theElevators

Pod HD 500 is way more limited and complicated at the same time than the Helix! I tried helping a friend dial in sounds on it, and it was very difficult, especially on the unit itself. Helix is way more user-friendly. Snapshots are presets within presets, plain and simple--the octopus picture really explains what it is. You can save what each of your blocks do when you select a specific snapshot: what is on/off, and the various settings of blocks are, if you wish to change them. I only use snapshots for all my sound changes, never use any effects individually (aka stomp mode). In the band where I played, there were lots of sudden changes from loud lead with delay to dry low-gain sound. With snapshots, it's a breeze. With pedals, I'd have to turn on/off 3-4 pedals at once. Plus with snapshots you can also have different tap tempo saved, so your delays can have extreme exaggerated spillover effect when you turn off your lead sounds, for example. I actively use all such tricks to glue different parts of the song together. With 8 different snapshots within each song, you have more than enough different sounds to cover each song, given you save each song as an individual preset. Love it.

I really like the sound and feel of a compressor between the amp and cab. It just makes everything easier to play, the notes just fly off the fingerboard. But the downside is that it amplified some amp buzzing, and constant droning, which I had to adjust on the amp, the "hum" level, etc. Once I figured this trick out, it just became so much better, I wish I had discovered it earlier!

It's all the same to dial down your hot guitar. I just like the separate volume block, because it's easier to see what it's doing. And easy to copy/paste it. Guitar pad = input level = using a volume block. But guitar pad is fixed of course, so you can't adjust it. Also my point is that I have used volume cut not just in the very beginning (input), but also right before the envelope filter, for example.... and other parts of the chain. Helix in my experience was VERY difficult to dial in for my needs in the beginning. So much so, that I was getting very frustrated! Took me several weeks to recreate my "signature" sound. And then I was tweaking still.... The feel was also very "hard", like I needed to be very articulate, and the notes would not come out as easy as on a tube amp. Then I added a compressor after some time, and that solved that issue! Now of course, it's been years since I figured out all the tricky sounds. It took me many iterations of reviewing concert board mixes, etc. Now I can say that I'm very happy how my presets sound and most importantly feel.

Yes, I have been using the "volume cut" approach in various parts of the signal chain to achieve acceptable results. In my experience, the envelope filters are pretty much unusable, unless I significantly lower the volume of the signal .... using a volume pedal block that is fixed at a very very low percentage. For example: I needed to do a simple funky clean auto-wah sound, and that took me many many iterations. I wound up achieving the needed results by using the volume cut and adding... reverb BEFORE the envelope filter. Only then it started behaving as auto-wah should! Also, every preset that I build nowadays has another fixed volume pedal block in the very beginning of the chain, again to be able to dial in exactly the right level so my preset works with that specific guitar. I have figured out how much to cut the signal, and if I need to use a different guitar, just go and adjust that first volume cut as needed. So in summary, I can confirm that the Helix is EXTREMELY sensitive to the output levels. In the real guitar pedal/tube amp world, it's not the same. When I had my pedalboard, I was frequently swapping guitars with minimal adjustment. Also I had a Boss MS-3 little processor for effects only, and a lot of effects were a lot easier to dial in. The same envelope filter sound was set up in one go! Some people solve these sensitivities by using a compressor/limiter in the beginning of the chain on the Helix, so it behaves more like the real world gear...

The signal is very weak then. You can try to boost the dry signal when you route it....

Pretty sure you need to press the "R" on both tracks, like you have on the upper one.

First of all, on the Helix Floor you have the 10-stomp mode, so it gives you 10 footswitches, unlike the maximum of 8 that the LT allows. Use the expression pedal. I am a big fan of using that for quick back-and-forth changes. Like you need to play a quick solo fill, rock that expression pedal to the front, then back. In your case, you can assign the mix parameter of certain blocks to the expression pedal, perhaps, so that you can mix things out when you put your expression pedal up or down, however you assign it. Or you can use snapshots + stomps and use the command center for an insane amount of versatility. I like snapshots and use the expression pedal for quick changes. This allows me potentially 16 different sound combinations, 2 for each one of the snapshots. That's a ton. Here's a video of me showing how I use the Pod Go with the expression pedal trick.

I can confirm that after I de-squeaked my LT's expression pedal 5 years ago, it still is not squeaking. Lubricated all the pivot points without disassembly. Lithium grease, also sprayed graphite spray -- this one was absolutely harmless, but in theory you can damage the light sensor for the expression pedal if you spray it everywhere. All LTs develop this squeak.

Well, you pay for the "even more realism" I suppose. I find the legacy amps are absolutely fine, and for more tweakability I am frequently playing around with a compressor before, after, and between the amp/cab. Bands had no problems touring with the Helix Floor, bands like the Doobie Brothers, so this "even more realism" is such a marketing gimmick....

BTW, somebody mentioned that the Stadium is indeed noiser than the Helix Floor, when the guitar is close to it, for example on your desk. It could be from the larger screen, and scribble strips. Curious if the noise goes away if you put it on the floor, away from your guitar (if applicable).

Try a different cable, if applicable. As silly as it sounds, I have fallen victim to crappy cables and other silliness that caused me to diagnose various intermittent issues and waste countless hours. Five examples: 1. I have been using a cheap 10-dollar cable with absolutely no issues during rehearsal. Then at a gig, my volume started fading in and out. Turns out the tube amplifier was so hot, that the cable was losing signal. 2. I have been using a wireless unit. I have a receiver and a cable that connects it to the input of the Helix. Everything was working fine as before, but my acoustic simulator sounds started sounding extremely brittle and had no bottom end whatsoever. This was the night before the gig. Well, I swapped out the cable and everything started working correctly. 3. And my absolute favorite one.... I was playing at an outdoor festival. Everything was fine during a soundcheck. Everything is great as we start our very dramatic stage entrance. Then my on-stage amplifier loses sound -- nothing. I always use the onstage amp for amplification to hear myself, even when I go direct to FOH. I had no guitar sound and didn't know if the sound was even coming through to FOH. Frantically I started checking. Long story short--the cable from the amp to the cabinet was not plugged in all the way and as we started playing, the vibrations caused it to come unplugged. Luckily, this frantic diagnosis was during our freakout/noise entrance, so not a single note was missed basically.... 4. I was sound checking at a venue, then all of a sudden the amp just stopped being loud, it was as as if the volume dropped to 1. Long story short--the CABLE that connects the speaker was not fully plugged in. 5. Was practicing keys at home. And every once in a while I started having my signal fade in and out.. Again!! Long story short, I needed to clean the output jack of my Nord Electro. That fixed the problem. Now my rule is to throw out "crucial" cables every 2 years or so. Even if they work, they all will fail after some time. I also buy expensive reputable cables, not something from the Guitar Center bin. Last thing I need is to have a fun adventure onstage during an important gig and look like an idiot (been there!) And of course making sure all the cables are fully plugged in!! And lastly, I clean the jacks of all my equipment with liquid DeoxIT. A lot of time you don't lose the signal completely, just have this "fading out" effect. Just clean your jacks from time to time!

Changing snapshots = making a change to your preset. That's the correct behavior. Because you may want to change your starting snapshot. On the Helix Floor it works the same way.

Check if you have the volume pedal in your signal chain. Also sometimes presets become corrupted. I had one preset that just became louder than the rest for no reason. I wound up re-doing it from scratch and it was behaving correctly. I could not figure out what was wrong, even when I removed one block at a time it was still louder than the rest.

(I know Kemper does not have such a gap at all.), But... Helix always has had a gap when switching presets. So does the Boss processor and most other old-school digital processors. On the Helix, you have snapshots to circumvent that gap, that (annoyingly) is there. Each snapshot is your different sound within a preset, which is your virtual guitar rig. Preset spillover does not yet exist in the Stadium, as I understand. On the Helix, you sacrifice one DSP chip, to be used as a buffer for switching your presets. So you sacrifice half of your signal chain, and have pretty seamless switching between your presets. I never found myself in a situation to have needed this "feature". On the Helix Floor, I actively use snapshots and do not ever have a need or reason to switch presets during a song. Each preset is each own song. There's a gap when switching, but that that's when you stop and start the next song. That's how modellers should be used -- each preset corresponds to each song. Otherwise, you have several presets that can cover all your repertoire, have a preset for each type of song you'll ever need. In my set, when I was touring, I had 26 presets, which I went through on a nightly basis. I organized them in the order of the set, and just pressed "up" to go to the next song. We had 2 songs that were connected, and I just found a "gap", where I could switch to the next preset. But trust me, once you start creating individual presets (which is what I do), there's no going back IMO.....

That's why it's wise to keep your presets nearly identical, minus a few tweaks, extra blocks that you turn on/off. On the Helix, it doesn't matter if you have unused blocks btw, the sound does not suffer, and there's no extra lag with unused blocks. If you redo your signal chain from scratch, then there will be volume / tone discrepancies. Sometimes you won't realize that they are different. Create a "template" preset, which is your virtual "rig", and modify it for individual presets: copy/paste/tweak. That's the best way to use a modeller if you're a touring musician. Otherwise, just use one preset, if you can manage. Once I learned this workflow, I go through all my presets one after another to make sure they are all sounding correct and matched in volume. I've also once had this weird bug on the Helix, where one preset wound up getting louder, even though the blocks were all identical. I wound up redoing it from scratch, and it started sounding like my other presets. Just something to watch out for. In summary, there are so many factors that can create a difference in your sound, that it's best to just keep everything the same as much as possible. My tried-and-true approach that I've used for 6 years on the Helix.