phil_m

You need to update HX Edit.

In the US, the HX Stomp and HX Effects are exactly the same price, and I don’t expect either to drop in price for quite awhile. In fact, they may increase in price because of the tariff issues. I don’t really expect another hardware iteration of the Helix. I wouldn’t say it’s entirely impossible, but I think the issue is that cannibalization can start happening, where the release of too many skus makes certain ones less profitable. I think this is what happened with the HD300 and 400 back in the day.

As already stated, you can’t choose a snapshot when go to a preset. As soon as you select a preset it loads. You can choose what Snapshot loads when you load a preset in the sense that the snapshot that loads when you select a preset is one that was active when you saved the preset.

Hold FS 9 & 10 while powering up the unit.

I typically put a clean boost right before the amp as I want to hit the front of the amp harder, but I don't necessarily want to slam the input of an OD pedal. But I don't think there's a right or wrong way.

Hit the Page > button to go the next page in the Controller Assign screen, and you can assign the min and max values. They are independent values for each parameter being controlled, and you have to set them for each parameter individually. The default values are 0 and 100 as the min and max, respectively.

I should note that Line 6 did just have a 30% discount on all their software, including Native. So even without the hardware discount, Native could be bought for $280... I wouldn't be surprised if they have another sale before Christmas, but I don't know for sure.

The thing is the Stomp and the HX Effects both cost Line 6 the same to make, and there are few hardware differences on the Stomp related to amp modeling functionality that would most likely raise the cost when added to an HX Effect style housing. I'm thinking mainly of the variable input impedance, the master volume functionality and the headphone out. Those may all be relatively minor things, but maybe they add $50 - $100 more to total cost... If the device becomes $700, would people still want it or, or would they just decide to go with the LT for a little more?

The HX Effects will work well with any amp... That's what it's designed to do. The question is what kind of amp do you want?

The Line 6 guys have mentioned they're looking at the possibility of adding a discount for Native along with the Stomp, but whether or not they will in the future, I don't know. I think, though, it's a bit disingenuous to complain about something like this after you've already bought the Stomp. I mean, you must have thought it was a good enough deal to buy it in the first place, right? Do you go to restaurant, order dinner, and then complain that your meal doesn't come with a free dessert when the restaurant made no promises about that from the start? I mean, Line 6 is like any other business. There prices and promotions are based on their projections and how close the reality is to those projections. From everything I've heard about the sales of the Stomp is that they have far exceeded Line 6's most optimistic projections. So from that perspective, there isn't a lot of reason to add more incentive for people to buy. Business don't lower the prices of items when they're already selling like hotcakes. As far as Native versus the hardware, it somewhat of an apples and oranges comparison. I wouldn't really want to use Native as a replacement for hardware at this time, but in the studio, the capabilities of Native far exceed the hardware. I can re-amp as many tracks as my system will let with Native in real-time. With the hardware, I can only ever process one track at a time... I can have as many instances of Native on a track as I want if I want to some sort of crazy signal chain. Native kind of wins hands down as far as that goes.

The 2.71 firmware for the rest of the Helix line and HX Edit were released today, for the record.

The actual external footswitch needs to be momentary. You can change the behavior of the switch to be latching or momentary in the software.

Just wanted to make an update about this since it was released last week with virtually no publicity. This is for the Stomp only. Release notes: 2.71 Helix Firmware Hot Fix Update Bug Fixes - In certain cases, when 2 expression pedals were connected, one could not be activated/toggled - FIXED - Other minor bug fixes and improvements Known Issues - When manually engaging a rebuild presets command (holding FS1+2 or FS2+3), HX Stomp can appear to freeze even though it doesn't. Wait 15-20 seconds for the rebuild to complete and all is well - Loading a Distortion > Kinky Boost block can sometimes result in an audible thump Compatible OS: Mac OS X, Windows 7, Windows 8, Mac OS Yosemite, Windows 10, Mac OS El Capitan, macOS Sierra, macOS High Sierra, macOS Mojave

That bug was fixed in the 2.71 firmware update, which was released without much fanfare last week.

Well, in the personal computer market, Linux represents 2-3% of users... I'm sure it's simply a matter of not being able to justify the cost of investing resources into such a small number of users. It's the same reason Line 6 doesn't currently make left-handed Variaxes.

It’s not nitro... it’s a polyurethane gloss finish. The vast majority of guitars made nowadays have a poly finish, as nitro is toxic and spraying it is a bit more problematic now. Nitro is also much less durable than poly.

I like using either the Kinky Boost or the Minotaur as an always on boost with my HX Effects as well. I saw a Nels Cline video where he talks about using backline amps, and one trick he mentions with Fender-type amps is initially starting with the treble down around 2 or so and the bass up around 8. This will be quite dark, but using a Klon other clean boost in front of an amp like that is a good way to bring brightness back without making things overly harsh. I find this sort of approach works really well for me.

To be honest, I’ve never seen that linked article, but Line 6 has always referred to them as unbalanced on forums and on the large Facebook group. And impedance balanced output, like that article states, isn’t a truly balanced output, as there’s only one driver. The one thing that’s nice about is you connect it to a typical unbalanced input without having the 3dB signal loss you would normally have connecting TRS balanced to unbalanced.

There's no way to do that by just hitting the Mode switch, no. If you have Preset Mode set to "8 Snapshots" in Global Settings>Footswitch>Preset Mode Switches, though, you can enter 8 Preset view temporarily by hitting the Bank Up or Down switch.

I believe what you're describing is the expected behavior. It's probably related to the EXP Position parameters under Global Settings>EXP Pedals. If you have that set to Global, the value of the parameters controlled by the pedal will always reflect the actual position of the expression pedal(s). If you have it set to Per Preset or Per Snapshot, the value that is recalled with the preset or snapshot will reflect whatever position the pedal was at when you saved the preset and/or snapshot.

You can assign commands to those switches in Stomp Mode, but the original functions of them would remain active as well. So assigning a PC command to change presets with the Mode switch would probably frustrating as you would switch from Stomp Mode to Preset Mode whenever you hit that switch.

Actaully, they can’t be reassigned on the Floor, either.

Well, you can always set the delay times, modulation rates, etc. to an actual millisecond or hertz value instead of assigning note values to them. That way the tap tempo wouldn’t actually be affecting anything.

They are isolated, but they’re still sharing a common upstream power supply. Isolation just means there is physical electrical connection between the various jacks.

I honestly haven’t seen a lot of complaints regarding the footswitches. There have been some here and there, but not anything to make me think there’s a systemic quality issue with them. The footswitches are self-cleaning, so sometimes all you need to do is press on them a few times to try to get any dirt or debris out.