phil_m

I've been using beta firmware (and even firmware that's not yet beta) on my Helix for the past three or four months, and haven't had a crash or really any substantial showstopper type bugs. That includes using it for gigging my last dozen shows or so. So it does seem to me that it's pretty stable at this point.

As to why Line 6 hasn't issued specific patches or hotfixes for certain bugs, I believe it simply comes down to a matter of not spreading limited resources too thin. It will become apparent what is all meant by that in the future, but trust me, they're all working very hard at making the Helix a more killer product than it already is. Another thing I'd say is that I think people tend to overestimate Line 6's size as a company. They're not tiny, but they aren't huge, either. For the number of products they currently make and support, well, lets just say they all have a lot on their plates.

According to Frank Ritchotte, Line 6's Sr. Director of Operations, Line 6 just shipped a "motherload" of Helices out, so they should be making their way to retailers very soon. Also, they increased their production threefold, so it seems like the Helix pipeline will be flowing more freely in the future... Like the salmon of Capistrano. :D

Well, when you mass produce items in the thousands, there's always going to be a few failures when it comes to these sorts of components. It's just unavoidable. I hope this doesn't put you off on the Helix altogether. As far as Boss/Roland, I used to work at a store that was a Roland/Boss dealer, and I can assure you they have to deal with issues just like any other manufacturer.

Right now, it can't. You could assign the flanger and overdrive effects to the same switch and have them toggled opposite each other, though. And it sounds like in your case, that's what you want (when one is on, the other will be off and vice versa).

The pedal calibration is automatic. It essentially re-calibrates every time you power up the Helix. Are you saying that the sweep of the pedal actually starts at 40, or that it just feels that way to you? You should be able to see the value of the level parameter changing as you move the pedal. Where do you have the volume effect located in your signal chain. I use the on-board pedal for volume swells all the time, and have never really had a problem with it.

Sure, you can use stereo effects. It's just that if you're only sending one channel to the board, they'll be summed to mono. The nice thing is that you don't need to change anything in your presets themselves if you're using stereo effects when connecting in mono. If you actually want stereo effects to come through to the board, you'd need to use two channels on the board and hard pan on left and the other right.

Some of the technical information that's not in the manual can be found here: http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/effects-controllers/helix/

The 1/4" outs are unbalanced (mentioned on page 7 of the manual). All of the 1/4" sends and returns are unbalanced as well. As far as tech specs, what are you looking for exactly?

If you use one XLR out, it will be summed automatically - no need to hard pan. As far as level, technically the higher the better, but sometimes it freaks out sound guys if they get a line level signal. You might be better off leaving it set to mic, It be important thing to note, perhaps the most important - make sure your channel doesn't have phantom power applied to it. If they can't turn it off, you'll need to forego using the XLR out and use one of the 1/4" outs. Helix and phantom power don't get along.

USB 7/8 are instrument or mic level depending what you're sending to them, so, yeah, they will be very quiet. The idea is that they are the same level as the source your plugging into the Helix. If you re-amp with them through the Helix, the levels recorded in the dry track will be fine.

The Helix isn't picky with the actual value of the pot in the external pedal. It will calibrate automatically. It just needs to be wired correctly and use a TS cable.

Recorded this last night, and am generally happy with how it turned out. All guitars and bass are Helix. Rhythm is Les Paul 50s Tribute using the JCM45 Bright model. The lead is a Telecaster, and, well, I'll take guesses as to the amp model. Drums are just using a few simple loops from Arturia's Spark EDM plug-in, so they're not necessarily supposed to sound like real drums. https://soundcloud.com/phil-miller-20/near-solstice

Uh oh... DI's finally cracked...

Not exactly snake oil, but overpriced for what it is, really. I actually think this particular application makes more sense than what's described on Radial's website. But here's a gut shot of one of these: It's just a variable impedance circuit - probably not too different than what the guitar input of the Helix is like.

The input impedance and pad only affect the guitar in jack. The input impedance controls an actual analog circuit at the guitar input.

Maybe the Radial Dragster? http://www.tonebone.com/dragster.php It's basically an adjustable load correction circuit that simulates passive guitar pickups... I actually have one, but I've never tried in this application.

If you all knew DI in real life, I think you'd find the description of him as being "that guy" as pretty hilarious... I personally think of him as the opposite of "that guy". :D Helix is his baby, though... And no one puts baby in the corner! Lol. Trust me, Line 6 hears your tuner woes!

It's not meaningless to the the users in the sense that if the tuner were inherently inaccurate, there would be no easy fix. But because it is accurate, changing the UI is relatively straightforward and possible. (I think people need to read between the lines in this thread...). :)

The concepts of accuracy and precision are difficult because they overlap. The way I think of it, though, is that accuracy is more of an inherent property of the piece of equipment. The accuracy sets the limits for precision, in a way. If you're bathroom scale is accurate to +/- .5 lbs, it doesn't matter if the readout gives you readings down to .01 pounds - that's a false precision. When I think of precision, I think of the concept of "significant digits", which if people have taken any college level science classes, they might be familiar with. The precision of an output is limited by the data used for that calculation. I think that's why DI is not willing to say the Helix's tuner is inaccurate. It's internal tuning processor is very accurate - +/- .1 cents, I think is what he said elsewhere. So the good news is that adding precision to the tuner display is completely doable.

If you're asking is Line 6 will offer any future firmware updates for the M-series, I'd say the answer is pretty obviously no. I mean, I haven't read a definitive statement from them, I suppose, but it's been several years since the last update. They obviously are investing resources in other places right now. If you're asking if there will be more effects products, well, that's probably a safer bet.

The update is a lot more fun than a Game of Thrones episode, imo...

If you have the loops assigned to a footswitch, you can give the scribble strip for that switch a custom label by using the "Customize" function in the footswitch assign menu.