phil_m

On Helix, though, the switches can be configured so that they're all assigned to effects. Or you could make it so the top row changes patches, and the bottom row is effects There's a lot more configurability. I've never once accidentally hit the wrong footswitch with Helix, though. I think the spacing might be a little bit larger on the Helix.

Why wouldn't you trust it? Obviously it's in their best interest to get it fixed. They're still selling these products, and it's not like they want people to be unhappy and return them. I understand the frustration people feel over this, but I don't understand the sentiments to the effect that Line 6 wants to screw people over. What company tries to do that?

I saw your question a few days ago when you asked it, and I was racking my brain for awhile trying to come up with a way to do it. I think that if you really need to run in stereo, you're not going to be able to do it. If you could run in mono, I could probably work something out. Also, having separate paths for the Variax and the regular guitar input might overly complicate things. Do you need to have it so you can use them both in the same preset? Are you actually going to be running them at the same time? Also, if you have the input for the tone set to multi, you can have the Variax and Guitar plugged into their respective inputs at the same time, and just use the same path. They don't need to have dedicated paths unless you want them separated for some reason.

The cat's out of the bag... When I first heard of Helix, that was the working name. I think they (wisely) decided to name it something that made it clear it was not simply an evolution of the HD line, but rather a whole new platform.

Microsoft doesn't even support XP anymore. How can other companies be expected to?

I believe the Firehawk app is fully compatible with iOS9. Tony updated the announcement above. I don't think the new firmware should change that.

Well, personally, it's kind of my policy to hold off on making any changes to my rig right before a gig. I've gotten a new pedal the week of a gig and held off on putting on my pedalboard just because I didn't want to deal with the hassle of having to deal with something if there was some unforeseen issue. It just happens. I'm not saying this to defend Line 6. Just saying it as a matter of course. At work, I would try to avoid installing an update to mission critical software at all costs if I had a big deadline coming up and I was depending on using it. I've just had enough things not work in my life that I've learned that if something is working, sometimes the best thing to do is not mess with it. I don't know why Line 6 seems to have been caught flat-footed at this release. Perhaps it was just a matter of having limited resources and allocating them to different things. Perhaps there was an unforeseen issue at the last minute. Without them telling us, we just don't know. Even if they did tell us, it wouldn't change the circumstances for people who've updated. Yes, something like an email blast would have maybe helped, but I don't think it would have helped that much. So many people simply ignore emails or have accounts that they never check. Probably the only surefire way to do something would have been to send a push notification through the app, but I don't even know if they have that ability.

The Amplifi app was last updated 9/1/15... It's not like they've abandoned it.

Manual is available for download now: http://line6.com/data/6/0a06439cb91a5609df67966ca/application/pdf/Helix%20Owners%20Manual%20%28REV%20B%29%20-%20English%20%28%20Rev%20B%20%29.pdf

Well the only workaround is to not update to iOS9 or to rollback. Unfortunately, Apple makes it very difficult to rollback to earlier versions of iOS, so there's not much else Line 6 can do other than just work on updating the app. The other unfortunate thing is that updates to apps have to go through Apple's approval process, so it's not a if Line 6 can give a guaranteed release date even if they wanted. I do understand users' frustration, especially people who've didn't actually choose to update but rather just got a new device with iOS9 pre-installed. Personally, I think that if you depend on apps for anything important to you, it's always wise to wait a few weeks or even months before installing iOS updates. That's just me, though.

Well, you could sum everything down to one mono output if you wanted to, but like you said, I'm not sure you would want to. If you really have no other choice for practice, sure try it. It may be passable to the extent that at least you can hear vocals. Back in the early days of rock, it wasn't necessarily all that uncommon to run vocals and guitars through the same amp.

I for one can't disparage the EX-1 too much. Yes it's plastic, and know it's not going to survive being run over or being thrown around. But it does the job. I have two of them, and one I've owned since 2000 and the other since 2003 or thereabouts. Besides guitars, I don't think I actually have owned any other piece of gear as long as them that has seen continuous use. Not bad for inexpensive pedals. Anyway, if you want to use other pedals, it's very easy with Helix. It has an auto-calibration feature for external pedals, so it should work with just about any potentiometer-based pedals. So in that sense, I don't know if there's a lot of incentive for Line 6 to make its own line of more expensive expression pedals.

Meh, having used the Helix for several months now, methinks your friend might need to get his ears checked. Yes, the Helix doesn't give you an "amp in the room" experience, but that's not what it's designed to do. It's designed to model a miced amp. So the real world comparison would be listening to a miced up amp from a contorl room in a studio. But, having said that, I do find the Helix to be very responsive and have the feeling of playing through a real amp. I typically play mine through my studio monitors, and it works great this way. If you want to use a power amp and guitar cab, you certainly can. You can get great tones that way too, I'm sure. But I actually think (well, I know) you'll get a much more accurate representation of the modeled amps by using a high quality FRFR system.

You could do that. There only drawback is that method requires using two signal paths, which maybe isn't a big deal. Also, the Aux In isn't necessarily designed for a line level signal which is what the signal coming from your amp's FX send would most likely be. That may or may not be an issue.

No one here really knows how simple or complex the fix is. If it were simple, I have to imagine it would have been done already. I don't believe Line 6 is purposely trying to screw people over. Sometimes things simply happen that our beyond a company's control. Perhaps Apple changed some implementation last minute that Line 6 was depending on. There are all sorts of possible explanations.

Well, if you have the Helix rack, yes, you could use the foot controller to control the Axe FX. But really what you'd be doing is controlling the Helix and then controlling the Axe FX through the Helix. All of the MIDI programming lives in the Helix itself. The floorboard is just a "dumb" controller that is depending on the rack unit itself to do what it needs to do. It doesn't have any function as a standalone controller.

Yep, it's compatible.

I'm sure Line 6 isn't happy with the circumstances either. The thing that's tricky in dealing with these updates is that the wildcard is often Apple itself. Sometimes they give assurances to developers about certain functionality, and that ends up changing. I am sure that Line 6 has people working overtime to get it fixed.

No official street date has ever been announced.

Yes, you have up to four paths to use, so even with your amps and a mic you'd have one left. It would have a pretty small DSP footprint, so it should work.

I think the idea is that you would just turn the send block on when you wanted to use the tuner and then you'd turn off when you're done tuning. If you truly want the tuner to be receiving signal all the time, I suppose you could set up a parallel path and put the send block in there and just leave it on all the time.

There is overlap between then HD500X and the Firehawk, but the modeling is pretty different in each. The Firehawk has the HD amp models, but it only has the XT/X3/Pod farm cabs. All the cabs on the HD are HD. So that may mean that there are some tones the Firehawk does that don't necessarily translate perfectly to the HD500X. Ultimately, though, the 500X is more flexible the than the Firehawk in terms of routing and tweakability.

That's kind of one of the main points in re-amping, isn't it? But, yes, sure, you can apply whatever effects and amp model you want to the dry signal after it's recorded.

The whole idea of using a FRFR system is that what you hear from the USB or direct recording should be very close to what you're PA is reproducing. Otherwise, it's telling you that your PA speakers aren't really all that flat and are coloring your tone quite a bit.