phil_m

Yep... You can have up to six Instant Commands per preset, and they will each fire out a command when changing snapshots.

Pressing FS1 and FS7 at the same time will take you to Snapshot Mode. Make you just press those footswitches quickly and don’t hold them down. Holding them down toggles the function of the footswitches between Bank, Preset or Snapshot up and down.

Well, you’re not actually in Snapshot Mode in this case. The Mode switch is toggling between Stomp and Preset Mode. You have Preset Mode set so that you see 4 stomps and 4 snapshots. In order to get into Snapshot Mode, you have to hit FS1 and FS7 together. In Snapshot Mode you’d see all 8 snapshots, and then once you select one, you’d be taken back to whatever mode you were in previously.

Open up a support ticket and Line 6 will send you a replacement.

You can assign PC messages that stomp switches or you can have them sent out as Instant Commands. You do both by going to the Command Center. The Command Center is described on page 35 of the manual. The Instant Commands are represented by the six little lightning bolt icons on the screen there. Once you go there, it should make more sense to you.

By default, the LT automatically sends PC messages when selecting presets. That's what you're noticing in your last paragraph. To turn that off, go to Global Settings>MIDI/Tempo and set the MIDI Send PC parameter to "Off". As far as the Instant Commands to change channels on your amp, it would probably be easier to use PC messages than CC. If you use PC messages, you could do it all with one Instant Command and just set a different PC# per snapshot. If you use CCs, you'll need to use a separate Instant Command for each CC#, and set the correct value for each one in each snapshot. For instance, if you wanted Snapshot 1 to be Clean, Snapshot 2 to be Lo and Snapshot 3 to be Hi, you have to do the following: Snapshot 1: Instant Command 1: CC20, value 127, Instant Command 2: CC21, value 0, Instant Command 3: CC22, value 0. Snapshot 2: Instant Command 1: CC20, value 0, Instant Command 2: CC21, value 127, Instant Command 3: CC22, value 0. Snapshot 3: Instant Command 1: CC20, value 0, Instant Command 2: CC21, value 0, Instant Command 3: CC22, value 127. So you would need to use that sort of matrix for any CCs you want to send out as Instant Commands. It gets to be somewhat of a pain to program them all. With a PC, you're just changing the one Instant Command per snapshot.

The main thing to understand is that Path 1 has a dedicated processor and Path 2 has another. Each of those paths can be broken down into 1A & 1B and 2A & 2B. It sounds like you're probably only using 1A and 1B. The key is to spread out over both processor paths. Here's an example of one of my dual amp patches:

Are you sure you don’t have phantom power on the XLR input you’re plugging into? That will attenuate the signal quite a bit. I have done that before and was puzzled why everything was so quiet... Once I turned it off, I had plenty of signal.

Having a little trouble visualizing this... Any chance you could put up some screenshots?

Well, the vast majority of questions I see asked are about things that are actually addressed in the manual. I usually put screenshots of the relevant parts up when answering a lot of the time. But the point is if people can't be bothered to read a 50-page manual, they certainly aren't going to read through a 150-page one. Manuals simply aren't a great format for getting this information out there. As far as the more complex things, I think that what all the different user groups online are for. Line 6 and other companies have limited time and resources to devote to any given issue, so they have to make choices. Do you write up a white paper that less than 1% of your user base will read, or do you decide, well, we'll deal those sorts of things on a case by case basis? It's pretty obvious what their choice is...

Have you installed the latest firmware?

The vast majority of people are not going to read a 150+ page manual. Boss manuals are inscrutable... Absolutely horrible and confusing. It's the same with every Roland product I've ever owned (btw, Eric, the guy who actually wrote the Helix manual used to work for Boss). Ideally, products shouldn't require a manual for someone to figure out to use them, and I think that's the underlying design philosophy behind the Helix - that the majority of the user experience is self-discoverable. If someone messes around with things enough, they will learn how things work on their own. For the first few days I had my beta unit, I had no manual, but I was able to figure out probably 90% of the major functions by just pushing buttons, going into menus and such. The days of huge user manuals are not coming back... People don't have the patience for it. Did your smartphone or laptop come with a manual?

Well, that's not correct... Unity gain doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense when talking about the XLR outs. Where that comes into play is the 1/4" outs. If you have the 1/4" out set to instrument level, the input pad off, and have the master volume knob all the way up, that will give you unity gain. That's important for plugging into the front of amp. People generally want the signal coming from a pedalboard to be the same as going straight into the amp with a guitar. In pretty all other contexts, unity gain isn't really something you should worry about. You really just need to make sure you're not clipping whatever input you're plugging into.

I have to believe there's no technical reason that would make it impossible to do that. I think there are a few reasons it's they it is, though. Any additional data they add to the presets will make the transition time between changing preset longer, so I know they're always thinking of that. The other thing is that the way CCs and snapshots are handled is analogous to the way parameter on the on-board effects are handled. If you think about assigning a parameter to a Snapshot Controller, that assignment applies to the whole preset. You can't select different parameters in different snapshots. You can select different values for those parameters in each snapshot, though. So, I think that's kind of the thinking. CCs are most commonly used to control specific parameters on external gear, so it's treat those external parameters the same way the internal ones are.

Full HX Edit support will be coming soon... All the Helix products are sharing the same codebase, so the idea is that they will all be on the same update schedule. It is possible, I suppose, that there may still be some updates that affect only the Helix products with amp modeling and not the HX Effects in the future, but generally, the idea is that they'll all be on parallel update paths.

From the manual: So, for things like PC messages, you can an Instant Command where you have a different PC for every snapshot. For CC Instant Commands, you can change the value of the CC in every snapshot, but not the CC#. Yes, if you assign a MIDI command to a footswitch, that command only applies to that footswitch while in Stomp Mode.

If you want to run the Helix in front of a combo, that in and of itself is a limiting factor. You would probably want to start with using the Helix for effects only in that case, and using it as a pedalboard replacement. It will actually work very well in that scenario, and I have had much success using it like that. You could try using some of the preamp models in the Helix to add some different distortion flavors in the mix, and depending on how you have your amp set, they may or may not work out. But that's what I would try. What won't work well in this scenario is the full amp and cab modeling. The reason is that the preamp, power amp and speaker in your combo is going to be really coloring the tone coming from your amp. That's really what guitar amps are designed to do. In order to get the best response from an amp modeler, though, you really want to plug it into something that is full range, flat response (FRFR). This is why people often use PA-type speakers with modelers. Those speaker are designed to be relatively flat, and, ideally, they should give you an accurate reproduction of the signal coming from the modeler.

I don’t believe Line 6 thinks there’s anything to fix based on what they’ve said elsewhere.

Have you installed the latest firmware?

Sounds like you're hearing phasing or comb filtering for some reason... Make sure you have the Mix parameter in the FX Loop block set to 100%.

One thing the most common scenarios that comes to mind is using one of the Returns as an input for an acoustic and Sends as an output. I do something like this with my Helix.

The utility of having the separate send and return blocks is that you can use them as standalone ins and outs anywhere in the signal chain. If you're actually using the FX loop as a loop, there's really no reason to not use the FX Loop block. But there might be reasons to use them individually for other things.

Vetta had been on the market for like 9 years before the DT amps were released...

I don't believe there's any plans to have any other colors. I think I see the photo you're referring to, and it's just the lighting in that picture making it look brown.

Hitting the tap button once should restart the LFO for the tremolo. I kind of remember hearing that there's a bug with this functionality for the HX Effects, but if it's not now, it will in the future. The Helix currently does this.