craiganderton

For me, a mix of amps is ideal. I like the classics too, but currently I probably have more projects using the Cartographer and Ventoux than other amps. As to Sunn amps, they were a big deal back in the 60s. They were big and loud, in an era when guitar players were trying to fill stadiums with a Fender Twin. It was a favorite among bass players, but guitarists liked them too. They were also relatively clean.

I received the following from Sweetwater: The customer should be able to go through the checkout process without having to create an account at the very least. We have occasional international orders for software, which the e-books would mimic in delivery behavior, so things should work just fine. If they continue to have an issue, I would have them reach out via the email form at this link: https://www.sweetwater.com/about/contact/. It’s monitored constantly, and someone should be in touch within the day. So I think the takeaway here is the contact info. Sweetwater is very good about support. There is not yet a mechanism in place to notify customers when a new version is out. I do know it's in their "to do" list, but I'm not aware of an ETA. Meanwhile, if you want to find out about current versions, future updates, have suggestions for what you would like to see in future versions (hint, hint!), etc., there's a dedicated support forum for all my Sweetwater books at Musicplayer.com. I monitor it at least every other day. One of the threads lists all books and their current versions. Hope this helps! (FYI my next book, The Musician's Audio Handbook, will be available starting Friday.)

I sent a note to Sweetwater asking for clarification about this. If it really isn't possible, I'll come up with some kind of solution. I appreciate your interest, thank you.

Not quite the same thing, but I made a box to find out how different impedances affect the guitar sound. It's basically just a rotary switch and resistors. Here's a link to the article and schematic.

When checking out sag, I found that it varies tremendously depending on the amp. These oscilloscope shots are from my Helix eBook:

I use the Oscilloscope plug-in in Studio One. For example, here's an image of the Ampeg Opto Comp's attack from my Helix book (version 1.1). The attack on the left is with Compression set to 5.0 on a 100 Hz sine wave, while the one on the right uses a setting of 10.0. Note how the 10.0 setting clamps down faster on the attack, and reduces the sustain level. The relatively slow attack gives a “smooth” punch, and prevents any buzzing on low-frequency bass notes.

I understand where you're coming from. Look at how many amps and effects have stood the test of time. It's ironic that some people want Helix to model amps and effects that haven't changed in decades, yet are dissatisfied with Helix's "progress." It's good to remember all that matters is the emotional impact on the audience, and that's up to the player, not the gear. No one ever came up to me after a concert and said "Wow, loved the sound of that multi-core chip!"

Interesting discussion, for sure. My main use for EQ cabs is when I want two cabs in HX Stomp, and there's only enough DSP for one. So EQ makes it possible to do parallel paths. Of course everything is subjective and everyone has their own desires of what an amp should sound like. I feel the sound consists of what comes out of the cab, what happens in a room, and your position in the room. More specifically, if you're playing guitar in a room, you're almost certainly moving around. So the frequencies and phase shifts your ear experiences are constantly shifting. In the CA-X amps I designed for Sonar, a big part of the sound was extremely subtle chorusing - not as an effect, but just to introduce constantly shifting, sublimiinal phase shifts and response anomalies that move over time. I think that's an important time element that's often overlooked, and is why some people think the sound of an amp sim is "missing something" if they're listening over headphones, or to studio monitors while sitting down, in the studio.

If a sim has a cab sound you’d love to use with Helix, it’s not only possible—it’s easy. The process requires a DAW, and sending an impulse (a short audio file) into the virtual cab you want to capture. After loading the impulse into a DAW’s audio track, insert the cab whose impulse response you want to capture as an effect for that track. Bypass all amps and effects—you want only the cab to process the impulse. Render the track, and export it as a WAV file. Then you can load this into an IR block. That’s the short form, The Big Book of Helix Tips and Tricks eBook goes into the details. The download for the book also includes impulse files in mono and stereo at various sample rates that you can use with your DAW. The process for different DAWs is similar, but there are specific examples for Studio One, Pro Tools, and Ableton Live. So...you don't have to buy me a coffee or a beer, just buy the book :)

A good example is sag. The physical power amp might not have any significant amount, but the power amp in the Helix might.

It just occurred to me...maybe the kick drum pedal could be hooked up to a switch that would duplicate the sustain footswitch function mentioned above. Then you wouldn't need to do any conversion of kick notes to controllers.

Then it's doable, but you need to be able to map the MIDI note driving the kick to a continuous controller. An easy way to test this out is to turn off Helix hardware compatibility in Preferences. Then, use a keyboard's sustain footswitch (controller 64) as a controller to trigger the compressor. My favorite for this application is the Ampeg Opto Comp. Trigger the Compress parameter, with Min Compress at 0.0 and Max Compress at 10.0. Every time you hit the footswitch momentarily, you get the pumping effect. Adjust Release to taste. (If you want to keep hardware compatibility enabled, choose a switch controller other than 64 that Helix doesn't reserve as a global controller.) I haven't tried triggering from note data, though. Ableton Live can use Max routing to trigger CCs from notes, but I don't know what can be done in Logic. However, MIDI Solutions' hardware Event Processor can map just about any MIDI event to any other MIDI event. You can download the programming software without buying the unit to see what it does. Or just contact the company and ask them if it will convert note data to continuous controllers, they've always been helpful in the past. Once you map the kick drum note to a continuous switch controller and map the controller to the compressor, you should be good to go. Again, I do this with a footswitch. So, I know that you can achieve that sound, but I haven't gone through the process of converting a MIDI kick drum note to a switch controller. Hope this helps! In any case your question helped me, because it was a reminder to include the "footswitch pump" tip in a future revision of my Helix book :)

Excellent question. I got an HX Stomp when writing the book because I wanted as much info as possible to apply to HX Stomp and Helix LT/floor/etc. Of course, the detailed descriptions of the amps, effects, etc. are equally applicable to both. Of the 12 Chapters, one is exclusive to Helix. It covers 3- and 4-band multiband processing, which is not possible (mostly) to do with HX Stomp (there is a pseudo-3-band workaround for HX Stomp where one path processes the midrange, and the other, the lows and highs). However, there's a lot of material in the book on how to save DSP power. Many preamps can substitute for amps if you know a few tricks, and use less DSP. Two different amps can share one cab and still generate a stereo image from the Delay and Reverb, like this Of course, you may have to compromise on which amps and effects you choose, but you might be surprised at how many DSP tradeoffs you can make, and still have solid-sounding presets. Also, I cover using EQ-based cabs, which save quite a bit of DSP power. And many presets don't involve dual amps at all. One of my favorite clean sounds layers a Nashville-tuned sound with dry guitar: If you have specific questions, I've opened a dedicated support forum for the book, where people can get support if they have questions about the tips, as well as give suggestions about what they' like to see in future revisions. A lot of great suggestions for the 1.1 version came from readers. I have to say that as an author, interacting with readers to shape a new version, instead of just putting a book out there, is a very cool experience. If you like, ask me to post the table contents in the support forum, and I'll post it so you can see exactly what's in the book. There's also a promo video about the book, although it was made before the version 1.1 release. Hope this helps!

The linked post shows the settings - it's cranked up to +20, but the ideal value for your setup depends on the input level going into the EQ, and the input level/drive setting on your amp. I don't hit inputs all that hard, I need the extra gain. Unfortunately, there's no "one-size-fits all" setting...which come to think of it, pretty much applies to anything involving amp sims :)

Yes. It reverses the phase.

I thought some of you might find this helpful...boosting EQ around 3 kHz will make an overdriven amp more responsive to leads. The screenshot below shows four identical riffs. The first is played starting on low E, the second an octave above, another octave above that (i.e., starting on the open first string), and finally, the octave starting on the first string, twelfth fret. The lower image shows the same file, but processed with a major boost around 3 kHz. The level of the lowest frequency’s riff is essentially unaffected, the second one is boosted somewhat, but the two higher riffs have considerably more level. This makes for a more even, sustained sound with solos played on the higher frets. If you want more info, I wrote this up originally about Guitar Rig for a Native Instruments blog post.

You're correct that a de-esser uses compression to clamp down on the highs. It's basically dynamic equalization. However, most commercial de-essers use a notch filter, to zero in on the offending frequency. Clamping down on the entire high end could (but not necessarily!) cause the audio to sound dull. With Helix, using a parametric stage set to a notch that's tuned to the ess frequency may be more effective. The problem is you lose those frequencies regardless of whether or not there's an ess sound, but the frequencies above it remain intact, which may be good enough. In the studio, I use Helix Native quite a bit as a vocal processor. It has "guitar" functionality that other vocal processors don't have.

At least with a reverse delay, you can have delayed sound only. The mental gymnastics required to play 1 bar earlier what you want to hear 1 bar later isn't easy, but it's not too horrible if there aren't a lot of chord changes.

Totally agree, after I got Helix I sold my Mutron. I'll have to try your post-cab idea, I haven't done that but it sounds promising. Another option is split early in the chain to a path with compressor and octave divider. For Wes Montgomery-type jazz octaves, delay the dry sound by about 20 ms to emulate hitting the higher string later than the lower string.

Don't forget about IRs. Also, the equalizer modules are quite flexible. I use quite a few cabinets that were fashioned out of multiple stages of EQ. They won't emulate a physical cabinet exactly, but you can tailor the response any way you want.

Unfortunately, the problem with all reverse effects is that they can't go into the future and find out how a note is going to decay, so the reversed sound will always be delayed. AFAIK it pretty much requires a non-real-time process to get it right. However...if you end up doing it with in the studio with a DAW in non-real-time, here's a hint. Make a premix, reverse it, and play along with that. Then when the guitar is reversed, it at least follows along with the song.

Thanks very much for the props on the eBook, but I couldn't have written it if I hadn't "committed" to the Helix back in 2015. That book is the result of 7 years of familiarity, coupled with the (superb!) updates that have extended what Helix does. I expect there will be more updates that extend its "new product" lifetime further, but frankly, I can get pretty much any sound I want now. I just wish it had a four-way crossover module... BTW because the book is a download, it comes with over 200 presets. The intention was to give users a shortcut to playing with the new features, but any time there's a new update, it's worth treating Helix like a new product. Several "workarounds" I did in the past for my presets were no longer necessary when an update appeared. Helix may not be "perfect," but neiither am I, so we make a good team :)

It depends if you want an exact duplicate of a 12-string, or something that sounds very much like a 12-string, and can substitute for parts using a 12-string. (I can't help but wonder if it was physically possible to bump the 1st and 2nd strings up an octave, whether physical 12-strings would do that!). There are two main ways to help the authenticity. One is a delay on the "octave" strings, because with a physical 12-string, there's a slight delay between hitting the main string and its associated octave string. The other is an EQ to pull back some highs so that the octave-higher 1st and 2nd strings aren't quite so bright. The following excerpt from my Helix eBook describes one of the presets included with the book. It's intended to create an electric 12-string sound, not an acoustic one. The obvious downside is that it uses up all the blocks, but I hope this helps. This preset is optimized for the bridge pickup, but other pickup positions work too. The sound is more like one guitar than layered guitars, because the second EQ (Low/High Shelf) doesn’t emphasize the highs as much. Also, to give a 12-string’s characteristic shimmer, the Dual Delay toward the output adds subtle modulation. However, the crucial difference is the Simple Delay that precedes the Poly Capo. With a physical 12-string, there’s a slight delay (around 20-25 ms) between hitting the main string and its associated octave string. The Simple Delay emulates this effect, which your ears identify as part of a 12-string’s characteristic sound. For live performance, only some blocks are suitable for footswitching. All the blocks before the Mixer are essential parts of the 12-string sound. The only processors to which I’d add footswitches are the post-Mixer Delay, the Reverb, and perhaps a footswitch for one (or both) compressors so you can call up a more or less compressed sound.

I've discovered over the years that eating one's hat is best complemented by a good Cabernet Sauvignon :) All I could really do to replicate your setup was to test whether "That means THIS EQ IS NOT AFFECTING THOSE FREQUENCIES." There are a lot of variables in your setup and I don't know what they are. If I get the time I'll take a pink noise generator, blast it into an interface direct and look at the spectrum, then blast it through a bypassed Helix and see what happens. I suspect the frequency responses will be the same.

This got me curious because I've done a lot of spectral analysis with Helix (some would say a disturbing amount, LOL), and never noticed these kinds of anomalies. So I double-checked, just in case. The high shelf and hi/low cut do what they're supposed to be doing - cutting high frequencies when you set them to cut high frequencies. I don't know how Logic's EQ matching works, but here's a wild guess...if there's EQ involved, they're probably not using phase linear filters, so there could be phase shifts that alter the response when summed. Higher frequencies would be more susceptible to phase issues. But let me emphasize this is 100% a guess. All I can vouch for is that pink noise and spectrum analyzers are designed specifically to show frequency response, and what they show is what I would expect to see.