Paulzx

Buying new is the safest bet of course. I bought my Helix floor as a used unit but it was mint, it was from Ebay, and the seller had excellent feedback, so I was confident in that purchase. You have to be patient sometimes to get the right deal if it's a used purchase, and perhaps make an offer on one that is in good condition.

Agree with the Elevators. The main problem you have got is that it could take some time before you stumble across something that doesn't work as it should, the USB jack might be damaged etc and you won't know until you hook it up to HX edit or update it etc. If it was ebay, where you have some protection should the item not be in working order as described, I would be more tempted, but maybe not somewhere you have no come back should you find a problem. I have seen a number of floor units and LT's for sale, ebay, reverb etc. Might be a few dollars more but much better condition.

Interesting thread to watch. Much of what has been said has been my experience also. I have a Fractal now running alongside my Helix, which I'm discussing over at TGP. I haven't used anything on the Helix update yet, it sounds promising though. I will say though, after a long time trying I finally dialled in a Helix modded 2204 tone that I'm very pleased with. It may not solve the bright cap thing but there are some good tones achievable for those who want to put the effort in. And.. the request for Marshall tones and amps should not be dismissed, its a huge area for high gain players. It's not a small thing!

You're in my territory.. I use the Helix almost exclusively for high gain stuff, marshall being my most used tone. However, I will tell you the Plexi and the 800 on the Helix are rubbish. The modded 2204 though, is very good, and that amp really is the go to amp in the Helix for hard rock and metal. Pair that amp with some of the new cabs and you can get some pretty nice results.

Don't worry, you always get the obligatory sarcastic reply from someone. Most people just want to try and help. So the solution to your issue is for him to duplicate his bedroom presets and save a copy for live playing so he has two set lists basically, one for each scenario. The live presets just need to be re edited at live volume level in your rehearsal place. That should just be a case of re editing the amp and cab settings for that environment. I do find with my Helix Floor that I need to have a copy of my presets not only for volume differences but also for different guitars. Basically any time you change one of the factors, be it guitar, environment, volume, you need to edit the preset. I don't use the global eq for that, I much prefer a nicely dialled preset copy.

I can give you a short check list to solve that with those sort of tones, but first thing to look at is how you're listening to it. Headphones, as good as they are for practising quietly, produce a very different sound to a guitar cab or FRFR speakers, very artificial sounding. Maybe someone here can suggest some headphones that solve that but in my experience, none of them sound the way the Helix sounds through real speakers. So are you only using headphones or are you going between speakers and headphones?

Yep, I keep mentioning this over on the TGP and on the Fractal forum, the cab update really opened things up especially for high gain players. I've got a very nice JMP1 type Marshall tone using two blended cabs one of which is the Cali IV. All my high gain presets were previously using IR's because the original cabs were horrible for the most part, I know some people used them but most high gain players moved to IR's very quickly. However, for the most part now, my high gain presets have all moved back to these new cabs because they do have an edge over the IR's. That update probably stopped me moving to another platform to be honest.

I can't watch the video at the moment I'm at work.. what's the verdict on the sound - all quite similar or is anything standing out?

I've cured it, I just put the biggest pair of shoes on I could find! I'm kidding of course lol I need to check those global foot switch settings when I get back home

Ah well this is a good clue then. But we don't know what settings in the globals are causing it? What's the easiest way to do this - factory reset, install latest firmware, install backed up presets without global settings etc?

Not barefoot but yes to socks.. I will look into this!

Hello All, I mentioned this a while back when RD2RK helped me out understanding how to program command centre, but the problem persists! So no issues using command centre or programming it. I've used it multiple times on presets to create a nice pedal board when in stomp mode. However, occasionally but not every time, when in stomp mode and playing, the display will suddenly jump into the command centre window and it's doing it randomly on more than one preset - so it's literally as if I have pressed a button to access command centre halfway through playing a song. It doesn't affect any of the pedal board selections or patches, it's just the display, so you end up pressing the home button to get back to your standard signal chain display. It's just very annoying, knowing it shouldn't happen. I wondered if anyone else had seen this issue also?

I cannot agree with that. I had both HD500's and then the Helix floor, and the Helix, with some knowledge and tweaking, will go close to most real world high gain tones, I should know, I'm the most fussy high gain player of all time. The HD500 was okay and yes it made some noise, but it was never really totally convincing on the high gain, and that was the general perception of that device at the time. Things took a quantum leap with the Helix, and the other current modelers. I think it may just be your perception of the sound you're hearing from the 500 and perhaps not getting the best out of the Helix? Certainly I considered getting rid of my helix many times, but I steadily became much better at dialling it in, to the point where only something really mega would see me changing - but I would never consider going back to a 500! My Helix crunch tones have plenty of guts, but they're all different, some have no bass and really cut through, some have bass and a bit of thump, my point is, it can do it all if you know how.

This is interesting. The FM9 is a great unit for sure, but I don't think I would give up my Helix floor at this point just due to familiarity and functionality. My impression is that if you're playing anything other than high gain, it may not noticeably be any different in terms of sound quality. Are the FM9 Marshall tones noticeably any better than the Helix, does anyone know?

Mostly the 3.50 fandom was around the cabs I think, we all agreed the new cabs were a big improvement. I don't recall many saying the presets were great, I'm sure they are better but in general the factory presets are pretty dire to be honest. I don't know why that is but it doesn't really matter because one of the first things you learn about Helix is that you need to build your own presets.

I saw that video when it first came out. All sounded interesting but pretty sure the conclusion on the actual sound of the unit was that it wasn't quite as good as it's competitors, specifically Helix and Fractal. That's really all I look for now. Extra features are nice but not enough for me to buy something. It has to be quite a lot better sounding to get me interested at this point.

You just want the Helix to sound good - I wouldn't sell it just yet, at least try some things out first. It's more involved than it should be, and it would have saved me so much time if i knew at the beginning, the things I know now, using the helix. No one ever said it, but when i bought my Helix floor, I assumed it would sound instantly good, it's just the perception of buying a modeler, you don't realise there are variables which make the sound what it is. That was my experience anyway. I got within a fraction of selling mine, but I'm glad I didn't, instead I put some time in to getting deeper into what I could do to improve it, and basically with a combination of things, I got to where I wanted. Part of that process was learning to understand what makes a tone sound the way it does, I thought I knew that but I really didn't, when you do learn to appreciate the amp controls, you can dial in some good stuff. There are limitations, but those can only be overcome with a lot more money or completely different approach. You need - guitar capable of the sound you're chasing. Decent strings. Decent studio monitors (or whatever your output is, research to get something tried and tested). Then you need to get a handle on getting rid of the harshness, cutting highs and lows, getting familiar with some IR's and new cabs (I always use dual cabs). Get familiar with some of the EQ blocks, they will help cut the muddy bass that kills tones - I'm talking high gain here. Once you know these tricks you can dial in some nice stuff, minor tweaks on the amp settings can make the difference to get it spot on. I would be happy to share some tips. When you get a familiar system going, you will know straight away which amps are going to be any good, just by running through the same procedures on each.

Interesting and well done for cracking it. I'm about to try and do some Gilmour tone matches myself so I'm going to try the settings in your video clip along with the impedance settings. If it works for this it should also be useful for other tones

Unless I'm misunderstanding the problem, the easiest solution is just to simply re-order the snapshots how you like them using command centre no? It won't move e them in Snapshot mode but you can put them where you like in stomp mode. I do this all time with my presets

Yep I've done the same approach myself like the above. Basically made a template with most of what you've listed, and I just duplicate it but drop in different amps, so I have that same preset with all of the high gain amps. It's a really quick way of auditioning various amps and cabs too. The rev gen red surprised me when I dropped that in to one of my duplicated presets, I've never used it before but in my template preset it sounds really good. I have noticed that you can have the same blocks in a certain arrangement in a chain and it sounds pretty good, but if you move certain blocks around, sometimes even just something like moving a reverb the other side of a delay or something, it can change the character of the tone, and you notice. Another good reason to use the template approach you're doing.

Interesting.. I've started using the 2204 with a tube screamer and horizon drive in front (gain at 0) then dual cabs - Uber 4x2 + greenback 4x12. I'm using this as an overall go to patch for high gain, but the new dual cabs are giving a tighter low end, can even be cleaned up further with a 10 band eq taking out the bottom 2 frequencies. What's nice about the two gain pedals in front is that you can get a more traditional high gain sound with the 808 on and the horizon off, but with the horizon on also, you get a darker sound without it being muddy or boomy. Don't know if the 2204 is heavy enough for everything on that list but I might try dropping your badonk in the chain instead and seeing what that's like. I imaging that amp is going to need a bit of tweaking on the bottom end though

Not tried the Plumes but do you find the Vitriol quite trebly? I haven't decided on how to dial that in yet. Cutting highs and rolling back treble doesn't always produce a golden tone but I would be interested to hear anyone who has got that one working nicely. I know it's subjective and probably sounds different on each guitar etc but I'm always trying to get the amp sims to sound throaty without boomy bottom end, with a nice cutting edge - and lively, aggressive bite etc which normally involves having the treble up a bit of course

Yes.. and no.. To sum it up, prior to the the 3.5 update, I didn't use any stock cabs because they were just dull sounding compared to IR's. After 3.5, I can use blended cabs and on some of my presets it sounds better than the IR's, so from that perspective, the update has produced cabs and mic options that can give you a pleasing fuller sound - I'm talking high gain by the way as that is the area that has always been a bit lacking in the Helix - but some presets I've left the IR's in, so I think the cabs are good now if you get the right combination. It's not an instant fix. Whether that makes the Helix worth a buy is something I can't fully answer except to say yes and no lol. I will say that my high gain tones have massively improved on the Helix over the last couple of years and I've managed to coax some very nice sounds out of it, but it required a lot of learning and experimenting, it doesn't really come out of the box like that. I don't think any of the modelers particularly do from what I've heard.

I don't think it's anything to do with the above, I had the same problem about a year ago and solved it now, but still went through all the questions above. To be honest, switching strings or impedance settings don't make drastic changes to a problem like that. In my case, it was the bass frequencies of the output speakers. As soon as I cut the bass on the FRFR speakers themselves using the room control switch, the guitar came alive, so it was less to do with the Helix and more to do with the speakers. When I listened with headphones it was okay, so if you're saying the tones are muddy even just through headphones, that's a problem as it's not speaker related obviously.

And Def Leppard are using them including the amp sims, so yes there is a good reason and it was an initial draw for me, but knowing i can get close with the Helix is good enough for me now. The Vitriol model is cool, but i think it must be pretty DSP intensive because I noticed you can't have as much stuff in the chain with that amp. I agree with everything you said above. To describe Helix high gain I would say there is an inherent harshness in the top end and a boomy muddy quality in the low end. There are certain ways of dealing with that as we know, but you do have to go out of your way to get there, in fact, you have to know how to do it full stop. In my head I think I've always wanted an aggressive hi gain with depth, not just a fizzy top end IR type of depth, which is a lot closer with the new cabs. IR's were really helpful but even they do tend to produce a much boomier fizzier tone. It sounded bigger and fuller compared to the original cabs, but i notice the boomier fizzier qualities more now against the new cabs, those sound a lot tighter and clearer on the bottom end than my IR's now. That's interesting what you said about Helix and Axe FX being close - see, close isn't good enough to switch. If I were to drop 2k on an FM9 or even more on an Axe III, I wouldn't want close, I would want a lot better because if you're going to sacrifice snap shots, foot switches, exp pedals etc for a 'better' sounding device, it had better be a hell of a lot better to be worthwhile. I still think there's room for improvement with the amp models and cabs on the Helix but for the first time in a few years I'm actually quite happy with it.