Thark

Thanks Ed. I do take your word that you have personally had this problem. However, I'm trying to find out whether or not it is a general problem with the MD-BT01. A casual google search hasn't revealed anything like this ... most complaints appear to be with bluetooth connection troubles. I find no mention of sysex problems on the web (well, there was one on Stack Overflow but it turned out to be the software sending the sysex data, not the MT-BT01). Cheers

Can you point me to a forum or somewhere that discusses the sysex problem? Cheers.

Just this week I came across something interesting in this vein. The Yamaha MD-BT01 bluetooth midi plug will allow an Ipad/Iphone to send midi commands wirelessly. I have one on order and am going to try it for changing multiple keyboard presets using my Ipad. Fewer cables and less real estate used up on stage. Fingers crossed that it works.

I dropped a bundle on a Nord Electro 5 a year or so ago and a few weeks later they released the Electro 6 but I don’t regret not waiting. The instrument is of superb quality and sounds absolutely wonderful. That’s also the way that I feel about my Helix floor .... used it for the first time at a rehearsal this week and its performance was stellar. If a new Helix came out next week I most certainly wouldn’t regret having the first version. I’ll be using my Helix for many years, probably until the Helix 8 comes out. Edit: What Kilrahi said.

I just a moment ago tried the "simple feedback" preset ... works pretty well although, with a pitch shifter in the mix, it seems to sometimes sound a bit artificial. Probably just takes some getting used to though so I'll be giving it a go at the next band rehearsal. I've used a Freqout since they came out. It's a very nice pedal and I'd have to say that, on my analog(ish) pedalboard it's probably my favourite. However, it would be nice not to have to haul the Helix *and* that pedalboard along to a rehearsal or gig just for that one pedal.

Cool preset, TLF2007! I'll give it a try at the next rehearsal.

It isn't really feedback that the pedal is doing but rather picking up on one of the harmonics in the signal and boosting it way up. Even though there is a gain control on the pedal the 'feedback' will only last as long as there is a signal coming in to it from the guitar which means that it will die out, depending on how well the guitar string sustains. I suppose you could turn up your amp and move up close to it to induce some extra sustain but that kind of defeats the purpose of the pedal. However, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work as it was designed for any tuning that you choose. Edit: I think I might have been wrong about the boost statement. The Freqout has a dsp in it that picks up on harmonics that it finds and synthesizes them.

Just gave the volume pedal/insert cable trick a try. It works (I tried it on a wah) but ... through the full travel of the pedal from heel to toe it goes from 0% to 100% and then almost at the toe position rapidly back down to 0%. ???

Agreed. “Pickup seledtion” might have better. How cool is that! When I started playing I had Fender, Gibson and Japanese junk to choose from ... and it was junk, at the time. I still have my Aria bass from 1969. Now we live in science fiction times with all this neat gear. :)

As far as I know you can only save the Variax guitar preset and the tuning in a Helix preset. The pickup and other parameters you have to edit in Workbench HD and are saved in the Variax guitar itself. Otherwise, what Brue58ski and Mturner said.

Hi Jimmy. My understanding of how the Freqout works is that it samples the harmonics in the signal presented to it and then decides which one to use based on how it is set up. My feeling is that if it is used the effect chain after a distortion or boost pedal the harmonic content is richer and you get a more realistic effect. Haven’t tried it prior to the boost pedal though, so I could be wrong. Anyway, assuming I’m right it would have to come after a Helix distortion via a send/return block. I’ll try a pre and post pedal setup and let you know how it goes.

Ah, yes. I forgot. Most of my presets that use Flat use LFRaw however a few, including the acoustics, use FRFR to activate the tweeter for a bit more sparkle. My mistake.

I’m kind of going in the opposite direction. I have two pedalboards, one with the basics (wah, overdrive, etc) which is fairly weighty, and one with several stereo Strymon effects which is light to lift. Amp is a Mesa TC50 with 2x12 speaker but ... I’m at that stage in life where it’s pretty tough to lift, in fact it stays in the house these days. I can, however , lift the Helix and my Powercab so for live stuff I’ll probably be using the Helix and Powercab. Might use the light pedalboard too as it has a Lester K leslie sim which is pretty hard to beat.

Hi. I thought that the primary difference between volume pedals and expression pedals is that volume pedals use a logaritmic taper pot where the expression pedal uses a linear taper pot. Both would work but the volume pedal would do most of its work at one end of its travel. Do you find this is the case in your situation? Edit: Just remembered ... Line 6 doesn’t use trs plugs for expression pedals but rather plain old ts. I have a Mission Engineering EP1-L6 designed specifically for Line 6 stuff which uses a ts cable to connect to my Helix. Not sure how your pedal works. I’ve got a volume pedal kicking about and an insert cable somewhere so I’ll give it a go.

What Steve said. After much fussing about this is what I discovered works too.

I'm using a mac and have this same error message just yesterday. I assumed it was because the IR was 44 kHz ... it was 32 bit for sure since I made it.

Hi Tdawgg. I’m not sure how you did it but I have had a lot of success using midi to switch speakers in my powercab. For each preset on my Helix floor I use the command window (not sure if that’s the right term ... I’m not in front of my gear at the moment) in HXEdit to set up a midi CC to channel 4 (that’s what my powercab is set to, yours may be different), CC# 21 and the numerical value of the speaker that I want for that preset. Works great for me!

On the other hand a 2x12 cab would likely be heavier to lift. For older geezers like me that’s a big negative. The current powercab weight is just about right for me.

I’ve just finished setting up my Helix floor, PowerCab + and JTV59 Variax with a raft of presets, one of which is for acoustic guitars. I have the Flat mode on the Powercab set to LF Raw (don’t know if I got that right, I’ll have to check later ... not in front of my gear at the moment). The acoustics sound pretty good to me ... perhaps a little “boomy” but I’ll tweak that with some eq. I am just amazed at the capabilities of the Helix, Powercab and Variax combination. You can program them to do just about whatever you want. For example, the other day I wanted to set up an A/B split preset with one amp/cab on one leg and another on the second leg AND different Variax guitars on each leg. Done. Cool.

That's got it! Thanks so much for your help.

Thanks Phil. It feels like I'm close to a solution. What I still don't know is how to set a different model for min and max for a footswitch.

Thanks rd2rk. I think I've jumped off into the deep end of the midi pool here. I'm not using a controller (that I know of). I really just want to use a footswitch to change to a different guitar model on the fly during a live performance. I have never seen the screen that you posted. How do you get to it?

Thanks aaronlyon. I had thought of using snapshots but it's a little more complex than what I described (should have explainedin my first post, sorry). I'm using the Two Tones A/B template preset to switch between amplifiers and I'd also like to be able to switch guitars at the same time. The screen capture picture from HXEdit implies, to me at least, that it is possible to change guitars via a midi command but I can't seem to find any documentation on it.

Hi all. I'm trying to figure out how to change Variax guitar presets by using a Helix footswitch. I can see in HXEdit that the Variax preset can be controlled by midi CC but ... which CC number?

Why not just put it between the guitar and the Helix input? That’s what I do with my Ernie Ball volume pedal in my regular pedalboard. It should work fine with the Helix.