craiganderton

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 The whole reason I wanted to do updates is so that buyers wouldn't have to be concerned about getting out-of-date information.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...

What music store salespeople have told me is that customers just want to hear something that blows them away, for one reason or another. That's been true for as long as I remember...like people who called up the Helicopter preset from the Korg Polysix (IIRC), and were amazed that it could make that sound. But I doubt very many people used it in a live set. I could be wrong, but I don't think musicians buy something based on expecting to take it to the gig that night and use it. In a lot of cases, it's about the ecosystem. A $1600 processor is not an impulse item. Any buyer would have done some research and realized that for Helix, there are tons of third-party presets, IRs, YouTube videos, forums, etc. that support their purchase. I think that would mean more to most consumers than factory presets which may or may not align with the needs. I suspect I'm not the only one whose favorite factory preset is "Clear all blocks" so I can make Helix do what I want. :)

This is a simple, yet brilliant, statement that I hadn't really considered. You're so right. When I store a preset, it's a framework for what will be tweaked the next time I use it.

I agree with @pierpatrip's comment, this is a cool amp. I also like that it's something different. I'm finding that the key to making Ventoux do your bidding is to understand the "tone" controls. They're quite different from the usual tone stacks. They seem more like frequency-selective gain controls, so you're controlling more aspects of the sound than just tone.

Maybe I'm missing something, but if I hit a note and hear it 10 ms later, I don't think it matters if that 10 ms delay is from sound traveling through the air, or from sitting in a buffer.

Try this for a start, it's optimized for the bridge pickup. You'll need to tweak the parameters for different single-coil pickups, pickup angle, and the kind of Les Paul you want to emulate, but this is a decent place to begin. I've also done HB to SC EQ conversion, which in some ways is easier to do. This isn't an exact emulation, but I think it captures the vibe reasonably well. Basically I analyzed a humbucker's response (top image), and applied EQ to give the same kind of curve for a single-coil pickup (bottom image). More stages of EQ give a more accurate emulation (I needed 5 stages to convert a single-coil pickup into an ES-335), but you reach a point of diminishing returns after a while. Hope this helps! (P.S. - If you have my Helix eBook, these are in the Free Files folder.)

Interestingly, I've never heard any guitar player standing 10 feet away from an amp on stage complain about a 10 ms delay. I can certainly cope with 2 ms to accommodate the ADT effect.

The question of factory presets has been with us forever. Check out synthesizer presets. They're typically a bunch of common sounds (piano, strings, bass, etc.) along with some really presets that do crazy stuff just to show that they can do that. I've designed a lot of synth factory presets in my time. Most companies don't expect or even want the presets to be musically useful. They expect something that catches someone's ear while trying out a synth on the floor of a Guitar Center store. I don't know if anyone used "Digital Native Dance" in their music (although I heard it in commercials), but it sure sold a lot of D50s. It was preset #1, you pressed a key, and you heard something you hadn't heard before. The biggest problem is you can't design a set of universal presets. I tend to like simpler sounds, more like amp replacements, with not a lot of gain - except for when I do want a lot of gain. But I also use a lot of tempo-synched, electronic-sounding presets for EDM projects. Other people want lots of effects. A preset collection for rock would be different from EDM. So, all a company can do is put as much variety into a preset collection as possible, and hope that the sounds intrigue people enough to see a device as having potential for their music. But getting back to 3.15 - it's a helluva update. I like the attention to detail, like having an ADT where the doubled track can lag OR lead the original, just like we used to do with variable-speed tape.

The "tone stack" on the Ventoux amp is really something, a distinct departure from traditional amps. Props to Line 6 for innovative thinking, and not doing just another model of an existing amp. I'd love to see more of this "re-imagining" in future updates. Sure, the classic amps were great...but maybe Ventoux is the start of the next generation of classic amps that are possible only through modeling. Impressive as "word-I-can't-use-in-a-public-forum" :)

It's also a good idea to assign the enable/bypass function to a momentary footswitch, so you can capture audio easily on the fly.