theElevators

I'm not a pro in terms of pro sound, but to me I use balanced/unbalanced interchangeably (I record through 1/4 out, and play live with xlr or 1/4) -- both sound the same. Balanced is supposed to be without any sound interference. This potential interference can be a real problem when you are playing at a stadium with lots of wireless transmitters, cables running near you, and so forth. But for most applications, lots of amateur-hour events, bar gigs, and festivals I've played at the sound guys expect a 1/4 inch out from the Helix. One time a sound guy pulled out an adapter xlr-1/4 to connect me to the DI box :) At home, I use 1/4 inch outs connected to my studio monitors -- sounds absolutely great. I have it set up so the volume knob controls the 1/4 only, so I can adjust my loudness from the Helix, without messing with my Global Settings. I think balanced out is too much of a gimmick/selling point for real life applications, but what do I know... Lots of keyboards just have had 1/4 out only for decades, for example. If you are recording some kind of a classical violin cadenza or something, you need balanced outs, otherwise, it's the same to most peoples' ears. PS, does your electric guitar have a balanced out 1/4? Nope.

try to change your input to the return 1, 2, etc and see if the sound is still there. Try a different cable -- things can sometimes go bad. But if your input jack went bad on the Helix, there are so many other ways to connect your guitar using return 1, 2 etc.

If you leave left/right plugged in when you power up the unit -- it's fine. I have this issue on my LT and Floor. I opened a ticket and was told it's a bug. Try it with a very slow ping-pong delay. You will hear only one side.

There is a BUG that is not fixed to this day where it does NOT combine left and right. You need to plug a cable into right, unplug it, then into left, THEN it will combine it. How do I know this? I have a very exaggerated left/right delay in one presets and only the left side sounds, until you perform this step.

On stage, my method of choice is the effects loop of a Marshall stack. I set up my sound so that it just works when going into the effects loop -- it's an unbiased sound, just neutral. I leave all the cab sims on, and just use it for stage volume, since I go straight to the FOH and it works fine for me. Usually I don't need to do anything in terms of EQ'ing (surprisingly). I have a global EQ that gets rid of the boomy low-end, and it comes in handy sometimes. So it's either the Global EQ on or off -- I never had to tweak it.... At home, when I build presets, practice, record or mix, I use Yamaha HS5. I have them on stands on foam platforms. I use this as my "single source of truth", whenever I need to make any adjustments. So far, as per the sound guy, my balance has been very good, so the sound guy doesn't need to tweak anything. He's happy, I'm happy. I also have a Headrush 108, that I keep in my car. It's nice and light, plenty loud. It's very bass-heavy, so I need to turn on the Global EQ that gets rid of the low end. I just typically put it on the floor. The only problem with it, is it has a very focused sound that projects straight forward, like a wedge monitor. So if you are standing in front of it, it's loud, a few steps left/right and you can't hear anything, and the fact that it's very bass heavy.

omg.... I just set my presets with whatever setting there was. And don't intend on messing with anything at this point. It's done and done for me. I think that this auto impedance is kind-of going overboard... could always tweak the EQ to get the same result IMO.

Tip: use the Helix backups instead of versioning each preset multiple times. I use one preset-per-song. I need to reorder them as needed when my band decides on the set order. I use another playlist folder to store "backups" of all my presets, just in case I accidentally do something stupid right before going onstage. I make a Helix backup after very single (often trivial) change. That's how I version my presets as well. If I realized that a month ago my preset sounded better than what I have right now, I: 1. retrieve that helix backup 2. restore my presets into another preset folder 3. copy and paste it from there. It's a lot easier than keeping a ton of old presets IMO. But to each his own.

I use the Throaty wah in the beginning of the chain, for hi-gain sounds. It works very similar to how the Morley Bad Horsey worked for me. I leave all the default settings. It has a nice sweep, nothing too crazy/piercing. For cleans, I use the Weeper wah also in the beginning, changing the mix to about 75 percent, or less, otherwise it's too icepick-y. Otherwise, Weeper has a very nice sweep, like if you want to get that Slash solo sound. For most of my needs, it's too much, especially hi-gain solo stuff. I like the wah to be very transparent, not in your face, like Kirk Hammet, and so on. Also, you can add some EQ'ing or gain to the wah as well, it's completely customizable.

Mail Order Twin. I thought it was a twin reverb when I was setting up my presets. Only a year later and some did I find out it is a garage band sounding Sears amp. I like it. It has character and cleans up very well.

I have a space gray, and the paint on it is crap. After babying it, i noticed a paint chip already. By babying, I mean I brought it to a recording session a few times, never even been on the road -- and the paint was already chipped and showing metal. Get the regular one, and enjoy it. Space gray is not worth it....

https://www.amazon.com/Mooer-Footswitch-Topper-White-5Pak/dp/B07LD66QTB/ref=sr_1_35?dchild=1&keywords=mooer+button+toppers&qid=1625961639&sr=8-35 I initially got the toppers for the top row of switches. Eventually I took them all off. They kind-of get twisted and crooked and it becomes more of a nuisance for me personally.

Here's how I deal with this: 1. Avoid A-buttons, unless absolutely necessary. I use the "preset-per-song" approach, and there are very few cases when I have more than 4-5 different sounds per song. I have only one song where I use 7 out of 8 snapshots. The rest are 2, 3, 4 different sounds. 2. Add 2 Grolsch washers to your up/down and mode buttons. That way they are slightly more difficult to engage. Works for me. 3. With command center on the Helix Floor, you can assign the up/down buttons to something completely different, or reconfigure your whole board however you want. If you have an LT, you're kind-of stuck with this... 4. Practice switching sounds at home :) I have quite a tap dance that I regularly practice... Also wear good shoes/sneakers and be consistent. My shoes of choice are either Converse sneakers or Vans-- you really need flat soles. Helix's flat surface and exposed buttons are kind-of annoying. Other competitors have a better up/down placement. Good luck!

Helix has a ton [more] amps than HD500, that are all included for free. You can use the "legacy" effects from the Helix, those correspond to what was available in the HD500X units. However, start using the tech, Helix has to offer, for example, snapshots, that are fantastic.

My advice, slightly off-topic, and maybe stating the obvious to some: Use the volume knob on the guitar. The advantages are that you are not glued to the Helix and can control your sounds "remotely". I actually default to always having my distortion block on for every preset, including "surf" or "ballad" stuff. I clean up my sound by rolling down the volume knob to 6 on my strat, and all the in-between positions as needed. When I have quick clean/dirty changes in the song (like System of a Down stuff), I put a volume pedal in the beginning of the chain with a fixed position to be able to select a snapshot where it's enabled/disabled. For example, I have the static volume pedal fixed at 7% to give me clean rhythm sound. I toggle between 2 snapshots and it works for me. If you put the volume pedal after your amp, you control the overall volume of your guitar. It won't clean up if you reduce the volume. I assign the volume pedal at the end of the chain whenever I'm in a situation when the sound guy won't be able to mix the balance right, so I can fine-tune the balance on the fly. Otherwise, I don't use the volume pedal. It is hard to slightly turn yourself up/down on the fly with it otherwise. I also put the volume pedal in the beginning of the chain in one song because I have a few swells and need to notes to come out of nowhere and turn into feedback. If you need a volume pedal in all presets, then you just need to copy it into every preset, and set the EXP control to Global, as people have mentioned. One more advice: create a master preset, from which you can create other presets by copy/pasting it rather than recreating each preset from scratch. d.

I tried several music stands when I first got the Helix. Eventually, I just learned to use HX edit -- it's a lot more efficient to use the computer editor. That's just my 2c -- know how to set up the Helix from the unit itself, in case you need to modify any presets/snapshots. At home, use the editor. Otherwise, you risk dropping it... A laptop is a lot lighter and therefore would be a better option to put on a sturdy music stand for editing when standing.

Hi there! Question: Is it possible to have the flanger block start the sweep when I select a snapshot? What I'm trying to say is that if I have a flanger or any other effect like the tremolo, it basically continuously runs in the background, just without any sound, until you select the proper snapshot where it's enabled. I am trying to have this special effect that always sounds consistent, not random high/low sweep. Is it at all possible? I want it to go "wooooooshh". not "shhhwoooo" Thanks! d.

I started getting the dreaded squeaks on my LT pedal. Here's what I did: 1. Take a straight flat piece of thin flexible plastic, something from packaging; standard around 1/3 mm thick. E.g.: 2. with scissors, cut out a knife-shaped pointy spatula/knife out of the plastic 3. take any chapstick, any flavor. Apply a little bit (less than the amount of sulfur on the tip of a match stick) with the plastic knife to both sides of the EXP pedal, through the slits. The plastic knife is thin enough that it will get where the washers are. Do not force anything. 4. rock the pedal back and forth and the squeaking is gone. No need to disassemble anything. Do not spray anything like WD-40 b/c it'll damage the electronics. Chapstick is a awesome!

In the ideal world, the Helix goes to FOH via 2 L/R XLR cables with mic levels, set volume. For a personal monitor mix, you take the 1/4" out that you can control with the big volume knob for monitoring purpose: 1. have it go into in-ear wireless 2. plug it into an on-stage monitor 3. plug it into an effects loop of an amp. Modern bass amps have an effects loop. 4. If the amp doesn't have an effects loop, just plug straight in, and play with the EQ, until it sounds good. All 3 options work for bass, just like they work for guitar. In reality, and I'm a former bass player myself.... bass doesn't drastically alter its tone when played through different amps. In the olden days I usually played my bass through whatever they had. The same cannot be said about guitar: a fender Twin sounds a lot different from a Vox AC 30. Global EQ is to adjust the tone of your monitor, if it doesn't have any EQ knobs, or if you go into the effects loop, since your preamp is bypassed. Using the effects loop is the best way to actually have a somewhat colorless amplification of your Helix sound. I have been in situations where you have an amp without an effects loop when I played guitar, e.g. a busted up Peavey Classic 50 without effects loop (for some reason). I didn't bother removing the amp block from my presets, just played through it. After a proper EQ, it sounded just as good.

My advice is to not mix things hard L/R unless you have a sound person who knows how to mix you. Otherwise you may wind up in a situation where the left side of the venue will hear only electric, and the right side will hear only acoustic. There are all sorts of volume discrepancies if you have 2 independent amps. One amp may be louder during a solo, than the other one. My advice is to only add modulation effects in stereo. Never pan 2 amps left/right, unless you have a sound person who knows what to expect.

I recorded violin on this song... no real effects, just used it as a DI / interface. because it was during the pandemic and we were recording songs remotely.... Here I just plugged in the violin with the piezo pickup into the Helix. I think I EQ'ed it a little bit. But it was very much DIY.... There are around 10 different parts. It's a fake string quartet: 3 violins + a violin with "octave" strings. Then there are 2 pizz parts, and some other variations.

It can sound like a bass, but it doesn't feel like a bass. It doesn't have the same response. It's actually harder to mute the strings and get a consistent attack using guitar strings, than just playing a real full scale bass guitar with normal thick strings. I play guitar and bass. I have a Fender VI-type of an instrument with thin strings that has the range of a bass. I tried playing it, and it does sound like a bass, but just never feels right. Long story short, just play bass! But, if you are in some weird band where all of a sudden a guitarist needs to play bass on one song, when the bassist plays the piano or something -- this is perfect! I don't know how to explain it, but imagine you are playing a piccolo flute, and out comes the sound of a tuba. It just doesn't translate the feeling as well. :)

I was just thinking of a feature where one could specify harmony notes for each note yesterday! The only thing you can do is have a snapshot, or use EXP pedal to change harmonized interval. Usually you harmonized guitars go in 3rds sometimes 4ths and 5th. So to be able to specify when it's a non-third, you can use the snapshot/EXP pedal....

how does it go to the PA? more info plz? It's not the Stomp's fault that when they are combined by your PA, they distort.

Are they turned on or bypassed, would be the first question? Please don't be offended if you already checked :) Make sure you saved your preset with effects enabled.

There are other calibration parameters as well, like whether you tune to A440 or A438. You can also adjust specific pitches for individual strings, which is kinda cool, You can slightly downtune your g-string for example (what EVH did). If you want default parameters in the tuner or anywhere else, simply press on the knobs and they snap to the default settings. Be careful that you don't accidentally mis-callibrate your tuner, it's easy to mess things up, so always check what you have there