themetallikid

I'm familiar enough to get myself in trouble probably. Not against manuals (hell, I seem to have some time on my hands these days). I'm sure I'll be downloading and playing with settings and such tonight. Appreciate the help as always.

Ok, can someone define DAW and what it all entails? I've seen it before and generally 'get' what its referring to, but in my setup helix>cpu...what specifically is it referring to? which portion of what i'm doing? 'I think that's what throws me, I hear language or acronyms thrown around I don't quite fully know how they apply to what I wanna do.

I think I can start with this info and get myself there. Any help on good sites for cover song drum/jam tracks? free or otherwise.

Ok that helps a lot. I kinda knew that stuff, but reading it better confirms what I thought I'd need to do. With the 8 independent channels, does that mean for recording my acoustic stuff, I could record the vocals/guitar together in a live take, instead of doing them separately? I know i'll get better quality if I do separate, but it'd be cool to record a scratch track to work off of first and if the live take doesn't work on one of the channels just rerecord that take.

Oops that is probably a good piece of info. I have Win10. I have worked in Audacity a bit, and a few others. So i'm capable in the program itself. Its more of the connections and settings that tend to throw me for a loop if its not 'plug and play'.

OK, so I'm a newb to home recording especially with this awesome black box they call Helix. I know I need a recording software to work with...I can find that no problem (free or paid). Where I'm a little out of my element is the connection and setup details. When I jam to songs for practicing for the band I connect USB only, and then listen via Helix headphone jack. Is this all I need to do to record is the USB cable and monitor the input/output levels going into my laptop? I normally have my volume knob disengaged to send the full signal, is that too much for laptop sound card? My main goal with this is to simple record some audio to represent myself acoustically and potentially record some guitar/bass/vocal tracks over jam/drum tracks for the sake of a cheap homemade demo thing. In my head I think I have it figured out, but being that I'm going to be home now for awhile with not much outside contact or to do...might as well learn and take advantage.

I think I can help with the volume/expression pedal question...but need to clarify: 1) there is a setting that lets the display be permament or temporary and then disappear after no activity. is this what you mean? 2) or do you mean the expression pedal display shows the output volume setting? If you want this option, I don't think the Helix does that, however, I always save my presets with a certain block highlighted by the cursor that way if I need to adjust something (I know where my weak spots are) its readily available and I can adjust a knob, save>save quick mid song if needed. I usually have the prominent amp block highlighted so I can adjust the channel volume.

Yeah I had 3 shows this week, 2 are cancelled the one I'm pretty sure will still go on, just knowing the reputation of the place. Unless they make it mandatory that clubs are closed. Right now its only recommendations on capacity and other things. But your right. With my new board (I'll post pics when I get the final pieces) it is super simple for live shows. Open case, plug in power, plug in XLR Send to Mixer. Done.... For once I feel like my pickiness and attention to detail in my presets is about to pay off timewise in my setup/soundcheck/tear down procedures.

Yeah I was just running over some songs for this weeks 3 shows...and these are the best tones I've had in my life...via headphones, powered wedge and FOH. I wish I could simplify my chain a bit at times (less blocks) but maybe some enhancements to routing or controlling of effects might help, but really that is about my only gripe and its not even that. I'm going on year 2, and its so simple to dial things in and it doesnt take much from the 'new' stock settings to get where you need to be for that amps sound.

I might be verbally, but procedurally I wasnt doing anything different. In HX Edit....add Delay block, go to the controller page (you're right) and select bypass, choose Snapshots. I even looked at a different block and it was listed. Again, maybe I did something different, but I'm fairly fluent and have done this enough times. I got it fixed so I'm not overly concerned at this point, more confused as I've ran into that sometimes previously, but somehow figured it out. lol. I recently did a 7 & 8 backup/restore of my setlists/presets from a corrupted slot while importing presets to build setlists for next week. Upon bootup, it had to rebuild all my presets, I went to grab a beer, came back...it was ready to go, I realized that this preset would benefit from a 2nd delay block (doing the same thing as the 1st one, but controlled differently to help me not look awkward while trying to sing, transition into a lead snapshot sound and still play the lead fine). I made room in the preset, copy/pasted the block 1st to the 2nd block, and just was going to change the bypass assignment from Exp 1 to Snapshots and it wasnt listed there.

Not sure what i did, but I held the Bypass button thinking there'd be a menu I'd find on the Helix itself..and an icon appeared in upper right corner next to the snapshot number. I can't make out what it says or looks like, but it seems to allow me to assign the bypass by snapshot now. IDK....lol

I have a preset where I utilize 2 delays one for a simple fill lead line and another for the main solo, each one triggered by something else. The main solo is triggered via snapshot changes, the lead line (because i'm singing) is triggered by rocking Exp 1 backwards past 97%. When trying to assign the snapshot Delay block to bypass via Snapshots...its not an option to choose....?? I'm lost. I've deleted the block, entered it again, I've copied/pasted the other delay block intending to only change the bypass trigger from Exp 1 to Snapshots. Any ideas?

This happens to me frequently, here is my fix. 1. Backup (export) any 'good' setlists/presets) 2. disconnect Helix from cpu, and uninstall HX Edit/Updater. 3. I do the 7 & 8 restart option. This clears all setlists/presets and installs the factory default presets. 4. Go to L6 website and redownload the HX Edit/Updater software and install 5. Turn Helix off, connect to cpu, start HX Edit, connect Helix 6. Import your 'good' setlists/presets that you exported earlier. This seems to work for me....taking my time it took about 5 minutes to go through everything. Inconvenient yes, but easily fixed now that I have a process. There can be some work lost, but its better than wiping the whole thing clean and starting 'over'.

Yes Pride was the name of it. As I said I was too young to enjoy that era of music 'properly' listening or activity wise, lol......but 'Wait' was my first exposure to them. Bought the album at a Goodwill or something on a whim and loved the guitar work on the rest of it.

the description sounds great, I'll try it ou when I can

So (don't judge me too harshly) I had a craving for some White Lion while at work today. And the only album I know is the first one, don't really even know about the band really just the two main singles off of it and growing up the guitar work always stood out. Now that I listen to it, I listen to tone a lot more and technique and things like that. So this guy is all over the neck with his work (to my ears at least)….I always dial in too much gain to cover for my playing deficiencies. Tracks 3 and 4 have some tone that I love...it doesn't sound overly gainy but has the nice crunch...but enough gain they can do the tapping/whammy tricks stuff. Can someone recommend me some settings on an amp model that will get me close? I'm assuming the 2204/2204 Modded would be my start point...but if I was to cop the gain structure of this album...where would my settings start or be around. YES I could play around with this, but I end up dialing in more than I need to satisfy my playing. And I wanna work the other way, match the tone more and work on my playing techniques....

I don't have my helix in front of me either, but isn't there a way to change the slope of the 0-100%....linear I would think would be best, maybe that's set differently if it exists?

Hmm....I have a few presets as well that I have a pre/volume block set to imitate rolling the guitar volume back or to help facilitate a lower gain setting but keep the tonality of the amp differently than just rolling the gain back (helps with volume control between snapshots/presets). In my presets I do notice that I have to have the volume lower than what I anticipate to get the desired lowered gain setting. Often times I'm sub 40% but usually closer to 25% or lower, even some in the 10-15% range. Do you use EMG's? Do you have the input pad off? Maybe a combination of these things creates a hotter signal and essentially the 60%-100% is really not doing much signal > Amp wise. I don't think your experience is much different than mine. I try to not let the numbers mess with what I hear. I think I even have a preset/snapshot that is at like 5% cause that's just what sounds like I need.

Where do you have the volume pedal in the presets your comparing? Pre-amp, post-amp? Could make a difference. Does the pedal travel fluidly from 0-100 and its just the sound that jumps to 100% at the 10% movement level?

I ended up returning both pedals. Not what I wanted to do, but if I'm not 100% happy, which is the point of this rig setup...I'm not gonna keep stuff. I've been fine up til now....I'll be fine going forward. I ended up with the return money getting cables, a powered wedge for acoustic shows (monitor for myself), a tablet holder for mic stand, and a new mic stand for my new board (has a mic stand bracket built into it. Appreciate the conversation but I dont want to compromise what i've built so far tone wise....and I'm the happiest I've been in a long time.

yeah my idea behind getting the Drop (and the Freqout to help with feedback on the misaligned pitches live) was to build the loops into the presets I build specifically for songs. So as we shift from E to Eb and back to E...I'd be able to just call up the next preset while addressing the crowd and the other guys are swapping guitars. Granted, stomping a button to the right of my board isnt a deal breaker, its just not how I wanted to use it and knowing me I'd forget to turn it on/off at some point. lol.

Yeah I seemed to like it in front as well better than the loop for latency. Its not horrible, but something I can feel and notice. My head can't let go of trying to be efficient with the setup which is why i'm fixated on the snapshots/loops idea...but if it has to all be pre-Helix then fine. In regards to my talkbox...is the noise on the return or the send? Anyone know that? I'm picturing the Loop sending to the talkbox, but not utilizing a return cable as its not necessary really.

yeah to be clear, the pedals arent noisy. When I tried them in front of the Helix they were great. But I want the control via snapshots so I'd prefer the loops. There are some presets (I play 80's/90's rock) that are higher gain. I've tried moving the noise gate in the chain to help. In the regular presets I could put it after the drive that is boosting the amp and it would clean it up, but putting it there with the Loop Engaged is impossibly noisy. So it has to go after the loop(s). I just dont think its going to work the way I want with snapshots/loops. The gates have to be set too extreme to keep it silent/clean vs keeping any sustain. And once the gate opens, even with 10ms close time it still leaves some hiss/feedback before it closes. Not the good feedback either. Thats really only on my balls out presets, but I want a solution for all involved.

So I've been trying to get along with the new Drop and Freqout pedals. My initial plan was to put them each in a loop (talkbox too, but still on its way here) and then utilize the loops via Snapshots to turn them on/off on my appropriate song specific presets and on my lead snapshots (for the freqout). However, the noise is pretty unbearable. I have both at the beginning of my chain, followed by a Noise Gate. I have the input gate set to about -48db and the additional noise gate right after the FX Loops set to about -40db. Depending on the gain in the preset it works well, or I still get some hiss/feedback sounds at the end of palm mutes. If I turn up the gates to get rid of the noise its killing my sustain. I feel like I'm going to return these pedals, but wanted to give them one last try. I've moved the Freqout to the bottom next to the Helix..however I dont utilize it enough to really have it take up that space all the time. So...a few questions.. 1) the Hard Gate effect seems to be more aggressive than the Noise Gate. What is the difference? 2) those that are using the loops, what are you doing to eliminate the noise the loops create? 3) While my talkbox could be run up front, it again loses my Snapshot/Loop scenario, is it the sends or the returns that are noisy? I feel like all that noise going into the talkbox would be a nightmare. I'm still into the pedalboard I bought and will utilize that regardless, just disappointed the pedals so far have not worked out like I wanted.

I read the title, I misunderstood what you were looking to get with it. the way you just described it makes more sense. You want the light on/off as the snapshot is turned on off. My bad, I thought it was more like my situation where out of 4 snapshots I may only use 1/2/3 instead of all 4 and I don't want the extra unused 1/2/3 to have a light on at all as its distracting when trying to make a quick switch while singing. Yes what your describing I don't believe is a behavior Helix has...