mmiche

Many have commented, here and elsewhere, that the factory amp settings incorporate way too much gain up front and too high MASTER VOLUME settings. If you turn down either or both of these and the problem goes away (as I attempted to demonstrate with the preset I attached above) then the problem is not the HW or the FW, it's the settings applied and how they respond to your pickups and playing technique. As far as I am concerned, lowering MV works well, and I am able to get nice sounds. Some other amps default settings are immediately quite good, as an example Whowatt gives really clean tones (but also mostly fender). Others requires work. The problem is that the description of how to set amps is (as an example) "if the amp has no MV then 10.0 means it's transparent", then... that can't be the case. And it becomes quite difficult to understand how to get a nice tone, as you have no idea if you are doing something wrong, if it's supposed to sound like this, if your guitar is clipping and so on. I'm happy with my helix, but things like this make life difficult for no reason. BTW, if there would be an offset of 5.0 on the MV, then that would be a FW problem :) I'll try your patches asap, been quite busy at work. Michele

Yes, I think it's still quite bad, (default settings for both, no other things on the chain etc.) I've attached a recording. I am attaching also stoneage + 1x12 US cab + no mids. I think this sounds quite nice, however I still hear those cracking sounds. Are those cracking sounds something different from digital clipping? Are they actually this "fizz" people talk about? Thanks again Michele stoneage_legacycab.mp3 stoneage_nomids_fix.mp3

I think I can hear high frequency "clipping", not only the awful distortion. The two overlap so it's a bit difficult to distinguish. (However, the "bad" sounding comes mostly from the distortion, not really the clipping) I tried to put the mid to 0, treble 10 (it should be transparent), bass 10 (who knows how this was modeled exactly), presence 0, and the sounds gets extremely better. I wonder if maybe there is some bug with the mids? (control not present in the original amp) Thanks, Michele

Default Whowatt recorded, same input, sounds fine whowatt.mp3

This is a recording of the Stone Age (default settings) first very light pick, and then harder. (no other blocks added) I listen with headphones (DT880), but the digital recording is the same. It does not occur on every amp, and I have the latest firmware Thanks Michele stoneage.mp3

Dear all, I do not understand what I am missing. On many (many) default amp settings I get horrible distortion/digital clipping. For example, the default Stone Age 185 is truly terrible. I use a fender stratocaster, with single coil pickups. Max volume on guitar + default settings = horrible distortion with the pad on, distortion gets reduced, but not that much. The only "real" solution is to keep my guitar under around 5 (however, pots have non-linear effects on tone, so I do not want to do this). Alternatively, I have to lower the master volume of the amp (that comes default to 10.0*) to around 5.0, but I cannot understand how the default setup would get so much clipping with single coils. Edit: Likewise, if the amp drive is over 5.0 it gets clipped. A setup that does not give clipping is pad + Drive 5.0 + MV 5.0. My setup is simply: Guitar -> Helix LT -> DT880 headphones attached to the phone output. The phone monitor is only on 1/4, and the helix output is set only on 1/4 Is this "expected behavior"? Are there things I should check carefully? (On my real amp, guitar volume is perfect) On other (simulated) amps, the situation is better (not so much on many pedals tho') Thank you for your help, I wish I could understand how to tame this, Michele * it is reported many time that for amps that do not have MV (like the Stone age 185) this should be capped at 10 to be neutral... doesnt seem to work very well in this case