waymda

Until recently four piece. Similar sized venues - pubs (australia, prbly bars US). Currently 3 piece and considerably louder. Material ranging from Johnny Cash through Foo Fighters, Blink, Killers etc. Massive range of material with my role being lead guit and some vox with acoustic drums, loud bass, and the other guitarist singer using valve amps. Using sounds from acoustic thorough big triple coil pick-ups and rectifier type grunt. I used to run 2 valve amps, a JC120 and a pedal board and was constantly told to turn down with any volume that gave me the tone/feel I wanted. The other guitarist in particular would complain about how loud I was. I now balance my volume to venue and event with no issues. In setting up patches and the PC+s I have made sure that the patches are optimised for stage volume, and that the signal hitting the PC+ is hot, constantly green (in the LED) and occasionally getting orange/redish for lead boosts - recognising they are single notes not chords so not so concerned. However, I'm not interested in replicating my old valve amp need to blow my ears (or pants) off to sound good/have sufficient feel to play well and am happy with a very big, very loud tone, that more than covers bass and drums on stages that only offer vox to PA. If we're lucky I'll need to add come kick to a sub and some guit to upper end cabs for stereo separation. No, its not like a valve rig in terms of moving air, but it can still make my bell bottoms flap, and frankly the whole hairy chested need to be painfully loud because 'that what it takes' just ain't doing it for me any more. I must be getting old (see reference to bell bottoms, that I never wore). :) I'm not here to convince anyone of the merits or otherwise of the powercab units, just offering an alternate, working musician, perspective. I would only go back to valve amps and a pedal board to do a very limited range of material where I need to have 'my sound' - and having written that I'd have to challenge if that's true as I know with a Helix and a pair of PC+ I could easily emulate my old back line with the speaker modelling and amps in the box, AND have nearly infinite pedal board layouts driving the front end (how I always liked effects). Mr Castellano says he's running his PC+ 85 to 90% on stage in this clip. I think that'd be getting me sacked or melting my ears (maybe both).

I don't understand the post about PC+s not cutting it live - Ive done gigs with one or 2 in stereo and have never run them over half - and the tones are great direct from helix with stock cabs and FRFR mode. Horses for courses I suspect.

I use a X18 (not rack) for home and stage. My use-case is different variax>>Helix>>X18>> DAW So I have to get the Helix out of the back pack and monitor direct from the X18, but I've had the DAW monitoring by accident and the latency was minor.

Powercab (or better yet PC+) - tried many solutions and this just works. I use 2 in stereo but if the 212 had've been around I would have got that.

Ahh yes - you fully downloaded the wav file. Its an Impulse that is used to shape the tone of the Variax acoustic. It was in slot 3, but I believe the current firmware makes that irrelevant as the patch will 'find' the impulse no matter where its loaded.

Give this a shot - swaps to a couple of electric sounds too. 003 Gibs Bird Soundh.wavThrow Your Arms.hlx

Agree completely with GunPM - the Xair will give you full separations for all the drum tracks - each mic recorded separately - which is invaluable when mixing down. I recently got an XAir and have been using it as the interface instead of the Helix - with the Helix coming in through XLRs. It was just easier once the XAir was set-up with my computer and DAW, and knowing I can use the Helix as via USB should I need to.

Reading your post again, you don't seem to be using an amp block noise gate >> distortion >>> amp >>> impulse >>> digital out If that's missing then you're hearing a DI guitar through a distortion pedal and a modeled mic'd up speaker - that'd sound pretty lollipop (IMHO) Impulses are only the tonal shape and response of a mic'd speaker - not an amp

Can you please upload your patch - I don't have a shruiken, but do run a variax >> Helix >> PC+

can you provide a link to the custom tone preset so I can have a look?

If you can answer first version - I'd love to know how to keep the display always showing the % position of Exp X (where is is the active Exp)

Have you considered the mic-pre, or any of the amps pre's only with comp and reverb after? And or a mix of the above and any of the sounds you've used to create the right 'layers' as per rv roberts?

Not sure what this is "-Change Global settings USB in 1/2 Destination to multi or 1/4 (also does not help), or lower usb in 1/2 trim by 0.3db" However, I've had issues where Windows is wanting to share the USB between feeding the Helix, and recording from it. I changed the output block to USB sends other than 1/2 and the DAW to the right USB sends and it fixed it. Seemed to be a channel contention issue (rather than USB port issue) Bit of a PITA when picking up patches you use for other purposes, but not a huge biggy (for me anyway)

I have 2 DT25s and 2 PC+. I am looking to sell the DT25s as I use the PC+ exclusively, using the speaker emulations for on stage via Link, and sending full mic'd up cab models direct from the Helix for FoH if required. I found it much more fiddly to get the DT25s balanced across patches, and they are a shedload heavier - so convenience wins for me. Assuming you're using a Helix as you don't mentioned that. See the attached template for a basis of this approach 2 Amps 2 PC+.hlx

Hi Assumption number 1 - you realise you need a speaker cab for the DT25 head and CANNOT run it into the headrush (unless you want smoke and flames and dead equipment). I have a pair of DT25s and a pair of PC+ FRFRs, so I'll base this reply on them, and known limitations. I cannot mix and match powercabs and DT25s at this point and have control over both. As the DT25 contains pre (modelled) and poweramps (tube) you might want to run it using pre-amp models only bypassing the internal pre - this can be done using the Line6 Link output with an proper AES/EBU specc'd cable (looks like a mic cable but the impedance is different). The Headrush will require speaker/mic modelling post any Helix amps or it will sound like a head run into a PA speaker. For my set-up I use the pair of PC+s a bit like the DT25s in that they run as a power amp with modelled speaker (no mic modelling) for stage sound, and I run a feed with speaker/mic modelling to the PA/inears. The band hears an amp in the room, I hear a mic'd up amp in ears (with some room bleed). Your set-up will mean the DT25 gives you amp in the room and the Headrush will give you a mic'd up cab sound - this will mean they are very different sounds. You will be able to blend them well, but you need to be aware that they are doing very different things. I'm not aware of any impulses etc that allow an FRFR to behave like a modelled cab without a mic (the Powercab seems to be unique in this regard). So how would I run your set-up? Path A: Effects that run before the amp (dirt pedals boosts etc) >>>> A/B split >>>> effects just for this amp (chorus, harmoniser etc) amp 1 >>>> Path B send panned hard left >>>> effects just for this amp (chorus, harmoniser etc)amp 2 >>>> Path B send Panned hard right Path B: Stereo Effects that run post amps (reverb, delay, etc) >>>>>> A/B Split >>>>> Cab block or IR >>> post cab effects (EQ/compressor)>>>> XLR out panned hard left >>>> Headrush >>>>> final pre-cab processing (EQ/compressor) >>>> (digital) Line 6 link out panned hard right >>>> DT25 A mod of this would be to separate path B as entry points from path A and mono effects on each - ie run like a pair of completely different amps The DT 25 can be set-up via Line 6 link to swap power stages, and a bunch of other stuff by clicking on the digital out pages in HX Edit. This is a complex set-up, but once you get used to it you start to have a great work flow happening - I tend to use a template with the layout and mod from there. BIG CAUTION: When you monitor from the headphone out or via USB you WILL NOT hear what you get from the headrush and DT25. You will need to take a send from the DT25 balanced out and the left line of the Helix or an out from the headrush to get close. I'm running the 2 PC+s over the pair of DT25s for this reason - my digital send can very closely replicate the XLR and line outs as the only diff is the cabs are modelled in the room. If you like an approximate template let me know and I post one.

To add to cruisinon2's comments. If you like the LT into your tube amp and a V30, the closet approximation to that with the PC+ would be: LT current settings >> a modeled amp in the LT that you think is similar to your tube amp >> no speaker cab on the LT >> PC+ on the Vintage setting (green or cream speaker) That's close to emulating what you're doing via the tube amp BUT you will need to tweak the amp model you use to be happy (and other stuff). Using the PC+ cab sims post cab blocks in the LT is emulating a mic'd up speaker cab (the LT emulation) then putting it into an emulation of an unmic'd speaker cab - lots of weirdness. The hardest thing to get used to using FRFR is that you're reproducing a fully mic'd up cab sound, not what you hear in the room, what the mic hears. So in a gig situation, you're hearing a close approximation of what the audience would hear through the PA with a mic'd up cab. The PC+ speaker emulations are a way to get a more 'traditional' stage sound - ie an unmic'd cab.

I can't tell you what I've done different to you, but I'm able to change between speaker models on both my PC+ as using snapshots, as well as from FRFR to modeled speaker using HXEdit. Playing with it again - it looks like I right clicked on Mode and then Selected on this page and selected snapshot. This patch changes from 12 string acoustic on variax via mic pre to FRFR then to a Rickenbacker through a JC120 and an AC30 through 'natural' and 'essex' - attached for reference. The IR used is a gibson hummingbird used to flesh out the acoustic only. Milky Way.hlx

I get where you're coming from. I was initially frustrated, then realised ctr-s saved to the current slot with no dialog (or mouse click - whoo hoo). I now love using it as per rd2rk's post.

Yes. Use Line 6 Link is the easiest way, and daisy chain the PC+s together. Modify the settings of each PC+ cab independently in HX Edit at the output block (or on the Helix).

With the PowerCab - make sure the input gain is set appropriately. From what I remember my PC+ cabs were set to a minus something large -db input gain from the factory. Re Levels - the PC+ LED can help making sure you're not sending too hot a signal - LED green = good, LED red = bad - but it can cope with red 'spikes' Otherwise run into a DAW or physical desk and monitor levels with a meter that matches your global output levels. My impression is that even when sending hot signals there's headroom in the Helix.

This approach might work for you. My headphone send runs off the XLR outs, and drives my in ears through a solution that allows me to mix in ambient and monitor sends from FoH (eg vocals).

template as mentioned 2 Amps 2 PC+.hlx

Yes - I have recently moved to 2 PC+ for stage output and am rebuilding my song specific patches around a template that allows: a number of effects before amp(s) 1 or 2 amps by using a split and join a number of post amp effects (but pre-speaker. which is the main concession) A split to digital out only with EQ and anything I want to add (compression) which I then use to control the pair of PC+ Post the split a speaker cab model (or IRs) that feeds to XLR in my case - there's a IdeaScale request for a controllable multi-output which would be great in this instance so I could have the post cab send go to everywhere but digital Happy to drop it here if you want a look once I get home.

For me that'd be worth $20-$30, knowing that that makes no sense commercially for a one off. Something more 'fully featured' that maintained a database of other attributes from within the patch, and allowed maintenance of additional metadata for searching, categorisation etc, probably $50-$100. This bit sounds like an offline customtone thing with the ability to generate set lists. Having that with the ability to integrate with customtone to auto collect new tones, and keep my own separate and/or in synch as well as librarianship would be very cool.

The idea behind being offline is about: ease of program-ability (ie not having to understand and deal with the Helix USB interface and comms protocols) maintaining an offline library, as files, which I back up to the cloud - this i do through exporting master and setlists regularly already forcing some discipline around workflow and maintenance of the master library - ie I sometimes edit when I'm creating lists and then forget if it was the version in the setlist or the "master" (my problem) simplicity of function and speed of use if I could program it I would as on the surface its seems similar to other metadata and file management tools and known patterns - for example mp3 library managers Why not HX Edit: I find managing setlists from a master incredibly clunky and slow - note this is my opinion I can't easily drag and drop between lists the interface often lags as it waits for the Helix to accept changes the scrolling on a long list can be terrible - especially moving patches from the bottom to the top, and copy pastes over the slot I want to be able to play with what's in a set list super easily as I back and forth with band members, without having to fire up the helix, and then upload it Helix Native: I have it I've hardly used it don't know about its librarianship abilities will check it out