WickedFinger

EQ is tersely related to volume F&M demonstrates. You simply have to adjust preset levels and EQ on the gear you will be using live at performance volume. Any time the level changes the EQ changes as well. Just so you know: many gain pedals like my Seymour Duncan Palladium I have looped in has a bass EQ param adjust right at 80Hz, many pedals use low end 80Hz as the punch of the bass. Mesa always targets 750Hz as a notching point as seen in the Cali EQ and Mesa Amp models. Guitar presence controls on most amps are around 8-9KHz. I have asked L6 in an on-going attempt to understand the param adjusts exactly what is the hi and lo cut on the speaker IRs doing. True to all guitar speakers they start roll off slope around 5K and the IR is supposed to track the actual speaker response so one wonders what the hi cut is really for as above 6K or so it is probably doing nothing anyway. So if we are IR modeling a particular cab and speaker then why would you want to hi and low cut it when it is reproducing what it was intended to do. Cutting into the high end might darken things up but seems EQ and amp adjust are better tweak adjustments than killing the cabinet response. I have a hard time understanding the use of FRFR response while narrowing the frequency range of the tones. EQ on an IR is useful to notch the resonance frequency each cab has but drastically cutting the range of the cab IR seems counter-intuitive. That being said I sub sonic cut as I cannot find out if the Helix has a built in lo filter or not, I also cut ultra highs on the global but every else is flat left up to the preset to tweak the EQ per tone.

Thanks, the information is rather confusing at times or lack thereof. So are they working on HX reverbs and improved wahs? It did seem the delays were sounding very good and the reverbs a flashback to POD days which I do not want to revisit. The POD made me leave L6 the Helix brought me back. I hope there is room in the unit for more updates and we do not get hit with a whole new machine anytime soon. I would be joyed as an option just to have the amp modeling and loop routing on steroids and just farm out to pedals for select thing, that is a winner as so many have tersely different notions of what good effects or models consist. Personally, instead of the intense component copy of a rather cheesy pedal I would rather have an optimized effect with a bunch of params, We do not need the Helix to fuzz and what not and is POLYPHONIC tracking possible on the Helix platform for pitch and octave effects??? And yes this is used in many no so expensive pedals using the std 1/4" cable. The new SY300 guitar synth is the flagship while less expensive pedals like the tc electronic sub N up are light years better tracking. The same technology is used for poly tuners and most of them are <$100 now. IS it possible to algorithm that into the software? I love the Whammy V which is now true bypass and polyphonic tracking the model of the old version Whammy many are trying to use for detune is a fluke at best. Before the V they were all terrible glitch outs. The Whammy V Tuner combo also has the drop tune polyphonic feature. Soooooo possible for Helix or not?

I use a pair of 15ps for my rig and love them. Sure I could PA a small band scene but daddy likes watts, nice to have the ability if it's needed. Those speakers are designed for XLR/TRS inputs by the way. Some do not know that. Big fan of EV stuff myself. Perfect speaker for the Helix I run stereo all the time and I also have a stereo wired 4x12 w high end guitar speakers I just love, I can use either or both rigs and the sound is so deep and full for sure the best tones I have ever had. I have enormous wattage capability but just because your car goes 160 does not mean you drive it that fast. Highly recommend the BBE Sonic Maximizer on the Helix or the band PA, makes a huge difference in the sound quality. I have several for my rigs in various level versions. XLR version takes the Helix main XLR outs before they get sent out to the EV 15s, an instrument level on the 1/4's before they see the power amp. I already had them from my other rigs and I prefer having them outside the Helix rather than in a loop. The best results are getting as close to the power amp section to the speakers with nothing after it. Most importantly it is not an effect, you never have the process more than 12:00, the phase correction takes place no matter where the process level is set. The only time you can tell mine are on is when they are off and you wonder why the sound is not as good as it was.

I remember even in the rehearsal room I would be working out my sounds look down and some giant fat dude is standing on my midi 10 pin cable to my synth. Anything can happen on the road and it is usually a spill, trip or cable catch and pull that will cause the laptop to take a fall it was not meant to take. You could probably park a car on top of a Helix to an extent (but I would not recommend it). It's as bullet proof as it gets gear wise. I wish it had been around went I was packing in my three amps and two cabs plus rack. Sound was and is important to me, I did not mind hooking up the gear but a Helix rig is so ridiculously easy it has changed the whole paradigm.

Seems like a logical premise to me. The only real reason to make the amp louder is to come out of the mix for like a solo. Anything in front of the amp model gain wise, no matter what serves to increase the amp clipping and dist/gain structure. Anything after the amp model will bring the level up including effect volumes. If you want a non coloring level boost for solos to come out of the mix you would place a flat EQ with about 3-4db level increase after the amp, or controller set a switch and/or preset shapshot to increase the amp ch vol some. If using a block effect for vol gain boost be sure where you place it does not clip out anything after it. On effect levels; sometimes you need to bring the amp up to at least unity or if the amp is too loud roll back on the ch vol. In a digital platform such as the Helix, it is not analog so the notion of running everything a little hot into the next in chain does not work out because you want to avoid harsh digital clipping from overt level cascade. Digital input/output clipping is not musical and is not desirable. You need to go through your final presets making sure nothing causes unwanted digital level artifact clipping when on with everything else. If you are wanting high gain levels let the model do its thing and generate it. Most amp models can sponge and take a certain amount of front end boost or drive but one does not over hit it like you might on analog stuff. If you need more gain out of amp or want a clean amp to gain up use a distortion pedal block or loop out to a high gain pedal. Common rule of thought applies that distortion pedals or models thereof were meant for a clean amp to have distortion option, overdrives to some extend as well, but a boost or OD in front of a gained amp tightens up the response and allows less amp gain on the knob for more definition and note articulation.

Just FYi true to real amps, drive is preamp gain, and Master is effectively power amp stage drive and/or gain. Ch vol is more the volume level of the amp but also has interaction effect. By running Master low and ch vol up it hits the preamp gain more but not the power amp qualities, I tend to run my master up and overall level using the Ch vol and artful use of simple or Cali EQ if needed post stage. Of course it is all variant on what amp model and the overall tone structure you are after.

Aside from all the tech argument. May I humbly suggest using a BBE unit on the Helix and or the PA which if you position it correctly as it was designed, level no more than 12:00 the phase correction it does to the frequency range really does improve live sound and makes everything more pleasing and less fatiguing to the ear. Mine are so transparent to the overall sound you only notice when it is not there.

While I do appreciate the effort to HX component model better drives, I seldom use them and just farm out to pedals I like. The Klon is OK but if I drag out my credible Klon copy not really the same. The clean boost from a Klon is not colorless but imparts a better tone to anything that runs into it or vise-versa. While the Helix model is a nice drive thing, I find pedals to be much superior drives and there are infinite options. I want HX level delay and reverb L6, come on, stop with the POD thing, the Helix is supposed to be better, stop dumbing it down with cheese effects. A really nice add on to your chain is adding the Mic Studio Tube Preamp in front of the amp set to level 10 line impedance and gain like 4.0 to keep clean, it boosts the amp intensity and imparts a nice tube modeling enhance to the tone. Some like it after some amps as well. The least DSP use is the lowest level EQ, just increase the level (aka gain) and keep the EQ flat and that is about as colorless as it gets.

Hey, a novel idea, how about a manual that describes and details EVERY param in the effects and amp modeling?? This dumbing down age of just knob turning and not having a clue of what something does is supposed to do might be amazing for some, I like to read and when I need info and you cannot locate it or get any sort of detail as probably 90% of those working at L6 do not know either it is just contributing to the non reading, non saying of anything w substance in the twitter age of twits. I am a retired published writer need help with the manual writing?? When books die and writers cease the world will be a great deal more stupid than was imagined it could be.

Mine is a relatively new unit and both click lock into place. Makes since about the summing thing.

Not one of the models I could get anything good out of, did not have the sound I was expecting from a Supro regarding the use of Pagey or how good the pedals sound. So you have to use a Tel? Still not the early Zep sounds I always heard a Supro was used. I was expecting an amp with the pedal qualities, seemed not to work well at all. First thing I did was up the speaker from that car stereo speaker nonsense. Still was not a good sounding amp for anything I need from clean to dirt. I mean wouldn't you have to model the one Page used???? ****have to say best sound out of that model I have heard.

I bought a rack with wheels that also flip tilts the rack. Pretty handy and it was not expensive. I think maybe the 4CM is a progression as it is hard to ween off of traditional guitar amp use. Took me a while and several modeler unit experiments before I could finally jump and just use modelers and tweak on my rig solely for that resolve. Not having to deal with tubes, buying good ones, matched and binned out supposed selections and getting bad ones in the batch, plus the maintenance of adjusting bias and the overall component lifetime of what it takes to keep a tube amp operating. The Helix finally convinced me to leave my amp age behind and move towards what can only be the future of guitar. I am looking forward to what L6 can improve on the Helix like some HX quality delay and reverbs. Do wish they would make more of an effort to detail and explain EVERY param in the unit on the amps, IRs and effects. Seems every time I want to know what something actually does it is about impossible to get the info. Like the use of hum and ripple in amps, while these elements are not considered desirable for a quiet noiseless rig they are highly interactive with the amp models despite it is not very clear what they actually do and what amps benefit from high and low. Yeah I know, tweak it out, be nice to get back to playing more and spinning knobs less, information sort of helps that issue.

I know I have tried a few here and there for free which scares the bejesus out of me if I paid for them as they were just not that amazing and by tweaking on the Helix ones I seem to do just fine. I hate most of the mics and what they do to the sound but I use what gets me closest to what sounds right for me. Many of the cabs IR or otherwise never sound all that great to me. I usually find myself picking a couple favs and the mics I can stand and just use them for most of the amps. I guess its a world of the recording maven DAW chaps as I sure find it god awful easy to ruin the sound of an amp tone with the cab sim/IR or a bad mic, wish there was a better methodology. Does anyone know how Radial JDX 48DI's do it when they tap the speaker line for recording (not basic DI) do they have some sort of cab voicing or IR in the circuit, I would like something like that w no cuts and no tweaking seems much easier. I've used speaker line taps before and I got some good recordings. MIcs tend to lollipop me off more than anything.

See above. SY300 guitar synth new generation 1/4 cable, all the new drop and raise pitch tuning pedals use the new tech, all poly tuners, DIgitech Whammy V, tc electronic sub N up, Walrus Audio's new multi octave pedal, EHX Pitch Fork, a host of others. I was a bit blow away the amp modeling in the Helix was so good only to have the same copy mimic of crap pedals suffering for "effects". Hell just leave the unit as a stand alone amp modeler with the loops and assigns and I'll just farm out to pedals. Instead all this money and similar effects or copies of what the POD and M series have?

Hate to disillusion one to the GR-55 which I had for a period of time, yes it is polyphonic as each string has its own pickup and is so in the truest sense of the word more so that anything else could be. It also has harmonizers on board which work by scalar interval and key as well. The new SY300 guitar synth uses a std 1/4 cable and is polyphonic tracking, for me it put an end to the Hex pickup units. And it has to be heard to be believed, that technology on a 1/4 std cable is bloody amazing. I gave my GR-55 and Hex pickups up when the SY300 came out and when I converted to Les Paul's and no longer wanted to mount the pickup or use the bracket which interferes w the bridge and does not fit on some models of Les Paul at all. Anyway, the Helix using old pedal old school bad tracking Whammy models and what not, why??? Several new pedals using std cable are also polyphonic tracking, tc sub n up octave pedal, DIgitech Whammy V with and separate detune and ricohect pedals. EHX tuning fork, new POG is as well and a TRex as well as a Walrus Audio octave pedal, I am sure there are others I am forgetting. Several pedals like the Morpheus and Digitech pedals offer complete polyphonic dropped and raised tuning steps using a std 1/4 cable. A bit ridiculous the Helix has to copy mimic old tech pedals that are monophonic tracking glitch outs. Much less the host of poly tuners available which run under $100 now. Why? The waste of state of the art technology to copy and mimic pedals that sucked then because there was nothing else available. Makes no sense at all. Who is in charge of engineering at L6 the same POD people who insisted on that mess of bad effects they thought should be carrried on in the Helix? A few of the front end effect are new HX component modeling but the delay and reverb stuff in general a copy from the POD and M series stuff. Why? Upgrade the Helix and stop with the cheese fest of effects, if others love those old pedals then buy one and loop it in. Give the rest of us something to work with. If you are going to component model something why mess with a turd pedal. Klon and Timma are fine but a bunch of those fuzz things, really. I suppose a new modern tech fuzz would be out of the question as everyone wants what Jimi Hendrix or Gilmour used almost 50 years ago, for the simple reason there was nothing else to use. Do I really have to get a Strymon or Nemesis reverb and delay to have something advanced tech? Maybe so.

I have actually tried using the on board tuner recently and it really is dreadful. Thankful I have my PitchBlack's. One of the issues I have with the Helix is why the reach back into the past all the time? There are plenty of new tech pedals these days which do not cost that much that are polyphonic tracking and tuners than cost less than $100, the Helix with all its technology cannot do that which a $130 pedal can do?? So many octave pedals out now and the new version V Whammy which are polyphonic tracking but we have to have copies of the older crap pedals, why??? The same detune technology offered by EHX, tc, DIgitech, TRex, and also makes for the myriad of stable tuning pedals I mean Helix Engineer's WTF?

Very cool idea, can't wait to try it out. I am after that tone stuff Pagey used to do with the Leslie so musical and great sounding. I have not gotten anything I like so far. SO the amp into Leslie works out after the merging with the cab IR? As a amp without an IR sounds pretty brutal. What about the vibe which is really good in the Helix, Gimour's best tones like Breath were w a Vibe. I do have this thing for the Harmonic Tremolo which is pretty cool. Now as for modeling even more older effects, can we please for the love of your god, stop using the most advanced technology to recreate old technology? Why not just a better phaser with more tweakable options? I like the Deluxe with variable phase stages, pretty nice, a multiple or dual phaser would be great but need options, mix. panning, cross over, the more the better. I had a lot of these old pedals and really why the need to time machine everything to what used to be? Are we just not capable of creating anything new?? I guess that is why we come out with a new phone every few months. How about a newer Moog phaser instead of a 1970s pedal that really was not all that great to begin with.

At some point we are going to have to leave the 1950s technology behind. Soon and even now there will not be enough good wood for guitars. You have to change the way you think about traditional gear when you start programming stuff on the Helix, the usual rules and procedures can be and should be, bent in the virtual world of the Helix. There are no real speaker or pedal gear impedance and order issues. It is a slow progression to ween yourself off what you have always used and done, and indeed for some, rather impossible. They get in their heads "no modeling technology can ever sound and feel like an amp" and even when they try it they will not be able to accept it. Personally no one loved the sound of tube amps more than me, it took a long time to realize technology could and must move us forward or we are just walking around with a backpack personal phone w a 20ft whip antenna, "because they sounded better". I feel the Helix is not a unit for those who cannot create their own presets and have to copy everything or god forbid be stuck with factory examples. The real magic of this unit is what you can do to create ideas and experiments that would otherwise be impossible. It takes time to learn and some headphone retreating which may take away your practice and normal playing time but in a while you'll have some the best sounding stuff you ever played through and it will inspire you to be better and improve. Sure you can short cut and buy some of the better genius programmer presets but I cannot presume they meant for no one to tweak these to their own rig and response feel. Great for getting ideas and understanding how things work but the real magic is getting in there and creating your own personal stuff. Also quite satisfying that you did it and it is custom designed for you. No one can expect to replace and redo their entire rig and spectrum of tones in a short time, it takes some work and time to get what you need but I will wager if you do the time and learn, what you will end up with will sound better than you ever imagined, with near zero maintenance and failure issues.

I would love to know what if any is the curve slope. I do not really cut my highs apart from ultra high end which just adds hiss and noise outside the guitar range. As I am not recording tracks these days so really trimmed EQ cuts are not something I need or relish. The behavior of normal speakers is key to me in accurate modeling. Since we are not producing signal or frequencies really outside the range of what the guitar can do sans +/- octave effects, one wonders why hi cuts are needed in the first place. I always cut the ultra low end as that just robs wattage and anything below the lowest notes I am producing are just sub sonics as far as I am concerned. Wondering does the Helix have a built in sub sonic filter?? IRs are some what a mystery to me at times as to the why and premise. I mean do I really want to have the sound of some cheese speaker with terrible rolloff, bad efficiency and really notable coloring, not me. Seems counter-intuitive to use a highly technical advanced modeling technology to mimic and copy something rather outdated and inferior like for example the Whammy or an older octave pedal, why would you want to match something that did not track for crap because it is a monophonic tracking technology pedal? Then lollipop the Whammy in the Helix does not track right on Eb??? If you were going to model something then why not the newer Whammy V with its detune circuit that is polyphonic and no more bad tone buffer? How about the newer octave pedals that are also poly tracking? Why this constant reach back into time for pedals and effects that quite frankly sucked and were used really because it is all there was as an option? And why can one not move the "mic" across the speaker as I have seen on 3rd part IRs and other modeler units? Where is the Helix "mic" IR virtually positioned? Personally I would prefer an optimized highly tweakable amp with a range of tube sounding gains over the copy mimic of an old amp. I get the nostalgia and the inability to move on but using such advanced modeling technology to capture and reproduce something a half century or more in lower technology seems somehow to be trying very hard not to progress to the future. My fav models in my GSP1101 unit were the Digitech optimized clean tube models, they were really glass sounding so much better than the copy of Fender's and what not. But I know this largely falls on deaf ears as we must continue to produce technology for the masses which have no idea of what it is. Ooooooo, it sounds just like the 1950s....or a crap pedal I hated when it was new.

Don't forget the guitar has tone caps which have that tone or less high end and warm low end BB uses no gain dist, maybe why he prefers the solid state for no clipping.Being a Les Paul user myself my guitars do not have those tone caps in the jazzier model guitars. Like to have that in my bridge position. BB's tone is really not complex, very simple really. But you cannot have the wrong gear and get it. As far as models in the Helix go with the Roland 120 not sure what else is in there that might be close as well. Food for thought though now I have to work on some more Jazz tone presets, BYW that is one major cool custom box!

There are also Global settings for signal level which may play a part. You can use send/return separately and different ones or just use the combination loop send/return in mono or stereo configs. I would be surprised if the unit was not working right. I am sure L6 would effect repairs asap if this is so,

use what you like is the rule The Helix is way beyond any sort of couple hundred dollar multi unit, period. I it is not POD, else I would not have one. There is a reason why the flagship multi units run around $500 and the Helix is $1500, you get what you pay for despite what one does or does not hear which is a whole other issue. I tried a $600 Atomic Amp before the Helix, it went back. My GSP1101 modeler preamp had some really great amp models and effects in it and I love that unit but even at $800 and the clean tube models it has which are amazing the Helix, beat its a s s with a big hammer. So moral of this story is use what you like, use what works for you, Settle for whatever you will and love the sound of whatever you hear. The Helix flag continues to fly on my house.

I am not that up on the midi stuff as I just have never used it. Not using the Helix primarily for amp and cab models is really limiting its intended forte. A couple misnomers are that you need to use just preamps when running into a power amp, tubes or otherwise, you do not. The amp model imparts a fullness and depth to the tone much more than just the preamp model. I am not sure of most others out there but I run a multi rig set up using stereo FRFR speakers and I have stereo wired 4x12 using high end guitar speakers. I use different power amps but no tubes. And I use the full amp and cab IRs for my rig as the sound is just amazing. What you are doing is basically using your amps as a power amp so you are really already there. One does not really run a full preamp into a preamp so if you are doing that with the preamp models it is not going to really do well. Having used many amps using the effect loop return to bypass the amps preamp section on various rigs I have used including a guitar synth rig, eventually the resistors on the loop will blow, all of mine did in time. Better to have a dedicated power amp but we have to use what we have at hand many times so we make the best of it. Using a compact power amp with matched wattage to your speakers works the best and despite the notion we have to get tubes in there somehow. L6 Engineering will tell you you will get better results not using a tube power amp as the tubes have already been modeled and you do not need additional clipping and gain response from them. It tends to be too much of a good thing. (I do recommend using FRFR speakers or high end guitar speakers.) Anyway, just FYI. You can create in the Helix a dual amp patch with an array of effects you are switch auto by snap shot one button, one button preset change or basic on and off effects via their switches and assigns. You can make one switch do multiple things and assign more sophisticate controllers to do many complex things which are a little over my head right now from the aspect I just have not gotten in there to learn or use them for my rig. The charm of the Helix is its ability potential and future potential that others just do not have. It's a big step changing from amps but it can be done and using the Helix makes for one super fast rig set up and worry over gear. Like most I was obsessed with my tube amps and so on, after I wanted to finally get away from the buying of tubes that were often bad in a supposed matched set and/or tested binned and the resulting maintenance and bias adjustments of tube amps. Modeling can work and does sound amazing if you have the talent for tweaking and developing intelligent presets. I had owned several modelers before the Helix and they just did not push me over to being able to leave my tube amp arsenal. When I first ran through the Helix and my initial tests for what I want a modeler to do, feel and respond to pedals. This is the deal, did not need to go Fractal or Kemper this one has it. And I say that as a POD hater you could not give me one, been there done that. The Helix has the capability to do what you want and I suspect in several different means. I am not up on some of your needs but I do know from what I program I could use controllers, presets and snapshots to get it all. The effects in the Helix are only a few being of the new HX component modeling technique many are carry overs from the POD and M L6 stock and they have promised to upgrade in time. So the effects are not vastly superior to other units or even higher end pedals for that matter. So can it do what you have in mind, I am certain it can. It would be hard for someone to detail exact walk through of what and how to do it without having your rig to analyze and figure out the best methodology.

I sort of look at it differently, just put a simple EQ, flat EQ and just use the gain level, first up to drop the input sensitivity when needed, then off when you do not want it. Messing with the pickup levels drastically effects the gains structure on the amp. I use Les Paul's and just keep my vols rolled back some on cleans and roll up on high gains. I agree with calibrating to the loudest strum that well be used and then deal with the lower volumes. I do not like the idea of PADing dowh the guitar pickups and one of mine has 66/57 EMGs, essential to keep the impedance on auto I think. Several of my pickups are just too loud signal all the way up on anything clean amp they will digitally clip, terrible sound to be sure and I think that is really a normal thing. When I played Strat's for ages I always had them full up, only when I git into Les Paul's did I learn to use those volume and tone controls and the myriad of tones they can produce.

Have to try that one. I never can get a rotating speaker I like or can use. I had one of the dual MXR it's alright but that thing changes the tone out of its output when off, suppose its a buffer thing but changed my signal quality when it was not on. Two phasers was novel and you could do some cool things did more of a cooler vibe thing for me but I never was into really fast phasers. Did sound pretty wicked in stereo. I want that Leslie sound Pagey used to get on recordings, musically amazing. Never had much luck with Rotary effect thing. Have heard Jeff Beck a really great Leslie with that RotoSim. Maybe the newer Leslie effect pedals might be a good add on for the loop.