Guitarmaniac64

Do you know that in that video he didnt use the same settings on all the tests not even same amps in one of the A/B test or same channel in the Mesa Rectifier test And in one maybe even more preset he had a dist pedal in front of the amp it was in the uber amp i am not sure he had that in the AX8 preset that would make a big difference in tone. He said in the video he dial in a good sound (to his ears) on both units and then A/B them He was using Helix stock cabs without even doing the MUST DO filtering in the cabs in order to get a descent sound To my ears Helix stock cabs will never sound great for metal tones you need an IR to get a good tone and even then you have to struggle alot with EQ and filters. As soon as he run them against the same IR Helix sounded alot better but not as good as AX8 of course that may have to do with the fact of the diffrerent settings and of course different amps and channels also beacuse he used a dist pedal in front of ther amp and maybe not used it in the AX8.. If he had used the same settings amps and channel of amps they would sound more alike but Helix would still not sound as good to my ears it would be brigher and thinner then AX8

Wow cool so buying a Fractal is gonna make you unstoppable? Is it gonna make you a better player? I wonder how people got their tones and their playing skills before Fractal released Axe FX?

Agree if OP belives that any famouse guitar player just hook up the gear he have (sorry his guitar tech hook up the gear) and just play he is way wrong. It take them months sometimes even years and some player constantly changing their tone also as they "buy" oops is getting new gear for fee i mean And they also have hours of soundchecks in every venue they play not like i have 30 min max often less that that. But the fine thing about being a real pro is that most of the work you dont do yourself they can come in to the venue a couple of ours before the show and just check everything is ok to their ears. And their tech constrantly have dialogue with them about how they wants to sound and the tech also does all wiring soldering and preset making etc some simple tweaks is done by the guitarist themself.. Not to mention the tech also does all tuning of the guitars they change strings does all setups etc etc. No pro that have complicated sounds as far as i know just buy a gear and just hook it up and start playing.. Not even Angus Youngs sound who is supposed to be a very simple sound to dial in is simple. It is months well even years of tweaking to get his sounds right and he doesnt even use effects and he have a tech that is constantly working on his tone to get it right. So OP go figure they dont buy a piece of gear hook it up and play out of the box!! If you want to do that i say start playing punk music instead of metal And b.t.w downtuned metal and using 7-8 string guitars is way harder to get right soundwise than using 6 string guitars with regular A-440 tuning.

I wonder why he came up with the "very" creative name of his tonematching IR "Custom Sound Imprint IR" because it is tonematching i dont know of any new tecnique inveneted to make IR sound like another amp then using tonematching unless he invented a new way to make IR,s which i dont believe he did.. In his first video he say he is using his "Special Sound Imprint IR" he then change it to "Custom sound imprint IR" which he then is using exclusevly in all comments :) I bet he found out custom sounded better than special :) In the first video he say that he wanted to try to recreate the sound of a bunch of sought after boutique amps So he first try to simulate that sound using amps or preamps and cabs that is already in Helix he tweaked until he got the drive and eq almost right He then add his tonematching IR oops his "Custom sound imprint IR" :) He then say "lets be clear" this is Not Line 6 Amps Okey. What? He is clearly uses Line 6 Amps and he also say he uses stock cabs he only add a tonematching IR oops "Custom Sound Imprint IR".. He then say in the video This is "MY OWN CREATION OF A LINE 6 AMPS" that i created using my "CUSTOM SOUND IMPRINT IR" What? So those people who buy his presets and then loads his preset in Helix will get NEW amps? No they want they will get a preset with a Line 6 Amp and Cab and a tonematching IR period Not his "Own creation of a Line 6 Amp He then add to that statement its the secret to that make it sound like those boutique amps And he even say its gonna make those presets simulate rollback with volym control and even FEEDBACK? What? Helix amps already can do rollback volym in their amps like a tuba amp does no news there and ifg you add a tonamatching IR to those amps it will rollback almost exactly like the amp he tonematched. He is NOT coding new amps or cabs for Helix even if he say that he make new Amps for Helix. He clearly have alot of Amps in his studio (And maybe he have Dumble and Trainwreck, Friedman etc and all those other amps he have tonematched or maybe he borrow or rent them?) So this is what i think he did He dial in a good sound and miced up those amps and then recorded those amps to a Daw. Then he try to match that sound with Helix amps and search for which one that would sound most like the boutique amp he tried to tonematch And then he tried to get as close as he could to the sound of the boutique amp he recorded with that amp and cab and then record that using the same riff,phrase,lick or chord changes sequence or whatever you use.. Then he tonematch both those recordings probably using iZotope Ozone or similar software. Its a very simple process you just add a new track with Ozone loaded in it as a plugin and add the boutique amp recording to Ozone let Ozone calculate how it sounds and it will come up with an EQ curve then you add the Helix recording and let Ozone tonematch both so they sound almost similar they never really do as you clearly hear in Glenns videos.. He then saves that tonematching to a new Wav or Aiff file and creates an IR of that using Voxengo Impulse modeller or and deconvoler or similar software. This isnt soething new or something Glenn come up with it has been done before many years ago in fact. You can do the same with isolated guitar tracks also just be sure to play the same riff chords the isolated track is using and then try to dial in Helix amps so it sound as close as you probably can to that isolated track then use the method i describe above. So for now i am excited to see what next creative selling name of a tonematching IR would be? Are the prests makers that sell their presets gonna be more creative how about I used my "GUITARGODOUND ZX 9900 IR" or "SOUND LIKE A SUPERSTAR IR" or "SUPERFAST SHREDDING XR1200 IR" Or "ULTRADARK MEGAHEAVY SOUND BLACKMETAL 2000 IR" or Play Like Vai,Satch,Petrucci Custom XZ9900r IR" etc Haha how can people buy this marketing nonsens? Hats off for Chris on the Helix Custom Presets FB group who have done similar thing with a couple of amps like a Friedman Butterslax and a BE100 but he didnt make a funny name of his IR.,s he simply said he tonematched them (How he did it he didnt tell of course but its no secret if you just gooogle how to do it) and further more he didnt say it would feedback like a real amp does (And his presets cant feedback) like Glenn is saying his IR,s will. If it does i am truly amazed hope someone buy them and record a riff and show me it can simulate feedback.

Use keycommand Ctr-Shift-R on Windows and i guess that will be Cmd-Shift-R on Mac as 99,99% of the time when a keyboard command is Ctrl on Win the same command on Mac is Cmd. But sometimes i have notice it doesnt "play" well when i use it often to rename many snapshots in a raw. When that happens i have to rename another snapshot and then go back to the one i wanted to rename first or sometimes i even turn editor off and then on again before it works It might be a bug or an usb-computer issue? I usually named them intro verse chorus solo etc. Or when i added snapshot to all fremen presets i named the first snapshot "Main" as i would know that is the Main sound then i engaged all effects that was in that preset one after one and added snapshot to those effects that have been engaged i then named them something like Add Cho,Add HP/LP,Add Delay,Add Rev and in the last snapshot i turned everything off except the Amp and the IR and named it All Off as i wanted to study how he built his sounds from scratch :) So when i get some more time i will dig into those..

Sorry for asking but is the Pink Floyd presets that is in the update the same as before but with added snapshots? Do i really need this update if i dont have a Variax guitar? Well the snapshot feature would be great of course i havent added snapshots to your artist presets yet.

I´ve heard a few of those videoclips its close but not so close as i hoped it would sound

Hard competition against Fractal and Kemper and since Helix doesnt sound any better why would the "Pro,s" switch especially those who uses Fractal as they use AXE FX have a guitar tech that dial in all the sounds and is familiar with the product. Vai and Petrucci & The Edge only use Fractal for effects they use real amps because they can and dont need to carry the amps themself i would to if i had that option Guthrie left Fractal and got back to amps and pedalboard again Vernon Reid uses Kemper AND real amps but his pedalboard is hugh and he have tons of gear on tour. Read that Paul Gilbert also uses Kemper havent seen any pics from a stage where he uses Kemper so i guess its in studio only. Some metal bands are using modelers only Kemper or Fractal AXE FX live not many metal bands uses Helix a.s.f.a.k

I had something similar when i tried to change routing in some of fremens presets even with lates firmware and latest editor and drivers I think it has to do with some usb issue and not enough powerful computer as my laptop have an Intel i5 cpu and only 2 gb memory i havent had the same issue using my studio PC that have an i7 cpu and 32 gb memory i am also am hooked up to that using a powered usb hub instead of a built in usb port.

I say the opposite dont know what you are doing wrong with IR since they sound way better than stock cabs which sound harsh and digital and very sterile as soon as i load my favourtite IR Helix comes to life and all my friends say the same even drummers keyboard players etc etc. And that goes for most of the videos where they use stock cabs aswell as soon as the user then is using IR it sounds way better to my and many many others ears aswell. Its so funny that almost everyone praise fremens presets and he is not using any stock cabs at all and since he is consider to be a master tweaker why cant he dial in presets with stock cabs then?. Even his free presets is using IR To my ears there are very few good sound you can get out of stock cabs.

But does Axe have cabs like Helix where they can change mics and distance of mic to cab? If not than third party IR is the only fair way to compare the units. As i.m.o Helix cabs dont sound good

Dont work as interface in PT 12 win version have to use asio4all but i think most asio interfaces dont work well with PT 12 Work great however with any other Daw i tested it with.. So thumb down for Pro Tools windows..

Strange as someone post a video over at the Helix FB page compared it to a Turbo Tuner ST-200 and when it was slightly flat on Helix it was slightly flat on the Turbo Tuner aswell. Maybe the Turbo is not a good tuner?

I read about someone freaking out over the new tuner as the top boxes was going in and out of tune all the time when he tuned the guitar I have a couple of guitars i just put on new strings and did a setup and maintainance on. And on all of them when i tune the guitars and the guitars reaches green boxes it pretty much stay there well sometimes it goes over to yellow but not often, So i guess he used a guitar with old strings and that was not correctly setuped.

He didnt use the same amp or effects on clean and dirty sounds On Axe he used Ultraclean, Morgan+DC30 crunch, Friedman BE HGSP, Mesa MKIIC+ lead Amplifier Plexi 1959 LIVE, MK IV lead LIVE, JCM800 crunch 1, JC120 clean. And Helix no mention anywhere but My guess is MK IV Lead and maybe a marshall crunch and Roland clean And then there is different modelled pedals in the presets aswell He mention something about this in a comment "which is now deleted?" that he just wanted to reamp the first Helix video using presets from his Axe and Amplifier "packs" So its not really a "fair" comparison as he didnt use the exact same amps and effects But yes the Axe sounds fuller and to my ears also better.

I found that on many presets the settings on the effect block was the same and they where also bypassed and not even had a footswitched assigend to it. Especially delay and modulation effects. So my guess is he just added some effect blocks when he built the preset that have defaualt settings and left it there bypassed so its just a matter of delete some block to free up some DSP

I love IR i cant stand that digital sound stock cabs give and to me they never come close to the reality but IR does I really dig that off-axis tone that isnt possible to get on stock cab which is mic:ed center and the only solution you get is to move the mic backwards a couple of centimeters. I like Ownhammer best BUT you have to EQ them i also always use the HP and LP filter to dial in the best tone. And with some IR loading plugins you can load many IR and blend them togheter and then save the final tone as an IR and load it onto Helix.

here is how its done

I used a Win Laptop Intel i5 2 GB ram and i have Helix floor unit (it really doesnt matter which OS you run as many have trouble on both platforms i think its an USB issue and coding of drivers and App.) There is no editor for my Macavailable and it will ever be one releases I asked L6 and they say no Editor for Mac OSX earlyer then 10.8 will be released. Which is really lame consider OSX 10.7 was released 07 - 2011 a.k.a only 5 years ago. My Mac Pro cant be upgraded to newer version then 10.7.5 without some kernel hacks and patches and installing a different graphic card. I might consider that some day just to see if it works. And also some functions will not work with that "trick". I really dont like Apples philosophy that you "need" to buy a new computer every 5 year or so in order to use new softwares or updated versions of software or be able to install a newer OS I have homebuilt Win machines that i built for over 13 years ago running very smooth and also a studio computer that is 10 years old running some old 32 bit favourite stuff. And i can install Win 10 on any of those wothout any problem if i want to do that.. Now try to install OSX 10.10 on say an 10 years old Mac machine good luck with that.. So that Mac Pro (which i only use as a VERY expensive internet machine today) is my first and last Mac i will ever buy.. If i want to run Logic i build myself a hackintosh as i cant even upgrade Logic today on my Mac with a 5 year old OS how lame is THAT?. Anyway the problem with the Editor happened on some fremen presets and its happened when i drag an Amp down and create a split and after i switched with A/B & Y and Crossover settings. As long as i didnt switched between A/B and Y and only used ONE of A/B - Y or Crossover it worked fine. I think its a bug that is related to the USB connections between Helix and the computer.

Have discovered some edtior bugs Sometimes when you have change name on snapshots it is not possible to change the name again to something different A workaround is to shut down the editor and open it again or change the name on another snapshot in the preset and then change both of them again.. I also bought fremen preset pack load the setlist called Fremens Preset I to User 4 and it changed the setlist named to User 1 so i had two User 1 I tried to change it on the Editor but it didnt work for me so i had to change it on Helix instead.. But here is the strange thing i loaded Fremens Preset II to User 5 and it didnt change to User 2-3-4 or whatever he may have used when he made those presets. But thsetlist is not a setlist full of presets only some 48 presets or so is saved in that setlist.. Another thing i noticed is that sometimes when i drag a block down to create a split and fool around a bit it freezes everything in Helix and the Editor so i cant change anythning the only way is to shut down Helix and start it again now that never happens when i do it on the Helix itself only when it is connected to the Editor.

Havent follow the thread but after the last update someone showed a video on the Helix FB gruop page where he compared the tuner to a ST Turbo Tuner ST-200 And the tuner in Helix was almost as accurate as the ST Turbo Tuner ST-200.. So thanks Line6

My question is did everything else that have powered electricity in the room work? I dont know where this took place but in my country sometimes in summertimes we get power failure that can last for 1-20 min

I say if you like those tones that they managed to dial in in those videos that is floating around internet you should also be able to dial in those tones sometimes it requires using third party IR,s from companys like Ownhammer, 3Sigma, Rosen Digital. Redwirez, Kaltenhallen CabIReu etc etc most of them have free cabs to dl but in many cases those videos have payed IR in there presets. But there is tons of freeware out there so try those and be amazed what difference it makes. You may not get the exact same tone as in those videos but very close. Also have you done all those global settings? Have you gate the input? LP HP filter out cabs? Change cabs and mics? Third party IR? Global EQ Use EQ and Comp block at the end of signal chain? Its alot of tweaking to get those tones you can also change sag hum bla bla in amps.. If you have heard other people getting good sound out of Helix you should also be able to get good sound out of it.. Oh always build your own presets from scratch.. It takes time so read how other have done their presets and learn from that. If you cannot get a good tone after that Helix may not be for you..

Of course they can not like it!! I had the same experience i almost wanted to send it back the next day But since i had one month of trying before i must return it i gave a shot so i read everything i can in here and at TGP from people who have had it a long time And then i tryed to learn everything about how to dial in good tones and it isnt easy but you shure can get good tone from Helix.. But the sonic print might not suite everyone i dont like how the Boss GT sounds and there is so many that love that unit but i just dont like it.. I guess if i really gave it a shot and try to learn how to dial in good sound on it i might like it.. I still not completely satisfied with Helix but since it is a young product i hope it will continue to improve..

Well i guess you have heard all those amazing tones in videos that is floating around on internet so if you can get those tones they have managed to dial in i bet you know where the problem is..