craiganderton

Another advantage of PDFs is that you can annotate them with the equivalent of "sticky" notes. For example, if you search on "Marshall," try them all out, and particularly like a couple of them, you can save them as favorites and also take notes on the manual, like "best for leads with Strat" or "best for rhythm guitar with PRS" or whatever. And while not as important with Helix's compact interface, with something like a DAW screenshot, you can expand the image to the original resolution and see all the tiny text clearly.

It sounds like maybe Pro Tools isn't recognizing the driver, which relates to the playback engine settings. Hold down "N" while starting Pro Tools. This opens it in a sort of "safe mode" that bypasses the full startup. Then you can access the playback engine, and reset its settings. I also seem to recall that when using a non-Avid interface, the sample buffer needs to be a certain number...I forget the details, so don't quote me on this, but I think it had to be a multiple of 128 samples. Hope this helps!

Sorry I missed seeing this post. There are no new files or presets in the 1.1 version, but I expect there will be in 1.2 (although that won't happen for at least a few months).

Try this excerpt from my Helix book, it's on page 198. Make sure you read all the way to the end about how to bypass this, it's a little tricky due to depending on an out-of-phase parallel path. (BTW sorry I can't figure out how to make the images smaller.) Talk Box The Talk Box preset isn’t an exact emulation of a talk box—but it gives that vibe. An Expression Pedal varies the frequency of three Parametric EQ stages, which are set to the highest possible Q and Gain. The next image outlines the preset in orange. The Gain block exists solely to create a parallel path. In the Mixer, invert Path B’s Polarity. The Path A and B levels must be equal and panned to center. This preset controls three parameters with a pedal. Since the preset is EQ-based, and adding a Wah block automatically assigns its Position parameter to EXP 1, you’ll probably want to use EXP 1 for this preset as well. The pedal varies the Low Freq from 250 Hz to 495 Hz, the Mid Freq from 750 Hz to 1.5 kHz, and the High Freq (fig. 3.3) from 1.5 kHz to 3.0 kHz. Tto assign parameters to the pedal: 1. Press the Home button, and select the EQ Parametric block. 2. Press and hold the Low Freq parameter knob until the Controller Assign screen appears. 3. Push on the Learn Controller knob, and move the EXP 1 pedal. 4. Press the Home button again. Repeat steps 2 and 3, but this time, press and hold the Mid Freq parameter knob instead of the Low Freq parameter knob. 5. Repeat step 4, but this time, press Page > once. Then, press and hold the High Freq parameter knob instead of the Mid Freq parameter knob. Bypassing the Talk Box If you bypass the Gain block and EQ at the same time, the audio will cancel because the two paths will be out of phase. This is due to the Mixer’s B Polarity being inverted. So, set the Gain block to -120 dB. Program the footswitch for this effect to enable the Gain block when bypassing the EQ block. This turns the parallel path down by -120 dB, so the audio no longer cancels, and you hear the dry guitar. Enabling the EQ then disables the Gain block, which restores the parallel paths to give the Talk Box effect.

Oh, okay. I misinterpreted "The power supply that comes with it will no longer work." as the supply itself was the problem. It will be interesting to see how this resolves, and what the problem actually is. If it happened to you, it could happen to someone else.

I'd stop powering it up, and order an "official" replacement power supply. It's always good practice to have an extra supply around anyway. It would be interesting to measure the actual voltage going into your HX, maybe the power supply has lousy voltage regulation, and under load it's feeding in more like 10-12V.

They will be coming up with a standard way to deal with updates. Perhaps when an update is released, a notification email could go to anyone who bought the original book.

FWIW the Hum parameter mixes in hum, while Ripple modulates the amp sound.

First things first...if you emailed them (usually the quickest solution), check your spam folder. If that doesn't work, try calling 800-222-4700 and explain that your sales engineer hasn't resolved the problem yet, so is there some way this can be escalated.

Here's an excerpt from my Helix book, hope it helps... Modify Dual Cab Panning To alter the hard right/left stereo imaging, insert a Stereo Volume/Pan block after the dual cab block. Choose the Stereo Width parameter. [caption] When using a Dual Cab block, the Stereo Width parameter can edit the panning width. The settings (outlined in white) bring the two Cabs 24% closer to center. The Width slider goes from centered (slider full left) to hard left/hard right (slider fully right). In between those extremes, the width increases as you move the slider more to the right. To have the sound “lean” more toward one side of the stereo image than the other (e.g., more like panning than just width), edit the Balance parameter.

There's some good news. Sweetwater had to use a particular upload tool to shove the instructions toward the top, and "Limited Time offer" was part of the tool. Marketing is checking whether that phrase can be removed, to avoid confusion. Bottom line - there is NO time limit. If you miss finding out when there's an update, download it when you find out about it.

Maybe send an email to your rep with a link to this thread while you're on the phone? I think Sweetwater has 500 or 600 salespeople, so it might take a while for awareness of this issue to propagate through the organization.

Don't worry, you'll get an answer. Sorry for the delay. FWIW I heard that they're working on something that will make swapping out updates easier in their backend...theoretically, I'll be able to fix a typo, send them an update, and have it show up :) Not, of course, that there are any typoze in my books... Well except for the ones that a participant in this forum identified for me so I could fix them, which was pretty cool.

I'm glad you brought this up. The whole reason I wanted to do updates is so that buyers wouldn't have to be concerned about getting out-of-date information. So, there's no need to wait. If you bought the book a week before the update, well, you have a week of using the book and then you get the update. There were situations with the PreSonus books that used the same publishing model where the changes were so extensive the book needed a new edition - essentially, a re-write. Even then, existing owners could get it at a reduced price.

Okay, Sweetwater has put instructions on the book's landing page (they also added it for the Studio One book of tips and tricks, which had a recent update). So for the vast majority, all should be well but if for any reason something slipped through the cracks, tech support will take care of you. I appreciate Sweetwater's speed in jumping on this. Yes, they are new to publishing, especially publishing that's treated like software. And admittedly, I'm not sure they were expecting to get an update so soon - the book was just released in December. Fortunately they're totally supportive of free "point" updates" concept, so the process should go smoothly from here on out. Thank you for your support and your patience!! I'm not sure what the deal is with time limits and updates, I'll ask and come back with an answer.

DEFINITELY not!! I've contacted Sweetwater to see what's up, I should have an answer Wednesday. They're kind of new to publishing :), especially this software-based model. Hang in there, they'll make it right.

I think you're just supposed to download it again, the way you did when you bought the book. I'll ping Sweetwater and see what's up.

. Sorry to hear you're having trouble! The new book file was swapped out earlier today, so it's probably just a glitch in the system. Thanks for letting Sweetwater know so they can fix it.

If you bought The Big Book of Helix Tips and Tricks, a free update to version 1.1 is now available from your Sweetwater account. Simply download the book again, and you'll have the latest version. The update includes: • 45 more pages than version 1.0 (368 total) • Coverage of all the new effects blocks in Helix update 3.15: Ampeg Opto Comp, Ampeg Liquifier, Heliosphere, ADT, Crisscross, Tesselator, Ratchet, Dynamic Plate, Dynamic Room, Shimmer Reverb • Analysis of the new Ventoux amp tone controls • Explanations of amp Hum, Ripple, and Sag parameters • Expanded Cabinet Techniques chapter, with mic descriptions and analysis • Expanded Audio Interfacing chapter, with more HX Stomp info • Better browsing in PDF reader Navigation view (improved hierarchical expand/collapse) • Additional page with Helix resources I hope you find the info useful!

And for the kick, don't forget to drop the sound down in pitch.

When you say "play" one note on your guitar, are you willing to modify your picking style, or do you expect the kick to be layered with a guitar note? Also, do you mean kick like an acoustic kick (difficult) or something more like a TR-808 hum drum? Finally, is this for live performance, or something you want to record? All these factors make a difference.

Blue Cat Audio makes a program called Re-Guitar, and ReValver has guitar sound converters. Of course, none of them sound exactly like the guitar they're trying to emulate...but they sound more like it than the guitar you started with, which is probably enough to fulfill the intended function in a mix. The only way you're going to get close with EQ is if you have the target AND source guitars, and can A-B them until you get it right. Even the smallest pickup, string, and placement differences are significant. True story: I was hired by Gibson (along with the late Bart Walsh, David Lee Roth's guitarist) to emulate a Tele sound using the EQ in Gibson's ill-fated FBX. There was a "jury" of several guitar players who couldn't see which guitar was being played. At first, they could bust the faux Tele every time. After more tweaks, it got to where they really weren't sure. So I gave the FBX one last tweak to make it sound like the idealized Tele sound I heard in my head. To my surprise, the jury now thought the FBX was the Tele..."okay, you've nailed it now." Go figure.

inSync just published my article 3 Helix Effects Secrets. This goes under the hood of the three effects, and shows graphically how the controls affect the sound. For example, the Horizon Gate isn't really a gate, it's a noise filter and the article shows how this works. It also shows the Teemah's distortion characteristics for the three different switch positions, how the Cosmos Echo controls affect frequency response, etc. I hope some of you find this information helpful and/or interesting.

Well, now this got me curious, so...here's what a Spectrum Level meter shows with a parametric EQ 65 Hz low cut, response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. I looked at a different spectrum analyzer (that's more difficult to read as a screen shot) to check response below 20 Hz, and it continued downward to the limit of the analyzer's response. So, the low cut filter definitely cuts lows. As to why the OP got different results, I don't know. I noticed in the screen shot that the low cut parametric seems to be followed by an active compressor. That could be compressing the lows back up, or contributing low-frequency energy of its own. Or maybe there's something else in the signal path that's not accounted for. HTH

Well since you mentioned sag :) You're right that "normal" for sag is a moving target. I wanted to quantify how sag works, for my own edification, and include it in the 1.1 book update. Here are some representative examples of what sag looks like at maximum. At minimum, there's no sag. So basically, you set sag for whatever you want. Sag itself varies depending on level, how hard you're driving the amp, etc. so I think a value of 5 is as good as any - halfway between no sag, and maximum sag. This also shows that generalizations, like "sag makes things more touch-sensitive" or "sag compresses the sound" aren't all that relevant because all the amps react so differently. FWIW the Ventoux sag (at max) is closest to the Essex A30, with about 200 ms duration before it settles down. Interesting stuff...