PierM

There is not a simple answer to this question. Many factors are playing here, so first thing to address is; what headphones are you using?

On 3/12/2023 at 7:35 PM, w4lls said:

No audio in headphones, no inputs, tried tuner, no inputs either.

This is enough to suspect a faulty unit.

The randomness could just be related to broken semiconductors conductance at the joints and in the body, that make them working when cold and dying when hot.

On 3/13/2023 at 12:56 PM, datacommando said:

Hi,

 

At the top of this page select DOWNLOADS from the menu. Next choose your Hardware from the drop down menu, then from Choose Software select ‘Drivers”, now from under Choose OS, pick Windows 7. Now hit the “Go” button and the Line 6 Driver version 1.96 should be right there - click the blue button named “GET DOWNLOAD”  to download to your computer.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

 

Yeah I believe he did that. There is no specific W7 driver for what I can see. It's just the same driver for W7, 8, 10 and 11.

My bet on this is that new drivers aren't really tested or fully certified for the dusty Windows 7 (as they aren't for Windows 11)...

Quality also depends how many semitones you are downtuning. The lower the frequency, the worse it will sound.

Downtuning to Eb will work just fine.

On 3/10/2023 at 12:41 AM, kduck said:

Update:

I submitted a support ticket to Line6 late Friday 3/3.  Support responded 3/7 and issued me an RMA# and offered a repair at no charge.  FWIW, this was before I mentioned that my unit is still under the extended warranty, so seems like Line6 is standing behind their product.  Prepaid UPS label was emailed to me today (3/9) and the Helix will be on its way to Calabasas tomorrow.  I'll try to provide updates on the progress via edits to this post.  So far, it's been a positive experience.

There is nothing broken in my Stomp that needs a repair, so I'd never send my unit just because they screwed up with an update. Last time I did that, the floor returned with more problems than before. Good luck with yours tho. :)

Meh.

On 3/7/2023 at 6:57 AM, Iofhealing said:

I was wondering if you could answer a question of mine.  You suggested to keep the transmitters in their stations until it's time for them to be played.  By stations, do you mean their receivers?  And the tech support person at Line 6 suggested that we dock each transmitter separately/one-by-one keeping the transmitter in for 30 seconds after choosing a channel for it.  Are you suggesting that we keep all of the transmitters in their receivers at the same time?  This would contradict what the tech had instructed us to do.  Wouldn't it?  I don't mean to insult you at all.  It's just that it appears that you both may have given me contradictory advice.  is the tech right to do each transmitter one-by-one?  I would think they know what they are talking about since they are the direct source in this situation.  Your thoughts?

I told you the same thing at the very first answer. Just don't do this operation hours before a show, because things changes with WiFi. Isn't a static situation, so just do it just before to play. Now I'm done with answers. Since you are asking l6 directly, you are in good hands already. Good luck.

On 3/5/2023 at 6:24 PM, PierM said:

Another trick could be to let receivers finding channels one at time, to reduce bandwidth overlapping between them at minimum.

 

On 3/6/2023 at 1:39 AM, Iofhealing said:

I will appreciate anyone's support. 

I already gave you all advices you need to make them work at best.

All you need to do is to check the signal leds on the units (it's also explained in the manuals), and turn off WiFi stuff you don't need around.

Put them on the floor, with some distance between them. Again, the more distance, the better (this will reduce noise in the signal).

Keep the Transmitters plugged to their own stations until the very last minute, when it's time to play. This will allow the receivers to scan and assign what they believe it's the best channel.

You can't really do anything more than that.

There'll be places with zero issues, and everything will work flawless...and there'll be places that will give you some headache because heavy WiFi pollution. Unfortunately, you won't have any control over other people's WiFi, and these modern routers and extenders are sporting some aggressive WiFi power which isn't helping. As I've showed you, I can see the WiFi (with strong signal) of people that live more than 150ft from my house...

On 3/6/2023 at 1:39 AM, Iofhealing said:

Would we be competing with the busy 2.4 ghz if we had the router go to 5 ghz?  The former owner of our digital mixer and routertold us to never go with 5 ghz on his router to mixer connection.  He's been too busy to tell me why.  

That Mixer only works with 2.4Ghz.

On 3/5/2023 at 7:18 PM, Iofhealing said:

Can you tell me what you mean by "UHF"?  And can you elaborate and clarify what you mean when you say to go UHF and not WiFi?

UHF stays for Ultra High Frequency, and it's standard for professional grade wireless microphones, IEMs and guitars.

At this point I strongly suggest to do a bit of research. :)

Not really. I can't see any real benefit.

Your main enemy is WiFi pollution at 2.4Ghz, and also the fact your G10 will potentially fight each other for room.

These are device for studio, or small stages with just 1 or 2 of these. Five of them, running in a place with a busy 2.4Ghz, will result in a very unstable and unpredictable situation, doesn't matter the mixer.

For consistency you still need to go UHF, not really WiFi.

On 3/5/2023 at 5:29 PM, Iofhealing said:

Hi PierM,

 

Thank you for answering my questions.  I was wondering if you could elaborate on your answers for me.

 

!). What do you mean by setting the router WiFi signal power to minimum (enough for a single floor average house)?  Do you mean that I should run the router's WiFi at 2.4 ghz as opposed to 5.) ghz?  Or do you mean that I should do something different on this one?

 

2). And what is the point of using the G10s systems if there are so many things that can interfere with them in the area?  Are they going to hold up decently?  And the funny thing is that they (the G10S's) worked just fine at all of the places that we took them to while using them with our Mackie ProFX16 mixer.  And they worked just fine even with the Soundcraft Ui16 digital mixer for the first program that we took them out on.  It was just at this one program that we went to last that I couldn't get hardly any of them to function with a descent signal.  Now granted, I had the router right on top of the Soundcraft Ui16 mixer and right next to the G10s receivers.  But do you think that the G10S's should work on a consistent basis.  I hate to think that the $1200 plus we spent on our 5 G10S systems was a waste.  

 

Thanks,

Andy

1) I mean setting your router power output for the 2.4Ghz at lowest possible level. Check your router manual to find that option, which is available to the majority of brands and models. If your netgear is close to the Soundcraft, setting its output power to minimum, will assure an optimal signal level for the Mixer, but it will drop at a shorter distance for everything else around, which means less WiFi pollution on the stage. 

2) WiFI pollution is a problem for any Wireless system which works in the 2.4Ghz, and in exactly same Channels used by any other WiFi device. The G10S offer 11 Channels, and Auto function, which will scan for less busy channel and connect to it. This happens only when Transmitter is connected to its base. It's important that you check every single base before to unplug the transmitters, to check if the left bar is showing a single solid Red Led. Two Red Leds, means the channel used by this station is a little busy. Three solid reds means this channel is very busy and will cause signal drops. If you have a WiFi scanner (even an app is fine), you could check the less busy Channel@2.4Ghz, and assign these channels to your receivers manually. Do not assign the same channel to all yours receivers, but try to give them a free channel each, better if there is another channel in the middle. Like for example; if Receiver 1 is on Channel 4, set Receiver 2 on Channel 6 or Channel 2 (if these are not too busy by other SSID).

Let me say that you took a risky path buying five units, as these systems are very picky with Channel traffic, Noise, and Bandwidth overlapping. For busy stages you need pro grade UHF units, not really WiFi 2.4Ghz consumer stuff. :)

Should they work on a consistent basis? No. It will always depend on the local WiFi pollution, and in the actual Channel assignment.

You can improve that consistency by reducing pollution (like the power output trick on the router), shutting down WiFi on everything you don't need to use, and checking Channel quality with the 3 left leds on the receivers, and also with a WiFi scanner running on a Mac, a PC, or a Tablet/Smartphone.

In my experience with these units, you want 1 solid red led when Transmitter is plugged, and 3 green leds when Transmitter is in use, with an acceptable blinking of the first green led on the top. As soon as you see the green leds dropping and wobbling to much, you know this channel is being too busy, or too noisy, and it will probably cause audio drops. Remember that, when you turn on your receivers, you want ALL transmitters, to be plugged in their receivers, and you need to wait for them to scan for the best channel. Since you have 5 of them, they will fight a bit so, again, keep an eye on the left leds and manual assign their channels if needed.

Another trick could be to let receivers finding channels one at time, to reduce bandwidth overlapping between them at minimum.

Let me post a screenshot of a WiFi scanner application (in this case my house), to show you how does look a very typical situation these days. You see how many device are present in the area (these are either routers, printers and anything else generating a SSID), and the channels they are using. You can also see how each device does take more than a channel, because of the wide bandwidth. You wouldn't want your G10s connecting to those busy channels, so having the scanner it will help you solving the most problematic stages or rooms (when Auto channel won't work as expected)...

On 3/5/2023 at 4:34 PM, rockbart said:

What are the procedures to do the knob removal ?

Just pull it.

On 3/5/2023 at 10:11 AM, mziach said:

Do not disable this function, it helps to better protect the system from viruses that could reach the kernel such as ransomware that has already taken privileges on your system. I asked the Microsoft cell that manages this point, and for them it's Line 6 to correct the drivers so that it is compatible with this new Windows function to strengthen the system.

It's almost 3 years Win 11 is out, and L6 drivers (all of them) are still not compliant with Core Isolation. It's impossible to not turn off that function for W11 users (if they need to use these devices with USB), and telling them is L6 fault isnt helping much. ;)

In real life, if you dont download warez hacks and cracks, watch porns 24/7 and open random links on random emails, there'll be no realistic ransomware risk.

Both transmitter and receiver will suffer from WiFi pollution, so the more the distance, the better.

Setting router WiFi signal power to minimum (enough for a single floor average house) will also help.

Isnt just the router that could interfere with G10s, but any WiFi device in the area, like Alexa, WiFi plugs and bulbs, Smart TVs, WiFi CCTVs, Smartphone WiFi, WiFi Printers etc etc..

THIS^^^

I do have E X A C T L Y the same behavior on my Stomp. Annoying as f***...especially because was perfect before this stupid ballistic code.

(cant see the video, but the description is spot on). Unfortunately tech support didnt helped much...:/

In an electric guitar, the very first string points of contact are always much more important than body and neck.

Nut, bridge saddles and tailpiece (when present) can really make the difference. A bad nut, (either too soft or too hard, or cut too deep ) can really suck away a ton of energy from string vibration, making the tone thin and muffled (I did miracles on few of my guitars just working on that area). Same for bad saddles

Also quality of frets is important.

This is valid for both mag and piezo.

Said that, expecting a chunk neck or a chunk body, improving tone, is a very common mistake but I dont want to put my shoes into the tone wood can of worms...:)

On 3/3/2023 at 3:16 PM, john-callahan said:

Is anyone having bug issues with Powercabs? Mine has been working as advertised. I do only use it with AES connection to my Helix.

When I had the Floor and then Rack, I stopped using my two PC+112 via Link due random un-links at the boot of one of the two Powercabs (typically the last).

That really looked like a bug to me as never happened with my old L2Ts.

On 3/3/2023 at 7:53 PM, kduck said:

Well...after finally upgrading to 3.5 last weekend, I now have this exact same issue on encoder #4.  I know it was working fine before.  I will try all the suggested steps above and report back.  <sigh>

These reports of faulty knobs after update can be related to the ballistic code they added/changed in this firmware. I do also have a glitchy knob after 3.5, which was working flawless before. Cant be just another coincidence...:)

We do know and we do mostly agree; the download page is sloppy and unnecessarily convoluted, and the front page OS indication is stuck on old gen operative systems. Yes, the firmware update procedure it can be a pain in the arse and can still randomly go wrong for some unclear reason, even for veteran users (like me, and happened more than once). But it is what it is, and L6 doesn't give a damn of what we say over here....so take a big breath, and follow the above indications. Good luck! :)

On 3/3/2023 at 9:12 AM, Ratch99 said:

 

So for the third time, I followed the instructions to the letter. I read the notes. The firmware was something like 3.0.1 on first power up and I followed the prompts on HX Edit exactly.

 

I can see you’re all clearly bored of this issue but this looks like something Line6 should’ve sorted a while ago, rather than put users through unnecessary aggro.

Many updates ago I also had that corrupted LCD after an Helix update, but I quickly and easily solved following those same advices.

If you tried all the suggestions above, there is nothing more you can do.

Contact support through a ticket.

Ask ChatGPT.

Joking, but seriously, no way we can give you any advice with that post. Shrug...:)

On 3/2/2023 at 12:20 PM, MayPRS said:

 

Probably yes but its quite an audible difference in tone and dynamics.

That's the only difference I can think of between the two lines. You could also experience a very similar situation when comparing Helix to Native through the average audio interface. That impedance circuit at the input isn't a small aspect when it comes to headroom and available dynamics (which are more or less the same thing).

On 3/2/2023 at 11:26 AM, MayPRS said:

 

Please check out my previous post: https://line6.com/support/topic/65948-moving-to-helix-lt-first-thoughts-coming-from-hx-effects/

 

This is just for using it from about a week. I can get a much cleaner sound and headroom with the LT. The input/output meters, the Input Gate, the ease of in-unit programming... like you I though the LT was just an oversized HX FX with amp+cab blocks added... I was totally wrong. The LT is a totally different unit... the HX FX is good for what it is but my advice is (having the money and the need) just buy the LT. I can advice this even for just effects. I always struggled (and still do) to get a great sound from the HX FX, on the LT it was easy to dial in. Of course - my personal experience, take this advice as it is :)

 

 

The difference in tone you were hearing was probably all related to the missing impedance circuit at the input of the HX FX, which is instead present in all the Helix/HX modeler family.

Everything you describe sounds normal and expected.

Active devices, with an impedance load and a buffered circuit. Impossible to have them acting just like a cable when passing through them.

Before messing up with the hardware I'd also try different cables to see if there is a jack that works better with it.

I'm saying that because I do have a cable that it's way easier to plug and unplug than the others, due (I guess) the slightly different shape of the tip/ring.