ur2funky

3 hours ago, madguitar78 said:

Power Engine from TECH 21

Lots and lots of high marks over the years for the PowerEngine, but I've never had one.  And lots of them on the used market for cheap.

I wish Helix's Fender amps sounded as good as the Mustang's.  

On some of my Fender Mustang (modeling) amps I have added a piezo on a switch.  I turn the piezos on for acoustic songs, and they use the same Mustang power source.

Personally, the only use I have for a tweeter/horn in a guitar cab/frfr is if I'm using/emulating acoustic guitar.  Essential for believable acoustic tone.   Completely unessential for electric tones. 

Can you tell me more about your Real Time Analyzer and a reference microphone please?

Sounds like it could be a problem with the USB connection or a driver conflict but is by any chance the editor not coming up, or disconnecting or freezing, on one of the presets that comes up in the "Rebuilding" message when you boot up the Helix? If so, I posted a workaround for this bug in the following thread: http://line6.com/support/topic/20454-grid-for-getting-rid-of-the-preset-rebuild-messages-on-boot-in-latest-firmware-1120/?p=154956

Thanks!  I'll check this out later today.

Gibsons generally either have a thin neck (like a modern Strat almost) or a thicker rounded neck.  The JTV '59 has the rounded neck.  Very nice, but just so you know.

... How GENIUS is the simple "touch" assignment of switches on Helix? Genious! With common sense you can build a usable patch with just watching one 5 minute video on Youtube. Yes, you can drill pretty deep if you want to but you don't have to.  That's the biggest difference between HD500 and Helix.  To get usable tones I had to really dig in and sometimes spend hours upon hours just getting one good tone on HD500.  I can build tones that I enjoy in a fraction of the time it took on the HD500.  

Is it perfect? NO! But man, Line 6 checked a lot of the boxes on my wish list.

+1  ^^^^  

If you hated the HD500, maybe you should stay away...  But you're using GuitarRig...seems like you'd love Helix.

Staying connected.  Today it's working well, I've only had to restart the Helix editor once, and it's still connected.  Other days it takes 4 or 5 tries just to get it connected...Start the app, close the app, repeat, finally reboot the iMac, try again.  That's 5-10 minutes.    If the computer falls asleep, most likely will have to reboot the Helix app.

I've tried three different cables. No difference.  

Against Line6's advice, I actually have better luck plugging into a USB hub rather than straight into the iMac.

If the App loses connectivity, it usually freezes the Helix.  Sometimes just unplugging the USB from the Helix is fine, other times I need to reboot Helix.

It's a random thing that I can't isolate.  I know users on TGP have the same issue, just not me.   

While connecting is really annoying some days and painfree others, I do love the editor and basically always have the Helix plugged in to it.  For the 1,000's of IRs I have, it's essential.  

.... anyway so having a reliable directly wire connected app would make me pull the trigger on the helix...

 

I'm running an iMac w/ El Capitan and I have some problems connecting and staying connected to the Helix editor over a USB cable.  Somedays its okay and others very frustrating.  

(This post is regarding playing bass...)

I used a Mesa Walkabout for a couple years in a medium sized Rock bar.  Nice sound.  My Matrix Fr10 sure doesn't seem up to the challenge.  Maybe with the right preamp, but I'd have to hear it to believe it.  Two of them?  Probably...but still not sure.

The Matrix sounds great with guitar though.

Some simple things to try are those flat magnets delivery food places give out, place one over the tweeter on the grill.  Some people use tape for the same thing.   I've tried it with my QSC.  Didn't do much other than slightly reduce the treble beaminess, but still ear fatiguing after awhile.  

I have a CPSpaceStation.  Very kool!  I dig it.

I tried the new Matrix FR10.  Much less ear fatigue than the QSC, EV, Yamaha stuff I've owned.  Never tried the Alto.

Somebody had the great idea that someone should make IRs of these PA speakers (Altos and such) that reverses the over hyped high end that wears out your ears - make them even more FRFR and less icepicky.

Anyone?  Help, anyone???  It would be a well loved IR!!! 

The 4 button footswitch has 3 different modes, which you can switch thru or disable and only use one mode if that's your thing.    So you can go from say patch 12 to 96 pretty easily with your feet, moving groups of ten and single patches, switch modes and turn effects on/off, switch modes and direct patch recall...but it's just easier for me to group everything together and stay in one mode (direct recall).  Focus on the music and less on the mechanics.

The Helix has something like 1,096 patches?  At the gig I ended up using two of them!  lol  Granted I have maxed out what I can fit in a patch.  My main patch has two switchable amps at different gain levels, two drive pedals at different drive levels, which can be combined/stacked with the amps to about 7 or 8 drive levels, an acoustic sim sound, a mock keyboard sound, reverb, delay (the mix level changes with which drive pedal is on...love the Helix!) a vibe, looper, and volume/wha...all in one preset!  

When I try other people's Helix patches, it's interesting how differently the Helix can be setup and used.  I really love the freedom of the routing and ease of use (for this kind of equipment at least...my single channel friends would be overwhelmed).

Sorry for the Off Topic.  Back on track, I guess it's hard to recommend with not knowing what's available in Brazil and at what prices.  

Way OT, but I looked at the Mustang III before I ended up w a Helix. One huge drawback seemed to be that it's got tons of presets, but no practical way to recall them on stage, since it doesn't have MIDI in for a footswitch. Am I right about that? How do people gig w it then? Stick to the four patches you can recall w its own footswitch? Or they just don't, it's built for bedroom use?

I gigged with mine a bunch.  I used both the 4 button and 2 button footswitches together which gave me instant access to a tuner and 3 channels - clean/dirty/lead - and the 2 button controlled a distortion pedal and effects, so I had 6 levels of gain easily accessible.   Plus using the guitar's volume knob, that covers pretty much everything I needed.     There were a handful of specialty patches for certain tunes, which you could access with the foot controller, but easier just to turn the knob on the amp.  The ten or so specialty presets I might use were all grouped together.  Easy.  But 95% of the time just using the footswitches.

A couple guys I gig with use single channel amps....no channel switching at all...just a drive pedal and the guitar's volume knob.  They make it thru a night of cover tunes just fine.  My fav tube amp has two channels, which I gig with plugged straight in, or sometimes I spice it up and add a drive pedal to make 4 levels of gain.   All in the hands and volume knob.  

The Mustang is tough to beat price-wise.  You can buy a used one for practically the price of a boutique drive pedal.  And the footswitches connect to the amp with regular guitar or speaker cables.  Fast and easy.  I can setup my rig in literally less than a minute and half that time to break down.   Best thing is the Mustang sounds the same at home levels or cranked up bashing with a drummer.  My tube amps sound very different in those two scenarios, almost like two different amps.  

I haven't.  I don't think it would be loud enough for my normal rock bass gigs.  When I've used a solo TC RS210 cab, it's pushing it's limits, so I use it with another RS210 or a RS212.

Maybe for a quite bass jazz gig it would work.

But it's loud enough used with guitar.

"I was thinking about the ZT Lunchbox. Really small it has some good reviews."

I gotta warn you, the Lunchbox will sound like nothing BUT the Lunchbox.  It would be my last choice to plug the Helix into.

If you are thinking combo, look at Modeling combos that have an effects loop, so you can bypass their preamps.  Modeling combos generally have neutral speakers.  I've plugged the Helix into a Fender Mustang like this.  The Mustang III is about $300 and is compact, light, and can hang with any drummer.  Plus it has some very useable tones on it's own as a grab n' go.  Or the Mustang IV is stereo and closer to $500.

Great suggestions above.  I recommend something stereo, or even a home stereo works too.  I say get something that looks good in the living room...keep the wife happy!

Try my free one:

http://line6.com/support/topic/20131-line-6-helix-acoustic-sim-patch/

Official non-beta release I assume.

I'm a little new to this whole IR thing.  Are you saying that you have an IR for say "Gypsy Guitar" and when it's loaded/active the variax sounds like the gypsy guitar?  The reason I ask is this seems to me I could consolidate my variax 700 acoustic sounds with my 69s.  Anybody have any sound samples?

I have a Variax, but I'm trying to get to the point of a patch sounding like an acoustic with any electric.  Combing EQ and IR's, I've got 'in-the-ballpark'.  I'll try record a snippet of the 'Gypsy' in the next couple of days.  What is a good website to host audio for free?

Thank you soo much for these!

I really dig the "gypsy jazz" IR - it's very Django!  Nice!  

If you have an iPhone 5 or higher just get yourself a Lightning to USB cable (Camera kit) and download Loopy for $4.

 

Just plug the USB into Helix and you should be good to go.  (after setting up a few MIDI messages of course)

 

You will have MANY more options that is possible on any hardware looper I know of.

Interesting.

But how would you control it?  Wouldn't you have to give up crucial foot switches? 

 My Digitech JamMan Express XT looper has 10 MINUTES of record time and costs $99 brand new.  

​Once you use a looper with this kind of time freedom, you're addicted.  

Even something as simple as playing 'Hotel California' to jam over...would that fit in 60 seconds?  Certainly not the bridge too lol.

Having the Looper integrated as well as it is in the Helix, is wonderful!  But 60 seconds is a major handicap in my opinion.  

(If you find the time) I would love one using the magnetic sound hole pickup setting!!!!!!  Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!

Thank you for these!   I look forward to trying these!

Pardon my ignorance, but is it possible for you to make using this same setup, an Acoustic IR with the intended input source an non-piezo-equipped electric guitar?  So we could use any electric guitar and get acoustic tones?

Many thanks again!