themetallikid

the renaming is what I do. I just make sure the 'blank' snapshot is a duplicate of the least incorrect one next to it. Meaning, I keep my rhythm snaps to the left, and lead on the right. I run the 4 preset/4 snap mode. So typically I'll have Verse / Chorus / Blank / Lead, the 'blank' one would just be a duplicate of the "chorus" snapshot incase I would hit it, it minimizes the chance of me hitting my lead snapshot by mistake.

Yeah that is interesting, and worth keeping in mind regarding the toe switch. Doesn't help with my external pedal situation.

respectfully, I don't think you guys are addressing what he is asking about. I apologize if I'm missing the boat on the OP request and the answers above me. I think what he is referring to with it being unforgiving is the 'feel' of the amp being tight or loose. I typically like a tighter amp for rhythm stuff, but like a looser amp for leads as the dynamics and sound to me is fuller. I haven't really noticed it with 'clean' sounds, but when you get into sounds that have a gain structure to them, there is a different feel between an amp that has a loose sound (maybe 'sag' is what should be used to describe this?) and some of the other amps that if you miss a note, it stands out, because the amp has a tighter sound. An example I could maybe try to throw out there would be if you take an amp and say crank the gain to 7 and get a decent medium/high gain sound, with just the amp, it will have a certain feel to the palm mutes, the way the notes bloom or are attacked from the guitar signal. If you put a pedal in front (yes it tightens the bass usually) it can have the effect of tightening up the amp as well. This could just be tied to the gain on the amp being lower as its driven harder though. When I had a fractal I think there was a parameter that specifically allowed you to change this feel. I don't recall its specific name, but I thought it was the Negative Feedback or something like that. Again, I apologize if I'm off base, or missed something in the OP and previous responses.

Yeah, I'm holding out hope its something else with mine as its only a month old and its an external pedal issue. That I'd be willing to accept as the mission pedal is about 5-6 years old, or could possibly be the cable that connects them....but the pedal and cable have been working fine up until the weekend shows that I noticed the issue. Havent tried linking the on board expression to the wah and seeing if I get the same issue. Really only use the on board one for volume on a few patches as I like the range/feel of the mission/crybaby style box.

Not to hijack, but Ive been having issues with an external (possibly related if the issue is internal with the Helix). Is there a setting where the Helix can learn a pedals min/max range. I had no issues the first couple weeks with my external pedal, then just suddenly stopped reading the full range and now only goes from 0-96% or sometimes 97%. I've adjusted the auto engage range in my presets, but if I miss one the wah just stays on until I change presets and switch back.

So I hooked everything up and when I looked at the wah, I found what was causing my issues. I dont know what changed, or if its something that can be fixed. I'm using a Mission Engineering pedal, just the basic one. I have the wah set to auto engage at 99%, meaning as soon as the toe is lifted it kicks in or off when all the way down. For some reason, it is only reading a max % of 96%. So I just had to adjust the Auto Engage to 95%. Not a big deal, but it worked fine beforehand. Are there anyways for the Helix to learn the Missions sweep range and adapt?

I know there is the general guide to the amps/cabs/mics etc....but... Is there a cheat guide that gives a generic 'EQ Flavors' of the mics and cabs. I understand they are paired in the Amp/Cab block with their original counterparts, but if/when I get to exploring some more exotic combinations, it'd be nice to not have to click through 20 options to get in the ballpark of what I'm looking for. Generally (warning: generic statement being made here, lol) I understand you can almost make any cab/mic/amp sound like you want with enough tweaking. But a Marshall Amp through a Mesa cab has certain flavor you can dial in by using a Fender 2x12. Or an SM57 mic sounds very different than some of the others in the high end. Would just be nice to know certain mics have certain EQ flavors. If I have a darker sounding amp, but need some more mids to cut through, sometimes just the mic/cab will do the trick without tweaking the amp to extremes. Or would have a sound that needs a little thickness that the bass knob or an eq just cant hit right, maybe a different mic/cab would get you there. Is there anything like this out there?

When I fear fizz, especially on a clean amp in a post, I immediately think something is clipping or causing that type of sound. I don't think I've ever heard 'fizz' on a clean amp. I could be wrong. Not assuming you don't know how to set your input levels and such, but I know clean amps can get ice picky in the highs, but I wouldn't ever call it fizz. I usually associate that with high gain and just the normal harmonic frequencies that are reproduced at high gain levels. Those can be tamed, but if its on a clean amp. I would post your settings for the clean amp so we can see if it can be duplicated.

I will be troubleshooting mine this Friday. I'll report back and see what I find with my situation. Could be a bad cable possible or something in my situation

I had a similar issue with mine at the last gig. Although mine would auto-engage and turn on, it would not turn off when returned to that position. had to change presets and come back to it for it to recall the off position. I haven't had time to trouble shoot, but I am using an exterior controller (Mission Engineering) that has worked fine up to that gig.

I agree with all comments above as well....also something that helped me with tones.......* im just offering advice, I am in no way assuming any level of competency or lack there of, lol. I found it greatly helpful to listen to some of your fave album guitar tracks when they are isolated, if you can find them. I found this greatly helpful. I was trying to always dial in what I heard in a recording rather than just the guitar sound and allowing the rest of the band/voices cover their own range. I have rarely found now a guitar sound that I have too many mids. Sometimes I'll have to adjust where the mids 'hump' is...but I generally have my mids around 7.5-9.0 on the amp block. I bring that up as if you are cranking the mids on the presets, and they still can't hear you out front, then the sound guy/system needs to be tweaked. I play in a 4 piece rock band covering everything from Johnny Cash to Metallica. I dial my patches in to replicate the artists general sound and my sound guy pretty much runs me flat, a slight boost in the 300hz area to thicken it up a bit, but its almost flat everywhere else, and he says its the best that my rig has ever sounded. Those cuts you are talking about up top, will help 'focus' your frequencies to the spectrums that guitars should sit, I generally do not touch the High Cut unless something is insanely shrill, but the bottom I've gone up to about 200hz, depending on the amp.

Is that the setting that just sets the LED to bright or dim? I'm aware of that. What I'm referring to is the ability to see all of my snapshots LED's on, all the time, with the active one being bright, the non-actives dimmed. So I use the 4 preset/4 snapshot mode with presets on the top. My bottom row, there is only one LED on, and it is the current snapshot. I cannot see what each other button 2,3 or 4 are color coded unless I step on that button to activate that snapshot. It'd be nice to be able to see them all, but the active one is set to Bright, while the others are set to dim.

Is there a setting that allows me to see the LED's setup for a preset without the snapshot being selected? for example, I have LEDs setup as Snapshot 1 - White LED - Rhythm Snapshot 2 - Blue LED - chorus Snapshot 3 - None - not used Snapshot 4 - Green LED - lead When I'm playing and singing, it would be helpful to be able to look down and see the colors and know which snapshot I want to step on. Right now the only LED that is lit is the one that is active. This would be more useful if (like my Liquid Foot Controller had) where the LEDs had a dim and bright setting. So active snapshots would be bright, and dormant snapshots would be dimmed. This visually may be easier if you color code your sounds in a preset like I do. Otherwise I have to look at the screen, then find the correct button, which normally isn't a problem, but while trying to sing/play it can be hard at times to look at that much information at one time.

Only way to globally (not really) change that would be to save a preset with the setup you'd like with the colors off or arranged how you want, and use that preset as a template. I wish there was a way to have the snapshot lights on all the time, not just when the snapshot is selected.

I've never really noticed the jumpiness, but I will try this to maybe improve what I do have. One thing that I learned when I had my Fractal, was a tip to use the middle pick-up position and slightly roll off the tone knob, seems to give me a more solid tone as well to tune. Not sure what it exactly does, maybe help eliminate some weird harmonics/frequencies generated by the bridge?

Mine's WIN10, I'm not too tech savvy, so that's about as much as I can recall.

Yeah I made it a point to become familiar with doing quick edits for live use, as adjusting patch volumes at home is not the easiest to translate to live shows. I can get ball park, but knowing how to adjust on the fly helps. Just wasn't sure you could do that via the onboard.

oh, so you can copy/paste right through the on board editing screens as well? I have been doing most of my editing via the pc, and any quick adjustments via the onboard one. I didnt search out the copy/paste function on the screen. I'll have to look for that, I'd be ok with that as a work around.

they should be (?)......I thought I installed the latest editor version, but the firmware should be the latest as it was updated before it shipped to me.

Hey Brue - There is sufficient memory, as I'm able to just drop that same block in and edit from scratch. I have been saving after the times it does let me paste it in. However, what I notice is that when I go to 'paste' and right click, 'paste' isn't even an option to choose.

So...been floored with the Helix so far....even my sound guy was impressed. Basically with my first batch of patches he had me almost flat (the flattest he has ever ran me). Just a small boost around the 315hz mark. He always seems to add some of that to my signal. Not sure if its the EMG's or just how I dial it in, or if that's what helps separate me from the other guitar player...oh well.... I move on.... So while creating my presets, I ran into times where I wanted to copy a layout from one preset, but copy the amp/cab block (or other effect) from a different preset. It would allow me to copy the block, but would not allow me to paste it into the new patch. Not sure if I'm doing something in the incorrect order, but 1) choose old preset, 2) right click > copy, 3) choose new preset, 4) right click > paste - seems pretty straight forward. And it worked sometimes, just not when I was on a roll and wanted to use it. My second topic - have an acoustic performance Thursday, and there is a chance that I'll be going solo....would like to get the Helix setup with running guitar/vocals through it. I think there is a guide in the cheat sheet to do this, but does anyone have any tips on this?

I agree, the Helix is worlds better in many regards, which is why I am forced to switch to it, lol. So, being that I still have the GT.... IF I were to run both, only for the sake of using the FX1 Block to simulate a single coil pickup for some of my Helix patches, would I just run: Helix Send > GT Input > GT FX Send > Helix Return > PA I could put the Boss S/R block right after the FX first in the chain with only the FX1 block between the input and S/R. That would be the cleanest in my mind. If I'm wrong I'd be open to those ideas? My 2nd thought was to find some single coil pick up specs and see if I can duplicate it with a few Parametric EQ's. Not perfect, but if it at least helps with the character of a single coil, may be worth exploring.

I'm guessing that because they work with Variax guitars, that this is something they choose not to offer in order to help promote that product.....I could be wrong (and probably am).... BUT, my Boss GT series had a nicer (not perfect) feature that allowed you to simulate different guitar/pickup configurations with a block at the beginning of the chain. I'm guessing it was just an elaborate EQ based on some generic pick up frequency responses, but was nice. Even my EMG81 could sound like a single coil guitar. Or you could go from single coil > Humbucker, or other similar changes. I did not see anything like that in the Helix, am I missing anything? I'm assuming this could be done with a Para EQ or 2 at the beginning of the chain if you can find the PUP response curves for certain pickups, but was nice having a generic block/setting for it you could tweak from.

I will definitely check those, and post the settings. I do have the noise gate on, set minimally to just clean up a bit of stuff in the background when not playing. , input pad is off (no noticeable clipping). I am running EMG 81 in my bridge.

Thanks, I will grab these and try these. Right now, trying to get my presets ready for the show Saturday before I start building some specialty presets.