phil_m

Yeah, that would be the easiest way. You can also use any of the 1/4" returns as inputs. You just have select whatever input you're using for each tone path.

Yes

What are you connected to? A mixer? If so, are the channels on the mixer panned correctly?

Feel like I'm piling on, but I'm not necessarily a fan of the PRS design aesthetic either. I really dislike the headstock. It's funny because I know some people have commented on the JTV headstock over the years, but imo, I'll take it over a PRS any day. I actually did have a Mira for a little while. It played pretty well, and I actually liked the feel of the neck. I was never a huge fan of the pickups, though. This also may be somewhat heretical, but I really have never liked quilt-top or overly striped tops on guitars. It just does nothing for me. I've never really understood the drooling over it. I do like seeing some nice grain, but I like the look of unadorned ash or alder a lot more than a fancy maple or whatever top. Don't get me started on gold hardware... :ph34r:

Well, there are two processors, and the four tone paths are labeled 1A & 1B and 2A and 2B. 1A and 1B share the resources of the first processor, so however you have those paths set up, their combined max DSP load represents 50% of the entire DSP of the unit (or 100% of that processor would be another way to put it). The same could be said for 2A & 2B. In my example above, I was close to the limit of the first processor and just moved some stuff down to the second. It's a little hard to explain the exact functionality when others haven't actually seen the manual or unit yet. The default setup, if you will, is one tone path using processor 1 and another using processor 2. You can split those two paths into two independent paths, so that's how you get 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B. It makes perfect sense once you see the signal paths on the screen. Once you have those four paths set up, you can arrange them in all sorts of routings.

The four was referring to amp/cab blocks. The way the blocks are set up in Helix, there's not a dedicated slot for amp/cab blocks like there is on 500/500X. Using an amp/cab block or split blocks for the amp and cab counts against the max of 32 blocks. The question asked was how many blocks could one reasonably expect to use in a tone. DI answered that if you have 4 DSP intensive amp/cab blocks, that may hit the limit or get close. It really depends. I've really never hit the overall DSP limit when setting up tones. I have hit it one path, but then I just move over to the next path. I imagine that typical users will not ever really come all that close. It really only comes into play when trying to do really complex stuff with two or more amps. Even with a dual amp setup, you can have some pretty big chains. I'm relatively certain there aren't any effects that are so DSP intensive that you could only have four instances of them (and nothing else) and hit the limit.

You can have as many drives in a patch as you want... Well, OK, you're limited to 32. :D I actually don't know how many drives you could add before hitting the DSP ceiling, but drives tend to be a lot less DSP intensive than stuff like reverbs and delays. But two in a row - that's easy.

Yes, you could do that very easily. There are number of ways you could set it up, but if you just wanted to have two amp models in parallel, you could set up a footswitch to toggle between them, or you could assign the channel volume to an expression pedal or footswitch.

Well, DI is the product manager for Helix, so that's pretty much straight from the horse's mouth... Wait, did I just call DI a horse... :ph34r:

Well, speakers are relatively inexpensive and replacing is pretty easy, yes. I don't think you need to be overly worried about damaging your speaker, though.

The idea that playing bass through a guitar amp can damage the is somewhat of a myth, although not completely. It's not so much that you'll damage the amp - nothing is going to "get fried" or anything like that. If you are really cranking the amp and pounding on the bass, it is possible to damage a speaker. It depends on the speaker load rating, though. But as long as you play at moderate volumes, there's nothing wrong with using a guitar amp for like practice. It's just that speakers in guitar amps weren't designed to reproduce very low frequencies all that well. So it might not sound the best. But I wouldn't be worried about damaging anything. Just don't dime the amp.

If that's what floats your boat, yes, you can do it.

If you can turn a knob, you can tweak the Helix... I was able to figure out probably over 95% of the functionality without having ever seeing the manual. It's remarkably simple for such a deep device.

I'm not sure I understand your question, but it look like you might be misunderstanding the way Line 6 is using the term "scenes". It doesn't use necessarily in the same sense that some other manufacturers do. It's better to think of the scenes on the M13 as presets. In each scene, you can put whatever effects you want in any of the 12 slots. If you save that scene, those effects will be there with whatever settings and in whatever on/off state you saved the scene with. If you go to another scene, though, the 12 effects will be different. The arrangement is unique that scene. If you want to have two scenes with the same effects but with different settings for those effects, you'd have to copy and paste that scene per the instructions in the manual.

The software is free. What you're actually paying for if you buy Workbench is the little USB interface. If you have a POD HD with a VDI interface, you don't actually need that little interface. However, the JTVs did ship with it, so if you buy a used one, I think it's reasonable to expect that you'd get that interface with it.

Well, I don't mean this be combative or come off as a fanboy, but I'm not sure how anyone can say the Variax models sound unrealistic. I mean, I have real versions of several of the guitars modeled, and it's to the place that I really can't hear a meaningful difference between the JTV and the real thing. I think the technology will continue to evolve, but it's hard for to imagine a huge leap from where it is now. If the real thing is the baseline, and you can fool people in an A/B test right now, where do you go from there? I guess you try to make the whole thing more streamlined, add more options, and make incremental improvements to the modeling. I don't know what plan for the Variax line is.I don't know how big the demand is for a $2,000+ Variax. The US JTVs are made-to-order for a reason.

The numbers represent half steps above or below the reference pitch (the pitch coming from your guitar). If you want an octave above, you'd set it to +12. -12 would be an octave below.

1. Yes 2. No, the Helix has an internal power supply, like an amp. It uses a standard IEC plug. 3. Yes

Well, I can't think of time when Line 6 has done that with an amp model (well, there is one time I can think of - the Bomber Uber and Elektrik model on the HD). They aren't like Fractal in that regard. They don't continually tweak the existing models for the very reason you're talking about. They know people have created tones with them, and they know people want those tones to sound the way they did when they created them. In the case of the Bomber Uber/Elektrik, the original Uber model was replaced/updated, but people liked the original model, so Line 6 gave it back to them and called it the Elektrik.

Helix is USB 2.0. USB 3.0 audio interfaces are actually rather few and far between. There aren't many 3.0 audio controller chips out there from what I understand.

From what I can tell, the effects capability of the Helix blows away the FX8. If you want to incorporate other pedals at in your rig, the Helix offers so much more flexibility it's not even a fair fight. I'm not trying to bash Fractal, really, it's just that I'm not seeing it being in the same category as the Helix.

There's all the same DEP parameters as the HD series - Master, Sag, Hum, Bias ans Bias Excursion. There's a Ripple parameter. That's kind of similar to the Hum parameter. It controls how the AC ripple interacts with the amp's tone. In addition to these, some of the amp models have some unique controls. The Orange model, for example, has the F.A.C. control modeled. That's a mid-sweep control that Orange uses that changes the voicing of the amp pretty dramatically. The parameters for the cabs are a bit different than in the HD. They've been simplified to an extent. There's Mic, Distance, Low Cut, High Cut, Early Reflections and Level.

If you want to tune a whole step down all the time, just set the tuning knob on the Variax to "1 down" and keep it there and set the Variax tuning option on page 8 of the setup menu in the HD500X to "don't force". That would probably be the easiest solution. You can still have the 500X select the Variax model with the preset that way.

Typically, when Line 6 releases an update, it doesn't change the core tone of the amp modeling. Even when they released the update that added the DEP amp and cab stuff, it shouldn't have changed the sound of your presets since the default values were left the same before those parameters were uncovered. There are some globals settings that may change during the update process that might change the way the HD500 sounded before and after an update, such as output modes. But, really, doing an update isn't all that disruptive. I've done every HD update, and I've never had to change my patches afterwards.

1. No, you'll have to tweak your volume to your liking. There are so many ways to control the gain structure within a patch, though, it's easy to do. I'd actually be really surprised if the Axe or Kemper behave the way you're describing. It's possible, I guess, but I'd rather have it act like a real amp. 2. It should sound fine in mono. To be honest, I've never had an issue using the HD500 in mono, either. I think whenever I've gone straight to the PA in a gig situation it's been mono. I mean, yeah, you lose the wideness of a stereo field, but the core tone doesn't change.