imoldcraig

I have recently been interested in setting up a couple of my amps in the 7CM, but I have noticed a severe lack of resources online and on the forum (maybe I’m just missing everything) on the topic. My biggest interest now is to just see how others are using this and what tips and pointers anyone else can provide on the topic. Last night, I set it up with my Egnater Armageddon and my Peavey VTM 120: two very different amps. I’m using mostly analog drive pedals out in front of the amps with shared modulation and delay before the amps and in the effects loop. Since the VTM is a one channel amp, I am using a clean channel from the Helix and I’m using MIDI to control everything on the Armageddon so I can change over to clean and dirty channels on both amps concurrently. I eventually figured out that I needed to pan the outputs into a shared Path 2A of delays and reverbs hard right and hard left so there was not any dry signal bleed over, but I still feel like there are other things I could be doing to maximize the potential of this method.

About a year ago, I decided to take the plunge into the digital world and I bought a Helix unit and a nice poweramp that I used to power a standard 4x12 speaker cabinet. I don't play out often (virtually never currently), but I just like the sound of a loud guitar amp when I am at home in my basement. While I really liked the setup for about a month, I started to miss the character of an actual tube amp or just real amps in general. I play a lot of metal (black, doom and the occasional death metal riff) and I could not get the Helix to give me the tones I wanted. I sold the Helix, rebought some guitar pedals (Strymon pedals, an EHX HOG and many others) and eventually bought three amps: a Peavey VTM 120, a Sunn Beta Bass and a Roland Jazz Chorus 120. Now, I am seriously considering coming back to the Helix, but in a different context. I am going to sell off all of my pedals, except my Boss HM-2 clones, and keep the amps and run the Helix in the 4CM primarily through my VTM. I also have options for recording, since I have little experience in that area, with the Helix and I feel like it is an overall better tradeout. While I definitely think the Helix has usable amps, it is the routing options, interface and updates that are really causing me to come back. Now, I've also learned that Helix has released versions of a Darkglass pedal and Sunn bass amp! So, this is anyone's chance to talk me out of this plan, or buy up some Strymon pedals and get a good deal on an old EHX HOG ;)

I got really lucky recently and bought an Atomic Reactor 50/50 for about $300. It has options for 4, 8 and 16 ohms and two independent 50 watt tube power amps that can be independently biased. The only downside is that both independent power amps cannot be bridged together for 100 watts. So far, I've noticed almost no breakup from the power tubes at loud volumes and it has almost no coloration on the tone from the Helix. I would definitely recommend one if you can find it on the used market.

I'm still working out quite a few of them. I may post the ones that I have once I feel completely satisfied with the tone. Between the doom patches and trying to integrate my Throne Torcher (HM-2) into the Helix, I have barely got to play around with the unit as a whole. It's been a fun process.

I just bought a Helix and I've been playing around with those two pedals a lot. I'm a big fan of doom metal, so a Rat and Muff are essential to some of the sounds that I need. I think the biggest thing with the Muff is the lack of gain/sustain that was mentioned and the bump in midrange that makes it blend with the amp more than completely taking over the sound like most Muffs do. I hate to sound like a broken record, but I noticed a much better sound when I uploaded some darker sounding impulses and used it with the Marshall models on the Helix. I could get a good doom sound and also got the J Mascis sound from Bug with a little tweaking and little-to-no-EQ.

So, I ran it through multiple amps, cabinets, flipped grounds, EQ'd, pretty much the whole nine yards and somehow got a good sound with it. The ground lift and instrument level did not really factor in, it is just a noisy pedal while running into an already high gain amp. There were a few amps that the Throne Torcher did not get along with, but a few that really worked well despite the noise. The biggest change came when I switched to an IR (it was pre-loaded from a previous user into the Helix when I got it, so I'm not exactly sure what company it comes from). The noise gate magically started working before and after the Throne Torcher and the pedal sounded much tighter when playing. When switching back to the stock cab, the noise would appear. I didn't want to be one of those people that loads a billion IRs to replace the stock cabs on the first day, but I'm finding that they are more compatible with analog and built-in effects as well as just overall sounding more like a real amp. Thanks for the suggestions guys, I will do my best to become a more loyal poster on the forums to repay the debt!

It is running into a loop. The noise is present with the pedal engaged, but nearly silent with the pedal off. I use an isolated 9v power, so there isn't any issue with power and the cables are all clean, too. And what do you mean? An African or a European swallow? That could very well be the problem. This is my first foray into a mainly digital rig, so I forget about tiny differences like that. I'll check it later and report back.

I am new to the forums, so I apologize if this question has already been addressed (I did not find it in a simple search), but I am getting an uncontrollable amount of noise from my Abominable Throne Torcher (an HM-2 clone) when running it into nearly every amp/cab combo on the Helix. I've tried blending in the signal, using all the noise gates and a few other EQ tricks to no avail. An HM-2 is integral to my guitar sound, so giving it up and finding another option is off the table. Has anyone else had any success with super high gain pedals ran in the effects loop of the Helix? Is there an amp that works best? Overall, what am I missing? p.s. Yes, I am one of those people that do the "crank the knobs on the HM-2 for the Swedish Death Metal approach." It still sounds super noisy with the distortion turned down and the volume backed off, also.