StormJH1

Interesting, okay thanks. Red means stop - I learn so much from these forums, haha! Not sure if you were following what I meant on the MIDI setup - that was simply a few bypass switches for effects blocks. The point of adding the switches was actually to offer more control over the Helix itself, not any external pedals. Agree that drive effects in the loop is not a great idea with Stomp, I was getting quite a bit of hissing/noise when I tried that. In my case, these are pedals I already had when I bought Stomp. (Buying Stomp actually prompted me to sell dozens of others!) But there are a few drive pedals that I do like better than the Helix models, so if I have the room for them on a board, why not experiment with them in front of the Helix's signal chain? It sounds like you are thinking that clean boost pedals simply are not a good pairing for Helix, though, which may be the case.

After many months of using the Stomp by itself, I'm finally getting to work on committing to a "permanent" pedalboard setup with MIDI, footswitches, and an expression pedal. But one of the things I am also hoping to do is to run 2 or 3 drive or boost pedals in front of the Stomp. I was wondering if anyone had some tips, or do's & don't's when it comes to using boost pedals in front of Helix. One of my favorite sounds on a tube amp is the saturation of a boost pedal slamming the front end of the amp, as opposed to a traditional overdrive or distortion where the gain is created within the pedal itself. In theory, Helix models should be designed to handle this and behave similarly to a real-life amp. But I also know that we have this input clipping meter now, and I noticed while experimenting with my JHS Clover (which is essentially a BOSS FA-1 mod offering clean boost) that the input indicator was turning red pretty quickly. My question is: does this mean that digital clipping is occurring and, if so, is that something that I need to avoid at all costs? I thought the Clover seemed to work pretty well with mostly clean amp models (like a Twin, Deluxe, or JC120), but I've had issues with other modelers in the past that do not like it when you throw a lot of output into them. Do any of you use boost pedals along with Helix, or is that only something you would do with internal Helix blocks? Any other suggestions on chain placement, etc? Thanks!

Mine works fine too because it's the same setup as yours, haha. I had originally hoped to leave FS3 as my Tempo/Tuner button because I used the "touch" functionality of the button to view the BPM setting (or fine tune it). There's another button combo that gets you there involving the smaller buttons, but I don't recall it right now. One suggestion I made to Line 6 on TGP was to give us a home screen display of the BPM with some of the dead space on the display, but that still isn't available. Of course, if you set your delays to milliseconds instead of according to BPM, I guess it might not even matter to you.

UPDATE: Okay, I tried out @revans's MB3 file and it works like charm! Even the LED's are working! I was even able to change the range of presets - I think that's a much better idea to have an option of 5-10 to cycle through quickly, and then I can always use the Stomp itself to audition others. So, in my setup, HX Stomp's 3 buttons are now FS1, FS2, & FS3. That's 5 blocks in total that I can bypass, adding in the bypass triggers on the 2 outer buttons of the Midi Baby 3. That's plenty. BUT, the one "problem" I have now is that I would probably best be served by adding one more of those BeatLoop dual footswitches (as you did), since FS4 and FS5 are totally unused right now. I probably want FS5 as a toggle button for my (non-Mission) expression pedal, in case I want to use a wah or adjust other parameters. FS4 could be a level/EQ booster. The "Bypass over MIDI" is a great feature, but FS1-5 are more powerful, as they can be mapped not only to bypass, but to multiple parameters across different effects. For example, I have a "U2 patch" that has dual modulated delays, but I want a more percussive sound when the delays are on, and a increased reverb when they are off...footswitches can do that! A big thank you to @revans for making his settings available and for your hand-holding through the changes. Hope you have an excellent rest of your week, man.

Something strange is happening. When I boot up the HX Stomp with the Midi Baby 3 connected, all of the single press functions seem to work. The FS4 & FS5 toggles (for effects blocks) continue to work and are rock solid. But the long press commands on L & R buttons of the MB3 work intermittently, and will occasionally "freeze" up some of those corresponding features on the Stomp. I find that if I start on preset 000, I can cycle to 001, and maybe 002, but then a long press will either do nothing or require multiple triggers to get it to work. On occasion, if I'm starting on preset 003, a long press on the MB3's right footswitch (my "preset up" command) will sometimes send it back to 001 (as if it is starting from 000). Also, the short press functions on the MB3 are supposed to select snapshots, and they do, except they seem to freeze up and then not allow you to change snapshots at some point. I'm really at a loss, and clearly out of my league with MIDI programming. I'm thinking that Snapshots are mostly unnecessary for my workflow, so I could do without that. At this point, I just want 5 additional one-press buttons and my expression pedal. I'm hoping it's just my wonky long-press commands for preset switching that is messing everything up. At the very least, I want to see this work with your template or one of the other ones I found online, even if it's not my preferred setup. So, with "Block Bypass via MIDI", I can use that to trigger blocks on and off separate from having to use FS1 thru FS5, is that correct? If so, maybe I could just assign FS4 and FS5 to Preset Up/Down and sacrifice those two. I definitely want the Stomp itself to be in "Stomp Mode" (showing FS1, FS2, and FS3), and I would prefer to leave FS3 as the Tap/Tuner, since I am sort of use to that red flashing light and the ability to touch the button to view tempo settings. But mostly, I just want this to work, and am a little surprised I'm having this much difficulty.

Ahhh, okay. So I tried using @revans's as a template and moving some functions around, but mine was doing something similar to what @robgeneralli complained about earlier in the thread - it worked sometimes, but then would jump to the wrong preset on an up/down command, almost as if it was picking up from the wrong count. I looked at the setup again, and it looks like you send three messages at once, such that there commands to reset the left and right counters back to "0" with each message. I think I about 90% understand that, and it seems to explain what mine was not doing. It's not really mentioned in this thread, but the MB3 has some issues - the LED's basically do not function properly, and Disaster Area had some COVID-related delays in getting their editor updated such that they can release v9 firmware that supposedly addresses some or all of the issues. But for $130, it has some much potential as a Stomp controller because not only does it add 3 switches, but it acts almost like an external footswitch "splitter" with those two extra inputs that can feed in additional switches or expression pedals. I use my Stomp all the time, but just want to get to the point where I am comfortable enough with the setup to anchor everything down to a pedal board and leave things where they are!

That's great! Thanks for responding and nice work on the evolution of your board. Our goals are slightly different - your emphasis is on live play and handling different instruments, I'm more of a home hobbyist looking for ease of access to a variety of guitar tones. Some of the space occupied by your sustain pedal and the Mission expression pedal would be occupied by 1-3 mini effects pedals (mostly drives), or possibly Digitech Jamman Looper. I bought the pedal looper before exploring all of these different control possibilities with MIDI, but I still think it has some additional features over the relatively basic looper built into Stomp. A couple of observations about the use of the MIDI Baby 3: (1) The ability to hook up TWO additional footswitch units to the MB3 is a very powerful feature. I sort of stumbled into the MB3 over a Jet Micro or Morningstar MC3 for price, size, and other factors. But I hadn't appreciated what those extension jacks can do to add flexibility. Really cool. (2) While I'm looking at snapshots as a possibility for switching between different amp/cab settings on the fly, the idea of being able to switch PRESETS with a footswitch is starting to appeal to me more and more, given that some of the HX Stomp knobs feel a little wonky to me. I don't think anything is wrong with my unit (yet), but they don't always respond the way I'd like them to when switching presets (or changing effects settings). It would be nice to only use the knobs for changing settings, and the footswitches would allow me to change presets, etc. while I'm actually playing without bending over to the ground every time!

Hi. I'm no expert with MIDI, and I only came across this thread because my MIDI Baby 3 arrives later this week, and I was reading up on how to use it. But I think I can help a little bit. Not sure how far you got, but you program the MIDI Baby 3 by connecting it to a computer and using this web-based editor: https://studiocode.dev/midi-baby-editor/ This link from the Helix Help site contains a wealth of information about how to assign different functions via MIDI CC's (command controls) https://helixhelp.com/tips-and-guides/universal/midi#preset-and-snapshot-recall-via-midi CC# 52 controls FS4, and CC# 53 controls FS5. CC# 64 would be the assignment for tap tempo, but I read somewhere that you might have to set up the MB3 to send MIDI clock for that to work. But obviously it can be done, as tons of YouTube demos have demonstrated. If you really want to cheat, just download the sysex file from this link, and load it into your pedal via the editor: https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/midibaby The first of the three files available on that page is similar to what you are looking to do, except that a tap of the left and right buttons controls preset switching, while a long press on the buttons will activate/deactivate FS4 & FS5. But that could work for you.

Thanks @revans! I just ordered a Midi Baby 3 to use with my HX Stomp and came across this thread and your sysex file. I'm no pro with MIDI, so I appreciate the "head start". I even have the same Beat Loop two-button external footswitch as the one in your photo. One thing that initially confused me, however, is it looks like you plugged the Beat Loop into the MIDI Baby 3 instead of the HX Stomp. I didn't realize this was even possible! Of course, you have to program it to send MIDI commands, so it's not like you can use it like "FS6" and "FS7". But you still get FS1 through FS5 to turn things on and off, plus tap tempo/tuner, plus an expression pedal! I hope this all works with Helix 3.0, though they should not have messed with the preexisting MIDI assignments, I would think. The only thing I might do differently is something with snapshots. I use an IR block (which is much more feasible now that we have 8 blocks to work with). So, while you cannot switch amp models with snapshots, you could set up three snapshots where each you have like a Vox Alnico, a vintage Fender, and a Marshall/Celestion flavor, each with different gain and EQ settings on the amp. In fact, if the Midi Baby 3 did nothing else but switch between snapshots, I could just skip the expression pedal and still have 4 footswitches plus a tap/tuner button. If set up properly, that would be quite a bit of tonal flexibility without having to touch any of the knobs or buttons on the Stomp.

If $20 price point and extremely small size are your goals, check out the Rowin BeatLoop footswitch. I got it to work quickly as FS4 and FS5 with the single TRS cable included. Love the soft touch footswitches, also. https://www.amazon.com/ammoon-BeatLoop-Footswitch-Switch-Recording/dp/B072WQQLJX