phil_m

You kind of answered your own question... The only reason to run a stereo distortion is if you have a stereo source before that block and you want to maintain stereo separation. Otherwise, just use a mono version.

Well, yeah, no demo is going to reveal to you what you will sound like. The dirty little secret with gear is that if you can't make the gear you have right now sound good, your new gear will probably sound bad, too.

I was an early beta tester, so I’ve had my Helix for almost four years now. I’m still finding new tones and sounds that inspire me. What is it, exactly, that you’re hearing in the Axe FX III tones that you’re not hearing from the Helix?

I have posted tons of Helix clips here, on The Gear Page and in the Facebook group. Every clip in this playlist was done with the Helix (or Helix Native). And that's not even all of them.

Well, that's good because I have no plans on buying an Axe FX III... :-) I actually think the confirmation bias goes the other way, too, though. The Axe FX III is billed as a premium product, so it has to be better, right? How many could pick out clips from each device if they weren't labeled accordingly? Seriously, I have briefly considered selling some other stuff I have and picking up an Axe FX III, but I simply wouldn't use it enough. I wouldn't gig with it because I don't really want to go down the road of having a rack-based rig, and, well, I'm perfectly fine gigging with my HX Effects board and an amp or my Helix board alone. If I owned a studio, I would probably have an Axe FX III, a Kemper, and a Helix Rack and find uses for them all... Although, I have to say that I think sometimes we suffer from having too many options in front of us. Purposely limiting your options is sometimes a necessary step for being creative.

The thing is that comparing the stock presets or even default amp/cab settings of each device doesn't mean much. They might be models of the same amp model number, but they're not models of the same amp. They're not using the same IRs, the same mics, etc. In order to do a true A/B test, you need to start by comparing like for like... So, really, you'd at least want to use the same IR with the comparable amp models. In any case, if the Axe FX III inspires you more, get that. I have no desire to convince anyone what they should and shouldn't like. Guitar tone isn't a competition. These are all tools. Use what inspires you most.

I honestly don't here that big a difference... I've heard plenty of A/B comparisons before. I'm not going to sit and listen to 263 clips of anything, though.

You don't need to use separate Send and Return blocks. You just want to use a single FX Loop block. Anything you put before the FX Loop will be before your amp's input. So that would typically be things like a wah, compressor, overdrive, etc. Anything you put after the FX Loop block will be in your amp's FX loop. So that would normally be your time-based effects like modulations, delays and reverbs. That's really all there is to it. I know some people use the separate Send and Return blocks, but there's really no reason to do that. This is a good tutorial video:

From a pure electrical capacity perspective, it would probably be OK. The tricky part is the Stomp's power supply uses a 2.5mm barrel, and the standard 9V pedal uses a 2.1mm barrel. Every daisy chain I've ever seen is built around the 2.1mm barrel. So you'd have to find a way to split to a 2.5mm barrel for the Stomp and then 2.1mm for the other pedal. It would probably end up being more trouble than it's worth. The other thing I'd say is that, generally, digital effects don't react well to being daisy-chained. You'd most likely run into noise issues.

If you set the Returns to be an Aux In, no, they don't use a block. They just pass audio straight to the outputs.

Sounds like a ground loop... If you connect the XLR out directly to a mixer through a snake, the grounds are electrically connected, so it makes it pretty easy to get a ground loop. There are some instances where using the 1/4" out into a DI is probably simply the better way to go. This would be especially true when the G10S aren't powered from the same circuit/power strip.

Well, none of the ODs have a Mix parameter... If there's a Mix parameter on an effect, what it means it there are parallel dry and wet signal running through that effect. The mix parameter is really a balance control between them. If you have the mix at 0, you 100% dry/0% wet. At 50, you have 100% dry/100% wet. At 100, you have 0% dry/100% wet. The phaser work by setting the wet signal out of phase with the dry signal. So if you have the mix at 100, you'll hear very little actual phasing. At 50, you'll have the maximum phase effect.

Just to clarify, when you say this, do you mean you're using the actual FX Loop block itself or separate send and return blocks? If it is an effects loop block, is the mix parameter at 100? Also, in your first comment in this thread, you mention the phasers. Do you have the mix on the Helix phaser at 50? The Helix phases and flangers are a little different, because in order to get the maximum effect, you need to keep the mix at 50, not 100, like you may think.

Which amp model is that in that clip? The sounds I heard in your clip are different than what I was expecting based on your explanation. Those sound more like ghost notes to me than anything else.

What amp are you using?

They aren’t compatible. They operate in different channel groups of the of the 2.4GHz band. Line 6 calls the channels that the G30 operates on RF1 and RF2. The G70 uses RF3.

If you've changed the tuning of the models in Variax, you still have to have the tuning knob on the guitar set to "Model" in order for them to follow that tuning. If you have the tuning knob set to "Standard", standard tuning will still apply regardless of the tuning saved with the model.

Your license for POD Farm 2 is tied to your GX Studio, so you need to have that plugged into your computer to get access to it.

I've often wondered if there's something that makes people more prone to see the failure versus others... I've owned a ton of Line 6 stuff that has the tactile switches, and I've never had a failure (I did have to take apart and fix my old DM4 switches, but those are a slightly different design). I used my M13 pretty heavily from 2008 up until 2014 or so, for example. I wonder if some people are heavier stompers than others or if it has to do more with the environment... I will say this, though. I do think they did something different with the Helix switches just because it just seems that I see far fewer reports of them failing here, on TGP, and in the Facebook group than I did with other Line 6 products. I know that's just anecdotal, so it doesn't mean much. But I think in terms of sheer numbers, the Helix products are probably outselling previous Line 6 products by a good margin.

So even after having the Helix after 3.5 years, I'm still finding new tricks. I have a Chase Bliss Tonal Recall RKM, and one of the things I really like about that pedal is how thick, dark and chewy the repeats can get. I hadn't really spent a lot of time messing with trying to recreate it in the Helix. I could get somewhat close with the Adriatic Delay, but last night I decided to mess around with the Mod/Cho Echo model, which is kind of a boring name for a very interesting effect, as it turns out. It has high and low cut parameters, and turning the high cut down very low, like around 1.2kHz is getting me what I was missing - surprisingly so. I actually kind of prefer some of the attributes of this to the Tonal Recall, I think. The Tonal Recall does a lot of other weird stuff, but here I'm comparing kind of a basic dark analog echo sound. I used a looper block as the first thing in my chain for this clip so the same dry track is being fed to both the Tonal Recall and to the Mod/Cho Echo. Not too shabby when you consider the Tonal Recall RKM is a $500 pedal... I won't say which is which for now, but I'll reveal it later. In any case, I personally think I'll be selling another pedal very soon.

In that case, it might just be some sort of electrical defect. Well, I'd try doing a reset first - hold down FS 7&8 while powering up - and see if that makes any difference. Beyond that, getting a replacement is probably the way to go.

Yes, a MIDI controller could work for it, or you could get an external momentary footswitch (the Stomp support up to two external footswitches) and assign it as tap/tuner switch.

From this video, I'm having a hard time hearing anything that comes near matching your description. I hear some extraneous background noise that does sound like it's oscillating. But when you say "ambulance noise", I was thinking of something loud and, well, siren like... I'm thinking that this may have something to do with your setup than the HX Effects itself. Can you provide some more details? How are you powering the HX Effects? What amp are you plugged into? Do you have any other pedals in your chain?

Why people want to spray WD-40 into everything they own, I'll never understand... Don't spray WD-40 into electronics! It can easily end up doing more harm than good. It dries up, gets gummy and attracts more dirt. The Helix footswitches are actually self-cleaning, so the first level of troubleshooting if you experience an issue is to hit it a bunch of times to try to work any dirt and debris out of there. If you still have an issue, open a support ticket and Line 6 will help you out.

There’s a doubler effect called Double Take in the modulation section. There’s both mono and stereo versions of it.