phil_m

Yeah, I do kind of wonder how GC has managed to cling to life as long as it has. This particular store is actually pretty busy on the weekends, but I have no idea how their sales are. From my perspective, it doesn't seem like guitars are flying of the walls, especially expensive ones.

I live a few miles from one of these stores (the one in Edina, MN), and I have to say it is a bit nicer than the typical GC. They tend to have more higher end stock all-around. Not surprising, really, given that Edina is one of the wealthiest suburbs in the whole metro area (which is why I don't actually live in Edina...).

Well, don't forget that there are actually four stereo paths. So you can use one of the paths for the piezo or whatever and use the other three in serial or parallel (or some cool combination) for your mags. So, yes, each DSP has two paths, but you can still spread stuff out over both paths so that you can more fully take advantage of all the DSP.

Right now, the Helix doesn't have a MIDI clock sync capability, but you could send a tap tempo command via CC. And, yes, you should easily be able to change presets, turn effects on and off, send other CC messages to it from your sequencer. I'm not sure what you're saying you're not able to do with the HD500. You're saying it doesn't respond to PC messages while in FS 1-8 mode? I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "manual mode" in respect to both devices. I know what the term means generically, but neither the HD500 nor Helix really have it.

Those particular parameters are actually described on page 26 of the manual.

I guess I don't understand what it benefits you to have one preset set up for both acoustic and electric if you're not ever going be playing them both simultaneously. If you're changing guitars, that's going to be the disruptive thing, not changing presets.

Here's a clip I recorded this week. This is using the AC15 model for both the rhythm and lead parts. The drums are from the Beat Buddy pedal. Bass is using one of the bass presets, unchanged. https://soundcloud.com/phil-miller-20/ac15-jam

Have you seen this video? Specifically around 0:43 in... They're beating it up quite a lot, including stepping directly on the knobs.

All of these effects can be used with tap tempo already. Just push down on the knob controlling the rate parameter, and the parameter will switch to a note value. It works just like the delays.

Right now, this is how the expression pedal and controller functions work. When you call up a preset, the value you're controlling goes to whatever it was when you saved the preset. It doesn't reflect the position of the pedal. This is different than how previous Line 6 products worked. Digital Igloo has said it will be changed to user-selectable setting in some upcoming firmware revision.

1. DI can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the high and low cut parameters in the cab block would be the equivalent of using a high and low cut for the mic that is capturing the cab. In other words, they would occur after the cab. 2. Not sure, but I would guess the rise and fall of the curves for the high and low cut and the EQ are different enough for it cause an audible difference. 3. This question has been asked about a bazillion times, and the answer is always they're not able to announce all of their future plans at this time.

Well, as already stated, it seems most, if not all, of the blame should be on Apple for this. El Capitan has taken a dump on the entire MI segment by most accounts.

Not yet... Stay tuned, though...

You have to download songs through the native Apple Music app, and then anything you download will show up in the Amplifi app. As long as the song shows up in your iTunes library, you should be able to download it (in the Music app).

The Amplifi app can only play songs that are actually on your iPad. If you're using iTunes Match, your whole library will show up in the Apple Music app, but you actually have to hit the little cloud icon to download those songs if you want the Amplifi app to see them.

The Variax Standard is not meant to replace the JTVs. The fact that is using the same firmware should make that self-evident. There have been posts here for two years or so now from people claiming to hear from sales reps that Line 6 is discontinuing the JTV line, and so far they have all been wrong. I'm sure, like anything, it will cease production at some point. But as far as what I've heard from Line 6, that time is not now.

Well, unity gain isn't really something to be concerned about unless you're using the Helix with a traditional guitar amp. With that setup, you'd want the signal coming from the Helix to be pretty close to what your signal would be if you were just plugging a guitar straight into the amp. In this setup, it's kind of assumed you'd be using the Helix for effects only. In the case where you're using the Helix to drive powered speakers or go into a PA, unity gain really doesn't matter. In general, the louder the signal you send from the Helix to the PA or powered speakers, the higher the signal to noise ratio will be. But in general, the Helix is quiet enough, that it's not going to be a huge deal. Just set the Helix's volume wherever it needs to be.

I'm sure it's on Line 6's list of things to do.

I wasn't entirely clear in my first post in this thread, but what I'm nearly certain is happening is that with the mix at 50, the wet and dry are equal - they are both at 100%. If you go past 50, the wet stays at 100%, and the dry is gradually decreased until you reach 100. Then you're at 100% wet, 0% dry. Conversely, at mix settings less than 50, the dry is at 100%, and the wet is gradually increasing as you move up.With the mix at 0, you'd have 0% wet and 100% dry. I imagine it as if I had two faders - one wet and one dry. Starting out, I have the dry fader set to 100%, and I gradually increase the wet until it's at 100%. I then start gradually decreasing the dry fader until it's down all the way, and all I'm left with is wet.

The first batch was shipped to stores in October. It seems like they pretty much all sold out rather quickly. New batches should be getting to retailers very soon last I heard.

You need to set the delay time in your delays to be note value instead of a millisecond value. Press the knob under the delay time parameter, and you'll see it switch to a note value. 1/4 is the default, but if you turn the knob, you can select whatever value you need. That way you can get note subdivisions and still only tap in quarter notes.

Mono effects use half the DSP of stereo ones. If you have an effect before an amp model, it will be summed to mono even if it is stereo, so you might as well use the mono version. There are some times when you want to preserve stereo separation, and there are some times when it doesn't matter. Not to muddle things more, but I will say this. With the advent of home recording, electric guitar is probably recorded in stereo way more than it ever was in studio in the past.

Yep. If you use only one of the XLR or 1/4" outs, they will to mono.

It did used to be that everyone ran PAs in mono, but anymore, I'm not so sure. Virtually every modern PA is setup for stereo, and I think most operators actually do hook them up in stereo even though most of them tend to keep everything panned in the center. As far as stereo effects and whatnot, the question is whether or not they'll be noticed at all. I can only remember one time when I noticed a stereo guitar effect while in the audience at a larger show. It was an outdoor festival and the one guitarist used a panning effect for the intro of one song, and I could very plainly hear it traveling across the front of the stage. It was cool, but that was a really dramatic stereo effect. Most aren't like that. Most people in the audience aren't going to be in the right place to notice a stereo effect, though. That's the typical reasoning for the suggestion of always going mono. Of course if you're Alex Lifeson or The Edge and you send 16 channels of guitar to the board, and the whole PA is built around you, you live by a different set of rules than the typical guitarist.

I think it's being a bit over-dramatic to say that a preset change results in "silence". Technically, yes, there is a very short gap, and yes, reverb or delay tails will be cut off, but the transition between presets is fast enough, that it really doesn't register as silence. It's more like a little bump. I tried recording a transition in Reaper so I could measure the gap, and I found it took a little bit of effort for me to just isolate where the transition was on the audio track. I can see how if you're playing alone this could be an issue, but even then, if you time the transitions right, it shouldn't be any more noticeable than taking a breath. It would actually be a lot less disruptive than that. If you're playing in a band, no one but you is going to notice the transitions. I mean I understand why people like the concept, but spillover is one of those things that I think for most styles of music people worry to much about it. If you're playing ambient music with huge soundscapes built by delays and reverbs trails, yes, it makes a lot of sense to worry about it. For typical rock and pop music, it really isn't going to be noticeable in the context of a full band.