MojoAxe

Thanks for the tip. That's a feature that I was unware of. I sold my Helix a couple years ago when the firmware was at 2.70. After reading all of the fanfare about the 3.50 CAB update I decided to give the Helix a second chance so I bought another one last month and I'm still catching up on the changes.

On a somewhat related note, here's one thing that drives me nuts in the Helix. When I'm editing a patch and I want to move to the next block on the right or left of the current block, I often (by accident) turn the joystick knob rather than pushing it left or right. Doing so changes the current block to the next effect in the list. When you turn the knob in the the opposite diection to get back to the original effect that was there, all of the its parameters have reverted back to factory settings. The only way to retrieve the original settings you had is to exit from the patch and return to it. If you had made multiple changes within the patch, those changes will be lost. I know this is just a matter of me being a dumba$$ by turning when I should be pushing, but I've been using a Boss GT-100/GT-1000 processors for years now (I still use the GT-1000) and on the Boss units you turn a knob to navigate between patches, so its just second nature to me. It would be nice if the effect parameters could remembered at least as long as you're still within a patch. The instant that you turn that knob you lose all of the parameters that had been set for the current block. This also makes it difficult to compare one effect to another. Let's say you want to add a delay to your patch but you're not sure which specific delay. You pick one of them (we'll call it "A"), you adjust the time/feedback/etc to your liking, and now you want to audition a different delay effect (call it "B"). "B" comes in with factory default parameters which are all different so you must adjust the time/feedback/etc parameters similar to what you had on delay "A". You listen to "B" and now you want to listen to "A" again. When you turn the knob back to delay "A", its settings have all reverted back to the factory settings. Its like trying to A-B compare two stompbox effects, but every time you switch between them some little kid reaches over and twists all the knobs.

I guess everybody has a different concept as to how to use a modeler. Myself, I wouldn’t try to fit every effect and tone into a single patch, so I would never have a need to switch 24 effects on and off. The Helix gives you 1024 programmable patches, so why try to cram every effect you’ll ever need into one patch. My approach is to have five different general use patches which basically range from clean to dirty. Each patch has maybe 3-5 effects within it that are assigned to switches to toggle them on and off. These patches give me a range of tones and cover 75% of what I play. in addition to the generic patches, I have another 30 or so patches that are song specific, so the effects, tones, tempos, etc are tailored for the song. Those patches also have buttons assigned for toggling certain effects as well. Personally, I wouldnt want every effect I might use within one patch, not to mention 24 buttons to toggle them on and off. The beauty of using a modeler is that you can program one button to kick on multiple effects at once. For instance for a guitar solo, I might program a single button to toggle an overdrive, an EQ, a delay, and a compressor. The days of dancing around on a board full of pedals are in my rearview mirror.

I’ve not seen the inside of the Helix, but my guess is that there are a couple of surface Mount RGB LEDs beneath each ring. The ring itself would simply be a translucent molded part that has a diffuser additive in the plastic resin to evenly spread the light through the part. Changing LEDs to higher intensity components is not a simple task because they’ll require more current.

Holy crap, those are some chintzy rubber feet that Line 6 is using. It’s no wonder they’re worn out. My Helix has never left my home and rarely even sees the floor, so the feet on mine are still in good shape, but I can see how they would wear down in no time if you’re gigging. I’ve seen heavier feet on clock radios. i checked a screws on my Helix and they are a metric M3 x 8mm pan head machine screws.

This very thing has driven me nuts since I started using the Helix. I've used Boss ME effects units for years (and I still do) and on their units you navigate the chain by rotating a knob. Consequently, I often turn the knob by accident on the Helix went my intention is to navigate to another block. Turning the knob not only changes the effect of the current block, but when you turn the knob back to the effect you were on, all of your settings are lost because it reverts to the default settings. The new Joystick setting is a welcome update that I was unaware of.

Not this is of any help to you, but the Boss GT-1000 does exactly what you're asking for. It has a mode called Stompbox, which allows you to save ten different variations of every effect within the unit, including the amp models. Lets say you've tweaked your amp settings for a great Fender Twin type tone. You can save that amp model along with its settings into one of the ten Stompbox slots allocated to amps. You still have nine more amp slots available for other variations that you come up with, so you can have your favorite Marshall, Vox, whatever ,amps saved as presets. The same goes for delays, reverbs, distortions, chorus, and every other effect within the GT. Now, lets say you want to create a patch from scratch, you can go into your Stompbox library and grab the amp and various effects that you want, and piece the patch together with effects that already have your favorite settings. When you do so, you have an option for how you insert it into your patch;. 1) You can copy the Stompbox into your patch in which case it becomes a totally independent effect which you can further tweak as desired 2) You can reference it in your patch. When a Stompbox is referenced, then any change you make to that particular Stompbox's settings will also occur on every other patch that references the same Stompbox. Going back to the OPs original post, option 2 would accomplish exactly what he would like to do. That favorite amp model could be saved as a Stompbox and then referenced within as many new patches as desired. If you change any settings to the amp, then those settings will also change on every other patch that references it. If at any time you decide that you would like for the effect to become independent, then its a simple matter to copy the effect into the patch rather than reference it. Personally, I don't use referenced effects just because I don't want to worry about inadvertently changing a patch other than the one I'm currently editing, but it certainly could be useful to some people. I do however use the Stompbox as a library of preset effects. For instance, whenever I'm tweaking an effect (lets say I just created a nice sounding slap-back delay), I'll save it into a Stompbox slot and name it Slap-Back. Now the next time I'm creating a patch and I need a slap-back delay, I just copy that Stompbox into my patch. From there I can make further tweaks if necessary. There are a number of things things about the GT-1000 that could have been done better, but the Stompbox feature is one that works very well. It would be nice to see something similar incorporated into the Helix.

If I understand the OP correctly, that’s what he’s already doing. He has ten patches that are all identical to each other except for the BPM setting. The issue is that if he wants to adjust the settings of an effect, say for instance, the amount of gain on the preamp, then he has to make that same adjustment to the other nine patches if he wants to keep all ten patches identical to each other (except for the BPM setting). Its been a while since I’ve used a Helix, but this be accomplished with snapshot, correct? As I recall, you can make an effect parameter variable between snapshots, so each snapshot could have a different BPM setting. Of course, if you plan to use the buttons to turn other effects on and off within the patch, then you’re not going to have enough buttons leftover to be assigned to switch between different BPM tempos

I'm gonna guess that the amount of complaining on this forum about the release date of version 2.8 is directly proportional to Line 6's reluctance to tell us anything in advance about future releases of Helix firmware.

I quit using my tube amps over a year ago and I don’t miss them at all. I favor the amp tones from my GT-1000 vs the Helix, but both units sound great through a pair of FRFRs. At home, I use a pair of Alto TS310s, and for rehearsal, I carry a QSC CP8, which is more than loud enough. It’s nice walking into rehearsal with a guitar in one hand, a lightweight monitor in the other, and the modeler and cables in a backpack. I create a lot of song-specific patches with multiple effects that are engaged with a single pedal. Delays and effects are synced exactly to the tempo of the song. The tones I get are more closer to what I want than what I get when I’m dancing around on a pedalboard with an amp setup. A few weeks ago I played around with my Friedman DSM for the first time in a while, and I really couldn’t coax any better tone from it than I’m getting from my GT-1000 patches. Consider me “converted”.

It really doesn't matter when the last day of Spring is. 2.8 will be released when its ready. The last thing you want is for L6 to release unfinished/untested firmware in order to meet a date. I've worked for companies that have done that kind of thing in the past and it never ends well.

I can, although I’m tied up next week and then I’m on vacation for two weeks. If it can wait until April, I can probably knock it out. Send me a file so that I can see what we’re talking about. Dan at dynasonic@msn.com

I agree. In the past my setup path was a GT-100 > guitar amp > guitar speaker > microphone > FOH. I always felt like I needed a guitar amp in the chain in order to get the tone I was after. I would tune my patches to what sounded good to me through my guitar amp ,and then let the microphone take it from there. Now that I have next generation modelers (Helix and GT-1000) which do a better job of amp modeling, I have made the transition to running the modeler direct to the FOH. The audience is going to hear the modeler direct to the FOH, so I also want my personal monitor to sound exactly like a PA speaker,. Using IEQs, IRs, speaker blocks, etc, I can adjust my patches so that they sound like a guitar amp when played through a PA speaker. If my personal monitor were to be tuned to sound like a guitar speaker, then it might sound great to me as I'm playing, but the audience will be hearing something that sounds completely different.

What I’ve considered doing (but I just haven’t gotten around to) is to create a batch of patches, each one dedicated to a specific effect. Each patch would have an amp at the beginning of the chain, followed by multiple instances of a specific effect. Each patch would effectively be a library with different saved variations of an effect. For instance, a “Reverb” patch could have a dozen different preset variations of reverbs. It’s still not the perfect solution because it’s requires navigating to the library patch, copying the desired effect, then navigating back to the destination patch and pasting it, but it’s one way to save favorite sett8ngs all in one place.

It seems like that would be a relatively easy feature to add that would consume a minimal amount of memory or computing power. Boss has a similar feature in the GT-1000 called Stompbox that allows you to same up to 10 different variations of every effect. Once you dial in an effect the way you like it, it can be saved as a Stompbox preset for easy recall into other patches. When you recall one of these saved "Stompboxes" into a patch, you can either copy it into the patch such that you can edit it if you like, or you can reference it into a patch such that when its parameters are changed, they will change within every other patch that also references that same saved Stompbox. Helix has Boss beat in most all aspects of the user interface, but the Boss unit does have a few features that are really nice.