theElevators

All digital processors today do this, except Kemper. Even the Helix, unless you enable gapless switching, where you sacrifice one of the DSPs. Line 6 Helix, Stomp, Pod Go have snapshots aka scenes, which allow you to have gapless switching within a preset. (Not sure how Kemper figured this out though, where you can switch presets and not have silence). The reason is that the preset needs to be loaded into memory. That is just how it is. You can tune your playing so that the gap is not as apparent. Or upgrade to use the Helix where there are snapshots that offer gapless sound switching.

I think the days of rack effect units are over. Or let's just say it's not so popular. There is no Headrush rack version, no Quad Cortex rack version, etc. I've seen a rig rundown for Megadeth, and they are on Quad Cortex, which are placed into drawers, and they manage. But then again, Line 6 released the Helix Rack later, after the Helix. So maybe it will happen. Who knows? I personally like how Fractal FM9 is laid out: you can use it as a "rack", because you can connect a remote to it: a 12 buttons, screens, etc.. That is the best of both worlds, IMO. My perfect processor would be something like an FM3: 3 buttons only, but with all the power of a full-blown unit. So I could take a small box to a recording session, or connect a pedalboard to it and expand on the number of switches. Oh well.

I don't think it's worth the trouble to replace the button. If it's bothering you so much, you can buy a white fine marker, re-trace where the lettering has faded. Use a marker like this maybe? https://www.amazon.com/LMMINBZ-Acrylic-Permanent-Waterproof-Painting/dp/B0D1YSW17D Wait a day. Then apply a thin layer of clear nail polish. wait a few hours, then reapply. Or some kind of a varnish. Honestly, it's cheap Chinese stuff, buttons are not going to last forever. I don't have that problem because I use a computer for editing most of the time on my Helix, and I don't need to press "Home" at all. Some people have acidic sweat. Good luck!

Is it rebuilding presets, by any chance? If not, return it, it's not right.

Yes it is possible. See my video, and pinned comment for the global settings to restore from. And feel free to subscribe, I have lots of useful hacks on my channel. Enjoy!

It's better and easier to just use whatever is on the Helix. I've found some workarounds for the issue you are trying to solve. I use snapshots exclusively, and have a preset per song. 1. have redundant snapshots. If I need only 2 sounds in the whole song, I create snapshot copies, 6 out of the 8 snapshots are my "rhythm" snapshots, and 2 are my "lead" snapshots. That way I can slam on any one of the snapshot "copies" to go back to the rhythm sound after taking a solo without standing like a statue, carefully aiming where I'm pressing. No shoegazing :) 2. I rehearse the sound changes at home. Oftentimes if I keep missing and pressing the wrong button in certain scenarios, I reposition the snapshots: swap them, and create additional copies. If you have 4 buttons to do the same thing, it's more difficult to miss, you know? 3. I disable the up/down buttons LT or Floor with a hack, demonstrated here: https://youtu.be/UTQ8wJaXZnc?si=PzUePqH5mlqzSsl0 As somebody who wears size 13, I used to have issues switching my sounds incorrectly early on, but with practice today I rarely have any mishaps. When I toured, our stage presence was very active, lots of jumping and moving around, and no issues. I realized that redundancy is key. Making my board idiot-proof is also key. Helix has a lot to offer, and lots of buttons, but in reality most songs I've played require 4, sometimes 5 sounds tops. With having redundant duplicate snapshots, I am less likely to miss, and invoke the wrong sound. I also rely on visual cues, and add dummy blocks to further dummy-proof the live playing experience. Watch my video of various tricks, all combined into 1 video: https://youtu.be/o0S6WNKXQKc?si=s-uSHz5eDWdPPR0P

Try factory presets. Do they sound normal? If so, it's user error on your part. I would give this a try, first if you haven't already.

If you want to get it fixed, the only people who should touch it are Line 6 directly. Mail it to them, after opening a ticket, and they will fix it. Not any authorized repair shop. Don't even attempt having your local electronic shop fix it, you'll be sorry.... Speaking from experience. Or alternatively, disable the tap tempo light entirely and live with it. I disabled my tap tempo pretty much right away, because I find the blinking to be distracting. I have no problem tapping in the tempo when I need to. And most of the time the preset and snapshot are already saved with the correct tempo. cheers!

If you just want to add some pre-recorded loops, I recommend adding a "return" block. Connect your pedal to the "return 1" jack. Add "return 1" to the end of your chain somewhere, so it's mixed in with everything coming before it. When I played in a power trio + vocals, I've done this gimmick where I played organ pads, instrumental passages from the looper.

I've used graphite spray on it, and it has been very solid and non-sticky for 3 years now. Do it at your own risk though. I didn't disassemble it, just sprayed at all the points where there was friction.

you can try triplet tempo instead as well. But variable speed tremolo works very well for this exact issue, as I explain in the video.

But turning blocks on/off is kind-of changing of the snapshots, isn't it?

Yes, check how it's saved in your snapshots. And also I believe you want to set your snapshot setting to "recall" rather than "discard". As far as I understand, "recall" means all the values in the snapshot will return to what they should be, as you saved them. You are in a snapshot 1. You bypass a bunch of blocks somehow, manually or with stomp buttons. Re-enter the same snapshots and everything is just as it was. Maybe try toggling that setting. I don't fully understand what it does, but I tried with the "discard" and for me it was doing weird things and messing up my presets during editing... and I edit things a lot. I personally avoid assigning a block to both snapshots and an expression pedal / button. Because for me sometimes the on/off state of the block used to flip backwards. Like with the wah, it would remain on when it should be off. It was a fluke, and would happen every once in a blue moon on 3.11. Now I either assign a block to snapshots, or expression pedal, but never both at the same time.

I've come across a weird issue yesterday. I was building presets, and would up with 2 identical presets, but one sounding harsher/louder than the other one. I removed absolutely everything except distortion, amp, and cab. I checked all the levels, all parameters and everything was identical in HX Edit and the Helix itself. I re-did the preset from scratch and the issue was resolved. It sounded like there was a "hidden" EQ block in the chain that you could not see. The only other thing is that my HX Edit crashed, and maybe that caused a corrupt preset... that worked, but well was a lot louder than the others. So, it's a good idea to cross-reference things constantly. As some of you already know, I always maintain my basic signal chain, and change a few bells and whistles from song to song. Oftentimes, I just copy the preset I just made and make a new one from the copy. For this upcoming gig I am building 15 presets.

Correct way is to have your output be fixed at MIC level. Or whatever has the lowest signal level. Leave it at that, and have the volume knob only control your personal monitor mix, which is "amp out".

Look at the Edge as an example of a variety of sounds that he used to recreate before he started using Fractal.... He used to have something like 6 vintage amps with him for different songs. He also used a different guitar for every song. With a well-paid sound guy, this works. For bar band gigs, that is not very possible, with a random sound guy who doesn't even know your set or when your solos are. I remember in the old days, using a minimal amount of gear: distortion/wah + amp took at least 15 minutes of sound check, to make sure that things are EQ'ed correctly. To play a gig properly if you absolutely must have 10 different amps/chains, you need 10 different sound checks. That's just an axiom. Want to sound good? Sound check every sound. Otherwise the sound guy will constantly be chasing after your sounds, adjusting throughout the gig, turning you down, bringing you up. I suggest minimizing the amount of amp variety at the very least. I myself play a bunch of stuff from covers, to pop, to rock, blues and originals. I use one amp for everything: Mail Order Twin, which I use on a very clean. Just being reasonable in how you approach your sound is key. You can have every song use a completely different amp/cab, but should you? Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should. That's my argument. Back in the day before modellers most people would just play with one amp, and be able to successfully make a living playing in wedding bands. Just sayin' :) My sources: I've played a lot of clubs all over Europe, USA and Canada and have seen what works and what doesn't.

BTW also if you are recording with studio monitors, the sound from the monitors gets picked up by the guitar/bass pickups as well! I was listening to isolated tracks from one of my concerts and could faintly hear the rest of the band in the isolated track! I was running my guitar direct btw... But it's a live concert, so that was more pronounced, with all the distortion, all pickups are more-ore-less microphonic.

Because historically that's how presets were organized on older Line 6 models. You would be able to choose 4 presets on the bottom row "A, B C D", and on top you would be able to select which effects to turn on/off. Before snapshots, before command center.

Speaking from experience. Every amp is EQ'ed differently. Depending on how the sound guy is running the guitar, certain frequencies appear louder than others. It's just how it is. You can measure things all you want, run things at home, or during the rehearsal, but one day one of your presets thing is just going to cut through everything like an icepick. Or completely disappear. And everybody will look at you like you're insane (been there). I've done a lot of sound checks, where the sound works at home, but then when you turn it on, on a large PA, it is just too loud, or not loud enough. Been there many many times, and was forced to make adjustments. Then also have been in a situation where something worked perfectly from the previous night, and in a different venue that same sound needs to be adjusted the opposite way. Frustrating! So with completely different amps, this stuff can and does happen. Most of the time if you think it is not happening, the sound guy does not want to tell you everything that is wrong with your sounds. I have had a sound guy who loved to tell me those things, to my annoyance.

Cool thanks. It's interesting, I almost never download people's presets. But on my Texas Special-equipped 'Strat, it sounds very different from what you sound like. Sounds like me :) I made a few tweaks. 1. The amp block was making a lot of humming/droning noise for single notes. I completely removed the "Ripple" from it. 2. In the compressor, I set the threshold to 0.0 db. It feels better that way to me. Maybe your pickups are hotter than mine.

Pick a signal chain and stick with it. It's impossible to make 2 completely different presets with different amps/cabs to sound consistent. So do what I do: create one preset, and then create copies of it with slight variations. Otherwise, with different PAs, if you have different virtual rigs, the volume jumps are inevitable. Plus you know how in the olden days during a sound check, you'd check your sound? Well imagine having to do this for 20 times, since you have 20 different presets that all sound different? Volume leveling is just one piece of the puzzle, every amp is EQ'ed differently. So even if it sounds like the volume is the same, the sound guy will have to make sound adjustments when you switch from a Marshall to a Vox.

If it has an SD drive, if it can play backing tracks, dial out guitar from .mp3 files (which it does), it has the capability of storing the loop. That's my only source...

I'm sure there'll be a sophisticated looper with an ability to store/recall loops onto a flash drive.

I don't know... the rack version will be probably released after the main flagship product. The original Helix rack was released in 2016, a year or so after the Floor. BTW, the rack counterparts to processors may be on the decline overall. Is there a Quad Cortex rack? Or Headrush rack? Nope!

Do you have any stereo modulation or delay effects? Maybe you are getting the "wet" side of your signal and not the "dry"? 1. I would suggest taking your signal chain and bypassing everything where you first have your dry guitar signal. Then go and turn on (un-bypass) one block on at a time. You should hear at what point your sound becomes washy and in the background. 2. Also sometimes stereo effects that are summed into one channel (Left/Mono) can sound weird. For example, the ADT for me always sounds completely different in stereo vs. the same exact signal chain summed into mono: it happens due to phasing. Also I have been plagued by the "Left/Mono" bug for many Helix versions, until the latest one. Make sure this is not what is happening to you.