TheRainEnsemble

Sure. The thing is - main topic here was mono vs stereo. I never said Helix reverbs suck. They just sounds better in stereo, when some other reverbs can sound really good even in mono. Knowing that, developers can update reverb's logic, so they can sum up to mono better. Also, switchable smoothing for tails would be good addition. So everybody can use what they can afford DSP-wise. Anyways, that thread was just to tell something, not to get any answers. On this forum everybody seems to be loving what they have no matter what, and that's fine.

Hello. Everyone knows there are complaints about Helix reverbs. Well, many of us tried comparing them to other modeler's versions, or standalone pedals (like Strymon). As a result, Helix reverbs were not so bad in comparison, sometimes even good and better. But.. it all happens in stereo mode, when they are nice and wide. Worst things happens when you set your Helix reverb to mono, it instantly sounds "bad" (not that bad as "awful", just nos as good as others). It never happens with Strymon, they are equally good in both modes. Also, standalone reverbs have smoothed tails, when in Helix reverbs you can hear particular delay dots in reverb tails, if you are lucky enough. That's just food for thought for now, i'll prepare more information with comparisons and facts after 3.1 (if reverbs will not be improved by that time). Hopefully that will help our dear developers.

https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Selecting-Preset-s-Snapshot/1006768-23508?submitted=1 Selecting Preset's Snapshot Suggestion for selecting preset's snapshot. When you want to use different presets with their own snapshots, but you can only switch to last saved snapshot in this preset with ONE pedal switch. So instead of having links to different presets in your preset, you can have links to different snapshots in different presets. For example, I have my MAIN preset with regular snapshots, and sometimes I need some more exotic stuff like acoustic sims or pitch-shifting, but I can't contain them in my MAIN preset. So I create ADDITION preset with some of my MAIN snapshots, but mostly with exotic stuff snapshots. And I want to switch from my MAIN preset's clean snapshot to my ADDITION preset's acoustic snapshot, OR i want to switch to ADDITION preset's pitch-shifting preset. Now in Helix I simply cannot do it, when selecting different presets I always automatically switch to last saved snapshot in this preset, not the snapshot I want in this particular moment - and needed snapshot is different from time to time. This change will save us in LIVE situations, when switching between presets (and help knowing which snapshot will exactly be loaded)

https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Block-Linking/1006766-23508?submitted=1 Block Linking Suggestion to add ability to link blocks in different presets. This means that all parameters in linked blocks are fully connected, so if I change settings in one preset for amp block, it will be changed in preset with linked amp block. For example, I use two presets with 8 snapshots each (more like 16 snapshots for my usage), and both presets have the same amp and cab, and delay pedal. Presets differ in other elements - additional effects, modulations, pitch shifters, but they share amp, cab and delay. So I could link them, and after changing amp gain in one preset I don't have to do it in other preset. That's like the global blocks, but doable and flexible version

If other companies had somebody like you, they would end up not modeling this stuff, because of listed above. However, they made it - all kinds of stuff. And a preset-pack with all studio gear baked-in for famous modeller sells out very well. There are no people complaining about having all this. Well, everyone have their a-ha moment in different time and place. Peace, I wont bore you more with this

Good point. Why then they made other studio effects, when we had not-studio versions of effects? Also, we could not only use saturation and reverb plugins from DAW. There are many options for amp-sims and long IR loaders. Some decent modulation and eventide pitch effects. Just get a controller and get rid of Helix. Right? We all want more amps, pedals, other options. Line 6 did many things from Ideascale, which was there because of people who wanted more. Why is it any different? Other Hi-End modellers have saturation and extended wide reverb options in one or another form. Maybe they don't know something, like myself, trying to get that thing in Helix. Well, at least we will get some 1947 reissue tube amp model or another fuzz pedal.

Would be nice if you are more friendly to newcomers. Well, Basically, yes. That's why we have studio pre, studio comp, parametric eq, global eq and so on - why even bother adding these, if we already have straight-guitar blocks, not studio ones? Helix Floor, Rack, LT are positioned as "all in one" package for live and studio. There are some things that's missing for that. That's one of the reasons why we have other Hi-End guitar modelers with the tools i'm talking. In some degree. That's experimentation in search of something better, something that's missing. People always wants more amps and cabs, even when Helix have tons more than enough to please everyone. They just need to hear it in fair conditions compared to tones they grew up and learned to play the guitar Even Frusciante itself won't sound like this with tools we have in Helix. He will be close enough, but not too much. There are some things that works in particular way and you can't change it. Basically, no. We don't need talent button, we just could use some help from things we already use in studio and sometimes even live mixing, especially when some of other only-studio things mentioned above are already there, so why not go deeper? At least for experimentation, not to say more

Simple objective truth: 1. Helix doesn't have dedicated saturation block 2. You can't use EQ or Compression to do what saturation does 3. Some other Hi-End modelers have some form of saturation that are not pedals or amps, or at least gives you opportunity to control that in power-amp section

Right. But you can't really use m-series reverbs for that purpose. They are too narrow and too obvious. They are not part of guitar sound, they are addition, audible tail. Record guitar part with that reverb and listen to any isolated guitar track from studio recording which have natural ambience. Natural ambience will always be there, even if we can't clearly hear it. M-series legacy reverbs can't do that Nope, actually. I'm talking about not having a chance to have real ambience sound with IR's, because only ambience sound in helix is in stock cab's, which is also not so apropriate for this - it is too narrow and too obvious. When we record guitar on studio, it goes through various analogue gear, and sometimes records to tape. Tape saturates signal, just like every other parts of analogue gear (with less audible effect tho). If you want to know what saturation does in general, first google link: "Various flavors of saturation generate harmonics and apply subtle forms of “soft-clipping” compression. This unique effect makes sounds fuller, punchy, and louder." It's not always exactly that. Saturation makes signal louder, while making it peaks quieter. Just like compression, but they work differently. You have 7k posts on this forum. I guess, you have seen posts where people suggesting using Tube Mic Pre before (or even after) amp to make sound more alive and alaogue-like. Same with Minotaur pedal between amp and cab, or EP Boost, or Optical Tremolo in the end of chain. I've seen enough of this posts to know that people are searching for something that's not there. Tube, tape, transistor etc. Tape saturation tipically adds odd order harmonics, tube saturation adds even order harmonics, transistor saturation brings odd order harmonics with hard-clipping for some degree One may like the end result, however we simply can't reach some results. For example, guitar tones on Scar Tissue song. We can grab same exact guitar, use same exact cables, amps, cab, mic (all in Helix), playing style, but we never get that sound without ambience that was recorded in that room and analogue gear used to mix this song. Sometimes we can get close even when using totally differen amp, but we never reach it. I'm not into copying someone's tone, but if the tone in my head was that guitar in Scar Tissue, I simply couldn't reach it with Helix, regardless of my guitar playing and mixing skills. Even eq-based tone-match can't give us needed results.

Well, the main thing here is that we don't have enough instruments to make best polished sound. Sometimes it is not what you want, however, if you need this particular sound live, you can't have it. 1. Impulse Responses in Helix are just too short to have anything similar to reverb, also we can't have them in stereo (maybe we can use two IRs in parallel and hardpan them, but it automatically makes them half shorter). Yep, we have stock cabs (which I believe are not that bad BTW), but everyone on this forum claims they are using IR's because they simply sounds better. Stock cabs have something similar to reverb I meant in my Ideascale submission (called Early Reflections). But they are lacking so much - and still not that wide. There are some examples of such a wide reverb - sometimes it's called Air, sometimes - Early Reflections (what a surprise). 2. We don't have dedicated saturation/coloration blocks. I mean, many people on this forum uses other blocks instead of ones i'm talking, but they are not supposed to do that, and they don't do the job properly. There are plenty of saturation types, each with it's own character. It doesn't matter if i can create great mixed guitar sound in my stuido - when i'm playing live, it's just me, and amp-IR block in Helix, maybe some EQ and Compression. They can't do what saturation do after cab. There are some examples of saturation in modeling gear, main example - profiling amp. People say it profiles amps better than other modelers, and there are reasons for that. Thanks for your answer!

Hello. I was thinking about what is missing from our lovely Helix products - not another amp or pedal, but something bigger. Today I saw "photos" of 3d models with emulated "shot with a real camera" post production effect, and thought that it was a photo, not just some render. They fooled me! And another render without effect and any postproduction, which was clearly 3d model. That thought lead me to my guitar recording and mixing experience, and I thought about all multitracks and isolated guitar tracks I listened through years. Well, there is always something more, than just guitar, amp and a cab with possible FX between them. Even on this forum you can find some recommendations about adding Minotaur pedal between amp and a cab, adding Optical Tremolo in the end of a chain, Tube Mic Pre early in chain. This things wasn't designed for what we want them to do, and they can't do the job as we would like. Most of the time they just make sound louder by few dB, which always sounds better to our ears. So I came to the final idea of what we are missing: thats a real recording conditions with mixing-mastering stage. In Helix we can't get that smooth natural almost-not-there reverb, that cannot be clearly heard, it doesn't leave a trail, it's just there in our sound, that makes it big, wide, three-dimentional. Try recording in a simple space like Garage with stereo mics and properly mix this tone - you will get lovely and lively sound, not too sterile, yet not reverby. Remember, how we can't use IR's in Helix to get any reverb from it - so IR's are no helpers in this. nother important detail about guitar tone - more analogue gear after microphones. it could be vinyl, tape recorders with analogue consoles, EQs, comps, and it getting mixed and mastered to get along with other band. We don't have it in our Helixes, and some of us feels it - and tries to replace it with Minotaur, Tube Mic Pre, Optical Tremolo.. They are just effects that supposed to do their job. But we need dedicated effects to give style and character to our tones - invisible air reverb, vinyl and tape saturation, analogue gear coloration and compression. That's not an easy task, and we can't expect it in 3.1, but thats a great goal to achieve and beat other modelers as a bonus. So I created an idea in ideascale, you can vote for it if you think thats a good idea. Thanks! https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Helix-Recording-Style-Character-Units/1003874-23508