phil_m

Wow, that's ridiculous... So tempted to buy one as a back up. I seriously think that $510 is below dealer cost for these.

Well, that's just, like, you know, Sweetwater's opinion, man... Seriously, though Digital Igloo, the product manager, has stated here and over on TGP that the only official release date information will come straight from him. Nothing I've heard from them has indicated that they're pushing the date back.

You actually could use the Helix Control to control other units via MIDI, it's just that what you'd really be doing is controlling the other units from the Helix itself. All the MIDI programming would reside in the Helix. The Helix control is just a "dumb" controller in a sense. It has no internal programming of its own. As far as the scribble strips, I think you're highly underestimating their usefulness. Again, like I said, though, there are plenty of options when it comes to MIDI foot controllers. I don't see what good coming here and being combative is going to do. As far as the wireless, that's always going to be something to deal with if you use a floor-based modeler or multi-effects unit. But it's the same if you use a traditional pedalboard. You have to choose where the best place to put the receiver is

The Helix is fully controllable via MIDI, so if you want to use another controller, it's certainly an option. You just won't have the scribble strips, capacative touch, or pedal edit mode features. I actually don't think $500 is too bad for a heavy duty controller. The Fractal foot controller, the MFC-101, goes for $750 new, and it only has one display. The Helix Control has 13 displays.

A new demo video by Paul Hindmarsh for the UK retailer, GuitarGuitar:

There is one phaser model - the Phase 90, called the "Script Mod Phase" in the list above.

You found me out... Sweetwater and Amazon - guilty!

:)

I've got to say I've never heard of this being an issue. I do recall a few years ago that people reported extraneous noise when using both the 1/4" and VDI outputs connected to the HD500 at the same time.

It sounds like you're probably monitoring through your computer speakers or something else other than the Firehawk. If you use the Firehawk as your output device as well as input, you should have no latency. You need to either monitor the Firehawk through headphones connected to it or connect your speakers to the Firehawk's analog outs.

There's also new Line 6 drivers that were just released this week if you haven't installed them yet.

You're correct. The HD500X isn't compatible with non-HD version of Workbench. The HD500 is, and the little USB Workbench interface is. One thing is that with the Variax Acoustic and Workbench, you don't really have the same sort of tone-shaping capabilities as you do with the Variax electrics. It really just gives you an easier way to manage alternate tunings and virtual capos.

I've just used TS cables. I don't believe the sends and returns on the Helix are balanced, so using a TRS cables won't be of any benefit.

Well, that is starting a rumor, because the actual time it will take is unknown still. The 1.0 firmware has not been created as of yet, so any videos you are using pre-launch firmware without any optimization being done on that feature yet.

1. There are rubber feet held on with screws on the bottom. I haven't really looked too closely at removing them, but I imagine you could. I don't know that I would try to secure it to a board using screws. I would probably look at either velcro or the 3M dual lock stuff. I'm not sure what Line 6's official advice is as far as mounting it to a board. 2. Yep, there's an expression pedal - a very nice one, actually. Also, there's two jacks for hooking up additional external pedals. 3. I haven't had to mess with levels when using the 4CM. It's very easy. That's not to say it's out of the realm of possibility depending on the amp you're hooking up to. Because there's a lot of variation in the way amps handle effects loops, I'd say you kind of have to approach the 4CM on a case per case basis.

Brand spankin' new amp models, not based on any previous Line 6 modeling technology. They sound and feel great, imo.

You know, I missed the picture of your gain knob before. Am I missing something or is only at about 10 o'clock? I've found with most condensers, I have to have the gain up above 3 o'clock or ever higher. Do you have the meters on the UX2 set to be pre? If so, you should be able to see what kind of levels you're getting from the mic from just reading them.

Do you have the phantom power on the UX2 turned on?

Yep, that's pretty much the whole point of having the loops, well, a big one anyway.

The one thing they said in that video regarding the firmware isn't quite accurate. That unit doesn't have the 1.0 firmware on it, as that hasn't made it into the wild yet. So as far as timing of patch changes and stuff, there will still be optimizations.

It will definitely sound better than your Kenmore... Sorry couldn't resist. I don't think Line 6 will ever produce any demos specifically pitting one of their products against the other like that. It's not really in their interest to do so. I'm sure those sorts of things will be made by others once the Helix gets into the hands of users, though. Personally, I think the Helix models are very responsive and realistic sounding, and moreso than the HD (as they should be for three times the price).

Has all the same capabilities as the HD looper, but can be placed anywhere in signal chain, and you have a choice of using it as a mono or stereo looper (in stereo, it maintains stereo separation unlike summing to mono like the HD).

Well, you can have one footswitch control one or several parameters in the amp model, and you can have another footswitch control others, but you can't have multiple footswitches controlling the same parameters. What you described above sounds something more like scene control, where you'd have footswitches cycle through multiple states. That's not really how the control assignments work. You have min and max for each parameter, and you can assign a controller to toggle or sweep between those.

If you unplug the pedal while in a scene, it will delete all assignments (it makes the heel and toe the same for whatever FX modules you have the pedal assigned to in that scene). If you have multiple parameters, and only want to delete one, you have to just do it manually. Push the pedal forward to toe position, and set the delay time to match the delay time for the heel position. Assuming you're in manual scene save mode, you'll have to re-save your scene.

You can actually have the Blue Comp and an overdrive in the same preset. There are three effects blocks in the chain that are essentially "wild cards" that can be changed to any effect from the Drives & Dynamics, Mods, Delays, or Filters, Synths, and Pitch group. To change from one group to another, you hit the effect icon for the one you want to change, then hit the icon for that effect type up in the upper left hand corner. Once you do that, you'll be in the menu that lets you select which effect from that type you want. If you hit the word "Type" in the upper left hand corner here, you'll be taken to another menu that lets you pick which group you want to use.