motorhead9999

Alright, so I'm looking at the manual for that section you mentioned, and I see what you're getting at, but here's an issue I'm looking at: I'm trying to merge my Return 1 (bass side) into the looper that I currently have sitting on my "Guitar" input (melody) side, and when I try and drag it, it only gives me the option to move the looper (in order to generate a split) to a line on the current input side it has (i.e., it won't let me create a merge with the return input). Am I looking at going about this the wrong way? Basically, I'd like the looper to be able to record both the melody and bass side at the same time.

You're right. I plugged directly into the helix (melody side into Guitar, and bass into one of the returns) and that seemed to solve the issues. At this point I'll have to RTFM to see about changing the line levels to see if that solves the problem. I'll have to noodle a bit too and see if I even need this pre-amp at all even. Thanks again!

Hey all, I just got a Line 6 Helix today and I'm sort of needing advice (aka help). I'm fairly certain that my issues are with the Helix, but throwing the Stepabout in there is making me wonder if I'm messing something up. (For those not aware, the Stepabout is a Stick oriented preamp that lets you rout the bass and melody inputs to different outputs. Check out this video to see how it works: https://youtu.be/YO-8SkgXaPU?t=5m58s) Here is the setup I'm using: I have my Stick (Villex PASV4 pickup) in stereo mode (toggle switch pointing towards my right arm). Cable goes from the Stick to the Stepabout (ring/Melody into Input 1, Tip/Bass into Input 2). On Input 1 matrix, I have A selected, and on Input 2 matrix, I have B selected. Then I have Output A routed to my Guitar In on the Helix, and Output B routed to the Aux In. On my basic patch, I have the top input with "Guitar" set as my input (with a random amp and reverb effect), and on the second row, I have Aux selected as my input, and a random bass amp. If I understand correctly, this should mean that my melody strings should be routing to my amp and reverb unit, and my bass strings should be routing to my aux row with just an amp (no reverb). I have two problems so far: 1) I have a terrible noise/static/hum that's coming through the headphone output of the helix. I don't know if it's a grounding issue or what, but I'm not sure what to do. I can put a threshold on it and set my guitar impedance so that it's not bad, but as soon as I kick the amp on, it becomes terrible again. If plug my headphones into each of the Stepabout outputs, the tone coming out is perfectly crisp and clean. 2) Despite the setup above, my bass strings will still have the reverb effect coming through on them, which makes no sense to me. I'm extremely new to the world of effect units and amp modelers, so I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks! I think that was basically everything I needed to know, and your answer to number 3 was exactly what I was hoping could be done, and just how I saw it working. Can't wait for this thing to get here!

Hey all, I should be having my new Helix being delivered today! It was supposed to come Thursday, but thanks to a certain Hurricane, it got delayed... So I have a question on the looper block and function, mostly because I'm somewhat unsure how loopers work. The Helix advertises a certain length of stereo loop time, and a certain amount of mono loop time. Here are my questions, which may be slightly odd since the primary purpose of this unit would be for a Chapman stick, but since I'm sure there's some stereo guitar players here, maybe you will have the answers. 1) I need to process each of the two inputs differently, but I don't necessarily need the final loop to be in stereo. Can I mix down the inputs before the loop block so as to maintain my the higher quantity of loop time? (And yes, I'm quite aware that 2 mins of loop time is a bit of an eternity in musical terms). 2) So let's say I lay down the first layer of a loop that is 30 seconds. I then pass back on top of it 3 more times (also at 30 seconds) for a total of 4 "layers" looping. Does that count as only 30 seconds of loop time, or does that count as 120 seconds? (This relates to what I was concerned about question 1...if it only counts as 30 seconds, then I'm good and it's not a big deal if not, I'll have to figure some things out). 3) Continuing on, I have my layered loops going. At the very end of the song, I want to play something over the loop, but gradually fade out the looped portion, keeping my volume constant on the closing bits I'm playing. Is that possible? Thanks again, and looking forward to having some fun with the product!

Hey all, I've been interested in some form of the Helix for a bit now, and would like some advice. I play a bit of guitar, bass and I'm learning the Chapman stick, so there are multiple uses for whatever I end up purchasing. The helix has sounded great in all the videos I've seen, so I have no questions on the quality of the sounds, and build quality has been reported to be great on the units. To some extent, this comes down purely to a cash issue. I have Guitar Rig through NI Komplete, so at the very minimum, I have access to a sound/effects software. I have been looking at getting a usb foot controller, both for home and (eventual) live performance. I also play keys, and the idea of adding in a foot controller was interesting to me from a control perspective. Mainstage would be my main host for live stuff, and I'd be working in Cubase/Logic for straight studio stuff. If I'm just looking purely at a foot controller situation, the Helix control looks to be what I'd need if I wanted to just stick with software. Does anyone here strictly use that to control Mainstage or other software outside of Helix? Also, if you're using the Helix Control to control 3rd party software (like Guitar Rig for instance), can you adjust the display LEDs to a custom message? Is there any reason why what I'm thinking about getting this board for won't work? I've never been a live player, so this would be a new area to me. I know people are always wary of running computers live during shows, so a dedicated piece of hardware does make sense to me. What I would hate to do is buy the Helix Control, find out that a laptop rig doesn't work so great and either have to sell the Control at a loss, or force myself to go buy a Helix Rack, when I could have spent less money and gone with the standard Helix for cheaper. With that having been said, a standard Helix is more than 3x the price of the Control, which isn't an insignificant sum to me. Am I willing to save a bit longer to make the jump? Sure. But I'd rather spend $400ish rather than $1400ish if I can. So what are your thoughts? Thanks in advance!