stratblue

Hi there. Is there anyone running the latest 2.82 firmware on Mountain Lion (10.8.3)? Thanks.

Hi there. 2 questions really. 1. How do I back up Helix 2.53? I have no file>create backup or whatever it is I've seen mentioned. Are these bundle things backups of all set lists or something? Or is just export setlist and it will import right back in if there is a problem? Nothing in the manual for mine. 2. If I update the Helix rack and the Helix 2.21 software that I have to the most modern, will it still be compatible with OS 10.8.3 on the Mac? Thanks.

I posted above just after I bought the Helix mentioning how harsh and brittle the distortions are. I didn't use it for months after I bought it. For anyone who thinks the same, try using the hi cut on the Cabinet emulators, just roll it off and the harshness will go, I'm really starting to like the unit now.

You have to wonder what then is the point of the presets if they all suck. Surely their only function would be to put people off buying the unit? Would it not be better to just sell it as a blank canvas?

I am serious! Guitarists have pretty much agreed that the way to get a good tone is to put mics in front of valve amps and use subtle variations on the Strat/Les Paul guitar. We are a very orthodox and conformist group of musicians, there will obviously be a few statistical blips but on the whole we do not like variation beyond mike distances and speaker types. You only have to look at the outcry when Steinberger introduced the 'cricket bat' to see it in action.

I wouldn't say that the only way to distinguish guitarists is their gear. Tone is mostly in the player, if you were to play through any 'famous rig' I suspect you would sound distinctly like you (as I would sound like me). I have heard some sad case make the argument that the point of music is so that you can hear good guitar tone!

You would think that those sounds would already be in the presets but the distortions all just sound like nasty variations of the one sound, it's not like we all have vastly different ideas of what makes a decent guitar tone. If you were to make a chart of all the permutations of amps, cabs, mikes, distances only and flick through them at a rate of one a second, it would take over 9 days to find the 'magic sauce'.

I've just bought one and man does it sound bad, harsh, tinny, brittle, all those sort of words. Every single patch has that sort of nasty, scratchy, modeled, digital sound to it, everything is just harsh variations on that one single theme. I'm plugging it into a MOTU 828 mk3 and then through some monitor speakers. I have an ancient digitech gsp2101 which sounds lovely on high gain sounds so I took the line outs of the Helix and put it though the cab emulations on the 2101 and what a difference! I'm going to make some impulse responses from the 2101 and I will post the fruits of my labours as soon as I get it done.