phil_m

You shouldn't have to do that... Just set the loop level to "instrument" in the Global Settings menu, and you should be fine.

FYI, the issue with the Vintage Delay was dealt with in firmware 2.10, in case you didn't know. They added a headroom parameter, so if you increase that, that should get rid of any clipping. If you have a Vintage Delay block in an existing preset from before that update, you'd have to delete and re-insert the block for the headroom parameter to show up.

Good to know it's not in beta... I'm not a Mac user so I really haven't been paying that close attention.

Mine has worked flawlessly since I've had it (about 10 months now)... I'd venture to guess that most owners haven't had any problems.

The Helix is a class compliant USB interface for Macs, so you shouldn't need the drivers. Line 6 released drivers back when people were still having issues with USB audio and El Capitan. Those issues seem to have gotten sorted for the most part, so you probably don't need to download the drivers. This is why the Mac drivers are still officially a beta release.

There's a lot of headroom on the Helix's inputs. The guitar input has 123dB of dynamic range, and the converters are rated for 114dB (Line 6 does some magic with that input to squeeze out some more headroom). I believe that all the inputs are using the same converters, so even at 114dB, that's quite a lot of headroom. You should be fine. You don't really risk damaging anything, but if you push it too hard, you'd start to hear the clipping. But the thing is, the 1/4" returns can actually accept a signal that's up to line level, so you really shouldn't come close to clipping with a regular guitar pedal. There are some effects blocks that can be pushed into "virtual clipping" if the input is too hot, so that's the thing I'd be concerned about more than anything.

Yeah, don't worry... There won't be an LT rack.

Well, I was one of the people who gave feedback on the new Auto-Swell during beta, and they did refine it based on those sorts of comments. I don't thinks it's nearly as unusable as people are making it out to be. It just takes some patience when setting it. The old auto swell on the POD wasn't perfect, either. These things can be tricky, because it's a balance of having it be responsive so it swells when you want to and doesn't trigger when you don't want it (which happened sometimes pretty easily with the earlier Line 6 auto swell). I mean, there will always be things to correct in the firmware - that happens. I think it if people want changes in the effect they should send Line 6 examples of what they're looking for. I sent them A/B samples comparing the new effect to the Autoswell on my Strymon Möbius, for example. I was actually able to get them pretty close (actually thought the Helix was a bit smoother in some respects).

Duty cycle is the percentage of time a signal is on (compared to off). So the higher the duty cycle setting, the longer the pulse.

Cool... Glad I was wrong about that.

Yep, this is what I do to... Technically, I guess I never truly go to snapshot mode because I'm always in preset mode masquerading as snapshot mode.

I think this came up before here, and I'm pretty sure the answer is no... This isn't really the purpose of the MIDI over USB functionality. I don't think the Helix has the capability of sending the MIDI sysex messages the Strymon products are looking for.

Sounds like you're on the right track to me. I kind of do something similar. I do play in a few bands, and I have some song-specific presets. I also have some instrument-specific presets with snapshots. But beyond that, most of my presets are built around a core amp sound, and then I use snapshots to create different sounds with that amp and the effects in that preset. Like for one of my most used Deluxe Reverb presets, I have snapshot like Clean, Crunch, Clean Tremolo, Crunch Tremolo, Clean Delay, Crunch Delay, Clean Rotary, and one called Nimbus (which is using a preset in the Strymon BigSky pedal). I can go into stomp mode and turn individual effects on and off beyond that if I want to. But I find if I have a few basic presets where I have options set up, I don't often need to do that.

If you have phantom power being sent to the XLR outs, yes, they can be noisy. Otherwise, they should be fine. http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/effects-controllers/helix/helix-xlr-outputs-and-48v-phantom-power-r771

That's not really true... I've played plenty of amps that don't work well with pedals, and certain amps I never could tame to my liking. I used to have a Vox AC15, for example, and I always thought it was very easy to make it sound harsh. It was actually after hearing a recording of me using it live that I decided that it wasn't worth keeping it anymore. I can't say why you're having trouble finding tones in the Helix that work for you... My experience hasn't really been like that. I do rarely use headphones, though. I pretty much hate the experience regardless of what's coming out them.

These things happen on tour...

I understand the point, but I don't see how realistically you can say anything was lost. If you had preset level instant commands before the update, they still remain. The preset would behave exactly the same after the update as it did before the update. It's just that with snapshots, you can send Instant Commands while in a preset, something that didn't exist before. I'm not against the idea of splitting them up. I just don't agree with the reasoning being put forth. I'm not sure how anyone can say anything was removed when users who aren't using snapshots would see the exact same behavior before and after the update.

It's virtually impossible to get true clipping in the unit internally... I think the only way you can really do that is with the Vintage Digital delay set to to a low bit depth and with the headroom parameter set low. That actually changes the internal signal processing through that block from 32-bit floating point to whatever it's set to, so digital clipping can actually be induced. All the other clipping from the blocks is modeled clipping. The place you're most likely to see clipping is if you're sending a hot signal from the output into a channel strip. Anyway, I don't think a meter would be that hard for them to add... They have that really nice color screen, you know...

Yes, they're planning to address with the 2.21 release soon, as far as I know.

You can have a different saved BPM saved per snapshot as long as you select "Snapshot BPM" under Global Settings > MIDI/Tempo... It will still react to tap tempo once you're in a snapshot, but the saved tempo will be recalled whenever you bring up the snapshot. Personally, I've never found much use for the Global BPM setting as I always figure it's very easy to re-tap the tempo in... None of the bands I play with can maintain that consistent of a tempo anyway. :)

It's hardly the same thing... You didn't lose any functionality with snapshots and the Command Center. You gained a ton more. It's just that you're wanting the new features to behave in a way that they currently don't. I'm sorry to be dogmatic about it, but I just don't understand why you're portraying it as if Line 6 removed features - they clearly didn't. If you had instant commands assigned to a preset before snapshots, those instant commands still work in the same way after the 2.0 update. It's just that they live in Snapshot 1. But they would still be shot out upon preset changes.

I get what you're saying, but it's still possible now... The Helix can behave exactly the same way it did before snapshots as it does with snapshots if you wanted it to. It just means you wouldn't use snapshots... For now, is there anyway you could have the preset load with a different snapshot? I think it's hard to account for every possible use scenario.

There's no way to do it globally... Like you said, you have to change the input settings for each preset you want to audition.

On the Helix page, if you scroll down, you'll see different icons - one for amp models, one for effects, one for cab models, and one for mic models. If you click on the icons, a menu that looks exactly like the Helix screen pops up, and you can scroll through all the available models. It's all up to date for the 2.20 firmware. You actually can see everything available when the menu pops up, as it's completely interactive, and it lets you click through all the categories regardless of which one you started on.

I think the Helix so far surpasses the M13 as a multi-FX that it's not even a fair comparison... I mean, I love the M-series stuff - I still have two M13s and an M9, and I used to have an M5 - but the Helix does everything so well from a usability perspective, and I think that the Helix effects are just a step above. I really love the Helix drives, for instance, and I hardly ever used the drives on the M13. And snapshots make it so the Helix is really just at a completely different level than the M13. Yes, there are effects from the M-series that aren't on the Helix yet, but the Helix just has so many more positives. You could always get an M5 and put it one of the Helix's loops, and with the Helix's MIDI functionality, it would almost be like the M5 effects were inside the Helix.