fiveways

I actually ordered the Digitech. I hope they add it, a true freeze effect and a goddamn reverse reverb and TZF. Then i can replace my pedalboard completely. Glorious! Still, nothing yet. Nothing can really fake it either. You could also just install a sustainer pickup (I have one guitar with one, want them in the rest of the collection)

I sell a lot of POG's where i work. I think it would be a good edition. I am the weird one out, I use pretty much 3 amp models (and most of the time I just use the Hiwatt). 99% of the time my helix is just a processor. So bring on Hog/Pog/high definition reverbs/Reverse reverb/the filters from the FM4 and all that jazz. Make my pedal collection expendable. Excite for the fade delays and super duper excited for the synth. The synth is going to make my life way easier!

Into the front of a Hiwatt DR103. No sims. Works lollipoping awesome. Handles all my routing.

I typically only use the WhoWatt. Lame I know. I just want my home playing to sound like my DR103. I'd love more effects. Amps sadly I am good with.

I'd probably debate buying patches made by someone like Kevin Shields or Robert Fripp if you could convince either of them to write a banks worth. (undoubtable shields would take 20 years to write his and only the second half of them would be really good by the time it was released). Truth is, few people write really tortured fx path based stuff with no amp modelling, and it seems weird to me to buy someone else original sounds (because half of the world of guitar is sculpting cool lollipoping tones). Sounds with custom IR's? if i wanted the IR's added to my collection, or found myself in a position of needing those sounds, i have zero issues with paying for them. Grabbing a tone match pack though? Probably not. I figure part of being in a cover band is learning how the player operated both as a player and with his tools, so I'd build my own and figure it out that way. In the end, some people just wanna play, some people love writing patches. It also depends on how you write, if you focus on the notes and find a sound after, or you start with a sound and find the notes that work for said sound. No right or wrong.

the only reverbs that seem super processor intensive are the springs. for me that is fine, as I never use the springs (I even take the tanks out of most of my amps unless the reverb is really good and voiced on the dark side of things). Just to see i managed to get 8 "Cave" reverbs running in a row. That seems pretty good from my point of view dsp wise. I did cap it out pretty easy using a bunch of stereo only effects (multitap 4, multitap 6, Harmony delay, whowatt, whowatt 100 412 (I run the cab and amp separate as I think it sounds better, and a cave reverb, adding one more vintage delay killed the chain). Still, with 8 slots left on the other path and the fx loops that seems enough for even the most effect hungry users (which i am, I never use the amp sims beyond late at night, and then i only use the hiwatt as I dont really use any other amplifiers but my DR104). Still, I see a point for mono reverbs. I think a few more mono options is always a good thing. I also think some mono only stuff isn't the worst idea (as so many vintage tape echoes sound weird when you emulate them in mono). But at the end of the day, I would give up mono reverbs for a single reverse reverb. that would mean i could plug into the helix and be fine for a gig without bringing anything else with me.

All I want is a TZF, a Reverse reverb, and a glitch delay like the CSIDMAN. Then i can dump the rest of my stand alone pedals off my board (beyond maybe the pitchfactor, but i don't see L6 ever doing shifting as good as eventide). FM4 models and the such would be awesome.

Only think I have to add is while the Helix is designed in the USA, it is manufactured in China.

On my board I have at least a zoom cdr for reverse reverb, a csidman by catalinbread as I doubt the helix will ever do anything like that, a pitchfactor, a boss ps-3 for thru zero flange sounds, and a Afterneath by EQD for the same reason as the csidman. I also have my ancient rat as it sounds better than the models of a rat and a dedicated volume pedal. I would love for them to add more pitch stuff, a reverse reverb (why does L6 hate reverse reverb?), and a TZF. Those sounds i cant really do without. At home I have so many pedals. I need to sell 50.

I borrowed a kemper and didn't enjoy it at all. Nice amps, mostly awful effects. If amps are your real priority it might work for you. The helix has a hiwatt model that is good enough for 99% of my direct stuff, I mostly use it for the effects so my needs are different than the average user. Helix and a FX8 seems to be where i am heading. I really hope they add a reverse reverb to either of those units.

The store I work at has a couple in stock if anyone is looking for one in Canada. Sorry if this seems spammy, figured it might help someone out.

I've had good luck with different boutique and non-boutique gain boxes, both amp like and ultra gain/fuzz boxes, going into the Hiwatt dr103 model prepped for a really clean tone. The Hiwatt is the only one i have spent a considerable amount of time with as I use a DR103 in a band situation, so i havent seen a point in moving away from what i like; big, loud, clean, and british. This is using headphones. I haven't tried this DI into a PA yet.

I am honestly in this crowd. I bought the helix more as a pedal board replacement than an amp modeller (I use the models in studio and late at night but never live). The rate they are releasing new effects at is quite slow. i assumed we would at least have a few filters in the FM4 vein by now. Maybe a couple new reverbs or delays. Now I am starting to think it's gonna be a while before anything new is release beyond bug fixes. I'm nearly at the point that I am gonna order a FX8. I know it has a third quarter delivery, which gives me time to figure out if the helix is going to work for me or if it goes in the sell pile. On the support question, I expected a $2100 (I live in Canada) unit from a company the size of Line 6 to have the same level of support as the fractal stuff. At that price point i could buy a unit that gets frequent updates. Line 6 has few (if any other) products in this category/at this price point and are up against pretty stiff competition right now, slow updates put them further and further behind and has cause me to wonder if I spent my money stupidly. Maybe that is expecting a lot but for the price of a macbook pro I kinda thought we would get weekly to biweekly software updates and maybe a couple new effects every month or two. Don't get me wrong, I love the helix and the easy of use and editing but I was hoping for more frequent effect updates. We all use these units for different things, I mostly use it to get rid of my excessive amount of stompboxes. I am just questioning if I am getting my money's worth out of it or if i should have went with one of the other options on the market considering what I use it for. I think the price point made me think things would be different.

Paid model packs? I think that would go over fairly poorly and feed the axe fx world even more unless they were really reasonably priced (since fractal gives all effect upgrades and new models away from free in updates). I'd really love some new models though. It has been months since anything new FX or AMP wise has been released. As a person who rarely hooks his up to a computer the rate of new models/fx has been kinda disappoint. It's honestly the only disappointing bit about the helix.

No feedback on the looper already made it pretty pointless to me beyond a basic writing tool. It would be fun to be able to do both delay/hold style looping (using the 8 second simple delay) and having a tap based loop that decays at a similar rate. Time wise? I like running it in 120secs for the signal destruction. I'd actually love it to have even more time at lower resolutions (just for the low-res sampling tone, not for the time)