themetallikid

I do the same thing pretty much. My presets are tailored to our main sound guys FOH rig, and I know how the powered wedge I use translates to that, so I'm pretty spot on regarding any adjustments or new presets I make. My only issue with this approach is volume, I will usually get my rhythm presets leveled out well, however, the 'boost' I put into my presets going to a lead is designed for the signal vs. gain between my Helix and our soundguys board settings. There are some places we play that have FOH provided and when we play there, if the gain on my guitar's in channel is set more/less than what my regular guy has, that has an effect on how prominent my leads are in relation to the rhythm. its either squashing or expanding the 'boost' I already have programmed. What would be nice, is if there was a way to globally set a 'Lead Boost' and have that as a parameter on your Amp block or maybe a separate block for end of chain placement. The block or switch could be assigned preset/snapshot/globally. All of your presets would have Rhythm - off, Lead - on for this switch...and you could set a db boost for each patch. It'd make it easier to adjust 30+presets (15 of which are leads) consistently. Just adjust your global boost, when that setting is set to global. **sorry to hijack, not my intention.

Yes, I only use preset mode right now, but having colored 'blocks' on the performance mode screen would be a great help when trying to choose which buttons for which sound. Or at a minimum allow the LED Rings to stay on, and choose between off/dim/bright when active or not.

Did a similar Mic Mounting to my old board using some plumbing supplies. Used a threaded nipple on my board like you did, Gorilla Glued a threaded pipe to the shaft of a mic stand. At setup, just had to screw the mic stand into my board....Was great. I was using a talkbox and couldn't find a mic stand that had enough counter weight for the additional mic/tube weight.

So....resurrecting an old thought I came across when thinking back to my older rigs. I had a Boss GT-3, that the wahs were horrible and someone on the old Harmony Central forums had a way of using an EQ block as a wah. If I recall correctly, we would just attach the Mid Freq Parameter to the Foot Controller and assign the Min/Max Settings. This would allow us to control the Q and also the amount of the boost as you could essentially assign multiple frequencies then as well. Any thoughts to this? Was going to try it out this week when I have time and see how it works. Also have seen some people with modelers put 2 wahs back to back and like the results...I haven't cared for that... Or, use an EQ along with a Wah set to autoengage to get an exaggerated Frequency response from the wah as well.

I get the phasing thing....I've recently switched to sending L/R to the board at the request of my other guitar player and sound guy. I've always run Mono, so they said even Dual Mono would have some more 'ballz'. lol... When I added it I added at the end of my chain right before the delay/reverb blocks which are both set to stereo, then its out to my outputs, which I use the XLR's usually, but was monitoring via headphones plugged right into the Helix. I can hear some separation when I play with stereo delays so I don't think my headphones are collapsing something to mono.... Am I missing something?

I read the link, used it as a basis for understanding what each parameter does. I guess I 'understand' the effect......my question was more about the rhythm vs lead sounds. I suppose I could use the double take on my rhythm patches as well, and use 'lesser' settings for the rhythm. Right now with it just on my lead presets, they have a more 'box' like quality to the voicing or sound. Rhythm does not have that. My question is (or isn't, if I'm thinking wrong) is that normal, or is there a way to make them slightly closer in that voicing? My rhythms tend to be a bit tighter and the leads with that effect sound more boxy. I think I answered my own question by just adding the double take to my rhythm presets and lowering the level of the wet signal to minimize, but keep the general feel of it. Maybe....am I missing something?

So, I played a little with it last night....I like the way the leads sound when I have it on the '2' setting, and lower the Slop and (I forget the 3rd parameter name). I liked my rhythm sounds as well, but there is a big difference in sound between the single tracked and multi tracked (DUH!!, I know).....but the Double Take preset has a very 'boxy' type feel to it, and its a pretty drastic change when playing along with tracks and practicing that I wonder if it would be too much of a change and sound bad out front in the mix. Is there something I can do to my rhythm presets to get them closer? or is there something I'm missing in the Double Take settings to minimize this? Am I just missing the boat logically in my head about this (completely possible here). Thanks for any help, and I understand any criticism....lol

This was a huge help in the feel of how my external pedal works with the auto engage.... I was originally setting it with a 95% engage setting, I prefer toe-down setting for engaging the wah. It always seems abrupt when it engages, and then I read the following in the another thread and it seems much smoother in the on/off feel and consistency. The auto engage was designed to work with the heel down. With this, you can go into Global Settings and you want to reverse the polarity of whichever expression pedal (1 or 2) that you are using. Now, this will make your wah function backwards (toe = bass, heel=treble sounds). Go into your wah pedal settings for your presets and reverse the Min/Max settings to return your pedal back to regular wah sounds (toe=treble, heel = bass sounds. I was able to raise the auto engage % a few notches to 97%, and it seems to 'feel' better when controlling the wah in relation to the auto engage feature.

I just last night sat down and set up some basic patches on my Boss GT 100 for use at practice only....man what a pain in the lollipop and the tones are nothing compared to what I can get in 3-5 minutes on the Helix. Night and Day difference.

I used the stock cabs for the first 4 months I've had the Helix, I think they are usable, but come with their own set of tweaking needs. Using an IR just eliminates some steps in moving sliders and knobs. Choose a file and tweak around that, as opposed to going with a stock amp setting and tweaking the cab. With the digital units there are usually a dozen places you can add bass/treble/mids to a sound....older analog rigs you only had a few places. So I think people who don't like the stock cabs, just don't spend enough time tweaking to find a usable sound. I got lots of compliments from guitarists in my community regarding my sound, but I agree IR's are typically a cleaner sound to start with.

Curious if anyone has created a good Raygun sound....we recently added Rebel Yell back to the list, and previous rigs (Fractal, Boss) I've been able to create a good ray gun using either vibes or delay settings. I don't pretend to understand how the delay makes a good raygun sound.....but it was the best one I've tried. So....any good rayguns out there? Or other fun strange sounds.

I would love that, I've got a Dance/Classic/80's/90's/Hard Rock banks set up now, but I'd like to get another specialty bank where I have an all-in-one patch, and others in a bank. This might be the trick.

I haven't updated yet, as I've got two gigs the next 3 days, but I haven't ever had an issue with the 'fizz' that others complain about using any modeler. I had a Fractal before...and people complained there as well. Get some decent IR's and tweak as you would a real amp, no issues generally. Haters gotta hate....lol.. Only units I've heard fizz with has been the $500 and under units like the Boss GT series. Usually need 2 or 3 EQ's after the preamps to tame whatever artifacts they have in the preamp/cab sims. Just never sounds right, and shouldn't have to edit that much to get a usable sound.

I did not know this....I have been using mine as a toe down start point, and will consider this on my next tweak session. It seems to be a harsh turning on of the effect when using the regular settings this way. Was thinking of switching to a heel down starting position, but maybe this will do the trick.

So question, on your #5 comment, are you referring to which effect shows on the screen when you recall a preset? Can you clarify, cause it sounds like you are talking about one of my peeves of editing, lol. Not a deal breaker, just annoying. I have it saved to the amp block as its easiest to tweak live the volumes, but while tweaking if I adjust the EQ or something and resave it it then shows the last block edited, not the one I'd prefer it to show.

I'm fairly knowledgeable with how those affect the sound, except for extreme settings I've played with these a bit. I'm curious....how does Bias X and the Hum/Ripple apply to the sound. According to the 'manual' online it states Bias X Determines how the power amp tubes' voicing reacts when pushed hard. Set low for a tighter feel. Set high for more tube compression. This parameter is highly reactive with the Drive and Master settings. Hum Controls how much heater hum and AC ripple interacts with your tone. At higher settings, things get freaky. Ripple

Is there a setting or a combo of settings that will take an amp from a tighter feel to a looser feel? I typically like a looser feel on my lead tones and I'm familiar with the Sag/Bias settings, but they don't always seem to get me in that realm of making an amp looser 'feel wise'. To be fair, I haven't played with the other parameters outside of Sab/Bias so I apologize if I just haven't explored enough yet. I usually think of these things while at work and don't have the unit in front to play around.

Yeah, I don't really do much for volume use with expression pedals, unless the song requires it. But it was a nice way of leveling patches in a live environment and then going back to adjust them. Really made it streamlined. try presets live, make adjustments on songs adjust amp ch volumes to match adjustment to preset volume variance try presets live again, rinse and repeat It worked well, if I adjusted the preset volume +/- 3db, I would adjust the amp ch. volume by that amount and reset the preset volume back to 0 to help with the next round. Really helped hear patches in a full band and be able to adjust live.

Hey, I'm at work when the thought came to me so I don't have my unit in front to know if I can do this. Usually work in snapshot mode, and am beginning to setup a switch in Stomp Mode that will be a momentary lead boost (while depressed, off when let go) for those songs that need that. But its opening up an option I used to use in my Fractal often that I didn't think about. I used to be able to attach 2 IA switches on my Ground Control Pro that would increase/decrease the patch volume when pushed and automatically save that setting. So you could adjust on the fly if something was louder/softer than what you assumed it would be. I generally try to level my patches as best I can, but there always seems to be a few that slip through and this was a great way to catch it on the fly. Anyone know if this feature would be there for me in Stomp mode? I know I can generally just reach down and adjust the Ch. Volume of the amp block (which is where I save my presets to show when I recall them), however, that is tough when I have 3 or 4 snapshots where the Ch. Volume varies, would need an overall preset volume. I can then go back through patches that have had that overall volume adjusted and fine adjust the Ch. Volumes across the Snapshots to bring them all down.

Just purchased this morning, the Big Pack and the Big Pack Add On.....can't wait to redo all my presets and just tweak for my performance needs and not worry about tone. I downloaded the Hot Plexi and Alter Bridge free presets to check them out as a test run and liked what I heard. Thanks for your work! I'm sure I'll have questions on how to adapt them to my needs. On a quick note, to speed up time later, do I have to import the files one by one, or can I do a bulk load and they will load correctly?

- I will definitely try the Optical Trem trick and see how that affects it. - For gain, I usually try to dial in what sounds right for the cd, then add a bit more for live use. I'm not a gain-a-holic, and actually try to play with cleaner gain than I probably should sometimes. I will say that for the presets I've worked on already, I played with the Input Pad and added the compressor settings that Duned referred to...and they worked great. Its still not perfect to my ears, but with guitar/pickups/non-original gear its much closer than I was before. Thanks again!

I can see this for sure. Tweaking in my headphones always gives a false sense of the gain/crunch on a preset and live, while I play direct, I do have a wedge that I feed my guitar through, and am usually pleasantly surprised by having to dial back some things. Though I do have a good ear for our FOH system and how it translates to my ears already. I'll play with the pad, as I was fairly confident as well that the EMG's were probably sending too hot a signal as well and its hard to dial that out.

The pad impedance..... this is something that I need to also explore. My lack of knowledge in this area has kept me from playing with things I don't know about.

Yes guys, thank you for those tips, I'll take a look at those and play around with them. I'll be honest I'm compressor illiterate. I understand what they do, and I get generally how they work.....but just cannot become 'fluent' in working with parameters especially across different models (I have some of this issue with other effects as well too). I've read a few posts where people have put Compressors in front of amps to help drive them a bit or for what you mentioned...I'll have to check it out. Yes you are correct...the two tones I struggle with the most is that Clean up front, but spongy type after taste. I think of Takin Care of Business type tone, then adding a TS808 or something to help give bit more sustain or liquid to the notes for leads. The 2nd is going to be just that classic Plexi Classic Rock sound from a cranked amp...but this is where I really struggle getting that nice breakup without it sounding to snarly. I'll try your settings Duned, and see what happens. I appreciate the info.

Ok...sorry to bother you all with this question....but I've always had a hard time dialing in that light/medium crunch sound for Classic Rock type tones. I can get the heavy stuff down ok, and my clean/slight breakup stuff is ok....but getting that next level of saturation/gain seems to elude me. I'm guessing part may be because of EMG's maybe, but I would think there would be a way to compensate that in the settings of the Drive/Master. Songs I'm referring to are American Band, Boys Are Back In Town type stuff. It always seems like to get enough 'crunch' out of it I have to put the drive higher than it feels it should be for that tone, and then it gets too (for lack of a better description) stiff and preampy sounding. I usually start by bringing up the Master to above 7.5 or so to get that power section working, then try to find the sweet spot for the Drive that gets me in the ball park. Then play with the sag/bias settings to help with the 'feel' of the attack and body of the notes. Usually that will result in reducing the Drive a bit to keep me in the same area of crunch I'm looking for.... It sounds like a modern amp doing classic sounds though and doesn't sound authentic to me. Maybe I'm using the wrong cab sims to achieve it as well?? I've also tried using a TS808 or other pedal and they all just make it sound tighter (go figure huh?) rather than helping to push the amp where I want it to go. Any suggestions on amp/settings? I usually start with the Plexi type model and when I can't seem to get that 'right' for my ears I start looking at Plexi-like models to maybe do something it wasn't for me. I'm sure it really is just something I'm doing or not doing, or maybe my ears are just jacked..... Thanks in advance.