theElevators

There is no adjustable input pad on the Helix. I have my backup guitar to my main one, and it's a lot quieter, so when I use that guitar, on my wireless, I adjust the input gain and boost it + 3db. But that's beside the point. Usually you build your presets around the sound that your guitar produces. If you have active EMG pickups, then basically dial down your distortion. If your clean amp is breaking up, then you can simply lower the input signal with a volume pedal, or a gain block, or even an EQ block where you lower the output level. There are 2 workarounds on how to achieve the adjustable pad you are asking for if you want to have an option of using your low-output guitar or a high-output guitar. Basically during the show you break a string, and you want to use your Zakk Wylde guitar as opposed to a telecaster, you have these 2 options: 1. You can add a fixed volume pedal in your preset chain, where it is set to for example "40%". That means, you remove the expression-pedal assignment from it, and just leave it at a fixed percentage. You can assign a button to that volume pedal to one of the foot switches in stomp mode. So, when you need to play your EMG-equipped guitar, simply turn on the volume pedal with the button and you are good to go. If you want to also use your snapshots, then Command Center to the rescue--you can mix your snapshots with the volume pedal-controlling button. Or you can set up your layout to be 4 buttons on top control stomps, 4 buttons on the bottom control snapshots. or another way is to use another aux. input for those situation 2. In your preset you can have multiple inputs. You can always have an additional input (return 1, 2, etc) that has been adjusted to turn down the signal so it is not as hot. Here's a video where I explain how to achieve this. So in short, you would have to modify your presets to make them work with the high-output guitar. Hope it helps.

If you didn't change anything on the Helix, it could be a bad 1/4" cable. Also, check if your amp is ok (or whatever you run your Helix through). Did you tough your global EQ?

I had a random piece of plastic (matted) from the button ring in my Pod GO. Opened it up, shook it out, and called it a day.

I will repeat myself: firmware 3.11 has no such issues. Everything after it, e.g. 3.6 has such bugs, which I suspect are mainly with HX Edit, not the Helix itself. Things do not get copied correctly.... editing one preset affects the other one. If you want stability, downgrade to 3.11. If you have to have the new dual cabs and a handful of effects, then unfortunately you're stuck with this, until Line 6 fixes these bugs... at some point... But first you need to convince them that this is a bug, because people will say "I don't have such issues, works fine for me".

You can assign effects to the expression pedal 1/2. Bypass/un-bypass blocks either immediately or after up to 1 second.

take a preset you like, take screenshots of all the components, re-create it from scratch. that's how you can learn.

Take a look at factory presets, and find a preset that sounds like what you are trying to accomplish... swap out one piece at a time until you build your desired signal chain. Hissing usually means way too much gain, output signal too hot, too much high frequencies in your overall sound. According to Steve Sterlacci, your preset should be about as loud as a completely empty blank preset. A lot of people really max out their presets and make them too loud. This introduces unwanted hissing (that you will also find in real-world amps as well if you dime them like that).

If you want to have the expression pedal position to remain unchanged between snapshots, then go to global settings/expression pedal 1/2 and have them be set per preset rather than snapshot. That's the setting I personally use--my expression pedal 2 remains where I leave it even when I change between snapshots. But if you want the selection (whether it's expression 1 or expression 2) to remain when you change snapshots, then the bug I explained accomplishes that for me :)... not that I would ever need to do this....

I discovered a bug a long time ago, and it will accomplish what you want. You want the Expression 1/2 selection to persist between your snapshots. What you do is as follows: 1. Plug a regular 1/4" cable into your external expression pedal jack and short-circuit the other end of the cable. You can accomplish that by plugging the other end of the cable into your free jacks, such as send/return/1/2/, etc. Or you can wrap the other cable in a piece of aluminum foil. Or you can plug in an external expression pedal. All we need is to trick the Helix into thinking we have an external pedal plugged in. 2. Go through all of your snapshots, and change something in them (enable a block, save... then disable a block, save). It needs to be flagged as a legitimate change to your snapshot. 3. Congratulations! You now have a preset where if you engage the toe switch, that selection will remain when you change your snapshots. EDIT: now unplug the cable explained in #1, and you can switch between EXP 1/2, but when you change your snapshots, the selection remains.

Sorry to contribute to this heated discussion... I want to share what I do in my approach to gain staging. I'll repeat what I've posted before perhaps. In short, rather than using gain pedals that I turn on/turn off, I limit the signal coming into the Helix to allow the sound to clean up. This may be old school, but I don't care. It works for me. Maybe it's the type of a guitar that I play, but my sound currently is obtained by running a Classic Distortion pedal + Mail Order Twin amp. Before I transitioned to the Helix, this was similar to my regular setup: DS-1 + Fender-type amp. Before I started doing this, there was that dreaded volume jump that had to be really dialed in, and dialed in for specific guitar. I had to always A/B my sound during soundcheck to have correct clean/distortion balance.. E.g. a sound that I dialed in for my Strat would not work the same way on another single-coil guitar, due to its inherent differences. Also, without any sort of gain, my sound was completely lifeless. Adding a compressor would not help, it was always lacking that sustain/compression/sizzle that was important to me. So instead of stepping on a distortion pedal, I have been using my volume knob / volume pedal in the beginning of the chain to clean up my sound as needed. When I put my guitar volume on "10", it is very saturated, but never completely unmanageable. When I put my volume knob on "5", then it would be my clean sound with a slight hint of breakup. When I use the Helix and if I have time to do so, I turn down my volume knob, as I explained. When I don't have time to reach for the volume knob, I put a fixed volume pedal that does not have any percentage assignment, and leave it fixed at certain percentages. For example, on "5%", I get my clean sound. "40%" gives me an overdrive sound, and then completely bypassed gives me the full-on distortion. My videos illustrate what I'm talking about:

Well, mine still switches, but I created all my presets around EXP 2. I re-assigned all my wahs to use EXP 2. So worst case scenario, you can do the same... I'm not kidding when I say, I wish there was a way to disable the switching on mine... That way both internal and external pedals are always on EXP 2. It sucks, I wish Helix was built better. It looks like it's built like a tank, but it isn't. You are not alone with all these issues, trust me.

When it comes to playing through headphones, I practice with my Bose noise-canceling headphones. To me they don't need any global EQ tweaks. But I can imagine if I were playing through very shrill headphones for example, I'd need to remove treble and add bass--Global EQ to the rescue! Always set up your sound with Global EQ disabled (mixing monitors are great for dialing in your sound). Only use global EQ as a last resort if you show up to a gig and the amp/wedge does not sound like your usual sound. The purpose of Global EQ is to change your sound back to the usual sound in unforeseen circumstances. I only use Global EQ when we are playing in a small space and the amp on stage can be heard in the venue... then the sound guy may occasionally make me tweak some frequencies. I go to FOH via 2 XLR cables, and run my personal monitor via 1/4" to power amp to 12" speaker. Since my power amp has no EQ whatsoever, Global EQ allows me to dial out some problematic frequencies in those rare cases. But I emphasize: all other sounds produced by my Helix are with Global EQ disabled.

if you copy a preset, all the command center settings get copied along with it.

I record with my stage presets, they contain reverb and delay. They are not too washy. I know you can record things separately, re-amp dry signal, etc... I tried all of it and realized I don't need to do it, because my sounds are already good enough. If needed, I'll add EQ in post-production, reverb/delay/panning.

If you switch between 2 paths, there will not be any audio interruption. If you want trails, you can always add a delay block (or 2 delay blocks) after your amps. I've used that trick in the past: Set up the delay with the desired time, feedback, etc. Set the delay trails to be "on". Assign the "mix" parameter to snapshots. Then save your snapshots: Snapshot 1: delay is mixed at 0%, delay is turned on Snapshot 2: delay is mixed at 15%, delay block is bypassed .. do the same thing with the other amp. End result, you catch the "trails".