Ive owned a helix previously and sold it- I recently got an hx stomp thinking Id try that route or ideally the pod go. My later end of helix using was marked by the best sounds coming from split signals mixed together with tons of action on the splitter and mixer functions- mostly using two impulse responses- which were often already multi mic mixes of a particular cabinet. I liked doing the bright 57 on the cone IR mixed with a ribbon near the cone or on it and 57 off mixed with like a super far off or back of cab mix- or a completely different IR with the far off mic'ing more prevalent.
then Id use the splitter to send lows to one and highs to the other- or just the AB and Id put a delay in front of cab B with mix on 10 and time at 10ms. that worked really well.
I never really got it nailed down to where I was efficient at making presets- and i'm rambling because I have tons of thoughts and questions on these units these days.
Ive seriously thought since the beginning of the FRFR active crossover plastic cabinet tweeter/woofer Powered PA speakers that that wasn't really working except on the high end models with really nice sounding DSP.
Ive always thought we want an amp and speaker cab in the room sound but with a flat response? the tweeters seem to suck unless you can manipulate the c heck out of them. i haven't tried the line 6 power cab but i did try some of the more expensive PA's that were popular ike 3 years ago.
ANyways- I've always loved a twin reverb with JBL D1`20 or even E120 speakers. one of my favorite guitar tones is jerry garcia who used a fender twin reverb put into a head cab= modified it for a preamp out just after the reverb return gain stage I think. that went out into a Macintosh MC2135 which was about the cleanest mcintosh that existed at the time. he could have used an old tube powered mcintosh for more warm harmonics and whatnot- but the mcintosh he used definitely still had a flavor of its own for being really clean- digital amp clean and modern audiophile clean is so much different- the audiophile stuff today the old mac can't compete with unless your old and like viny noise (or at least thats the thinking) anyways that ran straight into a 3x12 vertical open back (but made of thick plywood not like a pine fender open back- it was made for sounding good on a big stage not in a small room. loaded with the cleanest flattest high power handling speakers at the time- the JBL d120F (he then went to K120- then to E120 as they changed he liked that they were getting cleaner and more strident) I admit his 80's tone is awful on recording sometimes- and sometimes the playing is- most of the time the audio recording is the problem. But listening to ike alpine valley 1987 and some of the pro recorded \1989 tour. that was one mean tone. his distortion pedal sounds like the way people complain of distortion sounding into a FRFR. buzz saw and too bright and nasally almost like a wah is open
ANYWAYS
Ive always thought why not use a solid state power amp- something maybe with transformers- or lollipop this is still not the point. use a digital power amp with some user controllable IOS app so you can auto adjust the settings for every ROOM you play in.... just like the modern stuff now. we're playing for audiences in real shows stage sound doesn't matter just being able to hear it is good enough sometimes. whatever- i was thinking a super clean solid state power amp or a tube macintosh would be a nice subtle gain stage/compression and "good clipping addition"
the point- why doesn't someone (not me) try a guitar cabinet or something similar like an open back big plywood cab- or a convertible cab- but instead of using two speakers with a crossover like a sucker that plays with crossover caoactior resistor networks (and spends hundreds on capacitors---- I guess we as helix users totally understand this guys problem- he hates hearing a two way speaker when used in the way that we think sounds good.
ANYWAYS- how about some full range single speaker cabs- or at least MORE full range flat response than some celestions in a pressure cooker. or some jbls firing so loud off every corner of your room it will sound good to you.
I really dont know anything about this stuff beyond hobbyist- but I seem to remember guitarists were using the eminence delta pro 12 in guitar cabinets with tube amps. like just regular 1x12 2x12 cabs. or maybe just some EVM12L's or something like the JBLe130 or 120 but with a bit more modern flatness and range.
then researching today it seems like someone beat me to the punch= selling an overpriced passive cabinet with probably a single modern high quality PA speaker- thats all the 120s were supposed to be was PA system speakers- maybe something with a TON of analog crossovers powering different cabs with different drivers. like the dead wall of sound. where they had the bass sending the low e to stacks of 15" d130s the A to stacks of 12" jul's and the d and g going to i believe just 10's and 8's maybe some 4" or tweeters were thrown in too (they were for other stuff= i'm just specifically referring to one electric bass guitar right now.
there's a video of phil doing sound check with it just going off like its the first time he's heard his bass drive like 10,000 mcintosh watts into stacks of plywood cabs the biggest on the floor rising up and the smaller ones suspended as line arrays
So- i pugged the hx stomp from the headphone jack into the aux in of an ampli 75 i have sitting around being annoying as hell. and I made some killer sounds- I was totally blown away by 3.0
today i plugged up the stereo (albeit inexpensive $400 a pair) studio monitors. and I was so disappointed- i tried balanced cables- unbalanced- going into a mixer- (I didn't try the low and high cut filters on the back of them.
