rzumwalt

For the setup you described here, definitely use the preamp models instead of the amp models, as described in jbuhajla's post above. And if you're just trying to get a feel for how all modeled amps and cabs sound with Helix, you don't necessarily need to rent an FRFR. A good set of studio headphones should at least give you a good impression of what you'd be hearing through an FRFR.

Of course, it will need to have HY amp modeling and will have be called the "Heeley." But some sort of template function would be nice so you could save settings for individual models or short chains of models.

Another nod to the amazing cable routing and precision pedal placement on your board. Also quite impressed by how clean your power hub is for a homemade device. You can tell anything I made myself by the jagged hacksaw and dremmel tool marring along all the edges, residue along the seams from over use of adhesive to compensate for using the wrong kind of adhesive for the material, mismatched zip ties all over the thing because I gave up with the adhesive, and at least one or two stray wires sticking out of it that I claim are for "future upgrades."

And if you are testing Helix Native by playing live through your computer, you have to be getting at least some lag, which is nonexistent on the hardware unit.

Ha. Yeah, and if you whack it on it's side you can hear the springs in the reverb tank shake.

This is fantastic work, thanks for taking it on. And it reminds me of something I noticed in 2.30. For the first time the other day, I heard a very slight, but very definite, undulation in the output of a couple amp models. I was using IRs in each instance. I noticed it with light to mid drive settings on the the new Brit Trem Bright and on the existing Matchless Ch1. (And correct me if I'm wrong, but the Brit Trem doesn't actually have a tremolo integrated into it, right?) It occurred to me that, if I'm not imagining it and it wasn't just an artifact of the room I was in, it might be a new feature written into the code, some kind of randomization. I recalled a post on here a couple of months ago in which a user reported getting more authentic amp sounds by putting an optic tremolo with minimal settings at the end of the signal chain, which got me thinking, maybe Line 6 picked up on that and added a randomizer of some sort to create the effect natively to the amp models. Anyway, I thought it sounded really great. At first I thought it was because I was playing with the new double track effect, but it seemed to be there with or without it. And, since "fizz" or "squirliness," the way I conceive them, seems to be caused by any constant presence of a high pitched anomaly in the output, it would stand to reason that randomizing some feature of the output has a chance of getting rid of it. (For the record, I've never been certain about ever having heard these phenomena with the Helix, but have noticed it more in the same way you think you see the sailboat in one of those "magic eye" posters before you actually figure out how to do it.) So, could the variation you found in the 2.30 be due to something like that? I imagine the answer is that it could be due to a thousand factors.But, I would be interested if you could re-run the experiment you did, again, on the 2.21 firmware and see if there is more or less variation. Would it also make a difference if you eliminated as many variables as possible? For example, create a preset with just an amp block and turn the Ripple and Hum parameters down to zero. I would suggest just a preamp, but the effect, if it exists, might be in the power amp section. Or I guess someone from Line 6 can just tell us. Anyway, thanks in advance if you can do this.

And don't use a guitar with a floating bridge, if that isn't obvious. The volume pedal is the only thing Helix can add to help achieve this with an electric guitar. I can't think of any effect that could do this, with the possible exception of some pitch bender that could only be used with Variax or other piezo electric guitar, and then only if Helix can receive the signal for each string independently rather than as one signal with all six strings combined. Out of curiosity, are there any actual pedal steel players who use Helix?

Divided By 13 US Double Verb Bright L6 Litigator Mark IV Crunch Mark IV Lead

I keep them all, and all revised versions of them, identified by 8-digit date in yyyy-mm-dd format, in a folder that syncs to the cloud and also to an external hard drive. I'm also for the most part insane. I think "under-medicated" is the technical term.

At some point, wouldn't it just be better to use a high gain amp model? I always felt the MT-2 was intended for people wanting to practice playing metal at quiet volumes in their bedrooms, without having to push a massive amplifier to distortion. I suspect there is no MT-2 model for the same reason I think there is no Governor or other "Marshal in a box" type pedals. The focus is on making Metal amps and Marshal amps. If you really want to run that sound as a stompbox into a cleaner amp, and you don't want to put the actual pedal in the effects loop, try using a metal preamp as if it were a distortion pedal in front of the amp. It takes some experimentation, but can yield some interesting tones.

That's interesting. I was using my TS-9 because I felt it sounded different enough from the Helix's TS-808 model that it was worth having as another option. To my ears, the TS-808 model has a bit warmer gain, while the TS-9, at least my unit, is capable of cleaner settings. I usually kept it set as an almost clean boost. I moved the TS-9 to another pedalboard a couple months ago, which reminds me: it would be really cool if Line 6 could add the TS9 as a "version" option within the TS-808 model, like they have with the OCD.

I have used one in the fx loop. I wasn't specifically aiming for a Brian May tone, but it has pretty much the same effect on the modeled amp in helix as you would expect it to have on a physical amp. More overdrive, volume, and highs, depending on the amp model it's going into and the amp settings, of course.

I owned the HD500 and now the Helix. I actually still own HD500 as an emergency backup in case the Helix ever fails. I break it out every now and then when I don't have my Helix handy. The first thing I notice is how incredibly limiting HD500 now feels compared to the capabilities of the Helix. I didn't feel that way before I owned the Helix, but HD500 now feels like an inadequate amount of DSP. While HD500 has some very good sounding amp models, there were always some I found unusable or very difficult to get a likable tone out of. The Helix amps all sound good to me in one way or another. If what other people have claimed about being able to tell the difference between real tube amps and modeled tube amps is true, then I admit I don't have the best ear for discerning such minute tonal differences, but even I can hear the difference in the Helix amp models. For one thing, the Helix amp models seem a lot more reactive to input volume or attack. I had thought HD500 did as well, but when I took it for a spin a couple months ago after having owned the Helix for over a year, I was shocked at how unresponsive it felt now. Like others have said, it is much easier to set up patches. But, you can make patches that are ten times as complex as in HD500, so you probably spend the same or more time just due to the overabundance of options. And, no, you cannot import POD HD patches to Helix.

To expand on what others have said about using reverb to help fit into the mix, I look at it in terms of how much in the foreground or background does the guitar need to be. Usually, more reverb puts the guitar further in the background. That's just my experience from trial and error and is dependent on the particular style and ensemble I'm used to playing with. I'm sure if I were in a metal fusion trio (and had the chops to hang), reverb would be the last thing I'd consider.

I use dual lock with a felt board like you have. The top dual lock strip is against the bottom of the Helix, and the bottom dual lock strip is adhered to the sticky side of a "hook" velcro strip. The velcro attaches to the felt bottom of my pedalboard case. I think I just use 4 or five dual lock strips on the bottom of the Helix, but it is solid. Do the push/twist/press/repeat method and it is hard to move and very annoying to lift off of the board when I need to rewire something. I don't believe I've ever tipped it upside down, but I do carry it vertically from my car from time to time, and it doesn't budge. Plus, the extra velcro strip gets the Helix just a little further off the pedalboard bottom, so I'm not worried about overheating.

This is probably another thing I'm just finding out that everybody else already knows, but it might address a concern I think I've seen on here before. On a Snapshot change, Helix only sends a MIDI CC message if the CC value in the new Snapshot is different from the current Snapshot. There may be instances in which you want an On (CC=0) or Off (CC=127) message to send regardless of whether the new value is different. I ran into this because I didn't want the natural behavior while I was editing the preset. When I changed a 0 to 127 and changed Snapshots to test it, I couldn't tell if I'd gotten it right, or if it just did't send a message at all. This is probably pretty obvious to most, but the solution I had was to realize that Off is actually 0-63 and On is 64-127 and Helix doesn't know you are using them as O/Off messages, just that 0 and 1 are different messages. So I used 0-7 for Off and 120-127 for On and the message was sent every time. Can anyone spot any downsides to this I'm not seeing? Any uses other than during editing Snapshots?

Does anyone else have the problem of auditioning several IRs while practicing alone, selecting the one that sounds best and that you think will sound best in the live mix, then showing up to rehearsal with the rest of the band and realizing it wasn't the best choice? As I'm sure we all know, you can work all you want on your tone by yourself, but you have to play a few bars in the real world with the rest of the band before you know for sure how well it will work. IR selection is no different, it's just a lot harder to tweak on the fly during rehearsal. With other parameters, you can tell pretty easily after a few seconds of playing whether you need to nudge, for example, the drive or bass parameter a few notches up or down. But IRs don't change linearly, you move from one to the next, which can sound drastically different. It would be a bit of a drag holding up rehearsal saying, "hang on guys, let me try a different IR...this should do it...no, that's worse, let me try this...oh hell...nope...ok, this one should do it...wait, it's even worse...hey, I need to plug this into my computer and load some different IRs." The best ideas I could come up with were: 1. Just pick a middle-of-the-road sounding IR you know couldn't sound bad in the mix, even if it's probably not the best, and stick with it. 2. Stick with the IR you chose, but be prepared to radically change the high/low cut or an EQ. 3. Once you find the IR you think is best, load in several similar IRs from the same set so you can fine tune on the fly. Any other ideas?

I agree with the above. it sounds like there's something missing that should clear up the problem for you. Helix can do so many things there really shouldn't be any impediment to hearing yourself in the mix unless you are literally playing on stage with AC/DC and Angus Young's 7 Marshall Plexis. It sounds like the roadblock you are hitting is that everyone else in the band is amplified on stage (or is a drummer) and not relying on monitors to hear themselves. It also sounds like you don't want to bring a separate amp/speaker to gigs if it isn't going to be significantly better than your current setup. So it sounds like the solution is how to get a monitor feed you can hear yourself in without bringing your own amp to gigs. If you don't mind being a little tied down, you can use a headphone to supplement the monitor mix you're getting. If your FOH is sophisticated enough, you might try sending two feeds out, one of which has an eq at the end of the signal chain emphasizing mids and highs enough for it to cut through, and have that feed sent as a separate monitor mix. In one post above, you mentioned leads being fine, but the rhythm parts getting lost. One thing that helped me was narrowing down to one or two main presets as much as possible and getting to know them very well. The biggest problem i was having turned out to be that I was trying to use almost a different preset for every song--and we rotate songs a lot--so I had trouble remembering how loud or quiet, or sharp or dull, the end result would be after hitting a footswitch or snapshot. The result was often the quiet tones being too quiet or the "loud" rhythm tones being too overdriven and muddy. When I started limiting myself to just a couple presets, I knew how loud the different options were, and it seems to have helped. One last idea: how big is the stage you usually play on. If there is any room to spread out or position yourself or your bandmates' amps so that they aren't blaring directly at you, it might be just enough to work.

Awesome. "Because it was funny" is the reason for about three quarters of what I do.

Same. I figured that was just the way it was designed for some reason. I would love to see it fixed.

Instead of changing the tone knob (because I know I'll forget to turn it back up), I'll use a rotary cab on slow speed, followed by delays and reverbs as everyone else has posted. It pulls out the tone while adding a little movement to the underlying sound. I guess I'd say it thickens the sound. If using multiple delays, make sure the delay times are staggered. It helps fill in any gaps in the pad. I've also seen someone use a reverb at 90-100% mix (not in parallel) and a very short or no pre-delay, so that the sound is almost all reverb and none of the original tone. You don't use a volume pedal or swell and it sounds a lot harsher than a typical pad, but an interesting drone effect. Like if your pad was being rubbed against a metal washboard. If I could remember the guys name he had a whole youtube channel devoted to ambient guitar. [Why am I being such a lazy Dilbert? It's like I just found out about searching the internet. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnXjoRC-GABh-aRYogZ7ayQ.]

Out of curiosity, what determines how much you increase the tenths digit for a new release? You said you might skip 2.40 and go straight to 2.50, but I would have thought whatever you eventually release after 2.3x would just be 2.40, regardless of whether you skipped a planned release in the interim. If you were just joking around, then I apologize for being a dumbass and I accept the scorn the computer guys will undoubtedly send my way. I still find it difficult to buy USB cords with the right size plug at both ends.

I use one 610 as a wedge monitor and it is loud enough by far for my purposes (electric guitar at church and acoustic guitar in a cover band). At church I plug Helix Floor into channel 1 and my monitor mix from the house into channel 2 and I can adjust the relative loudness of my guitar from there. I use 1/4" plugs for both channels, although the monitor feed is XLR from FOH up to a DI box on stage I use in reverse because I never got around to buying a Male/Female adapter. Or I just don't know what I'm doing. The house monitor feed gives me a bit of hiss (the Helix is dead quiet by comparison), so I set a fairly big dip in the EQ around 9K, as well as a good amount of high cut. I also use a little low cut and a small bump around 1K. I always use the monitor setting. I don't change the EQ when I play acoustic guitar, I use different Helix presets for that and, obviously, I set them up accordingly. What I try to achieve is something close to the sound of the main loudspeakers, without so much bass that it gets muddy, and that sounds good practicing at home. As I mentioned above, I use a small amount of low cut. So I don't have any need for more bass response as it is, and I've never considered upgrading to a 612. Now, I generally prefer more mids than bass, so, if you love bass, my opinion may not mean as much to you.

Ha ha. Were you ever a jaded transactional attorney in a former career?

Just saw this. Almost did a spit take.