jeremyjh

Its certainly possible to clip the input but I doubt we'd damage it. I set the Spark to about 10:00 which is plenty of boost, then adjusted my rhythm presets to just tickle the yellow lights on loudest/hardest strumming with my strat. I'd probably roll it back to 9:00 or so for my humbucker guitar. Lead presets I leave a little louder. My only complaint with the PC standard is that I can't see that input light from the front of the cab which makes it harder to check that.

Awesome. I took a chance and got the SparkMini as well and I agree it works and sounds great, fixed me right up. I decided against the EQ pedal because from the reviews it seems like they all introduced some noise. I was afraid the Spark might as well but if it does its completely undetectable to my ears.

I just got my Mini Spark last night and it works great, it definitely boosts the volume from my Mooer 150 to the range it needs to be and doesn't add perceptible noise or color. I set it at 10:00 and forget about it.

I really like the speaker sims too. I've been playing the most with the Cream and Jarvis. Presets with IRs sound great too, but the speaker sims have a qualitatively different feel, definitely more "amp in the room" feel. However, the speaker sims are simply that - its a model of a speaker inside the actual cabinet you have. If you have a preset where you are after a bigger sound like a 4x12, IRs are the way to go and those sound great too.

I have a Powercab 112 standard. I don't have any problem with volume as long as I hit the input with a line-level signal (at least -16db to sound good; -12db should probably be preferred). That is not a problem for most effects platforms but for low-end ones it can be; for example I have a Mooer GE 150 and it seems to only support instrument level output...if you boost everything you can get to -16db but a clean sound won't get there without external help.

So better or worse, I bought a Mooer GE150. This is actually a pretty decent sounding modeler/effects box and they are dirt cheap on eBay. I also got a used Powercab (non-plus). The two can sound great together, but not nearly loud enough for most patches. I can't find documentation on the topic, but it seems the Mooer is intended for "amp" or instrument level output and has no setting to change it. I measured its presets at -22db to -24db and of course the PC will be very quiet at those input levels. If you crank everything up in the patch (gain, boost effects, amp volume) you can hit -16db and it sounds pretty good through the PC, but I could never get clean sounds past -20db. Long story short its a digital modeler without enough clean headroom (lol). At first I figured I'd just try to sell the thing and get something capable of producing the right output but it *really* does sound really good and gets a real AITR vibe going with the Powercab, so I'm leaning more towards trying to make it work somehow. Has anyone dealt with something similar? I'm considering a clean boost or maybe graphic eq pedal. Its hilarious because some of these will cost almost as much as the Mooer but anyway I'm considering things like: Xotic Super Clean Boost - https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SuperCleanBuf--xotic-super-clean-buffer-pedal MXR 6-band eq - https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SixBandEQ--mxr-m109s-six-band-eq-pedal SparkMini - https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SparkMini--tc-electronic-spark-mini-boost-pedal I kind of lean towards an EQ with a decent amount of boost since the Powercab has no EQ of its own and it could be handy to make a quick global EQ change depending on where I'm playing or how its setup.

Sorry for the late reply but I just had to tell you this. I'm coming very late to the Helix scene, just started the Helix Native trial and decided to see if it could get me close to the Gilmour solo sound that I've been chasing off and on for decades. This software and your patch are simply amazing, I am astonished at the tone coming off my fingertips. I really appreciate the tutorial format as well as I have a much better understanding of how this tone is put together compared to simply downloading someone's patch. This may end up costing me hundreds of dollars as I don't think I can give it up! :)