arkieboy

Helix LT + Vox AC30S1 user. Worked first time, zero issues.

I wouldn't be quite as hasty ... What they're probably saying is that you're messing with their workflow. What you need to decide is if the overall results they get in the final mix are worth some accommodation from you. Old school engineers don't decide what an instrument will sound like solely in the final mix - there will be attention to detail in several places before they push all the faders up and try to make sense of what they have - the selection of microphone, the placement of that microphone, the selection of the cab, and any eq they might apply through the preamp before the signal is recorded. They will have been instinctively adjusting all of these things to get a 'good sound' to 'tape', with the measure of a 'good sound' is one that requires very little eq in the final mix. The impulse response - or cab sim - thats likely at the end of your preset will bundle all those decisions and preferences based on the ears of the person who programmed the preset and it looks likely they don't like the mic and positioning that you've been using for your sound! Think about sitting down with them and going through a selection of IRs until you find one closer to the sound they have in their heads. Ask them what kind of mics do they like to use, and where they normally place the microphone and see if you have matching IRs. But previous comments apply - modellers aren't exactly new, and they ought to be able to prompt you with questions like 'do you have a SM57 1" cap-edge off-axis IR you could use with that'?

The most obvious way to physically connect the two is to connect the 'guitar out' from the GR55 to the Floor's 'Guitar In', and to connect the left-right outputs of the GR55 to a pair of the Floor's returns. That of course won't in and of itself mix the audio from the GR into the Floor's outputs. I did an entirely equivalent thing with my VG99 which I describe here - https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=23099.0 - you can see I patch the returns directly to a signal path. I tend to run a single patch with snapshots on my Helix though so I'm not sure my template would work for you, and its for a LT anyway and I'm not sure how import/export works when you're dealing with sends and returns as the LT doesn't have as many of them If you go to the GR55 section of the forum I've linked you will no doubt find someone who can share a template - there are a lot of helix users over there!

There is also a workflow aspect to consider. Helix has very little constraint on your workflow - almost complete freedom means you can quite easily make it sound pretty awful* - whereas the POD Go seems from the spec to be more on rails which means you're more likely to get something sounding good without needing to understand precisely what's going on. (If you have a powerful enough computer) You might try the demo version of the Helix plugin and see if you can get on with it first? Steve *for some given definition of awful - you might hate what I love and vice-versa!

Since the thread has topped out again, I should report that I've had a SY1000 since they came to the UK. Its brilliant. I created this track almost entirely with the 'wave synth' of the SY1000 - the OSC synth was used for the one sound with portmanteau. The only thing that wasn't the SY was the drums. The wave synth uses harmonic restructuring - and I wouldn't doubt all sorts of other black magic - to change the sound of a guitar string into a traditional analogue synthesiser without delay, using the guitar string's own envelope instead of a traditional ADSR. As such its incredibly expressive and connected to your fingers. 'Astronauts' was used as a theme tune to an episode of the BBC TV science programme 'Horizon' called 'Space for Man' in the late 70s. Track is composed by Peter Howell of the BBC Radiophonic workshop, and was a 'B' side to the single version of the revised Doctor Who theme tune from that time. If you're worried that in places it sounds slightly thin, that's because I'm emulating ARP Odyssey sounds - the Odyssey is famously zingy, and cuts through complex mixes in a way a Moog would find difficult. The dynamic synth can be very fat if you need it to be.

I use 8 snapshots in a preset and the amp model had changed in the preset. But yes, I can't figure out what happened either!

Saturday morning at the beginning of the Matinee performance of the Oxford Gang show, I hit the first chord of what should have been the (British) national anthem and I was greeted - it turned out - by the Cartographer model at full tilt rather than the expected Essex 30 set for a ringing clean. There's not much room in the orchestra loft for this gig so one of the woodwind players must have knocked a dial as they passed. Is it possible to lock down your Helix so it becomes a preset machine without the pressing of some unlikely-to-be-pressed-randomly combination of buttons? (We all had a bit of a laugh about it afterwards. Most of the band thought I was about to do a Brian May ...)

Just take your mono jack output from the back of the Helix and plug it into the input on the Laney. Worked straight out of the box for me. I use it in FRFR mode because it also amplifies my VG99 for acoustic guitars/synths, but you might want to play with switching off your cab sims/IR blocks and using the inbuilt speaker emulation - it won't be anywhere near as flexible as doing it in the box, but you might get more of the 'amp in the room' feel.

I've not compared products so I'm not going to offer value judgements, but I bought RedWirez because I was impressed by the Scuffham plugin which apparently uses RedWirez. I couldn't be happier. What I particularly liked - I understand OwnHammer are the same - is the way they labelled the IR using the language an audio engineer would use. This helped me talk to my engineer friends and choose the ones I was interested in using. For me that turns out to be a ribbon 2" from cap edge for clean sounds and a 57 cap edge off axis at about 1" for dirty. If you want something a bit fuller for a solo I was told to select something closer to the centre of the cap. Since then my guitar tracks get practically no eq in any mix and the sound from onstage monitors is great. RedWirez also comes with a brief PDF document that describes the sweet spots for particular mics in terms of distance and positioning relative to the speaker cap, which really ought to be in one of the helix manuals because its pretty foundational.

I own the Laney FRFR112 and I think I should add here that it has stock filters for 1x12 and 4x12 speaker emulations. I have played with these and they seem effective and I assume they have the same kind of effect that a power cab would have without the flexibility: if I switch off my IRs and switch on the emulation I get the kind of sound I expect, which sounds more 'amp in room'. Sensibly the cabs also have an 'out' which carries the sound of the emulation if it is turned on. I'm happy with working FRFR and haven't really played around with this feature much. Overall, as I said in another thread ".... The LFR112 is exactly what you would expect - a well made, reasonably priced guitar oriented monitor speaker with a pretty flat response and plenty of level for rehearsal. If you want a =perfect= translation from your studio monitors to your stage monitoring solution you're going to have to spend quite a bit more so be prepared to tweak". I haven't been able to compare it with the opposition: it may box above its weight if you need an 'amp in room' sound and you are happy with the onboard emulations when compared to a powercab.

This must be an age thing: I thought naming your synthesisers after Bond villains was a stroke of (evil) genius, but I think I probably saw 'Diamonds are Forever' in the cinema ...

There are very few pieces of gear I own for which I would give an unconditional endorsement - everything has pros and cons. In any case being unrealistically enthusiastic isn't helpful to yourself or to others. The LFR112 is exactly what you would expect - a well made, reasonably priced guitar oriented monitor speaker with a pretty flat response and plenty of level for rehearsal. If you want a =perfect= translation from your studio monitors to your stage monitoring solution you're going to have to spend quite a bit more so be prepared to tweak. Would I buy it again? Yes. Might I buy a second for stereo? Possibly. Would I have bought some Matrix gear had I £2k handy. Probably!

I have one. I don't know how it compares with PowerCab, but I'm fairly happy with mine. The price is pretty good, and I have a sentimental attachment to the brand. It also looks more rock and roll than an Alto/Headrush and especially the Studiospares 1x15"+horn I was previously using. I've always liked the way Laney design cabs of this size with the recessed grab handles and its pretty easy to lug around. It is surprisingly deep - a bit like a Zilla Fatboy - which with the rear ports must contribute to the bass response. I use it in FRFR mode but it does have a speaker emulation mode to replace your IRs/cab simulations, which on a brief play does improve the 'amp in the room' feel, although its nowhere near as flexible as the Line 6 specification.

I use one of the Apple USB2-3 converters with regular USB cables for pretty much everything when I use my MBP - Helix, Saffire audio interface, VG99 - and it just works. Can’t imagine why a dedicated usb2 box to usb3 wouldn’t work

You know thats the paradox with the internet - huge amount of extra choice but nowhere to try anything. I'm fairly certain of the SY assessment as I trust the contributors who report on their problems, and there are multiple reports of the quality of the sound degrading past three notes. I have downloaded and thoroughly evaluated MIDI Guitar 2 and I may well end up buying it because I don't often do odd inversions for synth sounds. But I've never been in a shop with some time to have a go at the Mel9 or the Synth9 and the like. I've never given the EHX pedals much of a thought because they are relatively limited in scope and I know darn well Bill Ruppert can make absolutely anything sound amazing. I suspect that's why there's not much activity on VGuitar forums too (and you notice I didn't mention them either ...) I kind of hope you're wrong because I'll be £400 poorer if you're not ;-)