Optimist

I put my Helix into a Harley Benton GPA-100 Poweramp and then into a Marshall 1960 4x12 Cab. The patches are of course with only preamps and no cabs or IRs. Sounds pretty good and »moves the air«.

Appears to be mainly a bugfix for MacOS Ventura users …

The best way to do the seagull effect is by using a bottleneck on the high notes and a delay.

I use my Helix Floor (bought in 2015) mainly in the studio and it’s always USB-connected to my Mac. When I want to tweak something, I always fire up HX Edit and do the job there. So I extremely rarely use the real knobs on the floor unit, except the big volume and the pedal when playing with the band. Recently, I found that the phones knob is almost impossible to move, probably because I've literally never touched it before. The six knobs below the display also seem to have become sluggish. I confess, I am a smoker, but my studio is almost 50 square meters and the Helix is located far outside my "smoking area". I also clean the Helix regularly with a wide, soft brush and occasionally with a slightly damp cloth. So my advice for all who mainly use HX Edit instead of tweaking on the real machine: be sure that your knobs don’t start to freeze! Cheers, Alex | The Optimist

Thanks brue58ski, I’ll dive into your suggestions. But I would not use the Double Take but just record an additional guitar track in my DAW (Cubase 11 Pro), which is always better than »artificial« double tracking, right? BTW … another example of a nearly similar sound ist this (yes, this is obviously electric, and picked not strummed, and a phaser does it’s job here, too) … and one of my favourite all-timers: … but on both examples (Page, Hillage), there’s heavy compression used, I presume … Best regards from Munich, Germany Alex

Hi there, can anybody give me some hints how to achieve a similar sound as Jimmy Page in the acoustic (?) intro of that song: I have the following: Helix Floor 3.10 (tried different compressors, choruses, not really coming near) James Tyler Variax JTV59 (tried acoustic models with Helix, not really coming near) Fender Nashville Power Tele w/ Fishman piezos (piezo sound comes near with Helix, but not quite well) Yes, I hear that the guitar track is doubled, but does that make the effect? Think no, just sounds more spacey. Would I need a »real« acoustic? Don’t think so … this must be somehow achieveable with the above … ;-) Any suggestions anybody? Thanks in advance, Alex

You’re running a MacOS on a PC? How’s that? :-) Apart from that, on the same day Big Sur came out, I got an email from Line6 NOT to install it yet. Admittedly, they should have sent this mail a few days before the Big Sur release. I would reinstall Catalina if possible … Line6 didn’t say when they’ll be ready with Big Sur (like A LOT of other companies).

Could you provide more info on your system? Win? Mac? Operating system? USB Hub od direct connection?

Check the humidity in your room. If it’s too low (i.e. below 20%) you will get tiny electric shocks from everything you touch that is connected to a power line. Also check your shoes! Chucks or any kind of sneakers with rubber soles are very bad! Leather boots are better. This is no joke! I have those problems here in my Studio all the time in winter, when the heating is on. In Summer it gets better.

… so from today on it’s SPRING!

Great work, very handy, many thanks! BUT: if you want to print this, it uses a LOT of black toner/ink. A »positive« Version (with white background and black text) would be more economical …

Yeah I forgot the volume pedal. It’s essential. Interesting approach by fiveways using it after the Triangle. Will try that out!

You will need a guitar with good sustain. Les Paul or anything else with set neck (or neck through even better), mahogany body, humbuckers etc. Fripp used a Tokai LP copy in those days as far as I know. Use the neck humbucker with tone way down. On the HELIX side I use a simple setup like this: Input > Triangle Fuzz [Sustain: 8.3, Tone 0.7, Level 8.1] > Jazz Rivet [Drive 2.8, Bass 5.6, Mid 2.7, Treble 4.7, Pres 5.0, Ch Vol 8.5, Master 10, Bright off]. That’s the naked tone. Then add different LONG delays like Transistor Tape, Reverse etc. to taste (Fripp used two Revox tape machines for delay and looping). Thats half the battle already. Of course endless sustain using an E-Bow is helpful, but not essential if your guitar itself provides enough for semi-long solo lines. For my fripp-alike sounds I use a Fernandes Ravelle Elite with a Sustainer in the neck-humbucker, works like an E-Bow but you have the right hand free. Cheers Opti

Hi everybody, not sure if this is the right forum, but anyway: I have been trying to remote my Helix with Cubase (Pro, 9.5) an ran into different problems. My setup is like that: We are a band with guitar (me), keyboards, and bass. Drums are programmed in Cubase with Addictive Drums and the like (on an iMac in the studio, on a MacBook Pro when playing live). Everything is nearly complete »virtual«, guitar via Helix, bass via POD X3, and keyboards all into the mixer into an 6x headphone amp. So we can practice nearly silent alltogether except the vocals anyway. In Cubase I have not only the drum tracks but also some playbacks for vocals, guitars, fx etc. For live playing, I have set up »long« Cubase tracks which contain up to 9 songs each, one after the other. I can navigate between those different segments by using »cycle markers«, which are mapped to keyboard numbers 1-9. So if I press »4« on the keyboard, Cubase jumps to the beginning of song 4, pressing »space« starts the playback. This is very, very handy. See picture. Now I had been thinking of remote controlling my Helix (connected via USB) by setting up an extra MIDI-part for every »song-segment« going out to the Helix. In this part I have (momentarily) only two controllers: one »Program Change« that sends a PC message to switch between Helix presets, and one controller »cc57« that toggles footswitch 10 in stomp mode on the Helix. Footswitch 10 is always assigned to a kind of distortion/boost fx on the Helix, used for guitar solos etc. So, when I jump to a »song« via keyboard, the Helix should the select the correct preset at first, and when it comes to my solo part and »cc57« jumps from somewhere below 64 to somewhere over 64, footswitch 10 should be activated … and when my solo part is over (and »cc57« jumps under 64) it should be de-activated. So all I send to the Helix is a Program Change and a controller message. AND IT WORKS! BUT the following problems occur: 1. When I press the space bar (start/stop) inbetween a song segment, footswitch 10 toggles as well, regardless of the »cc57« value. So it inverts the state of the footswitch, making it »de-activated« when it should be activated. 2. When I press the space bar inbetween two songs, the Helix becomes completely MUTED (no sound). When I jump to the next (or another) song start, Helix gets unmuted and live again. This might by useful for live situations but is not wanted here. What am I doing wrong? Footswitch 10 is set to »toggle« … »latching« does not work anyway. Cubase is set up to use continuous controlling and event following. Thanks in advance, best regards Opti/Alex

OK … so these are just »handles«, right? I mean, normally Split/Merge blocks are invisible unless you need them. But the red color just indicates »something wrong«, I think … anyway thanks!

Hey everybody, while waiting for 2.50 I am fiddling around with a »Cocteau Twinish« (say »Robin Guthrieish«) Dream Pop/Ambient preset. A single coil Fernandez Revolver Classic Guitar (with Sustainer) runs thru Vol (Swell), EQ, Comp into a clean Jazz Rivet (JC120). After a Cosmos Echo (Stereo) Path A is splitted into 1A and 1B. 1A runs into 2A. 1B runs into 2B. After the split all paths have different choruses, delays and verbs to thicken up everything. At the end 2A and 2B are merged with 70%R/70%L setting and walk into the stereo looper. Everything sounds great. But at the end of path 1B and the beginning of path 2B I see some »red dots«, indicating »something’s wrong« i.e. missing merge/split or something like that. See picture, big arrows pointing at those dots. Question: is something actual wrong? What do these dots mean? Thanks in advance, Opti

I can join in. No update problems at all with an early 2015 unit over an iMac 2011 model running El Capitan. Kudos to Line6 and the progammers!

I experienced that Return is better than Aux for two instruments with the same outputs (e.g. passive single coils). I use Guitar In with my strat and my teacher uses Return 1 with my tele – each on its own signal path (with the same blocks/settings). Both guitars sound equally (aside from their native characteristics). Using Aux for my teacher resulted in a much quieter tone from him, so we switched to Ret 1. Might be as well practicable for bass.

Dear HonestOpinion and all, this was very helpful, thank you very much! I’ll order the cable and will report what happened. Thanky again, Opti/Alex

Hey guys, great discussion here, thanks for all the info! Anyway I made some mistakes in my first posting. The cab is NOT a 1960A. It’s a »JCM800 Lead 1960«, 300 watts, mono and 16 ohm. The power amp is »t.amp TA1400 MKII« with 2 x 700 watts on 4 ohm (the internet says it can also do 2 x 450 watts on 8 ohm, but I can’t seem to find a switch for that *). Here’s a pic of its backside: So again the question: Will this work in any way? If yes, I would need a cable like this: https://www.thomann.de/gb/pro_snake_bassamp_speakercable_15_m.htm … correct? What would the switch be set to? »BRIDGED«, »PARALLEL« or »STEREO«? *) Maybe this is also the switch for 700/450 watts? Thanks in advance, Opti/Alex

Thanks guys, I’ll have a try and will report what happened. Anyway I also still have the JCM800 head (2210, 100W)) … perhaps this will be another option by going thru the FX return (bypassing the preamp). I just was wondering how to feed the 1960A without it (since the 2210 is an old lady). Thanks anyway, Opti/Alex

Hi everybody, I was thinking about how to connect my helix with my old 1960A cabinet, just for fun. I would be like this, right?: Helix (with any amp simulation ON, FX etc., but any cab sim OFF) > ??? > 1960A. The »???« would be what? Kind of a power amp of course. I have a spare 2 x 100W power amp from an old PA somewhere in the basement (no idea about the ohm settings). Would this work? Or would I blow something? Thanks in advance Opti/Alex

When I switched from my POD X3 Pro to Helix I did it like that: I bought an A/B Box (a BOSS AB-2 in my case) and connected Guitar on Input, POD on A, Helix on B. Then, permanently switching from A to B, I tweaked the Helix until I got the closest matching tone. I took me about two hours to create the about 25 different patches for our band’s needs. And that was without the editor since it came out later … with the editor it would have taken me around an hour I think.

For the arpeggiating: Deluxe Comp > Scream 808 > Simple Delay (35ms splitting L/R) > Path A > Jazz Rivet Amp > 70s Chorus > 2x12 Jazz Cab > Pan L > Path B > Jazz Rivet Amp > 70s Chorus > 2x12 Jazz Cab > Pan R

Sounds very very good! Can’t wait to update!! But one question about MIDI clock: the posting says: “Receive MIDI Clock—Helix can now synchronize its time-based effects (such as delay and modulation) …“ What about the looper? Will it also be synced?