Kilrahi

I've been watching your videos over the last few days.  Cool to see the comparisons.

I don't muff myself very often, but I did hear the difference that you heard. I'd be curious to know how the original Big Muff Pi sounds compared to both the Helix and the Nano Muffer you have.  I did find this old video comparing M9's Muffer to the original, and they sounded pretty close to each other, and I assume the tech only got better, but your video makes me wonder.

How do the other fuzz's on the Helix compare to your needs? 

Edit:  I did find this version comparing to original Big Muff to the Nano and they seem pretty much idnetical:

29 minutes ago, kerryhall1 said:

So I am trying to set up a "master preset", one that uses all 16 block slots, and then enable/disable blocks as needed with snapshots. (For gapless switching mainly)

 

Each snapshot will only have from four to six blocks enabled at a time, just different combinations of blocks. (And input/outputs, exp pedal assignments, ext amp control, midi, block settings, etc!)

 

I'm guessing if I just keep the other ten to twelve blocks disabled I don't have to worry about them making the DSPs sluggish, but it would be good to know. 99% sure the answer to my question is "No, they don't" but always better to check imo.

Anytime you add a block the system has to reserve DSP for it, so yes, they do in a sense consume processing power, even if you just have them bypassed. It assumes there may come a moment where you might want every single one of them active, and for that reason, it won't let you put in too many blocks if it couldn't have them all active at once. 

I assume you're correct that if they aren't active the processors aren't actually chewing on anything, but I'm curious, have you ever actually felt like the processor was sluggish when you used a large amount of DSP blocks?  I've never heard of that. 

Yeah that should work. I'm surprised they don't just explicitly call them TS cables so that it can remove all doubt for people buying for the first time, but that should be fine.

Well, I attempted it today and it said invalid token, but I logged out and logged back in and all was well, it has no problems pulling up tones.

So I assume for the reset of you this is working as of today too.

2 minutes ago, dawg2k5 said:

What type of splitter do I need to use an expression pedal and switcher with the Stomp?

 

Thanks

This cable will work perfectly.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/STP202--hosa-stp202-2-meter

3 minutes ago, BBD_123 said:

It's a wonderful piece of kit and you get free upgrades as well. You don't get that with nasal hair trimmers or those little vacs for doing the car. I got my Helix Floor last Christmas and I'm still happily playing with it (as well as through it) with no end to the fun in sight. I'll take whatever is given in v2.8 with appropriate gratitude :-)

 

We are so lucky to have stuff like this.

 

You bring up a good point though. If you can come up with a way to provide downloadable updates to nose hair trimmers you might have just created THE next innovation of the 21st century, and be rich beyond the dreams of avarice . . .

9 minutes ago, zolko60 said:

It makes no sense. IRs are not even remotely any "amp sims".

I didn't say they are, which means you didn't understand what I said. That may be on me, but considering how hard it is to decipher your stuff sometimes, that is probably somewhat on you too.

Apparently some people just hate being hyped. To me it's like watching the next Avengers trailer. The movie is probably nothing like you envision it, but who cares?  If it ends up being an awesome movie, the memory of the hype just makes it all the more cool.

If the movie sucks then yeah . . . but that's the risk of getting excited about anything, including Christmas.

I say it's awesome, and I'm excited to be excited.

5 hours ago, Mattlcook said:

I’m confused by this.  I understood that IRs are used to simulate speaker cabinets.  However, I have a friend who recently got a Helix and seemed to download a full AC30 IR with amp, cabinet, mic, etc..  There are found on this page:  http://grgr.de/IR/

 

We’ve tried them with a guitar into the helix and just had the IR loaded by itself.  It sounded very similar to the live amp we had next to it.  

 

Any idea what these are?

It's a good question, and if you're just wading out into the world of modeling and impulse responses it's justifiably confusing.

You can make an IR of anything - and it will do what an IR can do, no more, no less. Including an amp. However, generally speaking an IR of an amp - particularly with the Helix - is seen as a step - or steps - backward, not a step forward. 

The keyword when it comes to an amp is CONTROL.  Ask yourself this:  How often do you tweak the settings of your cabinet (answer: never)? How often do you tweak the settings on your amp (answer: a lot).

The trick is to realizing what each piece of the signal chain DOES to your sound.  What is more important for creating that Vox 30 sound?  The amp or the cabinet?  It may surprise you to realize that in terms of the actual unique sound you have come to love with the Vox 30, it's the CABINET you like, not the amp. The amp has far more to do with the control of the sound (volume, drive, presence, etc.). That's not to say the amp has zero influence, only to say that the cabinet of the Vox is arguably more important to its uniqueness.  In fact, swap the real Vox cabinet with your favorite real Marshall amp and you would notice that it starts to sound a lot like the Vox sound you've always loved BUT with the Marshall controls. So you could control the Vox sound in a Marshall way, which is kind of cool when you think about it. However, perfectly capturing those sounds with the perfect microphone in EXACTLY the way you want it is an absolute pain in the butt, and this is where the joy of IRs come in. Once you, or somebody else has done it in a way that does exactly what you need, you can capture the IR of that, slap it on the end of your amp sim, and walla, now you have it ready to go whenever, or wherever, you need it.  It's beautiful.  

Okay, so back to the Helix.  Yes, you could make an IR of the Vox amp - and combine it with the IR of a Vox cabinet . . . but think about what you're losing. You're only getting a teeny snapshot in time of the settings of the amp WITHOUT any distortion/compression (because the IR can't capture that among other things), and you have diddly squat in the away of control over it.  Do you want to tweak the drive to get more grit?  Yeah, can't do that.  Do you want to modify the sag or hum response like you can in the Helix amp sim?  Good luck with that.

Furthermore, what EXACTLY are you gaining when you give up that control? The amp sim already simulates the stuff the IR does extremely well. So you lost the control . . . you didn't gain any unique sound . . . ummm . . .

There's a reoccurring discussion in the Helix group over whether or not stock cabs are as good as IRs. So far it seems like the IR group has largely won (by the way, I'm a person who still tends to prefer stock cabs - frankly I find the complete and 100% allegiance IR love a little baffling but I do respect how easy they are once you find them - but then again, once you find the settings on your stock cab you're set too), but there's not contest between the Helix amp sims and an amp IR.

There is a reason nobody . . . or almost nobody . . . is doing it, and until there is some technological breakthrough, that's not about to change. Control is better when you are simulating control (amps), and less important when you are simulating outputs (cabs). When all you're simulating is an output that once you've found you never need to change again, a simulation of that output is divine (cab IR).

Still, at the end of the day, sound is sound. By all means, download those amp IRs.  Maybe there is an amp you really love that isn't in the Helix, and you want to layer an IR over a Helix amp sim because it sounds really good.  Hey, If it causes you to rock the world more power to you.  Cool sounds are cool sounds, no matter how they're done.

If you're down for a cool read, this was one of the best reads I found:

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/The_Working_Guitarist_All_About_Impulse_Responses

5 hours ago, jsieow002 said:

Also I was reading about speaker vs instrument vs patch cables and TS vs TRS cables and was confused. May I know which cable to connect the HXstomp to the THR10 in FX or DIR modes?

 

 

There's a lot to unpack there, but to answer your direct question, the only cables you will NEED to connect your Stomp to your THR is two standard run of the mill guitar cables. One for the guitar into the Stomp, and one for the Stomp into the THR.

2 hours ago, MusicLaw said:

You may use the THR10 either way!

 

As a Powered Stereo Speaker patch the HX Stomp into the THR10 via the AuxIn. The THR10 would need a 1/8" Stereo TRS cable. The HX Stomp would need a 1/4" Stereo TRS plug if you're going to use the Headphone Out. (My HX Stomp has yet to ship, so I'll defer to those that already have one). Connected this way, all of the THR's Amp selections, Tone Stac, and FX are bypassed and thus have no affect on what is fed to the THR10 via the AuxIn jack. 

 

If used as an Amp, the THR10 series offers Amp selections and a Flat Selection on the Amp selection knob. You would connect to the THR10 via the Guitar In and the HX Stomp would be used for it's FX. I would probably feed the THR10 from the HX Stomp's Main L/Mono Out via 1/4" TS cable Guitar Cable. I probably would not use the HX Stomp's FX Send as this would consume one of the HX Stomp's Six (6) Blocks for the FX Send (unless the Output Block can be reassigned as is the case with the Helix Floor). Again, my HX Stomp is not yet shipped, so all I can go by is what I know from my Helix Floor. Existing HX Stomp owners, please jump in....

You pretty much covered it. My recommendation would be to set the THR to flat mode and let the Stomp do it all, but if you'd like you could use the Stomp for pre amp effects and the THR for amp and post amp. 

Another thing I've done with amps with no effects loop, but a aux in, is split the Stomp signal so a separate path of wet time based effects goes into auxiliary in (like the Helix, you can specify one of the two output paths to go out the send without the use of an FX block).

Bottom line, the Stomp is very versatile.

Well that's kind of exciting!  On one hand I'm grateful for you sharing, and on the other I'm  pissed that I just got past Christmas and am already feeling hyped for something. I was hoping for a few more days of a calm life void of the want for anything.

Seriously though, thanks for passing it on. I can't wait . . .

6 hours ago, srabremix said:

I bought the official Apple adapter and it’s working great.

But, I do have some issues with the Spider remote app.

I can edit and save tones to the amps preset slots. 16 are available on the knob selector and then a bunch of sound banks which can be accessed from the app.

I can try out different tones from the cloud and access previously saved “My Tones”.

However, I can’t save to “My Tones” or publish my own to Line 6 Cloud while connected to the amp. I click the correct menu option but nothing happens.

I need to unplug the iPad or iPhone and restart the app to be able to do that. Unfortunately, since the app starts up with a default amp and tone all the tone editing is lost.

The only way to save my tones to “My Tones” is to set them up by chance or memory, without being able to listen to them before saving them.

 

Anyone else have this problem?

 

Not sure if this applies to all models or just the V20, which is a bit different with a micro USB connection instead of “regular” USB.

 

I haven’t yet tried the PC software to see if the problem occurs there as well.

I'll try to experiment tonight.  I've never tried to publish my stuff because I'm fairly certain it's never going to impress anyone.  However, I have saved presets to the amp, but I used the PC to do that, not the app.  I typically use the app only as a way to change tones on the fly beyond what's in the presets.

I'll keep you updated . . .

On ‎11‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 3:25 AM, srabremix said:

I'm planning on buying the Spider V 20 and have a few questions about connecting it to an iOS-device.

Do I really need the Apple Camera Connection kit or will it work with any kind of Lightning to Micro-USB adapter?

 

 

Unfortunately the answer to that is usually yes, you need the special cord. You see, it's not just that the cord is a lightning to micro USB adapter - it's also wired in a very specific way that tells your iPad it needs to operate as a USB host device.  Now, there's nothing special about the Apple cord - that's why the android cord is $7. It's just that everything Apple is over priced. 

If you can find a cheaper cord which claims to do the exact same thing as the official Apple one there is a good chance it will work, but the dilemma is finding one. 

3 hours ago, specracer986 said:

I'm on the fence about getting a Stomp. This 5 second latency concerns me. I'm surprised I haven't seen other people complain about it, or I missed it if they did.

Just to weigh in here, I have a Stomp, I do this kind of setup all the time, and I have not run into the latency that is referred to by the original poster. For me, it's been nothing but awesome.

I'm not doubting their experience, but I have no idea why they're experiencing it. 

2 hours ago, Roberttheprole said:

I ordered that same saturnworks switcher, but confused how to connect it though. I have a trs cable, but I thought the switch needs two jacks? How does that work?

It can be really confusing.  

A TS cable is a cable that sends one signal. A TRS cable sends two signals. The Stomp can take either a TS cable OR a TRS cable, but if you want to have a dual footswitch or dual pedals you need a TRS cable - because that's two signals, not one.

As for the switcher, if it's going to be a dual switch it has to either have two TS jacks (i.e. it goes from dual signal single jack in Stomp to one signal dual jack for the dual switch) or one TRS jack (i.e. dual signal jack to dual signal jack).  In the picture I can't see what type of jack the above switcher has, but if it has only one jack then it means you have a TRS connection.

To take advantage of that you would need a single TRS cable. A link to one is below.  Notice how the tips have two rings instead of just one?  That's for the dual signals.

https://www.amazon.com/Seismic-Audio-SATRX-3-Black-Patch/dp/B0052NR4MM/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1545716300&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=trs+cable&psc=1

I think we can all agree we'd love more amps. No problems there. More pedals too.

I'm with the others on here who would just hope that the amps/pedals chosen tend to be ones that bring out a sound and feel that you really can't get with the current lineup. Pedals/amps that are just slight permutations on existing choices seem less useful.

I have no idea where the original Bassman posted above falls on that scale as I've never heard it in person, and was under the impression it was already replicable. If it truly is a wholly unique sound that can't currently be accomplished, bring it on. I'd also love to see more representation from Peavey, Engl, Orange, Blackstar, Laney, etc. because you're right, they are very popular and as has been pointed out, they are underrepresented compared to the number of Fender and Marshall.

With that said, if it really isn't that unique and they throw it in . . . cool . . . any amp is bonus.  I'm really not that pissy about it. I bought it for what it is, not what it will be, after all.

I would support turning off the artificial limiter, but while I never did very complex stuff anyway, I've found there's a lot of skillful tricks people have come up with that make it even less obvious. 

For example, I've taken to attaching an expression pedal to the amp's drive for distortion or volume controls instead of a volume pedal saving blocks. That obviously doesn't work in all cases because sometimes you want your favorite distortion pedal, but still, there's a lot of options.

The global settings can be somewhat confusing. I hope to mess with it a bit tonight and I'll see if I can communicate all the settings that need changed.

*Three Hours Later*

This was originally a big long post about how nothing worked.

Then I watched a youtube video where a person was demonstrating using host capabilities on an Android and they plugged the on the go cable directly into the phone . . . I had plugged it into the amp first, then the cord into the phone.

Okay, so this is probably PRETTY DANG STUPID . . . and I may be the only human being on earth that has ever made this mistake, but nevertheless, in case there is someone else out there who this is their first foray into the on the go cable and it just isn't working:

Step 1:

1. PLUG THE ON THE GO CABLE DIRECTLY INTO THE ANDROID PHONE, and THEN the regular android cable into that, and that into the amp. 

If that doesn't work, proceed to trouble shoot from there. 

I really like Line 6's Powercab and it usually gets my vote. Generally the Mission Engineering Gemini is the one I hear described as the bee's knees, and it's definitely nice, but it's price tag puts it pretty far out of my range.  I've always been impressed with Mission products, and their FRFR stuff is no different. The best budget option I know if is the Headrush.

Have you considered going to a local music store to test them out?

I would also like to request this amp. Sure, you can buy it new for under $30, but it really warms my heart and has a sweet as honey tone for what it is.

If I'm going to be honest with myself though, I think the Bassman has a better chance of happening.

https://www.amazon.com/Danelectro-Honeytone-N-10-Guitar-Black/dp/B0027M30Z6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545413537&sr=8-1&keywords=honeytone+amp

I haven't had a chance to test mine yet, is everyone still having this problem?

If so, has anyone reached out to Line 6 about it?  It's hard to believe they'd take the cloud down while they're still selling Firehawks. Especially during the Christmas season, so I'm assuming it was just a temporary error.

15 minutes ago, Keybi said:

First of all. An external PS is a piece of s... ;-) 
Not a pro tool at all. I use a Fractal AXE 3 and AX8. They all come with an internal PS. 

Yeah .... they're also as big as bricks.

I can understand the desire to improve the power supply because, at least with the Stomp - forget the fact that it's bulky, the bigger problem is that the cord isn't even long enough to floss with.

That's my one true beef with the Stomp. Was that length of cord a budgetary cut? Would two or even three times that have pushed the price up to the next price point?

If so, well . . . okay . . . but that length just plain sucks. I went and bought an extension cord because otherwise people thought I was trying to ambush people with tripwire.