Thoeng

Great post on this! When I was AB'ing between my Shiva preamp and the Helix preamps into the Shiva poweramp, I found the Helix preamps a bit dull sounding. Lacked the punch and 3D spread of the Shiva. When I switched the Helix preamp to full amp models (sans cab of course), it much improved the sound. Seems counter intuitive, but they work better for me then the preamp only models.

I find the preamp models a bit dull sounding. Against better judgement, i tried the full amp model (no cabs) and like the results better.

I'd say to give it a go. Start out with a 4CM setup with your current amp. The switching possibilities, snapshots, scribble strips and number of quality effects is more than enough to warrant the price of the Helix. From there on you can start to experiment with going straight to the poweramp of your Laney. If you like it enough to ditch the Laney preamp and clean up your setup with fewer cables, good, if you don't, then stick with the 4CM. Either way you get a lot of possibilities for a fair price.

Thanks for trying to help me figure this out guys. Sorry about the cranky response at first. Long day :) I don't feel that volume is the issue. The weird part is that at first the drums will sound fine, but after a few minutes they will begin to distort. I guess I am indeed not using it as intended, so can't complain it's not working as i'd want it to. Guess I'll put a pair of studio monitors on the want-list. Kinda just bought a house though, so that might be a couple months :D

It's on my list. I bought the Helix mainly for my live rig, so studio monitors are not a priority for me. The guitar sounds are fine for what I need through the computer speakers . I'm just setting it up correctly for use with Garageband I think. The drums from Garageband sound fine when hooking the speakers up to my computer, but when I go USB to Helix then the drums distort, so just a user error in the setup i guess. The speakers are not distorting because of the volume being too loud, the problem seems to be that the drums are going through the guitar chain... Like I stated in my earlier post. But thanks. I guess...

I tried it with the phones output going to my computer speakers. My Garageband drums sounded distorted, as if they were being fed through my Helix guitar chain. How do i get this right?

Working fine for me. Only way for it to work is to assign it to an actual footswitch on the Helix and then enable or disable the footswitch and save it to a snapshot.

Any chance you could give me the details off your global EQ? I've got mine "fairly" transparent, but would like to try your settings if possible :)

I got this one: https://www.thomann.de/gb/thon_effect_case_for_line_6_helix.htm Perfect fit

Hoping it's the power in the building. Didn't need one of those boxes with my pedalboard in 4CM and the Shiva. Never tried it in the house.

Allow trails while tuning http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Allow-trails-while-tuning-with-Helix/838717-23508

Hi Phil, Thanks a lot for the advice! I actually got it working with some tinkering. Getting a bad ground loop, but that might just be the wiring in my building. Got a gig on Saturday, so that will be the big test :)

Okay so i joined the club! Got one last week and so far i'm really enjoying it. First evening was spent going through presets with headphones and computerspeakers. Far from ideal of course, but was good to get to know the unit. I mostly play rock, but don't really consider myself a high gain player. So far i'm liking the 2204, the Shiva and the Recto as a good starting point. Last weekend I brought my Bogner Shiva up from the garage to try it out. Preamp models into the power amp in of the Shiva sound great, but i live in an apartment so i could only try it out at bedroom volumes. Having a bit of trouble getting it to work in 4CM though. Not getting a transparent base sound at all. I'm using an FX loop block (2 lit arrows) on the Helix. Drive and mod before this block, delay and reverb after. My shiva has a pedal send and a rack send. It also has a power amp in and a return. Add that to the instrument and line level out on the Helix and i'm lost... Anyone have any experience with the Helix and a Shiva in 4CM? It's a newer one (green chassis), with bright switches, independent boost and loop that doesn't need the special cable. Thanks!