phil_m

I was under the impression that the TigerSHARCs that Fractal uses in the Axe FX II have been discontinued without a direct replacement. Perhaps AD believes the performance gap between the SHARC and TigerSHARC has narrowed enough that having two separate lines no longer makes sense?

Here you go: http://www.strymon.net/dsp-anyway/ For most Strymon digital pedals, the SHARC DSP’s clock frequency is 266 MHz (BigSky’s is 366 MHz) I'm not sure what SHARC model numbers those correspond to, but, the Helix is using two of the 450MHz ADSP-21469 SHARCs. The TimeLine was released in 2011, and the BigSky in the beginning of 2014 (the Mobius was in between those two). So it just makes sense that the Helix would using a more powerful chip, since it was released later.

Well I think the SHARC chip Strymon uses in their pedals is a generation or two behind what's used in the Helix... Also, the big Strymon pedals offer spillover between presets, so their algorithms aren't eating up all the available DSP. So, there's no technical reason why the Helix could run those algorithms. They probably would be pretty DSP-intensive, but I would suspect they wouldn't be use as much as say, an amp model.

Have both the BigSky and the Mercury7... They're both amazing. I like the Mercury7 because everything is right there as far as editing parameters. Have you seen this madness? https://www.meris.us/product/polymoon-pedal/

Computers are getting less expensive in some regards, but in other regards they aren't. It depends on the hardware. With a device like the Helix, a large portion of the cost is directly related to the tooling and production associated with making a purpose-built housing with footswitches, scribbles strips, LEDs, etc. The actual DSP chips aren't really the cost drivers. I mean, there are plenty of people making cheap modelers with plastic housing or whatever, and there always will be. But that is a different class of product than the Helix. As far as people making fun of you... I've never had it happen, and I've been using modelers for over 15 years in one way or another.

Helix has two autoswell delays as well... They were added at the same time as the other Autoswell effect. One is called the Adriatic Swell (based on the Adriatic Delay), and the other is called Vintage Swell (based on the Vintage Delay).

Yeah, I do have to scroll to see all the parameters on some blocks, but I have to that in the editor as well... I guess I don't find that as problematic as others do.

No, don't remove it... I was just curious how you ran into it... I mean, it could be a bug of unexpected behavior. If it's a big problem for you, I'd suggest opening up a support ticket.

Well, the hum setting will create a sound, by design... So some of this might be expected artifacts with these extreme settings. Is this something that's actually causing you a real problem, or is it just a curious observation?

The problem is that all presets objectively suck, regardless of who made them... Line 6 has actually paid people who are "pro preset creators" for some of their factory presets, but it doesn't mean people liked the presets any more. I think the issue is that even if you start with presets that are made by some the guys who sell presets, I imagine you polled people, a majority of them would still stay those presets sucked. That's why I say it's "objective". I doubt there's any preset out there for any device where you could take a vote and have a majority of people say it's great. It's kind of like asking a stranger to order dinner for you. The chances that they know what you'll like are slim to none.

If you don't own a Variax, nothing...

The extended warranty applies to the US only. Although, in many other countries, there are laws on the books that effectively extend the warranty to two years or longer anyway.

Frank Ritchotte, Line 6's Senior Director of Operations, posts in the Helix Facebook group and on The Gear Page all the time, and he's mentioned it a few times there. He's also said they've had like less than 40 of these sorts of failures altogether, fwiw. Not that it makes it any less of a problem for anyone who personally deals with it. But it doesn't sound like it's necessarily a "weak link", per se.

I suggest you open up a support ticket here, regardless of your warranty. From what I understand, the mechanism that's actually failing with the joystick isn't the joystick itself, but rather a soldered connection underneath it.

What resolution is your monitor? I have a 28-inch monitor, and the Native window is pretty much the same size as every other plug-in I use.

It would be interesting to see an actual frequency chart of some of the offending tones... As I mentioned earlier, my feeling is that the harsh frequencies that people are hearing are more in the range of what can be easily produced by a typical guitar speaker, not the very high end. If you isolate those very high frequencies, the ones above 5kHz would be masked pretty easily, even by the guitar tone itself. It's good to play around with a tone generator once in a while to remind yourself what the various frequency bands sound like. http://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

It's not like a guitar speaker doesn't produce anything in those ranges... It's just that they're much less prominent than the full range part of the speaker. That's what the frequency response charts show. It's especially true in the 7-9 kHz ranges... There's still stuff there. When you're dealing with distorted guitar, you're also adding another layer of potential harshness, because adding harmonics to the signal, so you're creating stuff that is well beyond what they guitar itself produces. Anyway, if you look at recording forums, you'll see all sorts of threads with people complaining about harsh and/or fizzy guitars. It most definitely does happen with real close-miced amps. One other thing I'll add, though, is I think some of the harshness that people are complaining about isn't really in these higher ranges. I think it's more in the 3-4kHZ range, and it has to do with things other than the hi cut settings...

I don't think they made anything harsh and fizzy "on purpose". I think those characteristics are simply part and parcel of close-micing an amp... I think a lot of the reason those things are more noticeable with the Helix is we're using FRFR playback system with tweeters, and that simply makes them all the more noticeable. I am certain that this harshness and fizziness can happen with real rigs simply because I've heard myself on raw guitar tracks...

I'll have to look at it again... It's been a long time since I've used the editor, to be honest. I don't feel much need to ever since I've been using Native...

I tend to like the Bright channels myself, but on Fender amps, the Normal channels offer more clean headroom. The one thing that's nice with the Helix is that you don't have the same sorts of limitations that you do on the real amps. On a real Deluxe Reverb, for instance, you don't have access to the reverb on the Normal channel (unless you modify the amp), but on the Helix, that's not an issue.

I can't really comment on the TC pedal itself, but I thought the video was rather unimpressive... I thought all the harmonies in it sounded kind of fake. Honestly, it's very hard for me to get excited about any pitch-type effects other than Whammy-type drops. They just always sound dated to me.

Short answer - no, it's not possible. You can use multiple transmitters with a G70/G75 receiver, but not simultaneously. The input into the receiver is always mono, and even if you have the signal split to multiple outputs, it will be the same mono signal at each output. I'm not aware of a stereo wireless system out there, but I haven't really looked into it.

On Windows, it's not click and hold, it's just a single left click right on the name.

I'd say give it more time... I mean, it's one thing if you really do have a hardware issue. You'd want to get that dealt with. But I think you need to be patient with a piece of gear like the Helix. There's more options in it than you could ever really explore. In your first post, you mentioned the Helix doing metal better than cleans... Sorry, but I couldn't disagree more. The Helix can do beautiful clean tones. I'm not a metal player by any stretch, and tend to start with great clean tones and build from there. Here's a few examples: https://soundcloud.com/phil-miller-20/helix-jtm45-clean-delay https://soundcloud.com/phil-miller-20/josefins-waltz

Do you have anything connected to the EXT AMP jack and/or any external expression pedals connected? I guess what I'm getting at is are all the ins and out exactly the same in both locations?