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Paulzx

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Posts posted by Paulzx

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

    • Like 1
    • Upvote 1
  3. 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!

  4. 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.

  5. On 9/29/2023 at 10:45 AM, barnsleyboy said:

    I don't think anybody is naive enough to think that you can just take a home patch, turn it up and get the exact sound you want at rehearsal volume. The essence of the post is that faced with a myriad of parameters to play around with are there any quick and easy things to look out for and adjust to get the sound closer to where he needs to be? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've read that you need to tweak the sound when you play at higher volumes, but what do you tweak? is it EQ? Reducing reverb mix? Less drive? etc. My go to patch has all sorts of stuff going on with it to get the sort of post-punk noise that I like. If I were to take it out to practice/ performance levels, I really wouldn't know where to start. I'm guessing that I would probably begin with the straight amp sound and add effects in one at a time.

     

    With a conventional tube amp the tweakable parameters are a lot simpler. Helix is a powerful and versatile unit which brings with it a lot more complexity in fine tuning the sound. The responses here have been a good starter for ten, so many thanks to you all for taking the time to reply. The Sadites videos have been a big help. I think it's a case of him spending time getting to know the Helix. He'll get there in the end!!

    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.

  6. On 9/7/2023 at 12:24 AM, km06ore said:

    Hi guys had my helix for about a month now, I've been trying to make my own thrash metal early Metallica, Megadeath ect  presets.
    I've found some amp settings used by the bands and they sound not too bad when copied into the closest amps that helix has to offer.
    The thing I'm having trouble with is they sound fizzy or ice picky when playing leads, should I be using eqs to cut the high end more or finding certain frequencies and trying to cut them.

    Example of a signal chain I have tried would be the 5150, scream 808 in front and either the stock cab that comes with the amp or an ownhammer ir.

    When I play the same amp from customtone the amps sound great, with it helix cabs or ir.

    I'm listening to my helix on a pair of dt990s and mainly using my KH3 with active pickups.

    I'm more than willing to learn how to dial in my own tones it just need a little guidance, looked around on YouTube but I can't really find any demos of lead playing to compare their presets to. Tried posting on the helix Reddit but I don't think I have enough karma to post.

     

    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?

     

     

  7. 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. 

  8. On 6/28/2023 at 6:09 PM, theElevators said:

    oh!  that guitarist was also wearing socks!  darn.  maybe that was it!!! 

    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

  9. On 6/28/2023 at 4:54 PM, theElevators said:

    I have personally seen this!  I gave my complete backup to another guitarist.  He then overwrote my global settings with his old ones.  Not exactly sure what it was, but for him, that menu kept popping up -- I saw that in person.  It was resolved by me taking his Helix and overwriting global settings with my own again.  Problem was solved. 

     

     

    You most likely have your global settings from a previous firmware version....?  Try to reset the global setting and recreating it.  Or if you have your current global settings, just overwrite it. 

     

     

    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?

    • Upvote 1
  10. On 6/28/2023 at 2:13 PM, toddkc said:

    Do you happen to be playing barefoot or in thin socks?  I have that happen due to the capacitive touch on the buttons.  Super random, but if that's what it is you can turn that off in the global settings.

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

  11. 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?

  12. On 6/22/2023 at 5:07 AM, markwesse said:

    Long live the HD500 for clean/crunch tones with guts!!

     

    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.

  13. On 4/17/2023 at 5:10 PM, surfsup1955 said:

    Still going strong.  The tap tempo/tuner footswitch is a bit quirky but still gets the job done.  It doesn’t like flip flops or my house slippers at all - it prefers stiffer soles.  Other than that the Helix Floor has been, and continues to remain, on the cutting edge of the growing list of modeling units out there.  

     

    However, recently I took deliver of an FM9 to play around with just to see what it was all about.  One pro the FM9 has over the Helix is that a good many of the factory presets are totally usable as is - very little tweaking required to get going.  The next pro - being the unit provides visual metering for input, preset leveling, and output.  In fact, at initial set up of the FM9, Fractal strongly suggests that the operator gets these levels adjusted correctly, which ensures the factory presets sound right.  That’s about it.  Well… it does have more DSP but a non issue for me, I build and use fairly straight fwd presets.

     

    I won’t go into all the Helix pros, but naturally there are quite a few for anyone who has spent so much time using it.  The most important and obvious being the logical and easy to use interface on the hardware, firmware, and the software.  The FX, amps, cabs are tit for tat, subjective, etc.

     

    I’m pretty certain most new users that have a hard time liking Helix factory presets - or dialing in great presets is mostly due to the lack of metering/leveling.  I discovered (years ago) that building Helix presets via FOH mixer meters made a huge difference.  And with Helix Native, metering came along, and everyone realized that made a huge difference as well.

     

    I ate the shipping and sent the FM9 back.  

    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?

  14. On 4/17/2023 at 8:25 PM, theElevators said:

    I was told people really like factory 3.50 presets.  But then again first thing I did when I got my Helix was to erase all of the factory presets, but that's just me, that's what I do with every single piece of gear. 

    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.

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  15. 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. 

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  16. 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.

  17. On 3/22/2023 at 11:53 AM, MayPRS said:

    So... I found the problem! And it was the "Auto" impedance setting.... what I did:

    • Connected the guitar direct to amp to check overall tone and sound;
    • Connected to Helix in a empty preset - without doing nothing, there's the brilliance/trebly/shrill sound;
    • Altered the impedance from "Auto" until I get the exact same tone as connected direct to amp - on the 90k region there's where it matches the guitar connected to amp tone. Actually until 230k sounds great to me!

    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

  18. On 3/5/2023 at 5:39 PM, Phrankenstrat said:

    After a few live shows, I've come to realize I made a blunder that has become very apparent and not an easy fix (at least that I know of). I use many presets in every show and I have many snapshots for each preset. Unfortunately, when I made them they are pretty darn haphazard. For instance, I pretty much want all my main rhythm parts on lower row A. All my leads on lower row but in D. And various other highly used funtions in the the two B & C and also get the upper row to be somewhat consistent. However, the way I made each preset, these Snapshots are all over the dang place. I can't figure out how to move them to where I want them and it's driving me nuts. I would have that it would just be a click and drag but that is not the case. Anyone have a good way of doing this? I really don't want to have to try to do this on the board itself. Thanks for listening. 

    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

  19. On 2/28/2023 at 2:29 PM, themetallikid said:

    Yeah I favor the 2204 Mod over the 'regular' 2204, but I get where your going with that.  The mid freq control on the mod can help darken/thicken things up with slight adjustments.  I also get what your saying for the OD's in front.  

     

    I set the preset up this morning (visually only, I'll plug in and tweak tonight after my trivia date) but I was able to fit a ton of tone possibilities in my preset to use as a template.  

     

    I added in chain order:

     

    Path 1a

    Poly Tune

    Wah - Fassel

    Phaser - Script

    Chorus

    Deluxe Comp

    OD - Timmy (this may change but this would be to help with my clean amp to get from clean to pushed type sounds, not high gain beasts)

    OD - TS808 (I love this as a lead OD, it loosens the tone a bit in a way other OD's dont)

    Split 1a>2a, 1b>2b

     

    2a - 10 band EQ (only for trying Craig's EQ clarity trick, havent tried it yet, these may get removed)

    2a - Line 6 Badonk

    2a - Mesa EQ (if it will fit, have not tried yet)

    Split/Merge

    2b - 10 band EQ (only for trying Craig's EQ clarity trick, havent tried it yet, these may get removed)

    2b - Vitriol Crunch (not sure if I need the heavier version or not, thinking probably not with a dual amp sound)

    2b - Mesa EQ (if it will fit, have not tried yet)

    Split/Merge

     

    Dual Cab - Marshall Greenback 25 4x12/57 mic, cap edge, on axis, high cut down to 6.5khz, Mesa V30 4x12/121 mic, 3.5 from center, on axis, high cut down to 6.5khz

    Stereo Chorus

    Volume Pedal for swells (may not be needed)

    Stereo Simple Delay

     

    I know I will not need all of this on every preset, but if I can dial in all my sounds using this 'template' then it'll be easier to remove whats not needed and sprinking in song specific effects instead of frankenstein'ing each preset and trying to get them to match.  This will (once dialed in) provide a great template to save favorites to then use in building song presets.   

     

    Still open to ideas on what to try, again that was all by eyes only and my own experience with what I think I'd like.  I did not play anything...on paper, I think it covers most everything.

    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.

  20. 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

  21. On 2/21/2023 at 5:23 AM, mattbarden said:

     it's the new Vitriol amp and Plumes OD that IMO brought it up to Fractal's level.

    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

  22. On 2/19/2023 at 2:34 PM, musicimpossible said:

    I purchased the Helix when it first came out. I was excited about the functionality with the Helix. Unfortunately I wasn’t impressed enough with the realism and I ended up selling it. It was just missing something on the Guitar sides. I thought some of the bass tones were good.
    Are any of you with the original version (prior to the update) impressed enough with the cab, mic placement, amp, and effects updates to keep your unit? I have a feeling that the mic placement update will be the key to have unlocked what I thought was potential in the original unit. 

    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.

    • Upvote 1
  23. On 2/10/2023 at 12:05 AM, yoMuzicMan said:

    @DunedinDragon I've seen Jason's videos along with many other people who have helped demonstrate "how to" dial in a patch, create a patch from scratch etc.  As I follow all of their steps exactly, my results are significantly different.

     

    @theElevators Yes, the LT and Rack are routed the same way. Guitar directly into input and then listening with the same speakers via line outs or the same headphones. I've factory reset them, do not have global EQ engaged, and am just creating a new patch using an amp and cab.  Very simple setup.

     

    @Schmalle I'm using Elixir nanoweb 10-46. And I'm using 5 different guitars.  Telecaster, Stratocaster, Fender Sixty-Six, Variax, and Carvin CT-3.  All guitars have volume and tone open wide with similar results. I've experimented with pickup height on all of the guitars with very little impact to the muddiness. I don't own a real amp these days, so I can't compare. I will try to demonstrate my issue in a video and post it on YouTube.

     

    Many of these guitars I've had for years.  And before using Helix, I would plug my guitars into a Scarlet audio interface connected to my Windows computer and was using S-Gear software. I will say if the input gain wasn't set right, it could get muddy too.  But having control over the input level enabled me to get very good tones out of S-Gear.  This is what the issue feels like to me using the Helix.  I don't think input of my units have enough signal to drive the amps correctly.  I've messed around with the impedance setting, and it does change the sound.  But no setting fixes my issue.  And I've also messed with the padding on or off.  Only putting an EQ block in front of any amp to boost the level by around 6 or 8, cutting the lows, and boosting the highs helps.

     

    My original post ended with a question asking if Line 6 may have updated the input section of these units.  Since the Helix came out in 2015, and I have 2016 and 2017 models, maybe something has changed. A friend of mine just got an LT this year.  I plan on getting together with him so I can compare a simple patch between them.

     

    Your replies are much appreciated.

    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.

  24. On 2/7/2023 at 4:57 AM, mattbarden said:

    Fractal has a lot of love and it's very well deserved. Metallica uses them live for a reason right? 

    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.

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