SirNedwood

So I used to have all the cabs in my presets as a blend of 2 mics on the same cab with a slight 25L/25R split, and didn't really know what I was doing. But recently, I've gotten better at understanding how important mic and cab is to the sound. Far more so than the amp. So now I listen carefully to find the best combo of cab and mic to shape the tone, I select my 2 favourite, and then make a dual cab block that is 100L/100R with those settings. I thought it would sound disconnected, but even with full separation like with headphones it just gives a really full sound. So now I'm re-doing everything in full stereo, and I have a smaller selection of my favourite cab combos.

Can you explain your signal path a bit. The way you described it in the post sounds like you are comparing different physical amplifiers, not amp sims in the Helix. If you are comparing a REAL Marshall amp, with a Marshall amp block in the Helix there are several things you need to be aware of. 1. Do not compare settings between the two. a 5 on the gain of a real amp is NOT equivalent to a 5 on the gain of the amp sim. Use your ears. 2. Listening to a real cab in the room is not the same as a cab block, because it is coloured by the microphone, it's position, and the monitors you are listening to the output on. 3. If you want to minimize the difference in tone between different amps use a preamp block in the helix, and then plug the helix into the receive input of the amp's FX loop. This means you will only be using the power amp stage of the real amp, and you can shape your tone appropriately in the helix. If you do this with a send block, it means you can put a cab block at the end and then send the main outs to the PA. Unfortunately there is no power amp block in the helix, so you can't simulate saturation at that point in the chain.

That's really interesting doing that phase check. Always better to confirm with a test than just assume. As for the stereo thing, I must have glossed over that part in the OP because I didn't think of this as a stereo system. But I'm definitely going to try that out now.

"Are any of you with the original version (prior to the update) impressed enough with the cab" All Helix units receive the update. No one should be running old firmware IMO. I bought mine a few months before the 3.5 update came out. Before I was slightly disappointed with the realism. After, it was perfect! the new built in cabs and microphone settings sound a million times better. And the new ambient reverb is a must have to make it sound like a real amp in the room.

Global means it applies globally. I have it set per preset, and whenever I want to create a new preset I copy it from a template where those setting are set correctly. So for instance on my bass guitar I have to use the pad. But for everything else I don't need to. And for my Strat I have to have a lower gate threshold because I usually run it pretty high, and the strat output is too low.

It was my understanding that doing these large alternating changes on a graphic EQ causes phase issues. I'm not sure if that problem is solved in the digital realm, but I am skeptical. My trick for increasing clarity with distortion is to run 2 amp blocks, with a crossover split feeding into them. That way you can adjust the gain on the lows and highs separately.

I'm not sure why you are doing an Amp/FOH as separate L&R signal paths. The way I solve the issue of having an Amp on stage, and plugging the helix direct into the PA is with a send block. You put the send block just before the amp. Just be aware if you use a mono send block, everything after that point is summed back to mono.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. The Poly sustain is exactly what I was after. But I struggled to get a good sound out of it. And it uses a ton of DSP. I also tried the reverb settings, but it was hard to control. In the end the best solution I found was an Split A/B path that includes a Chorus Echo into a Glitz Reverb. I made a momentary switch that would change the routing from 100% A, to even split. And I also assigned expression pedal 1 to the feedback control of the echo. The way to use it is strum a chord, then hold the footswitch to route the sound into the echo. You can also hold and then strum for a different tone. Let go and you are free to play over the top. If you need to change chords hit the expression pedal and bring it back to reduce the feedback. I set the minimum point on the expression pedal to 50% so it dies off more naturally. I set the Echo time to 1/4 tap tempo so the vibey swells are in time. And the beauty of the momentary switch is you can stack notes. Strum a low chord, hit the switch, then play a few bars. Strum a high chord, hit the switch again and it boosts the pad up a notch.

I would really like to create a patch that can create an infinite pad while you play over the top, but not using a looper. Ideally I'd like to have it mapped to a momentary footswitch. Here's a video of an example of what I mean. skip to 23:38