theElevators

Direct with USB will be the best quality. Otherwise, you are doing digital->analog conversion inside the Helix when you output the signal in 1/4" / XLRs. Then the audio interface takes the analog signal and again converts it to digital to work inside your DAW. So if you just want to record something with the best sound, then USB would be the best option! Of course, if you are tracking an entire band that may be more difficult to achieve. I have recorded things both ways, and both were excellent. When I go to a studio, it's just more convenient to plug into the 1/4". At home I don't even own an audio interface, so USB.

Not to open another can of worms... but some people like to have a stereo dual amp setup (left speaker Vox, right speaker Marshall). Or mix the 2 cabs, or 2 different mic placements on the same cab differently in left/right ear. While for studio work it seems like a good idea, for live use, it's absolutely useless IMO. Live you want to have left/right be absolutely identical in their sound with the exception of the ping-pong delay and sometimes special effects like panning. Otherwise, there will be balance issues for sure. Trust me, I played a lot of gigs and know what to do and not to do... learned things the hard way.

When I build my presets, I pretty much only run the following effects in stereo: ping-pong delay, panner, panner tremolo. Everything else is mono. I use stereo for special effects mostly, and to add some 3D to my sound, to mimic studio production. In the studio, those effects I mentioned are at the end of the chain. That's the easiest way to take your mono sound and make it sound like a CD. So assuming that's what you want to do: HX effects will have the following blocks: (all mono) wah, distortion, phaser, tremolo, vibrato, spring reverb, send 1, return 1... then stereo ping-pong delay, panner, etc. You will connect the QC in the effects loop. QC will only have an amp and cab block, or maybe you can run a mixture of 2 amps/cabs, but still it will be running in mono. So: guitar output cable -> input of HX -> patch cable from send 1 of HX to input of QC -> patch cable from left/mono of QC to return 1 of HX -> Left/Right out from HX to FOH Honestly, QC is such a powerful machine, that it would be a shame to not just use QC for everything. Plus QC can even profile your effects if you REALLY want to do that... SO if HX has some amazing distortion, you can literally just profile it and use it... plus if you have 2 digital devices you add up the digital lag, and you also lose quality because of the double amount of analog/digital conversion.

There a bunch of things that create a loud pop/boinkkk/crackle between snapshots. For me the worst one was going from an acoustic sim (no amp) to distortion: distortion, eq, amp/cab. Also there's a horrible noise when you turn off one amp and turn on another one. Try to isolate what block is creating the noise and we can help you find a workaround/solution. For example for 2 amps (one on, one off), the only thing that works without the noise is an A/B loop. Some effects should be placed in the beginning of the chain if they run by themselves (acoustic sim).

Yeah, there is a noticeable lag with poly capo. You can try to play around with parameters to make it less hi-fi, but faster -- this is what I did. Try these parameters values: Interval: -2 Tracking: X Fast Auto EQ: 7 Mix: 100% Level 0.0 db I place this in the very beginning of the signal chain. And for regular rock n roll, it's good enough for me to play one song. I wouldn't play the whole set on this preset, though. Also depending on the guitar you have, you may want to boost the initial signal, or the opposite--cut the initial signal before it gets to the transposition block. To boost/cut the signal, you can try a boost pedal (from distortion section), or a fixed volume pedal that sets the volume at for example 40%. You can also try a compressor before/after it. You can also try legacy blocks as well to transpose your guitar. I have used "Pitch Wham" in the past. I simply removed the expression pedal assignment from it and left it fixed. It was pretty decent for playing single lines and chords. Give that one a try. No parameters there to alter your sound, so just set it to have the correct interval and off you go. For octave down, I just use "Smart Harmony" and set the interval to be an octave lower. I place it right before the amp block. Shift -8th, Mix at 50%, Level at 0.0 db

Well there is polyphonic pitch shifting. The “along came poly” update. We now have “poly capo” which works pretty darn well if you run it first thing in the chain. This update was 3 years ago. Helix is now up to version 3.7.

I vacuum my Helix periodically. Like one time I played a gig and the stage was not just dusty, it had like pieces of threads and foam. This stuff is definitely no good inside the electronics. I dusted off my Helix after the show and vacuumed it first thing when I got home. I put a hose to every button and jack. Also it’s a good idea to cover the Helix when not in use. I put a microfiber cloth on it and cover it with the plastic it came with. The microfiber absorbs all the dust particles pretty well.

For me it’s the same as Pod HD 500 x. The step design and the little rail were good.

That is not possible. But you can use the Command Center to set up your buttons in Stomp mode to show different presets on the bottom row for example, and the top row can be for stomps. Therefore, you can use the upper row do different things depending on which preset you are in. So basically instead of snapshots, we can use presets. If you don't want an audio gap when changing presets, you can enable "preset spillover" which will make your signal path to half what it used to be. That's the only thing I can think of....

I just had this happen on my Helix LT for the first time in 4 years. For me, all of a sudden I had several "New Preset" presets showing with that sign. Also I had issues saving a preset--after the power cycle the preset would not load and appear as corrupted. The only thing I did differently than before is I had restored several presets from CustomTone...some of them were for a newer Helix version than what I have right now: 3.11. When I tried out those presets, it said "could not load IR". That caused the issue to appear it seems. To solve this: I took a full backup of my Helix, then did factory reset and then restore from the full backup. This issue went away. I have a feeling that just doing a restore would have fixed it as well, but a reset was done prophylactically. So try this out, and it should be resolved. Otherwise, it could be a hardware issue. Helix's firmware is very complex, and nobody at Line 6 can guarantee that all the different versions are completely compatible. Some new setting can get introduced, some new parameters are now different and then.... ERROR.

Create a full backup of your Helix. Save it on your computer. The full backup will contain your presets, which you can then upload after you upgrade.

You can connect one amp to "left" and another one to "right". Then you can save the stereo panning parameter, and assign it to snapshots. You can switch snapshots and have the stereo sound be panned hard-left or hard-right depending on which amp you want to use...

That's bizarre!! I can confirm that I do not have this ghost volume pedal syndrome. Just to confirm again. You start rocking the pedal and the volume fades in/out... If you don't want to accidentally switch your pedal between EXP 1/2, then you can just plug in a short patch cable to the external pedal, and plug it into an unused jack, such as your Send 1 or Send 2. This way your expression pedal will always be on EXP 1, the switch won't work. So you can do that until you figure out what the heck is going on.

Can you try a factory reset, but don't restore from your backup. And try the same experiment with a blank preset? Press the pedal in, and see if there is any volume drop, etc? Maybe this is some kind of a weird bug with HX Edit that is messing up the presets (not the first time). There have been multiple bugs in the past where when you restore presets, they affect unrelated presets. So let's try to rule out that first, by resetting the Helix to the factory settings, with all the factory presets.

Can you connect your Helix to the computer, run HX Edit, and take a screenshot what you have in the BYPASS/CONTROLLER ASSIGN section? If you have a New Preset, there should not be anything there. What you are describing is that you have some kind of a block (volume pedal) that is getting bypassed/un-bypassed when you use the toe switch. Try another blank preset, for example from USER 5 folder.

What to look out for? Bad foot switches that are barely working, that's for sure, loose/crooked expression pedal, things rattling inside.... I bought a mint "open box" Helix LT back in December of 2019 for $950 from eBay. I think you can find a better deal with the LT, where it's not going to be with green lines on the screen, etc. Maybe I got lucky, but I'm sure you can find something of higher quality and with less mileage for around the same amount. Helix typically sells for $1200, so something at $800 would be a red flag to me personally.

Check if you have cables that are going bad. A long time ago I was playing a gig and I started getting my sound fade in and out. It was bizarre. Ultimately, the issue was because of the cheap cable that started going bad because of the heat--the amp was very hot. So no issues at home, no issues during rehearsals, but at the gig it was horrible. So it is possible to have this happen if your cables are old/cheap.

One way I get more "warmth" is to use a '63 spring reverb block. I basically dial it out almost completely, leaving just the initial "boink" sound, not the full splashy reverb. I put it right before the amp. Also I take an envelope filter and also make it very very subtle, placing it in the beginning of the chain. It adds a certain degree of warmth, movement, if it makes sense. https://youtu.be/ulqdh3CQ9jY?si=bQMVDVs2xbhG0TBG This is all subjective, but I like the certain bark/boink that I have as part of my sound. Makes it feel and sound more tube-ey.

I believe the best screws to remove would be the ones where you have the rubber feet.

Try an EQ block. My favorite method is on a 10-band EQ, boosting 2K frequency. Depending on how loudly I want to cut through, I boost it 5-10 db. Then add some delay at the end.

No, there's no way to adjust the switch. It is what it is. However, you can use EXP 1 or 2 to control whatever you want. You can use EXP 1 to control volume and wah. Or you can use EXP 2. You can use snapshots to turn things on/off: in one snapshot, wah is on and volume is off; while in another snapshot wah is off, volume is on. You can also use percentage-based bypass for volume or wah, or any other effect. I hate that toe switch! I hate that I have to really step on the expression pedal and have Helix lift up on one side--that's how hard it needs to be pressed! On my Helix, I only use EXP 2, and never EXP 1. If I need a wah in my solo, I have a snapshot called "Wah Solo". When I engage that snapshot, the wah is already enabled. When I'm done playing the wah solo, I go to my "rhythm" snapshot, where the wah is disabled. Or if the wah constantly needs to be turned on/off, I set it up by percentage: over 5 percent it turns on and less than 5 percent turns off after 500 ms, or whatever value makes sense for the song I'm playing. I have a little video you may find useful.

yes, that is indeed me!

If needed, I can recreate this sound. But basically you arrange your oscillators so that you have a starting pitch and the ending chord. You have 2 snapshots: 1) and 2). One has the starting chord, and the second one has the ending chord. When you switch between the two snapshots, it plays the Lucasfilm sound thingie... Each (4 pitch generator 3 pitch generator) has portomento effect when changing between the pitches. You can set it to immediately change, or have the notes glide from one pitch to another. You assign each pitch of the tone generators to the snapshot, and save the pitches in snapshot 1 and snapshot 2. That's really it, that's the gist. You have the "sheet music" in the video above.

I have not used it, but this effect is capable of faking guitar feedback on demand: in the studio, when you are playing at low volumes, or on a completely silent stage with in-ear monitors. There are several algorithms of what note you want, including random. I will not be using it because I am already getting feedback naturally by having max'ed out distortion that I engage with a snapshot I call "FEEDBACK". It is NATURALLY feeding back: sometimes unpredictably, and there's always an element of surprise. I love the fact I can turn my guitar and get a different note: 1, 5, 7, 1.... Sometimes when I play live I get feedback without engaging my "FEEDBACK" snapshot because I run a physical power amp + cab on stage, and some stages are more prone to feedback. So in short, if I used FREQOUT live, I'd get unruly noise, because I would get natural + artificial feedback. I have no use for it. However, if you are thinking about using FREQOUT live, please make sure to test it out thoroughly during sound check. This type of an effect can completely become unruly/noisy unless you run through the motions. There have been several other sounds that worked perfectly fine at home for me, but live got out of hand; and I needed to tweak them and tweak them... so plz be prepared to adjust how it works at sound check, plus after a couple of shows. If you want to just have on-demand feedback the old-fashioned way, you can watch my video. I've been using this method for as long as I've owned the Helix.

Where are you placing Poly Capo? It should be placed in the beginning of the chain ideally. Try to place it in the beginning, if you're not already doing that.