phil_m

The expression pedal on the Firehawk is optical, so using it in direct sunlight can lead to issues like this, unfortunately.

You can't use the EXP2 jack like that. You could use MIDI to control the tap tempo, though. Molten Voltage makes a pedal specifically for Line 6 products to do this: http://www.moltenvoltage.com/products/SIXY_by_PedalSync_Line_6_Tempo_Control_by_Molten_Voltage.html You could actually use any MIDI controller, though. You just have to program it with the correct CC.

Yep... And $0.12/kWh is actually quite higher than the actual electric rate in many parts of the country. I don't even think I pay $1500 for my electric bill for the entire year.

The HD500 clips aren't Sean. This isn't an official Line 6 video.

I'm pretty sure no one will be getting them in July, especially when Line 6 has already said it expects to start shipping them sometime in late August.

What is it you're trying to do exactly?

Those settings should make it through a firmware update, but if you do an actual reset, they'll of course go back to the default. Typically global settings haven't been addressed in editors, but I don't want to speculate. All of these things we're talking are actually extremely easy to change on the unit itself. It takes one button click to get to the Global Settings menu, and once in there everything is really clearly laid out.

Yes, there definitely will be a PC/Mac editor.

Yes, you can do this. There's basically three modes for the footswitches - Preset, Stomp and Pedal Edit (well, there's also Looper Mode, but that's accessed by hitting whatever switch you have the looper assigned to, not by the Mode switch). In Preset mode you have three options as to how the switches can be used. The default is both rows are presets. There's also modes called "Upper Row" and "Lower Row" that allow to have presets on the top or bottom while the other switches are used for effects. Also, there's another option to change the bank up and down switches to preset up and down, so you can scroll through presets using those switches. I think they've pretty much covered all the bases...

Well, let me put it this way. The best digital tape delay emulation I've heard is the Strymon stuff. I used to have the El Capistan, and I still have the TimeLine. I think the new HX Tape Echo is getting pretty darn close to the Strymon. There are few more parameters on Strymon's model, so I can't say they're equal, but the new Line 6 model sounds awesome. It's one of my go-to effects as well, so it was one of the first ones I tried.

It's not automatic (don't really know if such a thing is even possible), but the Merge block, which is kind of the opposite of the split block, has a polarity parameter for Path B, so yes, you should be able to take care of phasing issues with that.

The vibrato channels have less clean headroom and are brighter than the normal channels on Fender amps.

There are three effects blocks in the chain that are essentially "wild cards" that can bed 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.

Well you can create custom labels for the scribble strips, so you conceivably do something like that already. You could pretty easily put a few chords in a scribble strip.

No risk of damage. You're just sending a slightly hotter signal to the power amps.

No, they can't, but that's a pretty cool idea. That could be useful for DAW control. I say throw it up here: http://line6.ideascale.com/

1. Well, whenever you put a device in your chain, there's going to some signal loss of some sort. The question is is it noticeable. I have had no problem achieving unity gain through the Helix used for effects only both just in front of my amp and in the 4CM. If you set the 1/4" outs to instrument level, and turn the master volume knob to 100%, it sure sounds like unity gain to me. 2. Yes, it's possible to run up to 32 blocks. How close you can get actually get to that number would be dependent on the type of effects you use. 3. This is already sort of possible via MIDI. Although, you're still kind of limited to the 10 footswitch assignments for turning effects on and off. If you were creative, though, I'm sure there would be ways to have all the control you need. The one thing I'll say is that using multiple presets is probably not be as big a deal as you think. Because of the scribble strips, you always know what your switch assignments are. You're not stuck trying to remember what effects you had assigned where.

Yes, I might have to eat some crow it appears... But, I think what DI is saying, and what I forgot to mention, is that from the "learn controller" function in the Controllers section, you can assign MIDI CCs to individual parameters in effects and input and output blocks. That was something I forgot about (stupid brain... don't make me poke you with a Q-Tip!) But what you won't find is a detailed, fixed MIDI mapping of every parameter of every effect. So ultimately will probably let you do what you want to do, but if you wanted to control every parameter of every effect for some reason, you probably would run out of CCs.

As far as controlling Helix via MIDI, the implementation is similar. You can change presets, turn effects on and off, and control the expression pedals. You can also control the looper (if its in your preset) and the tuner on/off, and you can change setlists. You can't change the mapping, though. As far as controlling individual parameters of amps and effects, that's not possible except through the expression pedal and switch controls (I imagine if you were using a switch as a controller, the control functionality would respond to the MIDI CC associated with that switch). I think for one thing, that having individual parameter control via MIDI CC would get very messy. If you look at the effects, some of them have up to 24 parameters. Also, you can have up to four amp models in a preset. So Line 6 would probably run out of available CC messages very quickly. As a controller, though, the Helix surpasses the ability of the HD500 and 500X by a lot. In addition to being able to assign different MIDI commands to the footswitches, you also have the ability to control the TRS relay jack and the CV jack. Additionally you can assign up to 6 quick commands to each preset that are sent as soon as you load the preset. So you could have it so that when you load a preset, you could automatically change channels on your amp, turn your amp reverb off, and change presets on a MIDI-controlled pedal.

The master volume and reverb knob on the DT25 are always WYSIWYG. The position of the other tone stack knobs will be ignored unless you turn them after you load a preset from HD500X. If you move them while in a preset, they control the tone stack of Amp A in the HD500X.

It's saved on a scene per scene basis.

OK, that makes sense. At least I got the 8 part correct... ;)

I'm confident there will be updates, but I can almost guarantee Line 6 isn't going to announce their future plans regarding them. That's just not how they operate.

1. It seems to me that Line 6 did acknowledge the whole issue with volume spikes and issue firmware update(s) to deal with it. But, yes, the USB implementation is different on the Helix in the fact that it's 8-in and 8-out. As far as the USB connector, I don't really have any idea if it's a different part or not. It seems fine to me. 2. Yes, you can use switches as controllers. You can assign up to 8 parameters to each footswitch in addition to assigning effects or amp blocks to be turned on an off by switches.

That's definitely Sean in the video you posted above, but in the original video, the Helix samples are Sean, and the HD500 samples are not. It's not entirely clear, but it looks like the HD500 samples are from the original poster.