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Simple, just buy a second or third helix to keep presets loaded. Problem solved. You’re welcome. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

That’s great... I was just noticing there was no cc# listed for this. Thanks! Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Bad midi cable! Seriously almost went crazy trying to figure out why it wasn’t working. Couldn’t get it to trigger my ehx looper either. Thought either I just bought a brick or I’m just not understanding something. Just bought the midi cable a couple of days ago too as I haven’t needed one in years and tossed all my old ones. Went back to the store hoping it was a bad cable as a last resort, asked if someone could test it. Guy told me there’s no way it’s the cable if it’s brand new. He plugs it in... works! I look down in disappointment. He turns a few knobs and presses a few keys... “ok... it doesnt’t work...” Aha! Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Hey Folks, Just programming Mc6 for the first time. Trying to assign tuner to switch C. cc # 68 cc value 127 midi channel 1 mgs1 Action: Press type: Control Change save preset When I test it out by pushing button C... no dice. Nothing happens. What am I doing wrong? Sorry... I’m a midi newb. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Stupid question I’m sure... some of the ir’s mentioned have a combo of two mics.... are they summed to mono.... or do I have to run dual cabs or two amps? I haven’t gotten into amp ir’s just yet because they use a block and dsp which I don’t always have room for. Blocks and dsp are precious w/the Stomp! Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Pretty much with every amp, my ears come back to the 4x10. It seems to have just the right amount of bottom. Normally I would use a dynamic and a ribbon to mic my real amps in stereo. Just using one amp/cab block in the stomp... either the U47 or U67 seems to be a good compromise if I can only have one mic. Clarity, bottom, smooth top end. Anyone else have a favourite go to cab? Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

I’ve been doing that but I just want certain blocks at a time. Heck even the ability to overwrite the default settings of each block would be more helpful. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

The global blocks idea is great. I’ve always wondered why there isn’t at least the option to save specific block settings. As i perform more with the stomp, I keep wishing for a way to wipe all the presets and just store individual block settings and assemble them for each tune. If i’m building a patch and I think...”what were the settings I used for that song I played two weeks ago?” It’s cumbersome to duplicate settings for, say, an amp/cab block with so many parameters. I’d be cool even if it was only available in Hx Edit and not in the unit itself. Oh.... and some duo fx blocks. Delay/reverb on one block or trem/reverb on another would be really helpful. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Not sure if this is relevant....but wow wha weewow are the 3sigma audio acoustic ir’s good. Sound great through headphones and my studio monitors. Will try it live in a few days. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

I get that... I’m talking as a custom upgrade for those who put a premium on keeping the footprint down. I’d ship mine back to L6, and pay the cost if they would do it. The SHARC chips themselves aren’t really that expensive.... not sure how much labour is involved or if it involves changing some coding. I’m hitting the dsp limit before I run out of blocks to do all that I want Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Is there/could there ever be a SHARC processor upgrade for the stomp for those that would pay for it if it was sent to L6 to have it done?? A newer/faster one? Would it solve any of the block/dsp limitations? Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

I love the stomp... but at the very least, why L6 didn’t make it w/Bluetooth capabilities to have the app option later on is perplexing. I know my way around it, but it’s way slower than what a gui could be on a mobile device. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Some more things I thought of to maximize the 6 block/3 snapper limit on the Stomp: 1) As stated earlier a single reverb/delay block would be great. Heck amps that have reverb... put the reverb into the block... like the real thing. 2) A clean boost on all amps built into each amp block. Not clean output boost... but say... the Ep booster or something that genuinely functions the way a boost does in front of an amp. It’s almost a staple on every pedalboard... so why not include it into the parameters of the amp? 3) amp in a box type pedal simulations.... catalinbread dls or Wampler Black 57 for example. I’m always wanting to Marshallize a Fender and Fenderize a Marshall. On my pedalboard, I would have a real fender voiced amp... but a Catalinbread DLS on the board when I wanted that Marshall 800 sound. The sounds were great and I didn’t have to carry a second amp. I get that on the full helix the “change the amp” logic to solve gain issues work. On the stomp, you either run out of blocks or dsp or both when adding even just a single amp (no cab) block. 4) Mic position option. It’s one of the best eqs in the studio... just move the mic. The tilt eq thing works fine... but it takes a block. 5) a second mic option on the same cab. Running an amp and a dual cab takes two blocks. Maybe two mics on one cab could be done in one block. The 121/57 combo option has a long history. It’s almost the gold standard of micing guitar cabinets in the studio. A ribbon does the lows, but it still lacks the bite. And vice versa. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Ok, I went on YT and tried to find some rig rundowns for the Whitesnake band. First of all, when you look at the long history of players in this band over the years... who HASN’T played in Whitesnake???? Joel Hoekstra is predominantly using Les Pauls and some strats S/S/HB style guitars on the 2016 tour. For amps... Friedman BE100. He said he uses it for rhythm and lead tones.... so in Helix lingo... that would be the Placater Clean and dirty amp channels. No external drive pedals mentioned...just wah and the Axefx II for delays and reverbs. Reb Beach is using a bunch of Suhr strats S/S/HB. He mentioned using a Custom Audio Amp/Cab. He also is using Pete Thorn’s Suhr Head. I’ve never tried those amps but guessing they lean on the Marshall side? He does use an external OD pedal... the Suhr Shiba drive. I’m using a Stomp right now... if I could, I’d experiment more with using a Placater clean/dirty amp setup. Because the amp channels are separate blocks, they are bloody CPU hogs to have both in one chain.... so not much room left over for much else. If you have the full Helix board, I think it’s no problem? Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

By the way, are you getting all your gained up tones through amps alone? I might be in the minority, but I still prefer amp/cab blocks for clean, mildly dirty/crunch and then one or two pedal blocks in front for higher gain/lead tones. I find this way I don’t have to spend as much time eq’ing for high gain stuff. I just pick the dirt pedal that is voiced the way I want. I also find it easier to get the type of clipping I want with the pedals. Sometimes more compressed, sometimes more open. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Try lowering the amp’s bias x control. In the manual: “Bias X Determines how the power amp tubes' voicing reacts when pushed hard. Set low for a tighter feel. Set high for more tube compression. This parameter is highly reactive with the Drive and Master settings.” When EVH changed to the Peavey amps in the early 90’s... his tone was much more saturated and sounded very compressed. That was my thought when I first tried a real 5150. Same thing with JSX. Try lowering the amps drive (preamp gain) and upping the master volume (power tube gain).... then lower the bias X. Try the whowatt cab or the 2x12 silver bell. I also like using the U67 mic. Cuts like a dynamic, but has some low end like a ribbon. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Still another vote for 2 in one blocks: reverb/delay put boosts and amp channel switching into the same amp block. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

I was thinking the same thing. For a while I assigned fs4 for the tap/tuner and fs5 for fs mode> I now use fs 4 for preset up and fs5 for fs mode. i gave up having 3 blocks on 3 Footswitches and decided if I made all the block decisions ahead of time I could just use snapshots. of course, using a Morningstar mc6 you could have everything... snapshots, footswitchable blocks, tap/tempo, etc. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Do some research on what amps those artists used for the recordings you like..be it live or studio. Use the appropriate guitar type. Make sure you look at the list of amps in the helix manual which gives you the Helix nickname and the model it’s based on. Setup a simple amp block. Try to find out what type of speaker cab/drivers they used and match it up on the helix. Set the amp controls at neutral and work from there. Play some of the highlight riffs from those artists along with the recording and see how your tone matches up. Eq to taste. Stick to dynamic microphones first... nothing fancy. You’ll be surprised how close you can get with appropriate combo of guitar and amp setup. Seems obvious right? But do your research first so you have an idea for the foundation of the sound. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

I had the same issue... there is a fix if you don’t like that happening: Go to Global Settings>Preferences and set Tempo Pitch to "Transparent" instead of "Authentic". Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

When I tried setting up two amp/cab blocks, it wouldn’t even let me use all 6 blocks as apparently i it had maxed out the cpu. In another discussion, someone mentioned that the stomp used the same chip as Timeline. I responded that the Timeline came out in 2011.... the stomp came out in 2018. So I thought it odd they were using technology from 6 years ago. The response was, well... helix came out in 2015 and there was R&D development before that. Ok......that would probably the Timeline had at least a couple years of R&D which would put it c. 2009. So the question is why are they throttling the capabilities of the unit with technolgy from 9-10 years ago?... if this is in fact the case. Still, if they took a play out of the H9 book... even reverb/delay single block would be very useful. Heck, they could clone the Strymon El Capistan... how ironic....:) Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

If you just play a song from your library in your phone through your speakers is it still bottom heavy? Next try stereo out of your phone through your helix’s auxiliary inputs... same issue? If yes to any of them, then you know where the problem lies.... not with your guitars or patches. if all those check out.... You might have to go item by item after that if you still have the same issue.. you can try: different speakers/headphones different guitar different patch cable If still the same, Start rebuilding your your own patches item by item. Start with no blocks. Still bottom heavy? Add an amp/cab block. Keep all eqs flat. No shelf filter eqs. Try condenser mics first to cut down on bass.... NO ir’s... NO PRESET patches.... just simple amp/cab/mic all from the helix. Keep the bass on the amp low at first and add to taste. Let us know what happened after your testing. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Are you sending directly to your monitors or headphones.... or is there a mixer in between... maybe with some eq on it? Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

It’s funny you mention that. My main pedalboard for years was based around two clean amps (in the Fender camp) and i knew I could hit them with an amp in the box pedal like a dirty little secret... to “Marshallize” them. Similarly I had a Wampler Black 57 pedal which I “Fenderize” or de-Marshall a Marshall. i haven’t gotten around to trying to use a Stomp like that.... none of the modelled pedals in the library are typically what I would associate with that... but it worked beautifully in the analog world. Of course.... yeah... why model the pedal when they’ve modeled the amps...but the limited amount of time I tried to replicate that with my amp and a stomp... I couldn’t get what my pedals did. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

This post really “resonates” with me. I had several patches I programmed monitoring through some genelec monitors. Then I put headphones on and was aghast at how bright everything was... so I started tweaking everything. Then I took off the headphones and realized everything was way too dark and boomy. So yeah, what you’re monitoring through is critical. If possible, play some program material that you’re very familiar with through your monitor/headphones as reference and go from there. Having said that, the ways I deal with bass are: 1) guitar/pickups 2) patch cable choice 3) cabinet choice 4) mic choice/proximity 5) amp settings... sometimes upping mids and top end can balance everything 6) shelf eqs. This is a last resort... I generally try to get the chain as simple as possible before throwing more “crap” into it. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com