Kilrahi

Well frack . . . in that case all of my thoughts on what it could be are shot to hell. If it was general ground loop problems, my understanding is you'd encounter it regardless of whether pedals are placed in the Stomp's FX loop or simply in front of or after the Stomp. The fact that it is only in the Stomp's FX loop leaves me clueless. It might be the kind of thing worth placing a Line 6 support ticket for since they are experts in the device. I'm going to keep thinking about this. Anyone else got an idea?

To be clear, I don't hear ANY of the problems he hears. I tend to chalk the problems up to the weirdness that is the unreliability of the human condition in general - but you have some great insight in the above. Perhaps I'm dismissing his concerns too quickly.

Another point of clarification, do you get the hum ONLY when you use the HX Stomp FX loop, or if you simply chain all of the pedals up sequentially do you still get the same hum?

Awesome! Glad you're liking it. It's a gorgeous guitar.

Honestly, if the problem were the logitech speakers you would probably hate the Axe sounds as well. I would generally agree that logitech speakers probably aren't solid items for doing music, BUT we're talking about youtube videos here, and both the Axe and the Helix are going through the same system so whatever the system's deficits both products are getting equal treatment. I think the odds of buying a very expensive mixing setup and it solving your problems are near null.

For me, getting all the settings right on foot pedals and switches can be a mini nightmare. It's so easy to miss a setting in the global settings. In your situation, I'd double check that these global settings are correct first: Global Settings > Preferences EXP/FS Tip: Set to Footswitch 4. EXP/FS Ring: Set to Footswitch 5. Global Settings > Footswitches FS4 Function: Set to bank up. FS5 Function: Set to bank down. Only if all of the above is correct will it work properly. Let me know if this doesn't help and I can bang my head against the wall some more. Good luck!

Ground loops problems are hard to diagnose from afar. Part of the inherent problem is a reader can't immediately see the entirety of the setup. You kind of described it, but we might still be missing something. Could you post a photo and a bit more description of how it's all connected?

True, though it always makes me smile and laugh a little because it reminds me of Gauntlet. "Great warrior needs food . . . BADLY."

In snapshot mode you can NOT use the Stomp's on board three foot switches for tap tempo/tuner. That's something you give up in that mode. BUT, you can attach a footswitch such as the Boss FS-5 or a midi pedal and have those send the signal.

I don't have that problem, but I don't use a lot of power hungry pedals either. My first question would be if it's a ground loop problem. Did you look into that? Granted the truetone generally handles noise issues really well.

I have an Ibanez thinline with an XLR out. I mean, not earth shattering, but still a cool feature.

Unfortunately midi is still kind of an untested thing in my world. My understanding is that both the HX Stomp and the Dark Sun have midi ins and outs, so you can do it either by connecting the Melo Audio Midi Controller to the Stomp's midi in, and then the from the Stomp's midi out connect that to the Dark Sun midi in. Or reverse that. Then when the Midi Controller sends the program change message to the Stomp (or Dark Sun) it then forwards that message on to the Dark Sun (or Stomp) and both devices switch the preset.

Well, the reason I ask is because sometimes when I've had the Stomp settings slightly off (mix settings, instrument when I should have done line, etc.) I've run into similar problems. I know this is tedious, but just to confirm, is your Stomp setup this way: 1. Guitar in to HX Stomp main in left/mono. 2. 1/4 out from HX Stomp FX send to either input 1 or 2 on Fender Hotrod. 3. 1/4 out from Fender Hotrod "Pre amp out" to HX Stomp FX return left/mono. 4. 1/4 out from HX Stomp main output left/mono to "Power Amp In" on Fender Hotrod. Stomp signal chain: Select one of the factory presets with the "4CM" as part of the title. The Fender Hotrod Deluxe IV 40watt is designed so that if it believes its an auxiliary unit, it gives up all volume control to the primary unit. However, my understanding is if it's setup in the above way it should still retain full control.

Yes, it manages USB midi the same way it handles regular midi.

Well, I love the stock cabs, but with your complaint, have you tried IRs?

The only thing I'm aware of is that when you split the paths, my understanding is that the volume of each drops by 3db so that when they're merged the overall volume is about the same. Considering you're not merging them but going back and forth between them, you might try a 3 db increase on each path. Edit: I'm going off memory here, but it may be that the merge block has a volume level. That would even save you a block.

I mean, ultimately if you don't like something you don't like something. There's no changing that. However, I think Jeff Loomis is a great example of a high gain player that has used Helix on some of his recent stuff. I also think Twelve Foot Ninja has clearly demonstrated high gain works well.

What's your reason for asking? Are you genuinely wondering if it can be done, or is a prestige thing where if we point to an artist that has clearly succeeded in it working they won't be "major" enough to pass the test?

I think it's easy for posts to get buried. In my case I tend to skip over what looks like a full Helix post since I'm a Stomp/Native user, even though I think a lot of the time I can see a solution that works I often assume that maybe a full Helix user has a better idea available. In the case of your question, my first recommendation would be to just use the channel volume on the amp model as DunedinDragon said above. That's precisely why it's there as it's a level control that doesn't impact tone. As a Stomp user, blocks are at a premium, so this is almost always the approach I take. However, it sounds like you want to keep the preset amps rather uniform? Is this for cutting and pasting possibilities? If that's the case, and assuming that blocks aren't a problem for you, then I'd just insert a volume block before or immediately after each amp and tweak those to get them where you want to be. I've also seen people have presets stored separately of their favorite amp blocks. That's too much work for me, but it is another method. Now, the challenge of having all presets have the same DB in one setting, then another, then in between them - as far as I know there is no easy way to do this (and in my opinion, is largely a lost cause - so don't let yourself fall down that rabbit hole), nor is there some formula that all of the Helix models subscribe to so that you can know that all amps of type X can be moved down X amount with the same result . . . the person who figures out some magic shortcut here will be mega rich (not just from a performance perspective, movies, radio, streaming . . .). Ultimately, there's more than one way to accomplish what you want. It comes down to which method you personally prefer.

Unfortunately, no. I do wish that they would come up with a different solution than the one switch looper (i.e. maybe some sort of double tap that goes into looper mode and then allows all the other switches to control the looper). With that said, I've been practicing with the one switch looper. I have to say, you can get pretty good at it. Still easy to bork sometimes though.

Yes, Stomp's internal preset is a four cable. Hopefully I understood how your stuff routes.

The challenge for me is figuring out how you might want all your other products to run (which I assume you must have them or you'd ditch the GSC4 and just go pure Stomp). I'm also kind of confused about your description of loop 3. Are you saying the loop 3 return port is the port connected to your amp's fx loop send? That's my assumption with the below. So I have an idea below of one way which I think will work based on what your device does. The trick, really, is to figure out how the Stomp works and then you'll be able to perfect your setup. Another challenge is if I misunderstand you at all on which holes are in and out holes the whole thing is shot. It might be better for you to learn how to do the four cable method just with the Stomp first, because once you get its wiring it's a lot easier to mesh it with other devices. Here's what I would start with based on my understanding of what you described you were already doing: 1. 1/4 out from GSC4 Loop 1 into main in left/mono on HX Stomp. 2. 1/4 out from HX Stomp FX send to GSC4 Loop 1 return. (This section from creates the loop for all Stomp effects you before your pre amp) 3. 1/4 out from Loop 4 to HX Stomp FX Loop return left/mono. 4. 1/4 from Stomp main output left/mono to GSC4 Loop 4 return. (This section creates the loop for all Stomp effects you want in your amp FX loop) Stomp Signal: Start simple - use one of the factory presets with part of the description as "4CM." These presets are specifically designed for four cable setups and it will help you begin to visualize the signal chains of the Stomp and how they work. Just an FYI - you'll see on these chains an FX loop block. All effects BEFORE that block end up in sections 1/2 above, and all effects AFTER that block end up in 3/4 above. I hope this will make progress getting there. Honestly, if the above doesn't work it's not because the devices are incompatible. In fact, I know they're compatible. It's just a matter of me knowing how your device works. Try that approach first. If you get any kind of noise at all from the Stomp effects we're on the right track. If it's dead silent then the Stomp is saying we screwed up. Let me know how it goes.

Sadly I don't own the GSC4, but could you be more specific about your problem? You mention you've been running your pedals through the GSC4 Looper, and at its most basic, that's exactly what you would do with the Stomp since it basically functions as a small pedal. What is it you don't like about it when you try to do the four cable approach?

My sympathies that you ran into issues right out of the box. On another note, it was my birthday yesterday and the gift I got was a reasonably cool hat. Clearly I need to branch out and make more friends.

Well, most of us here are pretty bought and sold on the HX Line. So how does it do in four cable? I think it's amazing. If you really don't need amp modelling, then I can't recommend the HX effects enough. At the same time though, I really loved my HD 500X, though I do think the HX line is quite a nice improvement. That means though we already kind of had different experiences there. My advice would be to buy from a place that lets you return if you're not satisfied.