themetallikid

THis is my goal as well...other than the level adjustments at the board, the sound techs I've got in my area usually run me flat as well...and occaisionally will make a cut somewhere in the upper mids/lower highs due to speaker differences...but they usually don't have to turn my tones in to a rollercoaster of peaks and cuts to get it right.

story of modeling and direct to FOH...its hard to find a good balance and almost impossible to 'perfect' them. You can use metering to get 'close' or ballpark, but your ears will be the best approach. Here is something else to consider that I run into. My band uses our own PA setup so I can setup our stuff and tweak away to make sure the audience is getting what I want them to get with my guitar sounds. HOWEVER, there are a few places that have in house sound systems....though the sound guys are quality guys (one guy is on the road with Cheap Trick often), the systems are quality systems....and we use the same line of rack/digital mixers....the difference comes in how they gain stage the channel strip. I especially have issues with lead boosts, as I prefer to boost things from my end rather than rely on a sound guy to pay attention and fader ride me all night. Lets say for the sake of simplicity that I have everything 'perfect' on our pa, the input gain is at 0.0 on my guitar channel....if I go play with one of the other PA systems and to get his system 'happy' he has boost my channels gain at the board by 3.0db, then every volume nuance I have in my presets (and my lead boosts, which are perfect for our system) will be blown even wider apart and sound like there is a bigger discrepancy than there is....being that I have over 90 song presets and usually use 45-50 in a night, its really hard to reprogram the lead boosts between sound check and start time, so its either roll with the volume issues or work with the sound guy to explain whats happening. In my case the sound guys get it, and they reduce the gain and raise the fader a bit, and it helps correct the issue.... but something to consider with home system vs pa systems that the gain staging at the mixer will affect any volume differences you have with your own rig.

I guess I can see how that can be beneficial, using one button essentially rather than 2 to go from rhythm>lead>rhythm..... Initially I had read into it thinking they were able to make Snapshots Momentary (with the toggle mode enabled). So eliminating the 2nd press....just a momentary switch. So Rhythm (Snapshot 1) > Lead (Snapshot 2) while held down > (release button 2) Returns to previous snapshot in this instance Snapshot 1. Was hoping that it would eliminate having to have duplicate blocks for snapshot lead changes and Momentary lead changes via Stomp Mode. I don't 'need' that option often, however the songs its on would be much appreciated, and I'm sure I could use that feature then on a few more songs where it isn't required but makes the tap dance while singing a bit easier. This is a nice stop gap for some songs, just not the homerun I was looking for.

So if I'm reading this right, this would mean Rhythm - Button 1, Chorus - Button 2, Lead button 3.....I could be on Snapshot 1, press button 3 to kick into lead, and then either press 1 or 3 to get back to the rhythm snapshot? Or am I reading this incorrectly? If I am reading this correctly....is there a way to make this 'momentary' or is it only in a latching fashion as Snapshots are used now?

I have this issue too.....although not with snapshots, its when I'm using a stomp button (2 presets, more complex than most of the ones I use). I mostly use Snapshots to change parts of songs, but for 2 songs Slither/Crazy Train, for the sake of convenience while singing/playing lead on both....I have duplicate lead blocks (EQ/Drive/Delay/Vol Boost) for each method (Snapshot, Stomp button) as each block can only be controlled by one method (unless I'm wrong here). So the snapshot version of my lead adjustments work fine, but when I go into stomp mode for the 'momentary' version of the lead sound, there is a very noticeable 1 second delay in the on/off bypass of these blocks. I had no issues with my update, I did notice that it rebuilt my presets the 2nd time I booted Helix up, but since then its been fine. Only other thing I've noticed that has really affected me is that the Expression pedal always defaults to Exp 2 and some of my assignments have been reset back to EXP 1....so had to have a quick go around with the Editor to make sure all the ends were tied up properly.

am I able to download the new guitar or do I have to purchase it? Will there be an IR that they are releasing that will make my guitar sound in tune, even when its not?

I really like adding a drive along with my wah before it to be engaged at the same time. sort of gives the wah a more aggressive tone.. I'll post my settings later.

Yeah you definitely need to 'get accustomed' to the colouring of your monitor system. I know that if I tweak things via my powered wedge, it translates pretty well to our full PA (something weird in the mids going on, but not enough to be concerned...the top/low ends are fine. However, if I tweak via my headphones, I know that those are boomier or thicker in the lower mids and I make sure to not over tweak by making them sound good, cause when it goes to the wedge/PA it will be thin and harsh. The headphones are good at helping with the high end, but the low end is the problem spot there. Just have to know your system and what its weak points are and keep that in mind. That's something where normally you would tweak with your ears not your eyes, but I would say use your head/eyes in my case. If Its boomy and my bass is at 2.5, then be smart and only make a small adjustment and recognize its the monitor system.

I think I got a response that triggered an 'A-Ha' moment for me.....and an admission of stupidity, lol. I have the Midiplus in/outs (as labeled on the Midiplus) plugged into the Helix in/outs (respectively). meaning in/in and out/out...thinking the label was a guide to which cable goes in which jack....however, someone pointed out it should be the opposite Helix In/Midiplus Out and Helix Out/Midiplus In...makes total sense and I would make that mistake years ago with my Fractal/LAMF Controller/Laptop setup when I plugged them in in a hurry sometimes. It seems I was correct in my Midi settings and I just need to reverse the damn cables, I wont get to try til later tonight.

I can definately try program changes..and see if that helps. I do have a post on the Bandhelper forum as well, its just not as busy. The cable could be junk as well, I havent used it in probably 5-6 years, just been sitting in my extra cable bin. As far as the settings in Helix (other than CC vs PC) am I missing anything?

Ok, I'm all ready to start using the Bandhelper app for my acoustic stuff and I have songs/setlist setup, Just can't seem to get them to talk to each other. I have an older MidiPlus Midilnk 2x2 I used to use with my Axe FX/LAMF foot controller/Axe Edit back in the day. I think it should work to allow the Helix to send the CC messages to scroll/change songs...but I'm not getting it right. Can someone confirm the Midi settings I need to make sure are enabled or set right? I have the Midi Channel set to Omni (BH app is set to 'All'), I have CC's 80-83 set up in the command center to control prev/next song, scroll up/down functions. I have them set to send a midi message of 127. In the Midi settings menu I have Midi Thru on, Midi over USB On, MIDI/PC Receive/Send to both Midi & USB, Duplicate PC Send on. I'm sure some of these I dont really need but just want to make sure i'm not sabotaging my own setup. On the Midi/USB cable I have there are 5 lights: red, yellow/green, yellow/green. the red I assume means (its been awhile since I used it) that it is connected, the yellow/greens show any information being transmitted in/out for each pair. When I step on my stomp buttons, I'm seeing no blinking of the yellow/green lights which makes me think something isnt set right in the Helix. Any help?

in the editor just right click on the snapshot name area and choose no color I think it says. On the helix, its been awhile since I"ve done it, but I think you have to save the snapshot and there one of the knobs rotates the colors.....I don't remember the exact steps.

I heard they didn't have khaki's back then in Australia, so plumber would be more likely.

I came across an old MIDI>USB cable I had called the MidiPlus Midilink 2x2. I used it when I had my Axe FX and a LAMF foot controller so that I could connect all three and use the Fractal PC editor and everything. Worked great... I think I can just use half of the 2x2 and run one set of the in/outs from the Helix to the Tablets USB. Would you be willing to walk me through how you set it up that way? That would work for my Full Band scenario

I heard its being released in timing with Chinese Democracy II, thus breaking records for the most expensive firmware release date ever

I don't know how you did that...purchase something and be happy with it for what it is I personally bought the Helix almost 2 years ago for a specific amp they have not included yet and a wah pedal they have not included yet.....they owe it to me. OMG was that hard to actually type out, lmfao

Ok thanks for the original suggestion by those of this app...i finally got everything for my band switched over and I'm at the point of exploring controlling my tablet from the Helix. Its been years since I worked with anything MIDI...and i'm sort of a midi-ot.... Would anyone be willing to walk me through how to get this to do a few things? Without knowing if this is possible...here is what I want...not sure what gear, if any I need as well between helix/tablet..... For my acoustic preset, I'd like stomps for previous/next song, and page up/down. I only use one preset with snapshots to control any changes so I'd be in stomp/snap mode here. For my full band, I'd like to have it pull up lyrics for each song as I engage the preset (not sure if this possible)...if not, then I need to know how to advance songs, page up down....I typically run in 4 preset/snap mode, so I'm not sure how I'd trigger stuff otherwise. Being that we run a setlist and I have a preset per song, I could probably change my up/down buttons to advance presets instead of banks and then utilize stomp/snap mode as well.... Any help? Thanks in advance....

that makes sense, and I wasn't worried about it just falling out (poor wording while at work, lol) but with it being a stand alone piece of gear that was plugged in, was worried the little bit of weight would cause issues with it. Though my logic says that if that was the case it wouldn't have been released across several companies designs. I appreciate the info, and will continue my shopping....

i'm looking to replace my Sennheiser that I've used for 10 years...I'd really like a pedal version as then I could get rid of one extra piece of gear to haul to the shows. What exactly is the issue with the Active pickups? Also, i'm worried about the guitar plug ins that don't use a belt clip style pack....should I squash those? I move around quite a bit.....worried about it falling out or swinging around loose

you don't really copy/paste, you just save, and on the save screen you can choose which setlist/slot you want it to go to using the knobs.

I like ducked delays, just horrible at setting them up...again either too much or none at all. I have a hard time setting the threshold/release on the ducking parameters..

I AGREE!!! I recently got turned on to the Bandhelper app...and have loaded all our songs and such into there. I researched the song length as recorded and BPM's. Its nice when building setlists cause you can enter pauses in the set for talking, and also time between songs. I have 1 minute for pauses and 3 seconds for between songs, but then when you add songs to a set it gives you the length of the set/night in total. We even have 'extra' sets in case the audience favors one style of music over another and it can exclude those from the total nights sets. Its really a useful tool to help you be consistent....tons of other features in there as well....for $6.00 a month, I can enter all our gigs and contacts into it and everyone has access to everything....sends notifications of gigs and you can set them up that each member has to accept it. its pretty slick, but like most quality things, its only as good as the information you put into it what your going to get out. sorry got sidetracked....

That will help me as well Duned, I'm in the same boat as the OP, either seems like too much or too little. I typically set my feedback around 10-20% (usually 15%) and my mix around 30% and only turn it on for my solo's. I just use the mono delay and also set mine to BPM. I think I stomp my BPM differently than I'm supposed to though, I usually end up with either 1/2 or 1/4 regular/dotted notes for my time based setting. When I set up my recent presets I looked up the BPM's of the songs in our sets and saved them to my song presets....and noticed that I had to adjust my time setting from the usuals to more of the 1/4 or 1/8 dotted. I usually tap the main kick/snare beats in a 1,2,3,4 beat...I've always struggled with this simple concept, lol.

One of the features I've been waiting for is ability to save 'blocks' as individual presets of that effect/amp.....Then I can pull up a boosted JCM800 and save the Amp as Boosted JCM800, and also save the Drive block as Boosted JCM800. Then when I create a preset, I only need to load the 'core blocks' for the sound I've saved. You could potentially do this with presets....have one of your setlists be dedicated to presets with specific sounds....but then copying/pasting is a bit tedious depending onw hat your trying to move....rather than just right click>Load block>(drop down menu amps/cabs/effects>sub menu>sub menu if needed) click on the block you want and its there. I sometimes get frustrated and quit trying to reconfigure settings from scratch all the time for specific effects.

Yeah, seems the same conundrum