ill effects on the perceived tone. If running clean with low output pickups, then the gate operates normally. No "tone sucking" artifacts happen.

Yep, should be getting 0% dry with that configuration.

Not going to happen. If I give you my "sure thing" someone else is going to think it sounds like crap, and vice versa. Helix is not a plug and play piece of equipment. I have had mine well over a year and I am still sculpting my tones. If you want a more plug and play friendly rig for a "Great" clean, OD, crunch, and searing, then you may want a 3 channel amp and a few pedals. Or, you just need to keep plugging away with the Helix. The more you learn about it, the more you will find out how to get the tones that are in your head. I assure you, it is not the hardware that is the issue. It is the learning curve for operating the hardware.

Wow...

At the beginning of the videos is says he is recording Helix direct into mixer. You can get the same results recording Helix straight into your DAW via USB.

The high cut curves are not very steep so sometimes you land up setting it artificially low to achieve the results you want. If you want to make a more dramatic difference, you may want to notch filter out the frequencies you want to get rid of.

I started running some pre-recorded pads that are mp3 format through USB to Helix. You cannot control them musically, but you can just have them play in the backround so as the dynamics of the band go down, the pad becomes more evident. That allowed me to concentrate on my guitar work than trying to be all synthy. I got some pad selections from Worshiptutorials.com https://www.worshiptutorials.com/pads/

Did you open a support ticket with Line 6? They do not actively look for people having hardware problems on their forums.

^Yup, monitors connected to Helix, PC to Helix via USB.

I've come to the conclusion that trying to get guitar to sound like synth is not worth my efforts. I'll just play synth parts on guitar, but still sound like a guitar but with added effects. We do that a lot especially with Hillsong tunes that have about 3 synth players. We have more guitars than synths, so we just go with it. It is also a way to make a song "your own" by not trying to duplicate every sound and tone on the original.

Big knob set to 2:00 (doesn't really matter, just gives me a little headroom). Helix connected to Reaper via USB. I pull up the mixer on Reaper to get a nice big meter on the screen. Playing through two JBL Eon 610's at home at a pretty decent volume to get close to "gig" level as reasonably possible (to make adjustments to actual tone). If you are connected to a DAW via USB, the big volume knob doesn't effect volume going to USB. So, going through this exercise "normalizes" your overall volumes, but you can adjust what you send to FOH with the volume knob. Now I play the following combinations, hitting a really strong open A chord (just to stay consistant). I look to get right around -12dB on the meter, just after the initial peak. amp only compressor, amp OD1, amp OD2, amp amp w/combinations of time based effects, adjust level of time based effects as needed whatever I am using for a "lead tone" to show -10dB on the meter If you then turn on both overdrives, it may go just a bit over -12dB, but not much I then tweak as needed during rehearsal.

An IR is a cab and mic combination (with variations of mic placement).

Start simple. Drop in your favorite amp model (preferably and amp you are familiar with), a cab model, and maybe a simple delay/and or reverb at the end. Building a preset is just like putting together a rig with the actual components, except it is represented on the screen. If you think of it like that, it doesn't really get that complicated. Start with what you know and have experience with in terms of real rigs, and go from there.

An alternative to the noise gate if you are just wanting to hush the hiss in between songs: put a volume block at the end of your signal chain and just control it with an expression pedal. It's pretty much the same thing, just a manually controlled gate.

Helix can be used in different ways: 1. Directly into the front of an amp, effects only no amp or cab models. 2. 4 cable method with an amp that has an effects loop. You can use the guitar preamp or bypass and use Helix PREAMP models to the guitar power amp. 3. Helix to FRFR. This is using models for the entire signal chain (effect, amp, and cabinet models). If you are trying to use the 4 cable method and use the full amp models and/or cabinet models, then it may sound like poop. You are sending a guitar amp model into a cab model into a real guitar amp into a real cabinet. Your signal chain should always be guitar>effects>preamp>effects>amp>cabinet, no matter if any of those are real or modeled. You are duplicating the amp and cabinet by using both modeled and real amp and cab at the same time. Keep in mind that there are no power amp models in Helix. Here are preamp models (which you should use with 4CM) and full amp models.

You may want to be more specific than awful, harsh, painful, etc... Also, what guitars you are using, your amplification, what type of tones you are trying to achieve, etc...

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never connect the speaker output of an amp into Helix or any other processor. It is designed to be connected only to a speaker or load box. If you need to do that then get something like the Suhr reactive load.

^THIS^ This is why I got myself a couple of JBL Eon 610s for at home so I can set up my patches at/near live stage volume.

I would open a support ticket and give Line 6 all that info you derived while testing. That could be very useful to them and will guide them better in resolving your particular issue.

I switch pickups all the time. If I am playing in position 4 on strat, and I want to go to a "lead tone" on the neck pickup, switching pickups is the only real option. For some cases changing amp/drive parameters will work, and in some cases changing pickup will only get the desired effect. As a guitar player, all of the options should be in your tool bag. Don't sell yourself short. If changing pickups while playing is difficult, practice doing it. Watch/listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan. He'll switch 10 or more times during a song, 3-4 times during a solo.

How do you have the Apple Mainstage coming into the Helix (USB, 1/4" return)? For guitar, you need to set your output block on your preset to 1/4". That is not global, it is per preset. If you are coming into Helix with Mainstage on USB 1/2, you set USB 1/2 destination in Global settings to XLR. If you are coming into Helix with Mainstage into 1/4" returns, you will have to set up a dedicated signal path with returns as the input, and XLR as the output in each preset.

Can you post a pic of your screen showing how your preset is laid out? With the pitch wham set to 100%, you won't have any dry signal going through that block. Could you have some dry signal going through on path B?