Heavyville

lobsterbacks attack! 

what studio monitors will you be using ?  I'd honestly start there.  Headphones are good, but they don;t always translate very well. You really need to know your headphones to get tones to sound good on other devices.  Loud is better, we are talking about the guitar. 

IR's  are not for use with an amp ( power amp). 

those are only for use when using FRFR / powered studio monitors etc.

the key is to think of the helix as modeling the polished tone of a recording or the tone of the amp rig through a certain microphone. 

when using an amp  with a guitar cab to power the tone you will generally only want to use the pre-amp section of the helix and no IR's. 

Plugin Reliance just went subscription and they have some of the very best SSL and other plugins around.  They also released a VH4 plugin that looks interesting for anyone out there who is still waiting for Line 6 to get off there duff on this amp manufacture.  

On 7/7/2019 at 1:07 PM, arislaf said:

Soupro... after 3 years i found out that by lowering the bias on supro, it goes crunchy to jimmy page tone asap . Give it a shot.

i do the same thing with that amp....sounds amazing 

I don't get along with the 5150, but when i try too, i also cold bias that lollipop. 

3 hours ago, datacommando said:

 

Ah, yes! The memory of that first diddly bow, that I acquired from your sister. Yes, the short one with a beard - the diddly bow, I mean.

 

;-)

If the kids want to play guitar they will play the guitar, end of story....I don't care what the condition is, drive and ambition win every time.  If a kid wussies out, he was gonna wussie out anyway. 

I learned on a 12 string acoustic converted to 6 strings that was purchased at Sears, when my fingers blew a part, I used electrical tape and kept going. 

so I'm not sure what the excuse to quit would be other than, I don't like playing the guitar i'd rather watch soccer.   

i'm gonna quote the dude here "that's just your opinion man"  and it is just my opinion. 

But if your looking to waste some time and don't need that time back.  

Farking great place to visit. 

time to reheat that marginally just adequate coffee up in the microwave and finish reading page 11-12 

Tastes are subjective for this for sure. 

if you want your Strat "heavy" imo,  it needs a humbucker in the bridge and my favorite heavy strat tone came from a guy named Jag Tanna from the band I Mother Earth.  Check them out. 

He uses a generally an old Naylor guitar head and a 5150. 

enjoy the journey.

9 minutes ago, cruisinon2 said:

I must say I am surprised by the lack of outrage here at Snitfest 2.8... only one vague hint about not buying anymore L6 stuff... I can't believe that nobody is off their meds this week. ;)

 calling all TOOL fans!!!! ok, kids tell the nice people here what waiting really feels like LOL.... 

I've done a version of this on some of my patches.  

When I developed a TOOL (Aenima album) patch I used 2 different amps (Marshall and Mesa) 

The Marshall amp, I focused on it being cleaner and tighter and focused the sound on the bottom end by turning all the high end off, by way of high cut filter on the cab and more EQ at the amp.  Then I tailored the preamp section to where felt right.

The Mesa (EPIC) amp i saturated the mids and highs, blend them back together.    Take the low end out with the low pass filter at the cab / high pass too to get rid of the junky fizz.  

IR's or stack cabs i'd mess with the mics and positions until i got what i liked. 

I will admit i used the amps volume level in snap shot mode to do the editing or fine tuning. 

I like using brode strokes for eq'ing first before I go and start chopping away with para eq. 

so many ways to go into the rabbit hole. 

17 hours ago, Digital_Igloo said:

Here's the Logic/GarageBand template:

• FS2—Click on/off
• FS3—Cycle on/off
• FS4—Rewind (hold for fast rewind)
• FS5—Forward (hold for fast forward)
• FS8—Clear take and return to previous location (doesn't do anything in GarageBand)
• FS9—Stop > Return to Zero
• FS10—Play/Pause
• FS11—Record/Punch In/Out

Place the locator at the point you want to record, press FS11, and start playing. Screw up? Press FS8 and Logic clears the take and returns to the original location. If you nail a take, press FS9 twice and listen back. Rinse, repeat.

 

I think Logic has over a thousand (!) user-definable hotkeys now, so there's not much you can't do remotely from Helix.

First person to get 100 head shots with a sniper on COD using the Helix floor gets all the bragging rights. 

QOSP is far too long of an acronym for executives, they will lean it down to QSP (Quality Soiling Policy or something of the sort). 

the headphones are fine as silverhead indicated    check you gain staging.

I use my Helix floor as my main interface for right now using Logic Pro X.   The only little item that pops up every once in a while is glitchy noises, I've come to the conclusion it's just the nature of the beast with USB.    I usually do a restart on the computer and it fixes the issue.   I think the issue stems from just putting the computer into sleep mode constantly and turning the helix on/off...

I'll continue to use it until I get a better interface ( Antelope / Audient ) 

On 5/31/2019 at 4:19 PM, soundog said:

 

So, its been over a month, and probably time for a lawn mower update. The parts for my Honda HRX217 came in and I got the mower running again. I found out it runs better on 92 octane, so bought a gallon of that. I just mowed the lawn yesterday (its growing faster now), and while I was mowing and emptying the bag over and over, I started thinking that it would be nice to tear out my lawn and put in sort of a natural meadow. You know, wildflowers and native grasses and that kind of sheet. I figure it would be good for the planet and animals, and I wouldn't have to mow as much. Sort of like letting it go to weeds, but really pretty weeds. If the neighbors complained I could tell them I'm just trying to do my part. And since the Helix update isn't out yet, a project like that would give me something to do for the next couple of weeks, plus it would be good healthy work. Win win.

 

So I went to the Battle Ground public library (they just remodeled with new carpeting and paint, and it came out pretty good) and checked out a book called "How to Create a Wildlife Garden." I started reading it in bed last night to look for ideas, and I swear the font size is only about 6 pt. Really tiny type! Even the pictures are tiny. The book is like 250 pages, and there is no way I can read this book. So now I'm thinking of getting back on Amazon to see what I can find.

 

The weather is really nice here today.

Hows the 2.8 lawn? can we get an update?

I've had to mow my lawn every 3.0 days right now in Ontario, Canada.    We also just started to grow weed here now, although the lack of sun is putting the end product behind schedule. 

Hey they can grow that stuff in Cali right?  

I like both and use whatever sounds good to my ear. 

IR's imo, are/were tailored toward the sound engineer who is most likely re-amping / DI's / working in the box,. That's where this all started, but there is also a market share for the modelling world obviously.   Although there are a tonne of files as there should be. All these files are different mics and positions some of even added folders of mixed mics and OH as one example provides a quick start folder to get you up and running ( i'm sure other companies do this too).  IF you have a good understanding of the  Guitar/Bass (paper speaker) recording process, you can manage the IR files potentially better.  If not, its going to feel like a giant rabbit hole.    Each and every one of those mics and positions carry good and bad qualities.  This is where EQ comes in handy as mentioned by other members.

I have a great understanding of IR's and the use of them, in fact I generally shy away from the companies that just release 1 IR.  Sure it may be good but your getting a snap shot in time of what someone else thought was a gold standard.  No single IR is the same due to the nature of how its captured. 

Now I use whatever sounds best for the application i'm doing.... live, most of my patches are stock cabs, but in the studio where I do the most with a helix, it's been IR's....and some of the IR's I thought that sounded awful by themselves sounded amazing as a stating point for a track to punch through musically.

IR's and even stock cabs----> the more knowledge you are armed with, the better that experience gets.   

I personally like what L6 did with the cabs, i'd like to see more cabs added.  That is where i'd like to L6 put some time in on.    New amps are fun and obviously sell units better than IR's/Cabs, but as an example, in the high gain world, in a mix they (amps) all start to sound relatively the same as you pile the white nose on top of each other, Cabs is where you can make the sound vary imo.    

I'm not disappointed in what I currently have in the helix.   IT has provided more value back to me in 1 year  since I've had it than I could ever imagine. 

in fact the ROI on one slays the other competitions units and price...imo.  

21 hours ago, Verne-Bunsen said:

I love that it has stuff for bass in the Helix.   

As a song writer in a hobby studio (i do this only for me) the helix is the bomb. 

Its cool to hear things in stereo as intended when the you developed that cool sound, lets make that evident right now lol!!!!. 

Your audience live will never appreciate it as it will never be heard that way for the most part.   So its for personal preference and studio recordings etc.  

My studio patches are what I want the final product on a recording to sound like.   For live,  it take that patch covert to mono and make it sound as close as possible and run with it. 

An IEM mix should always be different from the FOH mix imo.   They are trying to accomplish two different things, and will require generally different mixes.... The quality of your IEM's will play a role in what you need from your mix.   If your not hearing something correctly, volume is not your answer, frequency masking is your issue.    You only have so much sonic real estate to work with.   If you need more bass, get the guitar frequency out of the way of the bass and so on or tell your bass player to get out of the guiatr freq etc.   

Making the entire IEM mix as impact as possible with generate more excitement for your ears than focusing on just "my volume" so I can make sure I'm hitting the right notes.... imo, know your material to the point you can play it without hearing it.   I'm not passing judgment on that statement at all btw its just common sense and imo a standard to be at.    Some of my very best gigs I have ever played and had the most crowd reaction too, I couldn't hear a lick of anything on stage that was tangible.  I'll take a band that's on fire over  better sound any-day. 

drinking coffee and talking helix is a thing!!! Cheers.

L6, would keep the Helix hardware in the market for as long as possible.   With incremental improvements to the software (which is now as someone indicated above, one complete ecosystem).  The product most likely hit its goal for the ROI intended. What i'm hoping for now would be that they release software enhancements the are a bit deeper to push more sales of the current hardware unit which would be in "profit mode" for them.  These upgrades still get fed to current users and gain new ones "essentially revamping the validity" of the unit in these ever changing times.    I say lay back, chill and enjoy the ride!

The thoughts expressed above are future looking, mindless, unknowing bs. I just wanted to chime in while drinking my morning coffee and reading some fine

William Shattner about my favorite amp modeling system.   

35 minutes ago, silverhead said:

The screenshot is from Helix Native - not  a Helix device.

Thank you.  that would be why i don't know.   Would be nice to have on the hard ware unit and Edit.

4 hours ago, rucmas said:

I've been doing this for awhile on all my multi-amp patches. Works like a charm and you can mess with it via snap shots.     Although you can do the same with the volume on the amp and control via snaps as well.    its been 50/50 lately. 

Maybe i've missed something along the way, but i just noticed and input meter to the left of the screen and a main on the right?   when did this happen?   what am i missing....

19 hours ago, craiganderton said:

In the process of creating my preset pack of 128 multiband presets for Helix, several of the presets used four bands, so it became a problem to tweak one band in isolation. I couldn't figure out a way to have a "solo" button for a path/band, so the next best thing was to be able to mute the other bands.

 

Referring to the screen shot of a 4-band preset, I added a Volume block in each path (outlined in orange), and set the gain parameter to -120.

 

 

Enabling the Volume block would then mute the sound; bypassing it removed the mute. The Volume block has a very low CPU hit, so after developing the presets I often left the mute button in anyway. This allowed creating Snapshots that had only some bands, which were musically useful as well as the main preset.

 

I thought the mute button concept was a helpful diagnostic tool, and worth sharing in the forum. If you find this kind of thing useful, I'd be happy to post some more tips.

I've been doing this for awhile on all my multi-amp patches. Works like a charm and you can mess with it via snap shots.     Although you can do the same with the volume on the amp and control via snaps as well.    its been 50/50 lately. 

I think this just adds more tools to the tool box, which can help creativity when utilized properly with understanding.   

In the end your ears should tell you what was best for X and Y.  

Thanks for posting.