sami568

A FOLLOW UP TO MY LAST POST: There is an Andertons Youtube post where they compare Kemper and Atomic Amplifier to one of those old Line 6 Pods (the tiny red one). They were trying to answer the question: Are the new amp modelers better than the old ones from decades ago? It turns out they ALL sound terrible in their own way in the video! The problem is in the testing procedure - all of the models are going through the same FRFR cabinet. The combination of solid state power amp with inauthentic speaker cabinet twists the sound of all the modelers and the Andertons guys could not hear much of a difference between the old and new. I think their conclusion is "Hey! That old Line 6 Pod sounds as good as the new modelers!" - but, it really doesnt. I used a POD and a BOSS GT700 in the old days and all the new ones sound better than those. I love my Helix stomp and it sounds great through my Boogie power amp!!!

I have spent SO MUCH time with this exact problem. Solid state power amps are so light and small, I wanted to make one work for me. I used a Matrix GT1000FX for a couple of years when I first switched over to modeling until I played a gig with a guy who had just a fender amp and his amp sounded better than mine - then I was on my quest to get a real sounding/feeling amplified tone using solid state power amps. I first tried a lot of tube power amps and thought the Boogie 2:50 was best for me - then I compared every solid state power amp I could purchase somewhere that had a return policy - the Boogie won every time. (btw: the best solid state power amp I found was an old Rocktron Velocity 300 that was pretty close to the Boogie! I ended up keeping that one to use as a backup to my Boogie since it was so cheap - about $300 on Ebay or Reverb) As Daiganzen mentioned - tube power amps color your tone and impart their own sound to your tone. So once you have a 6L6 driven power amp it always gives the sound and feel of a Fender type power amp - So all your non-Fender amp models will be a bit "Fendery" . It would be fantastic if there was a solid state power amp that was able to amplify your signal without imparting its own solid state "plasticy" tone - But if you use a solid state power amp, instead of having all your amp models going through the same type of tube power amp with its color, all your models will go through a solid state power amp with its characteristic color. (You dont encounter that problem when recording direct because the power amp models are good - just not able to push a speaker!) I tried 9 solid state power amps (including the Magnum but not the Orange) and listened to people using a lot of others on youtube - and in my opinion, they all had imparted an unacceptable solid state plasticy tone. It never bothered me until I played that gig with the guy who had a Fender! I still dream of the solid state power amp solution and look at all the new FRFR amplifier/speaker combos coming out. I have tried 2 of these (and returned them) - they both suffered from the same solid state power amp problem but now compounded with a "not an authentic sounding speaker" problem.

Yes! You are of course correct .... Thanks for correcting my error... (I just deleted my flawed calculation)

The looped sound with all loopers is never as high quality as the sound of the guitar without a looper. I also want to know that answer to that question! I have not tried the Helix looper yet (and cant now because everyone is sleeping in my house!) but I have tried so many loopers and they all have this issue to some degree. (I noticed the same problem with the looper in my AxeFXIII). The best looper I ever used was the Boss RC300, but it still colored the sound. I currently use a Pigtronix Infinity which is almost as good as the RC300. I use it in a parallel loop so it does not color my main signal and then use the wet-only signal out to blend with my unaffected signal (how I also used the much larger RC300). Before blending back, I take the looped signal through a Pendulum 4 band parametric EQ in an effort to get the EQ closer to my main guitar sound - I get it pretty close using the EQ but never perfect. Why cant someone make a looper that does not color your signal? The fact that the Helix converts your signal to digital is not the issue because when I record my guitar in my digital DAW on my PC, the sound is perfect and sounds identical to the sound of my guitar - so it IS possible to have a perfect looped tone! When we play through the Helix, our guitar signal is already converted to digital and it sounds fantastic - so it should be easy for the Helix to just store the numeric representation of our signal and play it back again. Right???

Mystery solved - I was using the Preamp version of this model. Since presence comes in on the power amp side it is only there in the AMP model, not the PREAMP model. Thanks for your help!

I use the PC editor - but I tried to page over on the actual unit and thats indeed it for EQ...

What is the easiest way to boost signal before entering an amp model? Some of the models (for example the bassman) dont have much gain and give more if you drive them with a hotter signal. I know I can insert an EQ in front of the amp model and just increase the EQ output level without making any EQ adjustments, but is there a way to do this without using up one of my 6 blocks? THanks!

I noticed that the presenter of this video had a presence control for his Brit JM45 model. On my Stomp I only have bass mid and treble controls for tone. Are there more parameters offered on the floor Helix? Or is it a firmware difference? Thanks!

I just found this post that explains everything! Will mod my pedals and see if I can get both working simultaneously!

It turns out that the dunlop dvp4 has a polarity switch inside the unit - so I am sure Nicholas simply toggled the switch. The pedal issues are all explained here:

I have hooked up two expression pedals as recommended using a "stereo to 2-mono" cable. The Stomp is responding to pedal changes but the range maxes out when my pedal is about 60% engaged. Thereafter, the parameter decreases instead of increases. It seems like I need to calibrate the Stomp to my expression pedal, but I cant find any way to do this. NOTE: I just tried the expression pedal directly with a stereo cable and it works fine. Is there some switch I need to set to tell the Stomp I am using two pedals??? Thanks in advance!

Since I use a tube power amp (BOOGIE 250) I only use the preamp models. There is no listing for those separately - but I bet I end up saving another 10% by this measure.... It is nice that the Stomp allows us to make this savings. When I record I will use the full amp-cab models, but then I will be adding reverb and delay in my DAW - so I anticipate I will still be OK then too! The table IS very also interesting as I get to see what all the model abbreviations stand for! I cant wait to try the Bogner

Thanks so much! That little shortcut will be handy. I will also look into the other ones in your pdf.

I just got my Stomp today and I LOVE IT! Wow! The amp models are tremendous!!!! I had been worried about the limited DSP but I have not reached any limitations with ANY of my settings. Sounds great with jazz or blues or whatever.... The effects are great - especially the drive pedals and modulation effects. They sound great as they pop up with very little tweaking. There are only two things I have found that I dont like: 1) All of the EQs available seem to cheapen the sound - I use a bit of EQ on my clean sounds to fatten the tube amps a bit - but when I use them on my archtop jazz guitar that has an acoustic component I hear a plasticy sort of sound introduced by the EQ 2) This is pretty minor - but I wish the editor would allow parameters to be reset to zero with a double click. My thanks to the forum people here for answering my preliminary questions! I am sure I will be back with something, but it is so easy to operate it seems totally intuitive now that I have it.

Thanks so much for the suggestion! I will look into it!!!