katerlouis

I bought the Helix back in 2017 after playing in a cover band for a few months. What has drawn me into this was the flexibility of it, the ease of use / great usability and the reputation of great sound quality. I tried Spider V before but was never happy, because I was a noob then as well and I was pretty much never satisfied. With the Helix I noticed a significant improvement already, although I still couldn't really get close to how Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, ACDC etc. sounds. A lot has changed since then, including my standards and requirement. I no longer want to recreate what I am playing, but find my own way, style and sound of playing it. Even better would be: Find a tone that grabs me so much, that I can't stop playing and eventually inspires me to work on original music. I have a bit of a GAS problem, so while I obviously have looked left, right and center for other devices with way less options, direct controls, no need for presets, snapshots etc. – then again... I do have the Helix and have made some pretty crazy (for me at least) things happen with it in terms of nerdy configurations including external gear, loopers, midi going in and out, extra paddels seemlessly transitioning between signal paths to blend some stuff in. So why not keep what I have and learn to use it. So I gave it another shot with the 3.6 update. And the biggest strengths of the Helix again became detremental to my tone creation. Just by going through all the new factory presets, I got lost... my untrained ear couldn't hear any nuances anymore; all the comparing fatigued me and sucked out the fun of playing. I believe (or hope) that if I have one thing with a lot fewer options, but very good base quality, that I will learn to hear details, get a feel for what the limited options I have actually do and finally tame that beast and learn to use all the things I learn to my advantage. Right now I feel like learning to cook without knowing anything about the ingredients or what goes well together. It feels vital to understand how things influence each other but that sooo hard to learn when each block has multiple pages of settings. I've watched countless tutorials on tone creation, recipes, templates, best practices... but in the end this all felt like chores and just work that lead no where– Like I'm running in circles. Now I feel like this approach was destined to fail all along. So much comes down to taste and understanding your guitar, your pick, your playing style... lots of good tips in those videos, but highly subjective and in the end gotten me nowhere. Interesting. I would've thought that the quality of sounds on POD is not as good as on Helix. I'm gonna look into that option. But How? I would love nothing more than to see the Matrix; both knowing what I want and how to get there. I had a similar "crisis" in terms of guitars. For said cover band I wanted to buy my first "proper guitar" – When I tried the Chapman ML3 Bea (Rabea Massads first signature model) I was just mesmerized; the neck humbucker to this day gives me goosebumps. I feel that learning would come easier with limited options and a more hands on interface (actual knobs with out flicking through pages, dealing with a joystick) This got a bit off-topic; I appreciate your help and do understand that things should stay Helix related. Because I do want to give it another shot, maybe you have some practical tips on simplifying things. I really wish to find the blue pill inside the Helix and enter the Matrix. But if you have other specific recommendations in mind, I'd be up for that as well.

I haven't really been playing guitar the last 2-3 years; my Helix is on 3.0.1 - with 3.6 out, there is so fricking much new... that I'm simply overwhelmed. I kinda have been before as well and never really "got my sound" on it; I'm a noob and absolutely not good at dialing in sound. But the sheer amount of options and combinations always hindered me. I always got stuck in AB testing a bazillion configurations. Unfortunately the Helix makes this very easy to do with momentary snapshots and so on. You might say: well then the Helix just isn't for you. But... why couldn't it? The devs have put so much work into it over the years. The stuff it has and can do has probably tripled since 2017. What would you guys think about a slim, trimmed down user interface? Just select your amp and choose between a few effects in predefined slots. No fiddling around with cabs, mics and mic placements. I'd love to let experts choose tried and true combinations that just sound good out of the box. Or maybe not even a new UI, but just really good "new factory presets" - I've never really got a factory preset that sounded good. Only 2 or 3 patches really "spoke to me" over the years; that feeling where you just wanted to noodle a bit and all of a sudden its 4 hours later and you still can't let go, because that sound just grabs me. Thrilled to hear your thoughts. And please be gentle- I'm just a dude who's trying to find his sound and get back into guitar playing.

Is there a way to pay Line6 for this update? I mean it. I've been on Helix since v1.8 and have gotten free updates over the years with features, amps, effects worth at least 2 new products. I really want to support that.

Any news on this one?

I have a patch where I can blend 2 paths with a volume block up front. EXP1 controls the block on path 1 from 0-100, and on path 2 from 100-0; u get the idea. Now when I want to tweak amp settings with my feet, by longpressing MODE, changes with the pedal effect the parameter I want to tweak, but also change the volume blocks assigned to EXP1, which makes changing the amp parameter useless. I can't remember having encountered that behavior in 2.71, but am not sure, because I don't tweak settings by foot THAT often. Is that a bug? Or is it intended?

SOLVED – Line6 support came to the rescue: apparently iOS lets you longpress the button which would usually hide the keyboard. By long pressing the software keyboard shows and continues to show whenever you focus a text input again. GREAT! Here's an image coming from the Line6 support showing what to do 8) https://my.hidrive.com/lnk/LOgiuBx6

Oh boy, so you're saying there's no way to get my iOS software keyboard working right now? That's such a bummer- I really like the new amps... but even more importantly, the quality of life changes in this update are a true blessing. Joystick rotation won't change blocks; snapshot bypass (!); snapshot reselect; swap UP/DOWN switches. But without my software keyboard .. it's unusable

Can confirm a quieter output via usb to my iPad Pro 2018. the incoming audio from iPad is so much louder than my guitar sound. and my headphone volume knob is also on noon now, which was unbearable loud on 2.71

The ability to send keyboard commands from Helix to the Host is great. Unfortunately my iPad Pro 2018 (when connected via USB) interprets this as if a physical keyboard is connected and won‘t show the software keyboard any longer. This is a deal breaking issue for me. i need to use the Helix and still have my software keyboard. please tell me there is a way to work around that or at least disable the keyboard functionality in Helix. Couldn‘t find it in global settings. ouchy

Hey Line6, for the last couple of months there was quite some fuzz (pun intended) about when the update will finally arrive and why on earth you even dared to give us an ETA when you couldn't- bla bla bla I won't deny to have had similar feelings - you can't change your feelings, but how you act on them, you can... And I guess I speak for quite a few people when I say this anger and frustration about how things went down is just another proof of how much this community cares and how passionate we feel about these products; how we just couldn't wait to get these immense changes. And .. this is basically .. a good thing? I guess?! Anyways- My Helix is almost 2 years old now and over that time period I .. practically got a new Helix in features on top, without.. well, paying anything. You are certainly not in an easy business and the competition doesn't sleep, which makes the effort and love you put into seemingly minor details even more impressive. I don't know how many other companies drop a bombshell like that with so many quality of life changes for free- and I don't care. I cannot remember being that satisfied still with an investment that big after that much time. You work your butts off, and it shows. You guys are awesome! Without going into the whole sound debate, which I am heavily underqualified to take part in anyways, I truly believe the Line6 Helix Floor is objectively the most intuitive, most flexible, most fun to use and sexiest guitar processor out there. And you just made it even better- immensely better; .. yet again- Since this is not nearly said enough, nor thought enough I fear for all of that, I Thank You. louis PS: Exiciting times lie ahead of us, ladies and gentlemen :) - Hopefully I'll have my third Helix in 2 more years 8)

Two reasons: Reason 1: I fiddle around with a lot of patches (haven't found my tone yet), preparing each patch for mic and op-1 is bothersome and 2. sometimes not possible, because I've used up all 4 paths. If I'm missing something here and theres a nice and convenient way to just plug it in and it works, please enlighten me :). Maybe there is a way to globally route AUX into master out without going through the whole patch, because I obviously don't want the OP-1 to get distorted, delay, reverb etc. Oh, theres a 3rd reason! When the Helix goes into the iPad via USB and Headphones in Helix' headphone out, I hear the guitar sound from the Helix AND the monitoring / incoming sound from the Quantiloop app. When I now disable the monitoring it is a real pain to get Quantiloops output volume to match the Helix volume. When the Helix is connected to the iPad, the volume rockers don't do anything (just like on macOS, so it's a Helix thing, I guess?) - the only way is to level audio from iPad seems to be Helix' global settings, which is no fun because the discrepancy between Helix "internal" volume and the iPad volume seems to depend on the situation (using spotify, youtube, remix hd live, garageband, anytune etc.) :'( Sorry if I wasn't clear; that's exactly what I meant. Going over USB keeps the signal digital, but when I want to use an audio interface for said reasons AND can't get the optical / SPDIF / AES/EBU / ADAT / xyzerioerjiklas way to work, then I'd have unnecessary D/A-A/D conversion, which I'd like to avoid. That's why I am asking Unfortunately I understand only roughly 20% of what you're saying there :D - When SPDIF and AES/EBU can only cover 2 signals, how does Focusrite get the remaining 6 inputs into the interface? (It says 10ins and 4outs) Do you mean a converter like this? Well that would certainly be annoying and overkill :D

Please forgive the probably trivial questions, but I am a sound rookie. Quick background: I love my iPad Pro 11'' and use Helix as an audio interface over USB-C into the iPad and loop with the app "Quantiloop" (hiiiighly recommended, reaaally) – I control record/play/stop etc. with MIDI from the Helix (command center, sending notes from footstomps, nice!) – Using the Helix as an interface has it's quirks, which I won't go into now, because now that I want to add a microphone and the pocket synthesizer op-1 to the mix, I probably have to go through an audio interface anyways. But, as far as I understand: When I use Helix line out to the interface, my audio is converted to an analog signal, and then converted back again to a digital signal from the interface to the iPad. That feels like I should avoid that, if possible. Plus: I'd lose the different outputs (usb1+2, 3+4 ... etc.) Researching on how to to chain interfaces I stumbled upon many things, like ADAT, S/PDIF, AES/EBU etc. pp. Apparently the Helix can send it's audio digitally. Great! There was some discussion if this was only for L6-Link devices; but according to @phil_m the L6 Link connector also works with AES/EBU. Now. I am considering this particular interface from Focusrite, the Clarett 2Pre USB: https://focusrite.com/usb-c-audio-interface/clarett-usb/clarett-2pre-usb It claims to have 10 inputs, alhtough there are only 2 physical inputs. So the rest comes in through ADAT. So, to the questions: How would you connect the Helix via ADAT (oh boy, how I probably misused that abbreviation :D) to the Clarett? What cable Would you use etc.? What exactly gets send over there? Only the main output? Or all 4 usb stereo outputs? Or something else entirely? Could the Clarett level the incoming audio somehow or does the leveling have to happening inside the Helix? Does the `Main` Output volume knob affect it? How would the signal be available in DAWs and other software? The usual `USB 1+2` etc.? Bonus Question: 5. What I also like about this interface is that it can be powered via USB-C (if my iPad gives enough juice for that is another question, let's just assume it does) – does powering through USB still work when using the digital inputs? Really appreciate if you could go in detail on the capabilities and even more importantly: the quirks and caveats that await me. Thanks! Louis

Another suggestion on my reddit post is rooted in this forum :D https://line6.com/support/topic/20120-controlling-ableton-with-helix/ Apparently you can use Note-send for that; I will look into that later.

Maybe you want to take a look at that @phil_m? https://www.reddit.com/r/ableton/comments/an11xx/please_help_understanding_midi_controls_in/ I have (and had) set up Ableton like the commenter explained there; but still Helix' CC toggle doesn't react to a change with the mouse.

No, I haven't used the Helix for other Software on my Macbook yet- but if I would, there might be interferences with your suggested solution. But I assume the Helix will support modifier keys aswell (CMD, ALT, SHIFT etc.)- so surely there will be a key configuration which won't collide with any other software. It's not like everything is listening to MIDI :D The Important part is, that Ableton does not have to be up front in order to receive the command from Helix. But it sounds like this would work then, though- I've asked the same question on Abletons Subreddit; apparently Ableton is capable of telling the Helix to switch it's toggl. I'll tell you when I got it worked out :) Until then, I'll try to narrow down why Quantiloop is triggering the longpress on my MIDI CC commands :D