erniedenov

You had me until you mentioned that everything in front of the cab block gets summed to mono. Still, I will check it out and thanks for the replies, everybody!

Downloaded last night; thanks for the link! Well that's intriguing!

I've noticed some of you do this. I never thought about it before; I've always put effects like reverb, modulation and delays after the cab. What is the advantage and/or difference in sound?

I've been digging the Archtype Lead a lot too; the only high gain model that sounds great for lead (to me) without a distortion/overdrive block in front. That said, I have the Minotaur lying in waiting for when I want notes to sustain indefinitely (and I only needed a minimal amount of drive from it). The Litigator is very nice for old school crunch and it really sounds great with the Minotaur (my favorite distortion block) in front. I was using the Mesa Mark IV for cleans, but recently switched back to the Vox AC-30; so pristine and chimey! Only problem is I can't just keep tweaking; it's not doing my (long time tinnitus inflicted) ears any favors. At a certain point, I had to step away from my Vetta and say, "it's good enough; done!" I may be reaching that point with Helix.

Fate was smiling on you that night, even though if you didn't get the notification, you probably dragged a bunch of gear in that you didn't use. Glad it worked out favorably!

I liked everything about it, not the least of which was the guitar sounds! Great singing and playing! And I dug the verse in 5/8; I'm a sucker for odd meters. Well done!

Right, what you said. :)

That was what Buzz Feiten was going for with his tuning system, basically a compromised nut. According to the luthier who built two of my custom made guitars, you don't need one if you have a perfect fret job. His opinion, just sharing! But he does do the most immaculate fret work I've ever seen. Yeah, the ability to tune the guitar quickly is definitely an issue at live gigs for me too, especially with a floating bridge, which takes longer to tune as it is. I do appreciate the tips on this thread about backing off the tone control and using the neck pickup and I plan to utilize that advice. But I do have high hopes that Line 6 will "smooth" the tuner and make it more stable in a future upgrade. It's one of the only things about Helix that I consider to be less than excellent.

When I first got my Helix, I had trouble engaging the expression pedal too. It felt unnatural and I initially thought I had to wack it really hard with my foot. But I got used to it and learned that wasn't the case; just put a little weight on the toe part and it'll engage. I know it seems silly to practice turning a wah off and on, but... practice; it won't take long. At this point it feels just as easy as turning a real wah on.

I'm going to take a wild guess that the soundman and the club owner are longtime buddies and their friendship is more important to the owner than anything the musicians have to say about the soundman's competency or lack thereof. I've dealt with that situation on a couple of occasions. There was one house soundman who refused to set up overhead mics for the drums; he said the cymbals were loud enough without them. Then after the set, several audience members told me they couldn't hear the cymbals (and I never asked or mentioned the issue to anyone). That was just one out of many ways he wouldn't accommodate any requests. And he was paid a fixed rate per night while the band was getting the door, so he'd make more than any of us. We stopped playing there after a couple of gigs, but the guy remained for years, although fairly recently, I heard that he committed suicide, in case there's any doubt that the guy had issues. :wacko: Anyway, I'd try to reason with this guy, but I wouldn't push it; it's not worth the heartache. After the gig, you can decide if you want to continue playing there and who knows, if the attendance is good and the club owner wants you back, perhaps you'll be in a better position to negotiate. Or not...

I was, but I guess I expected a long list to appear in the joystick menu. I thought I had only imported one IR until I noticed the "IR select" knob and started turning it. Once again, I could've figured that out sooner if I'd read that part in the manual.

Thanks! I've been able to load them on the Helix app, but I can't get them to import. I successfully imported one IR and don't know how I did it, but can't seem to do the same with any others. Please help my dumb self! (edit) Nevermind, figured it out! You have to turn the IR select parameter. They were importing! D'OH!

I've never used any yet, but I downloaded the free Ownhammer Mesa 4x12. The files are in 3 groups, Mics, Mixes and Quick Start. Can anybody explain to me what each one is?

When I started reading this thread I thought about posting this; you beat me to it! Anyway, you could TRY to reason with the house soundman in this club. But don't hold your breath...

Yes. I got spoiled by the smart harmonizer on my TC Electronics G-Force; it's not as good as that, but it's pretty cool.

See the above post by PeterHamm (#26). I agree with him that the onboard cab sims are good, way better than the last Pod HD ones at any rate. I haven't gotten any IRs yet and I may at some point, but I'm not displeased with the cabs in Helix like some are. As far as fizz, you may encounter it on some high gain amp models, but there's several ways to get rid of it. By my second day with Helix, I was getting some pretty great sounds. You'll find all kinds of opinions on any discussion forum and this is no exception. The only one that really matters is your own.

Good place to start! Mine is still active; I take it on the road with me and use it with a rented Mesa Triple Recto for 30 to 40 shows a year. It's held up amazingly well considering it stays in my checked luggage. To be honest, I haven't replaced that rig with my Helix because I'm afraid for it with the way those gorillas at the airline companies handle luggage. I suppose if the M13 lasted this long, the Helix would too; it's built like a tank after all! But you know, it's my newest baby and all...

Congrats! I think you'll love it as I do mine! I've owned a bunch of Line 6 gear too and I think Helix is miles ahead of anything they've previously come up with, both in terms of realism and ease of use. I was using a Pod HD500 previously and the difference is night and day! A buddy came over with his Fractal AxeFX II for an A/B comparison... and he ended up getting a Helix and putting his Fractal up for sale on eBay. I think it was the Helix's user interface that sold him, as the sounds were fairly similar in many cases. Fractal has more models, but imo, Helix has more than enough.

It's gotta be a Sustainer; natural feedback doesn't consistently jump up an octave on every note held.

Yeah, I love Pete's product demo videos! I especially like his original Helix video where he wrote a tune in which he layered 9 different guitar patches. Besides being a tone meister, he's a great guitar player and composer. I was hoping for something like that here, but oh well, it was still cool.

LOL! Well in general, the drummer dictates the onstage volume of a band and they get a better sound out of their drums by hitting them with some velocity. There should be a happy medium between necessary and over-the-top ridiculousness, but I dislike when anyone discourages a drummer to play the way they're comfortable with. There are solutions; one is to have fiberglass walls in front and to each side of the kit. Besides reducing the onstage volume, it prevents excess bleed into all other microphones on the stage. Another solution is obviously more expensive, but practical... and that's everybody using custom molded in-ear monitors. The molds block out a lot of decibels onstage and with a monitor mixer with enough channels (and hopefully, a competent monitor sound engineer), everybody hears the mix they want to hear at the volume they want to hear it. In the band I tour with, everybody's using in-ears and there's fiberglass walls around the drums. Another great thing about in-ears is that they can make a room with horrible acoustics sound fine (at least to the band), because they're blocking all of those reflections and you're only hearing what the mics are "hearing." It'll still sound like crap to the audience, but they can blame the venue for that! Of course dynamics are important, but for maximum impact, the loud parts should be able to be as loud as the soft parts are soft. In a good band, everybody should be listening to each other closely enough to hear when somebody's trying to instigate a change in dynamics. Or if the dynamics are pre-determined in a tune... well that should be obvious. One drummer friend's stock joke is, "Dynamics? I can't play any louder!" It's funny until it's the truth.

I understand and share the sentiment. As chronicled here, I lost most of my patches when I updated to 2.10. I'm fine now, but it took a lot of programming to get back in the saddle... and now I have PTS Syndrome over updating and didn't bother with 2.11. I'll still update when there are new features, but a bug fix update isn't worth it for me, since I'm not having bug issues (don't use snapshots or IRs). And with any luck, Line 6 will make upgrading a bit less problematic by the time a significant update with new features comes around.

Nothing to add, just echoing other's sentiments that presets generally suck. I learned this early on with some of the first Line 6 products. There's gold in them thar hills, but you're going to have to dig deep. More gold than ever with Helix, but you'll still have to do some digging, just not as much as with previous products. Combine different amp models, cab and mic sims and twist those knobs. Personally, I don't think there's much it can't do!

My experience with Marshalls is that they go from bright to ear-piercingly bright and the mid knob is almost like another treble knob. I used to use a backlined TSL half stack with the band I tour with. At one gig, the backline company didn't have any Marshalls, so they gave me a Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier. When I started tweaking it, I thought, "wow, these tone controls DO SOMETHING!" I changed my rider and have been using Triple Rectos ever since. Try some other amp models if you want to hear a more pronounced difference with tone parameters.

I'm using an Alto TS212 (despite the misleading title, it has one 12" speaker and a tweeter). Got it because it's among the cheaper FRFR powered speakers ($300) and it's been getting great reviews. I have it mounted on a pole because it's too bassy on the floor. I think it's 500 watts and it can get pretty loud without clipping. Two tricks I learned here for getting maximum volume: Be sure to set XLR or quarter inch to line level and quarter inch is louder than XLR.