Stratotron

Amp models.. I have created a handful of tones and I am finding that I am cranking the Amp Channels and Master volumes way up. Is it better to run the Amp volumes down and increase the Output Volume? (knob on face) For instance on one set I ran a patch using the Park 75, and another using the Essex AC30 (I love this one) I order to get unity between the 2, I have the Essex Master at 10 and the Channel volume at 9.5. So my question is, before I get to far into creating tones; is it better to leave the modeled levels alone and turn up the output, and then pull the heavier amp models down, instead of turning the quiet ones up? Helix has truly delivered on the gig, cut through the mix without being loud. Was able to turn my overall monitoring down, our drummer loves the tone in his monitor! Snapshots are incredible, and Snapshot parameter control is easy to set up, once (I) understood it.

The volume pedal seems to take too much "toe" to activate. The same was true of my Firehawk. I fixed it by adjusting the heel position to be ever so slightly on. This allowed for a better curve for volume swells. I tried the same methodology with the Helix, by setting the heel value at 2% in a patch. The value did not save however. How do I adjust the heel position on the volume pedal? I have tried linear, and logarithmic assignments for the volume pedal. They both seem loaded towards the toe position, not enough increase at the heel end. Maybe I need to learn the feel of the Helix pedal... Thanks in advance.

Am loving Snapshot function. While editing, I can turn a block, or multiple blocks on or off from Snapshot to Snapshot by way of the PC editor. What wont change and save are the parameters of a block on an amp. If I change a parameter using the PC, it sets that parameter across every Snapshot. The manual claims that Snapshot parameters can be changed using the knobs on the control face. Is this true, that it is necessary to make parameter changes using the knobs rather than the PC editor? I hope this question makes sense. I am going to try this after dinner. FYI I am using Patches on the upper 4 controllers and Snapshots on the lower 4 controllers. Can I just say, the more I use the Helix the more I love it. I am blown away each day with the functionality and the sound of this device. Thanks all, Blessings-out

Received Helix last week. In advance I had downloaded the owners manual off of the Line 6 site in order to have a head start on the operations. After delivery my intention was to take the provided thumb drive manual to Kinkos in order to print a bound hardcopy of the manual. ( I prefer post it notes and highlighters when I need to learn something technical). I open the thumb drive to review the file, and noticed there was no section on "Snapshots" in the drive version PDF. I did a word search of the document and "Snapshots" didn't return. This is a BIG DEAL as the Snapshot function of the Helix is incredible. If I had relied only on the thumb drive manual, I would be unaware of the Snapshot function. Just letting new owners know to get the Manual from the Line 6 site. This isn't a dig, an IT friend of mine told me that I should let the Line 6 Tech Writers know about this. The Helix is complicated but really well thought out. Once (I) get a concept of a function, it sort of unfolds or snowballs in to other functionality. I am sort of at a loss for how good it sounded on the gig. It was like my ears had popped, or like seeing after my glasses had been cleaned. It didn't exhibit digital brittleness, yet it allowed my tone to sit up in the mix while being bright and cutting through. I hope that I never get used to how good it sounded, had a couple of "got chills" moments on Sunday, same old licks, just new sonic qualities. D-out

Alas...the Firehawk has been benched, next will be the M5. As I posted earlier, any function that the M5 can perform in the HD500X, FX loop, can be assigned within the 500x and programmed to that FS. I am going to NAAM in Anaheim next month, with a stop by the Line6 booth to get a REAL look at the Helix. Will need to sell a slightly used kidney to buy one.

I am adding a "deconstructing" post tot this discussion. I have moved from my Firehawk, back to my HD500X, at least for the Christmas season of performances. Here is why.. 1.The HD500X to me sounds a little brighter, Firehawk sounds warmer. I am able to get a little more twang out of the HD. 2. The FX loop on the FH has a tone. The FX loop on the HD500X is totally transparent, and is 100% moveable, can be set anywhere in the signal chain. FH has pre-prescribed insertion points. 3. HD500X has midi. I have an M5 that I bought to give another effect option to the Firehawk. I am now using it with the HD500X.The good-the bad and the uselessness of it; anything that the M5 can do can be assigned to the block occupied by the FX loop using the HD500X. In other words I can take the FX loop function and change it to a mod or drive or whatever in the HD. The up-side is that by running an M5 effect through the loop, gives me the option to boost it a little using the send/return values. Once again the loop on the HD is transparent. So far, I have only figured out how to run the M5 midi from patch banks 1-6. eg; patch HD500x 1A= M5 preset 1, HD 1B= M5 preset 2 all the way to HD 6D= M5 preset 24. The good of it is the HD500X saves the state of the M5, and allows me a single switchable M5 function at the front of my pedal board instead of the back row. When using the M5 with the Firehawk, I had to scroll through presets between songs to set it if I wanted to use it. 4. Due to the number of assignable blocks in each HD500X patch, I can get away with fewer patches, say by adding an extra drive to an existing patch.. I do have to run a mini jack from my Ipad to the HD for playback, and I have to bend down to adjust things during sound check. So for the season, I am back to the HD500X...This too shall pass...

FS-1 thru 5 are all assignable. The limitation is in what to assign to them. So for instance you can move your Mod to FS-1 if you would like, only to put what on the Mod switch. ( I misspoke earlier, my FX loop is assigned to FS-5 not 4. ) So really all I am talking about is swapping my reverb FS-5 for FX loop FS-5. Once again, my FX loop has an EP Boost and a Line 6 M5 Modeler. The HD500X is miles ahead of the Firehawk in assignability, Firehawk, with it's limitations has ios editing. In my current economy, editing wins.

Just got to thinking...what I described is patch specific. I don't know of a way to Globally reassign switches. In other words you need to go patch to patch reassign and save. Or, if you would like, tell me what effect you want to assign to FS4 and Ill describe how to do it.

By reassigning the switch in the editor...Ill try again. Open a patch in the editor. With the editor open tap on the fx loop. at the bottom of the editor, you will see a row of footswitch buttons. In my example, tap the Orange footswitch 4 button. Look at the pedal board. Footswitch 4 is now a bluish color, because the fx loop has been assigned to Footswitch 4. Any block that is editable is assignable to any upper switch. The BAD news is, if you want for instance 2 Drives, you will need to give up one other editable block. My thinking is ALL blocks should be up for grabs. I don't use the EQ all of the time, and would like to use it for something else.

If I Understand the post....You can assign any FS to any effect in a patch group. For instance as a routine, I assign my FX loop to the default Reverb FS4. EG: Simply open the FX loop in the patch editor and tap the Orange Reverb FS Icon at the bottom of the editor screen, save. I do this because, once I have a reverb on, I never turn it off. I agree with the post in regards to the static state of the comp, eq, reverb etc. They should all be editable, moveable wildcard effects blocks.

Since last update, I don't notice any latency or delay in Firehawk patch switching, which I do a lot! I too miss the ability to assign multiple fx to the same switch. Also miss the number of editable fx blocks. Firehawk has gate, eq, comp and reverb set as permanent blocks, I would that they were wildcards. As a workaround, I have an EP boost and an M5 modeler in my fx loop. Biggest deal for me is the Ios-Ipad editing, would not willing give that up! The Ipad editing is particularly handy in sound check, no bending over to tweak. I pad is getting a little crowded, my music and mp3s are on it (Planning Center Online), I edit Firehawk, and we are toying with Presonus personal monitoring, (adjusting my own monitor mix remotely, from my location-Ipad). I will add that toggling between Planning Center and Firehawk, PC kicks FH out of the Bluetooth, note: the Planning Center mp3 file will play back through the Firehawk, another huge deal the has STREAMLINED my rehearsal time.

I generally engineer entire patch groups that are song specific, and arrange them from right to left (don't know why). For exampleI will put the song intro on switch D, verse one on C, chorus and or pre-chorus on B instrumental on A, so they basically go cleanest to most driven right to left. I haven't downloaded my patches to the cloud recently, but if you are interested, you can put "stratotron" into the Firehawk tone search and find a mess of the tones I have used. They are named song specific.

I put my Firehawk back in to service with the new update, Right off the bat, a couple of my stock tones sounded like trash. I re-engineered and found a couple of stock tones that I used in place of. Generally speaking, I never use a stock tone, if I do it is only as a starting point. Oh yeah BTW stock tone= AC30 DD, 2 delays very ambient 3 dimension, sounded awesome in the room FOH! Very happy with switching and rig overall. No artifacts or weird latency tones in switching. I did find a better unity level with my effects loop, leave the return at 0 an slightly turn the send down. I am getting rid of my Fulltone 2 as a boost in my FX loop as it tends to color the boost when I engage it. Will be shopping a clean boost on Thursday. May try the Fulltone 3 because you are able to select where you want the boost in the pedal, in front of the drive or after the drive. In reality, I could just use the fx loop as the boost. Has anyone noticed that the Firehawk forum has become like a ghost-town since Helix shipped?? Just sayin...

Since the update, I have noticed a couple of things, for 1, several of my basic guitar tone patches have turned in to midrange sounding clatter. I was able to fix slightly by turning down the compressor. The other thing, is the FX loop has acquired a high end "tone". I have yet to find a way, since the update, to make the FX loop switch transparent without turning it down to the point that the external fx are inaudible. This is a real drag because I use the loop for a boost. The added tone makes it useless. Do I need to perform a factory reset and reload my custom tones? All of my tones are in "My Tones".

I will reply as well. My experience, I get my charts and mp3s through an app called Planning Center on my Ipad. I am able to play the Planning Center mp3s through the Firehawk. The combination of Firehawk, Ipad and Planning Center have been a total game changer for me. The days of burning cds and going through pages of hardcopy charts is dead and gone. I get a notification by email, go to the Planning Center app, and all of charts, mp3s, rehearsal times, soundcheck time, band personel, soundtechs are all there. On a side note, Planning Center allows me to make annotations (notes) on my charts which Planning Center saves to my profile. Next time that song comes up, the chart that I am sent will have all of my previous notes on it. I noticed when I tapped on the speaker volume icon on the Ipad it gave me a choice of "Headphone" or "Firehawk" playback. I will say that Planning Center will "kick out" the Firehawk app, so if I go from Planning Center to edit a Firehawk tone, it has to reconnect before I can edit. Takes a very short time, no big deal.

I agree, in the sake of full disclosure, it is actually a Korg Orchestral Tuner....Very accurate....However, for the sake of total coolness, I MAY need to add a multi-meter...I would be completely Spinal Tap. ;)

Dang pic is upside down...WHAT?

Here is a pic of my setup just for fun. Firehawk>>Fulltone 2 as a boost and Line 6 M-5 in FX loop. Relay G-70, Korg tuner and even a AA Battery charger for Relay body pack. This rig weighs a ton, but is the easiest and fastest set up that I have ever owned. Power cable plugged in, XLR to board, I am good to go!

I used my Pod HD500X in place of the Firehawk this weekend with these comments. HD500X is tonally more brittle right off the bat. I was planning on using my Strat (single coils) too high-endy and only had 45 mins to rehearse with guest leader so without IOS editing, I was compelled to live with it. Used my Telecaster La Cabronita, with Fideli-Tron pickups, much warmer. I did use the global eq to pad the high end a little at home, not enough for the gig. Need more practice(understanding) with that. Really, really missed the Firehawk IOS editing So this AM I removed the 500X and restored the Firehawk to service. First off basic tone sounded like junk, messed with amp tones and stomp tones..no fix. Moved mod block from behind amp to in front of amp and problem solved. This lead me to moving my FX loop and re-setting the I/O levels of the loop as well. Send -9.7, return +9.8 and mix at about 48%.This gave the FX loop a unity with the rig. After I did this, I decided to perform the same task to ALL of my custom tones, and saved each to "My Tones" Seems like upgrade didn't jibe with my signal chain. Early evaluation is very positive with the1.20 upgrade, no lag or artifacts so far. Looking forward to getting this weeks charts and MP3s More to follow, I'm sure.

I think those are completely valid questions. Out of the box, in my opine, the Firehawk sounded better, a little warmer. In all fairness, I got the Firehawk right around the time that Line 6 issued the 500X firmware update that added the global eq. I haven't REALLY explored that function. The idea that the global eq solves for the brittle-ice pick-in-the-ear sound of digital devices. Initially, I had to fix this by scooping the tone of every patch that I developed. Actually, The Firehawk has all of the HD amp models that the 500X has, and all of the non-HD models as well. I imported all of my tones from my Amplifi 100X rig into the Firehawk and left some of them as non HD. The BIG deal for me in IOS editing, and Bluetooth connectivity for rehearsal. I get set-list charts and mp3s through Planning Center App. each week and the Firehawk has streamlined my rehearsal time. Firehawk really works well with Planning Center. At sound check, I can make slight adjusts to my tone from my Ipad. All of that said, the 500X has all assignable fx blocks, the Firehawk only has 3. If I want 5 distortions in a row (just an example), I can do that with the HD500X. With Firehawk, If I want more than 1, I have to trade out something else. To me, the effects in the 500X sound more vibrant and more apparent. For this reason alone I may us the 500X this week, as we have a guest leader and the songs he has selected have effect heavy guitar parts. (Big fun for me!) I don't think you have gone wrong going for the 500X, to me it is more complex, but with that complexity comes total editing control. This is why I have kept my 500X, it is a great rig. If it had Ipad editing, there would be NO question. This is weird, but another plus of the 500x over the FH is, the back row of switches on the 500X are stepped up, the Firehawk switches are not. I had to come up with little risers for the back row of switches on the FH so as to not hit a front row switch by mistake, which could switch a patch. A real drag under fire of a performance, thinking I have switched an effect, and actually switched a patch, so while playing, I have to figure out what I have switched, undo it, and engage the effect that I was going for in the first place. In the end, I am planning g on using the 500X this week since I have it in service and have developed my set list. The biggest thing that will draw me back to the FH is the Ipad functionality, that is really a game changer for me. Hope this was helpful, I think you'll love the 500X

Yeah, based on the post at the top of the page, I went ahead and updated. I had a problem getting my PC to do the upload, so instead, I used Ipad IOS 9 through the Firehawk App notification. Took an hour and a half via Bluetooth. So far I believe it is fixed. I went to the problem patches and no lag or chirps. The patches that I tested were very stable while switching.So far, so good. Just about the time I loose faith in Line 6, they do it again. It is all about patience. Thanks again Line 6. Now I have to decide, do I use my HD500x this week, or put the Firehawk back in to service..

Whoop! Too late! Already updated. Will wait for IOS 9 version. Luckily, HD500X is out of mothballs and is in service for this weekend.

The download page says v1.20 is compatible with IOS 8, what about IOS 9? I hope we aren't "one step back".

Rehearsed again this AM with HD500x, dang boy! It totally had slipped my memory how nice it is! It helps that my HD is packed full of patches that I wrote, so it is easy to switch to. I will hang on to Firehawk till the fix comes and re-evaluate at that time. A buddy of mine has the TC G system, I have checked it out. He plays backline, I play direct. My SENSE is that the TC G system is geared more for backline amps, and not as focused on running direct.

It has officially become unbearable. The latency noises and "pops" during patch switches has become more than I can work around. While switching tones during quiet passages and between songs there are occasional pops that are unacceptable. It has become such a distraction, that the Firehawk is out of service until the fix is published, or I sell it. I need to concentrate my energy and focus on playing the actual song, not concentrate on how I am going to cover up some flippin pop or quack that comes out of my FX device. Luckily I have my HD500X back up. This week, I left my Firehawk rig at the gig, so I broke out the 500X to rehearse at home and was reminded of what a quality unit it is. More assignable fx blocks and no noise. Certainly less to haul around (My Firehawk now has 2 other stompboxes connected to FX loop to make up for lack of assignable blocks, that means added power supply, so whole thing is in a huge pedal board that weighs a ton.) Add to that, I had forgotten how some of the patches on the 500x sound, more vibrant and apparent. I had struggled to recreate the dimension of some of my 500x patches translated to the Firehawk. Firehawk just won't do it due to lack of assignable blocks and lack of block position flexibility. The switching in the 500x allows multiple blocks to be assigned to the same switch, so tapping a switch can toggle on effect on and another one off simultaneously. Bluetooth and iPad editing on the Firehawk put,it in one sense, miles ahead, the latency and the noises have rendered it useless to me. Historically, I have jumped on each new effect incarnation that has come out of Line 6, since XT. After owning the Amplifi, and the Firehawk, I will wait and take a long, long cautious look at the Helix. For $1500 of my hard earned bucks, it will need to review as flawless.