BrianPeter

You're joking about IdeaScale, right? I mean, it's programmed about as well as the IR management on the Helix... There is no way to sort the ideas by number of votes. You can come close, but the list is never correctly sorted no matter if you pick Popular or Hot. Seems a simple thing to be able to sort a bunch of numbers, but no, that doesn't work. its a black hole waste of time there IMO. Cheers

??? I have to completely disagree with that. If the system is fubar, how is complaining NOT going to help solve the problem??? If no one complains, then Line 6 is going to think it's good and never do anything about it. Complaining is the only way to garner any attention. And there has been a lot of constructive complaining here, not simply bitching about it. There are a lot of users who have chimed in on various threads both here and at TGP with a range of great ideas on how to improve things... All we need is for Line 6 to implement some of these. Cheers

Doesn't really help if you dump in 128 IR's (max limit currently), futz around for a couple of weeks setting up patches that ultimately end up using say a dozen or so of them, and then want to house-clean and get rid of the unused ones to make space to try out another IR pack. You have no way of knowing which of the original 128 you actually used, and no practical way of consolidating them into slots 1-12 as "keepers". As mentioned by others here, IR management on the Helix is brutal, and really IMO, the only half-baked feature that seems to have gotten no thought on how it would actually be a useful implementation during development. Everything else about the Helix is user-friendly and makes sense. IR management doesn't. Cheers

^^This IME. The stock cabs pre-the 2.8 firmware update were flat and lifeless and "lacked balls" that the OP is looking for IMO. The 2.8 update with the default high and low cuts neutered them further to the point of being utterly useless in comparison to some good Ownhammer or Lancaster Audio IR's. For VH rock tones using the Placator amp, try the following: Ownhammer GNR pack https://www.ownhammer.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186&products_id=438 Lancaster Audio Marshall 1960 JMP https://lancasteraudio.com/shop/impulse-responses/4x12-cabs/marshall/marshall-1960-b-jmp/ That Lancaster JMP one is my go-to. It 100% nails this tone that Phil-X gets with the Friedman BE-100, balls and all:

Your setup sounds overly complex and you have a lot more hardware involved than you need. You JUST need the Helix, you do not need the Scarlet or the Radial boxes. Plug the Helix into your computer via USB. In your DAW (I use Presonus Studion One v4.5, I would expect it to be the same in most DAW's), add a stereo recording track and use USB1 and USB2 as the stereo inputs to record the processed guitar sound from your Helix. That's actually optional, as you don't have to record the processed track if you don't want, but I always do. Add a second mono track using USB7 as the input - this records the unprocessed DI guitar track. After recording, mute the processed track, add your processor of choice as an insert to the track (Helix Native, S-Gear, etc...) and set the tone you like. Or send the DI track back to the Helix on USB 3/4 to reprocess it there with the hardware. No other boxes required, just the Helix. See here for more detailed info on the USB I/O routing: https://helixhelp.com/manuals/helix/global-settings.html#di-recording-and-re-amplification Cheers

Can you change the screen res of your Surface to 1366x768 or 1280x720? I use those resolutions on a 14" laptop with HX Edit for much better readability. Cheers

Take a multimeter and measure the DC resistance of your bridge pickup (short patch cable in the input jack, volume and tone turned up full, pickup selector to bridge only). Post the result here. I have a Yamaha Revstar that has rather anemic "vintage output" pickups, in the 7k range. They don't overdrive the amps that much, they are more of a classic rock grit level. They sound very similar to your clips posted above. I have a PRS Custom 24 with the HFS pickups, if I recall correctly, they are in the 10-11k range. A lot more output, although still considered medium. They'll drive all the classic amps at anything from AC/DC gain levels to the most extreme of 80's hair metal. Sounds glorious. The hottest one I have is a EBMM Axis with super hot Dimarzios (factory), which are a whopping 17k. Those drive everything over the top with hair metal to extreme modern metal. So if you have low output pickups, this would be your problem, and is what I am hearing in your sound clips you posted. Cheers BP