theElevators

Here's pretty much the same thing explained here (vid from a few years ago). Except always remove the snapshot bypass if you have want to control the bypass state of the block(s) with the expression pedal. Otherwise I've had issues where the blocks' bypass state can get flipped... very very rarely.

If you only use snapshots and do not want to use the stomp mode or the command center, then momentary switching does not exist in snapshots. But in stomp mode you can definitely assign anything and have it turn on in momentary mode. Some people have the top row of their buttons control stomps, or mix and match with the command center... I personally never use the stomp mode. I use the snapshots exclusively. If I need a quick solo boost, I would simply assign it to the expression pedal. The exp. pedal can control things like the wah contour, volume, or simply act as an on/off switch if you use the percentage-based bypass assignment. It's easier for me personally to engage/disengage and I use it all over the place in all different snapshots. For example, in one snapshot the expression pedal will control the "Freeze" effect. In the other, it will be wah. In a third it will be a solo boost. So I frequently assign things that I tend to constantly turn on/off to the expression pedal. If I did the same thing with the footswitches, they would have been worn out within a week. The exp. pedal is big and robust and it's right there. So it's easier for me to "find it" when I'm playing a show. If it makes sense.... So in your example, I would take a gain block and place it after the amp/cab. I would assign the "gain" value to snapshots. In one particular snapshot where I need the boost to happen, I would go in and change the gain to be +5 db, everywhere else it would be +0 db. Then I would remove the snapshot bypass assignment of the block. And finally I would assign the bypass assignment to EXP pedal 1: over 5% it would get turned on, and under 5% it would get turned off, without any wait time. So in the end, I will have the gain block that always gets turn on/off with my expression pedal. But if the gain block does not have any db boost, then you will not hear the difference, it will sound identical: bypassed or not. In one specific snapshot, where we change the gain to be +5db, you will hear it. As part of the solo boost, you can also add a delay. It doesn't have to be only one thing. you can assign many things to the same exp pedal: something gets turned on, something gets turned off. I do it all the time.

Check all cables. All of them. If they are older than 3 years, definitely throw them out, or leave it for home rehearsals. That's what I do, I throw all the stuff out after some time because I cannot afford to have a fun diagnostic session on stage during my show. All I'm saying, is sometimes you can attribute a cable going bad to hardware failure. Let me give you 2 examples of what I have seen myself: 1. I was playing a show on a very very hot stage. My setup was guitar->wah->distortion->amp. All of a sudden I started experiencing fade-outs in my sound. I'm playing, and it's getting softer, then louder. I thought the amp was dying... Long story short: it was the 1/4" cable that got un-soldered due to the heat on stage, and the amp being very very hot. 2. Another time I was practicing for my shows at home. All of a sudden on my Helix, all my acoustic emulator sounds began to sound extremely brittle, fizzy, and noisy. Very strange that all other sounds were seemingly fine. Long story short--it was the 1/4" input cable again!

I just opened a support ticket.

Is this while running HX Edit? For me, it often crashes my Helix and it becomes unresponsive.

Something is wrong with the power amp. It probably sends the current back to the Helix somehow, and that causes the XLR output to malfunction?? Or maybe it's taking up so much juice that there is not enough power left for the Helix. You know how when you turn on your AC at home, your lights get dimmer? lol As a software developer would, test out all the following: 1. change the 1/4" cable 2. try using a regular guitar combo amp instead of a power amp, see if the same thing happens. 3. Try ground lift. 4. Try having power amp and Helix be on different power sources, or different rehearsal space.

I'm curious if you are using HX Edit when this happens. For me HX Edit frequently crashes and I sometimes cannot even change my presets on my Helix after it's crashed. I'm pretty sure a few times my Helix became completely unusable when I was building presets. Simply re-opening HX Edit on my Mac makes everything go back to normal. I do have pretty complicated presets, so maybe that's what trips up HX Edit. I have been using my Helixes for almost 5 years, and both of them started doing this after I updated the firmware to 3.71. Until recently I was on 3.11 and it was extremely stable. Also, if you bought your unit used, there could have been some presets with various issues. So as was suggested, try the factory reset.

On the Helix Floor, you have a microphone input jack which is XLR, that has phantom power for it (you can enable it in the global settings). You need phantom power if you have a condenser microphone, otherwise it simply doesn't produce any sound. For the regular passive microphone (SM-58, etc), you can just run the mic into one of your inputs such as Return 1, 2, etc. So if you have a Helix LT and a mic that doesn't need juice, you are all set to go. You can buy an XLR-to-1/4" cable, which will connect your microphone to the Helix's Return jack. Or you can even buy an adapter from XLR to 1/4". On the Helix you have 2 paths by default: one for each DSP chip. So if you need 2 sources, you can configure one path for guitar, the other for microphone. If you have a smaller device like Stomp XL, you can also have 2 paths, but you will be sharing one DSP between both paths, so the number of blocks will be limited, and will be 1/2 of what's possible on the Helix LT (roughly). To create a preset with multiple inputs, you can easily do that by following tutorials available online, including a little video I made 4 years ago. For each path, you can choose whether the resulting signal comes out of all outputs, or only specific ones, such as Send 1. https://youtu.be/Dqq930qz6ks?si=TKEPqZZnjCPzRF7S Although the Helix allows you to process multiple things at the same time, I wound up not doing it for live performances. It's best to leave this sort of stuff to the sound guy. But it's nice to know that this is perfectly possible, and maybe for small coffee shop gigs, this can be useful. Just not for professional stages, because it's a good idea to let the sound guy control the mic, so it doesn't feed back, so it's EQ'ed properly. Guitar sound is less finicky as the microphone, which potentially does weird things on each stage you play. So a preset that you dialed in at home may need to be tweaked for the live environment, including during the show. Also, I do use the various inputs on the Helix when I record things in my home studio, for example recording vocals, trumpet, violin with my condenser microphone. I don't even own a sound interface, so the Helix takes care of all my recording needs!

If I were to guess, the encoder went bad. Try taking off the preset-changing knob and spray it with some contact cleaner. Shouldn't make this situation worse, only better.

Heya. I use the 3-tone generator in a few presets. If you are interested, here's my "Hammond organ" pad trick. You can add all sorts of modulation to it and make it sound like anything you want, really.

I think you're overthinking it. Helix can fail at some point for sure, but that should be extremely rare. If you want to run 2 Helixes, do you also plan on connecting all the cables as well (XLR, 1/4")? IMO that's overkill, unless you're playing the equivalent of the Superbowl where you cannot afford a single second of downtime. I personally have 2 Helixes with me: Floor and LT as a backup. I set up a spare guitar for myself that I keep close by on a guitar stand, tuned up and ready to go just in case, including its own wireless transmitter. I keep my backup LT in the backpack. And in case something happens to my main Helix, I'd just take it out and connect it. There's no end to what can fail. Gotta just prioritize and be covered. But... What if the main PA's amplifiers get fried? What if the digital mixing console for the venue gets fried... What if the venue loses power? I think: just have a backup ready, but setting up 2 Helixes at the same time is just too much and unneeded. You should simply cover yourself for things that tend to happen more frequently, like broken strings. :)

I have a bunch of tone tutorials on my channel as well.

Or you can add an additional distortion block to have it so that it doesn't change the tone, but adds an obscene amount of gain. I prefer that, because it behaves like normal gear does: sometimes unpredictable, but always feeding back.

I personally let the sound guys scoop out all the frequencies as they need. It's better to have it there than not, that's my philosophy. Sometimes the EQ will need to change to better suit a specific venue. If you remove frequencies you cannot then really bring them back when you need to, right? I got my guitar sound to a point where in mixing monitors it sounds good at home. I also invited a sound guy, who checked with the frequency spectrum analyzer (some kind of an EQ app) to say that the sound is good, and can be worked with. Other than that, I just use my own ears. Even still, the only time you can be sure that all the sounds are good is when you do a sound-check at the venue. Sometimes certain snapshots can have problematic frequencies due to the effects that you use. That's why all the big bands rehearse in big spaces. They rent out theaters/warehouses for days to really test out the equipment. Mixing monitors are great. For example, I recently discovered that some of my sounds have really noticeable low-end hum (caused by an amp being run through a compressor and amplifying the "ripple"). There is absolutely no way I would have been able to hear it if I didn't have the mixing monitors. I would have only discovered it during a sound check and would have been faced with having to fix that noise that could potentially have been really problematic live. I rarely use the EQ to shape my sound with 3 exceptions: 1. fake acoustic guitar (not the sim), where I take the guitar sound, boost it and remove several parasitic frequencies including the bottom ones. 2. solo boost, where I boost 2K to taste. and then 3. very rarely Global EQ, when that is needed for the stage volume. Other than that, I use the tone controls of the virtual amps to make sure my sound doesn't have that "Metallica" low-end, and no extreme highs that are just fizz/hissing. In terms of applying EQ to my signal, I do have a Global EQ that I sometimes need to use for my stage volume (un-mic'ed). Some venues are not big enough, and the amp on stage can negatively affect the overall mix. In those situations, I use the Global EQ, and the sound guy can guide me through it. I don't like it! but sometimes it needs to be done. I'm no mixing expert, but a quick search gave me guidance how to EQ guitar when mixing records. The same principle should be applied when running guitar live as well. You don't need boomy lows that just conflict with the bass drum / bass. https://ekmixmaster.com/how-to-equalize-distorted-electric-guitar.html

For all these auto-engaged sounds, it's a good idea to have a "panic" snapshot where the effect is mixed at 0%.

Also set the mains out to the lowest volume setting. And have your volume knob control the amp out only.

BTW, you can just press both buttons on the right together: Mode and Tap Tempo. That will toggle whether you see the virtual scribble strips or the signal path view. Regarding what is displayed by default, this behavior can be changed by fiddling with the global settings: Go to the touch sensitivity settings, and change one of the settings... it's pretty random. Then change it back. It should change the behavior you describe and start showing the signal path view by default. I had the opposite problem and that's how I solved it, by playing around with those settings. For me I didn't want it to show the signal path view, but instead the stomp box / snapshot view. Once I got it to work how I wanted, I don't mess with the touch sensitivity settings. And several updates later, no issue for me. To me there is absolutely no point looking at my signal path... unless I'm tweaking my presets, which I tend to do on the computer.

Yes, that is correct! In most cases the same can be accomplished by setting the "mix" parameter to a low value. However, in my example with the left/right double stereo delay: having a note played in the middle is simply not possible to accomplish with the mix parameter unless you use the parallel path.

My LT sometimes only went to 98 percent, then 97 percent. Then this just stopped after one of the updates. Make sure your pedal is not crooked, too loose, too tight etc... so try adjusting it if that's the case. It could be a mechanical issue where the mechanism that blocks the light next to the light sensor inside is crooked. So it could be resolved by moving it to its proper position, or widening the slit for the light. Otherwise get an external pedal, as the LT exp pedal is not of the highest quality. Floor's exp pedal also can have some issues as well, but it can be fixed by taking the unit apart, tightening all the nuts of the claw-like mechanism so the pedal is not crooked.

Yes. When mixing music I always use buses with delay/reverb.

Just to be clear, you can have a parallel path, and you can add delays to the top or the bottom. Or both. But to set up a parallels path you need to have at least one block on the bottom, it can even be a dummy block. so why do it… If you have delay effects, you have the dry signal mixed to it from the get-go because it’s in parallel. You always hear both: the dry and the delay, even if you set the mix of the delay to be at 100%. I have one preset where I needed a specific delay sound. So I only play one note, and it is dry in the middle. This note is then repeated on the left with specific delay pattern and rhen on the right exactly once with the same delay pattern. So it’s double delay with stereo panning where the initial note is heard on both sides. The only way to accomplish this afaik is with the parallel path. Otherwise with ping pong delay you don’t have the initial note attack in the middle, it would be on the left. I tried all different options and this is the only way that I got what I needed. I did this parallel path by a mistake initially. But then I discovered another benefit to this setup: you don’t need to mess with level and mix parameter as much. Because you have more dry signal, it just seems to be easier to dial in your sounds without any volume drops. Now all my presets always have a delay in parallel like that. Even if it’s bypassed, it’s still there for consistency and to have the same preset volume as the other presets. I use a preset-per-song approach and keep my main core sound setup the same between presets. So in summary, it just seems more musical to have this setup, basically it’s easier to dial in good sounds. On the pod go there is no parallel path and I was able to replicate my regular Halix sound with just lower mix percentages.

"Blocks are objects that represent various elements of a preset, such as amps, cabs, effects, splits, loopers, and even inputs and outputs." You should take a look at the manual, and update your firmware before you start using HX Stomp. Also downloading presets in my opinion is never a great idea in lieu of learning how to use the hardware.

There was one song which I always struggled with in terms of what chords I needed to play... So I repurposed the scribble strips to display the chord symbols. Good thing the song didn't need all the snapshots, only 2.

OK. Nevermind then. Stomp doesn't have it. But, is your stomp up to date? I know they recently added an extra block capability to the stomp. If you have an old firmware, then that's why it's complaining about not having enough blocks available IMO.

Do you have "preset spillover" enabled?