toasterdude

Try it with different amps or at least different cabs on each side. Also 20-30ms 100% wet on one side. All my patches are like that but play mostly clean.

i use different amps, cabs, reverbs and delays on each side. If I use a phaser or chorus also different on each side.

On 4/24/2019 at 6:48 PM, blekenbleu said:

VDI is basically power + AES/EBU + MIDI:   VDI interface diagram;

It sounds like you only need wireless MIDI:  Yamaha MD-BT01

Wireless AES/EBU has also been done,

but connecting a battery-powered DAC to JTV DVI for wireless analog guitar sound may be more expedient.

The mag pickups are converted to digital on the variax. Line6 wireless already do digital wireless. Not stereo with bi drectional midi but they appear to have many of the necessary pieces.

this is old hd500 stuff :)

Nope. On HD500 you could use knobs on jtv as expression with pod effects only. With helix you can control any external midi gear with CC commands. Also on HD you can't save model and tuning on a snapshot by snapshot basis. Of course HD doesn't have snapshots but if line6 was killing variax why add variax stuff to snapshots?

Theres a market for everything if you're willing to deal with a terrible return on investment. We blew out HD Beans at $199 at the end, if you remember. Back in '99 when computers weren't fast enough to track with negligible latency (unless you had Amp Farm on ProTools TDM), desktop PODs were a lifesaver. In 2010, they were. In 2017, we feel the studio environment is better served by a plug-in and audio interface with a decent 1M Ohm instrument input.

 

But never say never...

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-amARjIBdRI

Instrument and Variax input!

I have a peavey mace laying around. At some point I will do a kemper profile. maces have solid state pre and tube power amp. Not really a marshall sound. More their own thing. Jeff Carlisi, Allen Collins and Hughie Thomasson all played maces at some point. Actually Hughie played deuces I think. Three of my faves.

Who knows? But if you ask me, the longer scale length and somewhat unorthodox body style is gonna make this one an even tougher sell than the others they've already put out there. Time will tell.

Different market. May spur people to use more of the variax goodness. More modern players rather than us old farts that need a guitar that looks like les paul or strat.

Thank you all for taking the time to respond! Really! :)  A few more reads of what you guys said/having the Helix here to test everything should help. As long as I can save a Helix preset to automatically launch my saved H9 presets(FX loop) then im golden.

Not automatically unless preset 001 on helix is alos 001 on the H9s. You have to send commands to change presets on H9 when recalling Helix presets. Pretty easy though.

I never installed 2.11 because of some issues. Last night I was going to update the Rack and the Floor but got sidetracked tweaking a patch. Glad I didn't update as Variax is key to my setup.

Hard to do techno on Helix without midi sync.

Calabasas, CA.

Did the mod for Oz and others as a favor for high profile Line 6 endorsers and the boss.

The mods for Oz was done by guitar luthier Touch Singleton, and I just did some tweaks

to the electronics.

 

Mods are not something I normally do, as we do not have a custom shop here. And I have

a steady stream of regular service repairs.

 

I do have a colleague in Northampton, UK, who used to be my opposite number over there,

when Line 6 had location there. He has his own shop, Mark Wright Music, and still services

Line 6 gear, including guitars.

Nice. I work for a company with their US office in Whittier. It seems each time Line6 has an open house it is the  day after I fly out of LAX, lol. I am going to NAMM again this year as we are streaming the live concerts outside. Only had a few minutes last year to hot L6 room to see the Helix Rack and Firehawk amp. Currently have 10 JTV xplants with 2-4 more in the works.

Funny part is I never notice the slight differences different body woods causes. Likely because I am using mags and models at the same time. I have also read several times that the xplant has to be same scale length as donor. Most of mine are not and either I am deaf or don't notice whatever problems may be caused.

I also have a variax acoustic 700 that needs new piezos and two variax nylons. One has been transplanted. The other is stock. Want to fix piezos on the acoustic 700 and maybe put the electronics in a solid body tele style guitar.

Thermal Relief Guitar

730 West Cheyenne Ave. Suite #120 N. Las Vegas NV, 89030

(702) 395-7005 

info@thermalrelief.com

 

 

 

http://thermalrelief.com/tta002/

 

Bookmarked them. I go te vegas once or twice per year, so if I need any custom transplant stuff doen I just may look em up.

It's active electronics, so there are subtleties of the circuitry that have to be careful of.

Turning Oz Noy's customized two pick-up 89F into a three pick-up version required certain

different switch and a circuit mod to match the impedances in magnetic mode, without pulling

down the circuitry in model mode.

 

The custom guitar luthier (with my guidance) did the initial work, then it came to me for some

fine adjustments to the circuitry. 

 

The 59 switching is a little different, but yes, it is do'able. But you have to know what you're

doing and know the circuitry well. It's not something for anyone to do. It's easy for me because

after servicing and repairing 1,500 of these guitars over the last six years, I have intimate

knowledge of the circuitry, and so I know what's do'able and what isn't.

 

Just be careful with mods, what works today, might crash down tomorrow. Some mods you

can get away with, others you won't.

 

 

Happy hunting. Rock On!

I would gladly send to you for any mods but I believe you are on the other side of the pond?

Need special switch for a 3 pick-up version,... like what Oz Noy has.

Can't think in terms of passive guitar electronics anymore with these.

Not sure I agree. I have a three pickup firebird with more tele stule pickup setup. It has JTV 59 electtonics and a separate switch to add middle pickup to the mix.

If we have an 89 working with two p rails and not doing coil split on pos 2 and 4. If we have poa 2 and 4 doing the same as pos 1 amd 5, adding a third pickup to position 2 and 4 should be doable.

Done and all working fine :)

 

 

Very cool. Does this mean the pos 2 and 4 do nothing? I have a 89 body here and was trying to figure out how to maybe wire with three pickups. I guess I can run the two leads from the p rails to both where you have yours connected and in parallel to where the plit coil would go. Then on both pickups just put middle pickup in parallel with the leads going to where the split coil would normally go.

I was ready to pull the trigger on the Soundtoys 5 plug-in pack until I experimented using the Helix as a hardware insert for my DAW. I'm now using the Helix, in addition to its intended purpose as a guitar stompbox modeler thing, as a processor for various DAW tracks. It does a darned good job for keyboards, vocals, etc, but really needs MIDI sync to make it even useful for the task.

 

Perhaps someday when Line 6 finishes the essential list of guitar-related features, they could dabble into supporting a full list of Sountoys'like "plug-ins". I'd much rather take my DSP processing offline to my Helix than do it all with CPU-intensive plugins.

I am a huge proponent of midi sync but which effects would you sync to midi? I find that setting delays and mods to correct tempo works ok. IMHO Helix doesn't really have effects that would benefit from midi sync yet.

I do agree that this feature would only really be something select folks would care about, but I would certainly be one. Not just because of using Ableton as a master tempo (and just relying on a matched bpms is touch because I've never found kit that doesn't drift unless slaving to a master clock) but also for keeping any advanced time based stomps in the send\return loops in check. I currently have a timeline, h9 and big sky that for one reason or another I still keep in my rig with helix. As of now all those units can sync to a midi master and I use either Ableton or a Disaster Area Smartclock to keep all in check. If there ever comes a day that Helix can be included in that chain from a clock perspective, I may marry the thing.

Well at least for now helix passes the clock through to any downstream devices.

To be honest the MIDI clock sync is often (as implemented in other products - e.g.synths) not enough as it only includes syncing the tempo value, not the cycle start. Which is fine for delay FX, but not enough for modulation (tremolo, flanger...). There you really need to resort to sending tap tempo MIDI messages manually, as noted here by mdmayfield. Which you can do from Ableton... So that's fine.

 

I used to do this with POD HD Pro and it worked fine. However with Helix I still haven't succeeded:

1) First I found the MIDI tap tempo message described in the manual doesn't work - I reported that to the support who acknowledged it and it was fixed in 1.12 update, I think.

2) It seems there is a problem perhaps in Helix MIDI driver because when I try to send Tap Tempo MIDI command from Cubase to Helix over USB, Cubase crashes. I still haven't got enough time to investigate this. Perhaps it's because I had Helix editor running at the same time...

 

Has anybody tried to send Tap Tempo MIDI to Helix? Either over MIDI cable or preferably over USB? From Cubase or another DAW? Results?

 

Thanks for any info. I'm planning to look into this but currently busy finishing album demo...

I really want midi sync as well. Currently sending sync from maschine to mastermind GT, helix, 2 pod hds, 2 axe fx, adrenalinn, echolution, mobius, big sky and H9. Also have another helix receiving midi and sync for another player.

Honestly until they add more effects like seeker, pattern trem etc, I am not missing midi sync as much as I thought. Al beat synced effects are on other boxes. With delays, just saving tempo with preset is close enough for rock and roll.

I have not tested yet but have heard hitting tap button once will start the sequence. Once I start doing songs where the sequencers on the PODs are more critical I will see if sending a single tap every 4 or 8 bars does it.

I would love some cool new beat synced type effects in helix. Even just the m13 effects ported would be great.

LFOs and sequencers would take Helix to whole new level. I dream of sequencers changing variax string tunings. Lol

Howdy Folks,

 

I had a similar problem when trying to connect my JTV-69 with my HELIX...it wouldn't turn ON!

 

I would have to connect and reconnect the VDI cable many times before I heard the relay in the JTV click; telling me that the Variax circuit was active....(This was hit and miss and I was not happy...)

 

I could hot-wire the operation by placing a 1/4" cable into the JTV, turn on the modelling and then insert the VDI cable and remove the 1/4" cable... (This worked every time but I was not happy...)

 

I read some other posts that mentioned setting the tuning knob to MODEL... although it worked the first time I did it, it wasn't repeatable...

 

I jammed for a while, turned everything off and came back a few hours later... I think that I found a solution...

 

I powered up the Helix and connected my JTV via the VDI cable and it came up right away!.... I plugged and unplugged the VDI many times and the JTV came up right away everytime!!!... what was the difference?

 

The difference was that my pick-up selector was in position #5 (Neck)... any other position and the Variax relay would not click.

 

I am a tech but I don't know why this worked for me but it solved my problem 100%.

 

I thought that I would share in case it helps someone else who has the same problem :)

 

Good-Luck.

 

Seeya

 

Joe

Great post. Are you saying simply connecting with PU selector in pos 5 will power up variax? No need to push in model selector?

I will get to my studio in a bit to try. I have a 69 mobo here and was thinking about just slapping it and a jackplate in a guitar to see if it works.

I would buy an upgrade for all three of my variaxs. This is a great idea

Depending on what was added, I would upgrade 3-12 guitars.

First of all, I don't want to hurt anybody's way to make (or help to make) a living. With that out of the way:

There's something that's been bugging me for some time now, and maybe I just don't really understand why some people want to pay for 3rd party patches that they're gonna have to tweak to taste anyway, and, no matter how similar the gear used (to that used in making the patch), they're never gonna sound the same, so I ask myself, what's the point?

 

In the past, I've used custom tone to get samples of what others think sounds like a given song or artist, only to find that, even though there were some good patches, some others (even from the same authors as some good ones) weren't even in the ballpark of what they were trying to get.

 

I can understand that there can be some reasons to buy other guy's patches, like lazyness, lack of ability, lack of perspective (maybe being helix proficient but not knowing how to get that certain sound), and maybe the most important of them, lack of time, but I'm curious about your reasons, really.

 

It's just that, I just want to know what you all think about that matter.

 

And ...doesn't it harm the sense of community? I mean, why should anybody (specially people whose patches may be just as good as "commercial" ones) share patches on customtone when there are others that don't share theirs?

 

Any thoughts?

I think what glenn, fremen and others are doing is great. I always have to do major tweaking any way but they are putting in major work and if their work can get me a headstart and save me time? Great!

I am not lazy. I would rather spend any of my limited time for tweaking on making stuff I personally need. I used two of glenn's acoustic patches but by the time I was done, they don't even resemble what I bought. They helped me get a sound I was needing and the time saved was well worth it.

There is also a difference between a guy that maybe tweaked a cool tone and decides to share it and guys that are putting in tons of time trying to make patches that will be usable to others.

Yup. How many people do you know that own 25 tube amps?... and bring all of them to the gig?

I disagree. Let's say the average guy can get by with only 6 amps. Great. Which ones? When I got my HD500 it made me realize I needed an axefx. I could not deal with the DSP limit on HD500 and lack of SLO and matchless. Helix has a better set of amps out of the box, for me, plus DSP limit is way higher.

Jim soloway had done some excellent jazz presets. Not sure if they are on custom tone. Try googking jim soloway pod hd.

Now serving # 29   your number: 5,568,123,839 :P

 

Haven't had that experience with L6 - I usually get a go - no go response within a week for the few I've submitted.

The non response was from Full Compass not Line 6. From what I have heard Line 6 will not sell variax parts directly. Whacky.

Hmmm. . .another silly question. On another preset I will have a EHX Hog 2 going into a mobius in the effects loop. I always want to maintain left and right signals separately as left is variax and right is variax mags. This seems to work fine now. It appears that with the FX loop by passed the signal stays stereo or I guss sort of dual mono.

If I can get the assign trick to work, would the signal remain stereo or dual mono, or would it still send to mono? I would think stereo as nothing is being sent to the loop?

If I can't get the send trick to work, assigning Mix to exp 1 may work since I am thinking I don't need trails for the HOG 2. I will try it later. Obviously leaving mix and send to full and bypassing HOG will cause signal to be summed to mono even when not using HOG 2. Yuck.

I do have an EHX B9 laying around and had always wanted to try that alongside the HOG for organish sounds. hmmmmmm

Hey. I have always been bummed that the HD series does not alow for discreet on or off CC messages, only toggle. Because of that I have never been able to integrate POD effects with axe FX scenes or helix scenes. Last night I tried a work around for FX loop. Set mix of the FX loop to EXP1. There is no physical EXP pedal but I do dig how I can still assign parameters in that way.

Now on my RJM midi controller on any scene or snapshot I just send either 127 for full mix or zero for no mix. Great!. I can have an H9 in the POD effects loop either be part of axe fx scene recall or not. Totally happy. . . . .. . Except. . .

If I switch to scene with mix set to 0% the trails obviously cut off as the signal is no longer getting to POD. Makes perfect sense. So, I say to myself, self, what if you assign send to EXP1 instead of mix? Theoretically with my less than stellar knowledge of FX loops, just killing send will allow the trails to be present through the return. I try it. Yahoo. . .it works! Except. . . . .

On any preset with send set to zero the guitar sound is duller with less high end. May be due to level, but it was late and I was tired. On a scene with send set to ) or -80, I can hear a big difference when bypassing or activating the effects loop? When I have EXP 1 set to control mix, bypassing or activating doesn't seem to change a thing?

Am I doing something wrong? Is my assumption that changing sedn levels is a valid way to do this?

My nest test will be just leaving mix and send set to full and just sending CC to bypass or activate H9.  With H9 set to DSP bypass that should allow trails to work.

My concern is, if the H9 should go down, or lose power, or connection, the effects loop being 100% mix will result in no sound whatsoever.

I guess I can assign the loop to an IA on Helix so I can quickly resolve that if it happens. The upside would be saving the trick of using "virtual" exp pedals to control mix, for other effects on the POD.

If anyo of you guys have an idea on why setting send to 0 or -80 would have an effect on the sound, I am all ears. Or eyes in this case I guess.

Thanks!