phil_m

I know people don't believe me when I say this, but I have no reason to believe Yamaha is really dictating Line 6's product lines like this... I have been fortunate enough to know some of the product managers at Line 6 and have them bounce ideas around. There have been ideas that have been killed, but it has never been because someone at Yamaha made the call. From what I can see and what I've been told, Yamaha is about as hands-off with its subsidiaries as it could possibly be. I think the StageScape system was going to be a difficult launch from the get-go. It was kind of an odd detour for Line 6 to take, and I think it struck a lot of people as something out of the blue. It was very cool, and it was ahead of its time in a lot ways. I think the big issue is that other companies who had been in the live sound business for quite a long time started making things that did a lot of the same sort of things. I don't think things would have been much different with it even if the Yamaha acquisition never took place.

What amp are you talking about?

Just an FYI, but according to Frank Ritchotte from Line 6, the total number of joystick failures hasn't even reached triple digits across the line. It's really not a common problem. I don't get the impression that the TC G-System has ever sold like hotcakes... I'm sure it was built fine, though. Sadly, TC was purchased by Behringer a few years ago, and that seems to have been the death knell for them.

If you showed a photo of the Helix and a photo of the Cortex to someone who had never seen them before, that person could very likely assume they were both made by the same manufacturer. I think Line 6 could very easily bring a trade dress case against Neural if they wanted. I don't think they will, just because such things can be seen as bullying. Speaking of phones, Apple did win a judgement against Samsung because Samsung stole various UI features directly from the iPhone. So it does happen. I don't know why people are so willing to give thieves a pass... It's enough for me to not want to support those companies, regardless of what other cool features they have.

What firmware version are you running?

I actually think that nearly everything about the UI is, uh, borrowed from something else on the market. And, I'm sorry, the whole signal flow thing is a direct copy of the Helix, and they aren't even trying to hide it. The color-coded, stylized icons and the curved lines - it's a direct rip off. There are plenty of other ways they could have done about, but they took the, "copy it, but make it look a little different route". If this thing actually comes out in Fall 2020, or shortly thereafter, I don't see that happening...

The parametric EQ might be worth the price of admission for you, but I wouldn't pay $1600 for a touchscreen controlled parametric EQ... :-)

Well, it was advertised, kind of. There was a note in the release notes for the 2.21 firmware when they added the Workbench HD support. - If a Variax guitar is connected to Helix, MIDI channel 16 should never be used, as channel 16 is how Variax Workbench communicates with the guitar. This is by design. On a related note, Variax Workbench should never be used while MIDI tracks are armed or playing back in your DAW

Haha... Never come to my studio... I almost always throw new IEC cable into the bin where I keep all of them. I just figure the ones that I have out and unwrapped work just as well. My wife had a friend in college who would number their socks when they got a new package because they were convinced that the way they came paired up in the package was The was the way they were meant to be.

What interface is it? Is there are way to pan the inputs on it?

How are you monitoring everything?

Are you using the stereo FX Loop block?

No. You can just select the AMPLIFi as a bluetooth device like you would anything else, and it will just act like a Bluetooth speaker. Back when I had the 150 (I gave mine away to a friend), I used mine as a speaker for parties a few times.

20 years is a long time to keep, well, almost anything. I have one guitar that I've had for about that long now. I've sold I don't know how many guitars in that time. I think one reason the life cycle of the current generation of Variax guitars has been as long as it has been is because there really isn't much in the way of competition in this area. There's the Roland VG stuff, but it's more limited in a lot of ways. I just think that it's kind of an uphill battle convincing a lot of guitarists of using something like the Variax, and I think it's going to be for awhile. I don't think Line 6 is abandoning it, but I think they are being measured in their development of it.

The AMPLIFi will stream audio over Bluetooth from an iOS or Android device or a computer. I don't know if there's a way to get it to pair with a "dumb" Bluetooth transmitter, though.

There's no way to have that sort of spillover between presets. Snapshots, which are kind of like presets within presets, will allow you to have seamless transition while maintaining delay and reverb trails if you want (controlled by the Trails parameter in each respective effect).

I have no idea how many Variax guitars have been sold over the years, but I have to imagine that it's been considered a success. I mean, no sane company is going to continue putting money into making things that aren't selling to the point where their costs are covered. The first Variax, the 500, was released in 2002. The fact the Variax line still exists in 2020 means something. As far as a left-handed Variax, it has nothing to do with caring about people. It's all about economics.

Well, you must be new here then... :-) This is very, very far from the weirdest question I've seen here.

It's a bit confusing because there are different iterations of the POD Farm licensing. Basically, though, if you got your license with the purchase of a piece of hardware, the license is forever tied to that hardware, and you need to have the hardware connected in order to access the license. You don't necessarily have to use the UX2 as the interface if you don't want to, but you have to have it connected via USB in order to have access to the full version of POD Farm that came with it. There is a hardware independent license of POD Farm that can be purchased on its own, and that will run with no special hardware connected (doesn't even need an i-Lok).

The Helix will work as interface for Workbench HD, but it isn’t compatible with Line 6 Monkey. So, no, it can’t be used to update the Variax.

First thing would be to double-check that you don't have the Input Pad on in the Global Settings menu. If it's off, than you have a few options. You can insert a Gain block to compensate for your other guitar. The other option, I guess would be to adjust the string volumes for the Variax. With the 2.80 update, you can control the Variax string volumes from the Helix. You just do that be going into the Variax tab on the Input Block.

On the same computer? You can reinstall it as many times as you want. You can have it installed on up to four different computers with one license.

I don't think there's any hardware limitation that would prevent meters being implemented. Obviously, it's not going to have actual hardware meters, but I'm sure they could develop some sort of graphical meters if they wanted.

2.82

Yes, there's no shut down procedure. It just powers down immediately.