optimus_7

So - I've used a Yankee HS-M10 for a little over a year with the M9 - and the use case you list for "alternate un-supported power supplies" seems to suggest Two 9V ~400-500mA inputs. SO - the Yankee has a DC OR AC 9-12V(selectable) 1300mA that is intended for use with these bigger pedals - I've had no issues with M9 using this option. My Questions: 1 - How much current CAN the unit use? (If the DC-3g is 9V3A) - and you said the bootup takes the most power - and the most the supported supplies can provide is 9V 1000mA 2 - Do I need buffers for the external loops to keep the noise floor down? (Like I do with Helix.) 3 - How can I tell what the noise-floor is for my Power supply? I've never looked at that or thought about it. Cheers,

I'm not 100% sure if this was covered by others in your thread - But from my own experience, I have a few things you should examine. I had this problem immediately when I finally got my Helix as well - that things didn't sound exactly right in the FX loop no matter how CORRECT my impedance, PAD, instrument/line settings were - I consider myself an expert on this - I put out a really informative Video on the POD HD500 using 4CM that seems to be a big hit and has helped a lot of people. So for the Helix - I thought - COOL! I can put a bunch of effects in the loops and use the blocks wherever I want in my chain. Couple things happened with that: 1 - NOISY AS HELL - I actually called Line 6 about this - and their answer was.."Yup - that's how it works. Only solution is to get a buffer to cut down the noise - but you would need one for each loop"...ugh. 2 - The INPUT on the Helix (like the guitar in - not the FX returns.) Has a very high dynamic range...they advertise it at 127dB - which means, that if your drive pedals go into the Input of the Helix - and nothing else in the chain - out to your amp - it should sound very close, if not identical to just plugging straight into your amp. HOWEVER - the FX sends and returns Do not have that dynamic range (or at least the guy I spoke to could not verify what the dynamic range was...) SO - why is that important? because your pedals and their interactions with eachother and your amp are essentially only restricted by eachother, and your amp, and all that NATURAL compression when you start hitting the threshold of what a preamp can handle is what we crave - so when you add a digital modeller in-between the last pedal and your amp - you always lose a little bit because the Analog-to-digital-back-to-analog converting alone may be compressing faster or earlier than it would be without it... HENCE - a change in tone. Especially when using the loops which we don't really know how much range they can have in them. SO - I've played with this for a while and the best result I've found is - any drives go into the Guitar input - you can't be as crazy with the routing, but it's still sounds great and is very usable - you may have to re-level all your gains/volumes etc. to get back to "your sound". If you do need to use a loop - you'll want a buffer to start - I HAVEN'T Tested this method yet - because I found what works for me - and I'm happy with it. Finally - any REAL drives I had for which Helix had an analogous model - I just use the Helix's version - (I.E. i leave my Timmy,TS, OCD, etc off my board now...) Good luck!

As of posting this topic - I hadn't upgraded to the lastest firmware and didn't know about the snapshots. ALSO - the firmware released a few weeks ago 2.10 - I think allows for external MIDI devices to control bypass of effects. that being said - In my tests I've realized that I cannot have the 32-effect board that I wanted! lol. HOWEVER - this is great. I'm actually planning to downsize my whole rig to just the helix and my amp. no more external wah or M9 required. The updates and new effects coming all the time - there's no reason to have all the extra buttons. Who knows - I may just go back to the Helix alone - and not use any amps. Time will tell. But this thing is a Freakin' Beast. Helix - I dub thee "Axe-killer."

The M9 is fantastic as a supplement to the Helix. I use it exactly as you said - for all the fx that aren't yet in the helix itself. I use it in a loop that's constantly on - another loop does the 4cm to my Rockerverb. I don't use the Midi because I actually like to have more buttons to push on the fly.

Fellow String Slingers... I need help with an issue. My use case for the Helix is FX only - I have 2 VERY awesome amps that get me every tone I'll ever need. Because I'm using Helix only for FX - AND because Helix can have up to 32 blocks in a chain - I was really hoping to add an external MIDI controller (like 12 extra buttons.) and be able to use it to control the FX on/off of the blocks NOT controlled by the Helix pedals. I play in a 90's cover band - and Basically my main sounds are easily accessed through the built-in pedals. The bonus of having up to 10 pedals on the unit at a time has been great. But, rather than switch patches for some of the other crazier effects, I'd like to have an external MIDI Controller turn on/off some fx Blocks with the push of a button. When Helix originally came out - I was hoping the Helix Control could connect to the Floorboard and unlock up to 20 combinations of buttons at a time - but no dice..(YET?) SO - the issue I'm having is - I connected my old HD500 to see if the concept will work - but I can't find ANYWHERE in the controller config, or the manuals, etc. where the parameter for On/Off is set? You can use an external controller for any of the other parameters on an effect - but not "on/bypassed". Reading through the literature - it almost seems like you would need to have an effect assigned to an existing pedal on the Helix, then cc that pedal with one of the reserved CC numbers - which is totally useless..and redundant. Also - any plans to make External amp control polarity configurable so that you can control what channel is on when the LED is lit. (I.E. clean= LED off, dirty = LED on) I saw this was a feature request on Idea scale. Finally - is there a way to configure Helix such that, when the expression pedal moves past say 5% an fx block turns on, instead of having to push the EP button. (I think I've seen elsewhere that the answer is "no") Basically for Auto-engage whammy, in my case? Am I missing something stupid? Or are these just limitations? Also - Eye Candy: Grunge on.

My Current Rig - I Finally had to bite the bullet on the Helix. Had the M9 and the POD HD500. Loving the sound out of the Helix. I don't use it for Amps - but the effects are slick and the dynamic range of the unit is RIDICULOUS. Loving it. I'm having some issues with noise, and other things but that's all part of the learning a new unit. Cheers,

I love hearing that amsdenj! That's how I've been working for the past few years. I have 2 bands I play guitar in regularly - an 80's and a 90's band. I used to model the whole tone of any guitar player I was covering, from Elliott Easton to Kurt Cobain. But now - I make virtual pedalboards that are basically 7-10 stompboxes (I just added an M9 to my POD HD500 ) and I can get any sound I need live on demand! Lemme know if you need use-cases for your blog - happy to help! Rock on!

I totally had the same idea in my post but removed it before I posted - cause I wasn't sure if Helix could handle that scenario. My assumption is that the loops would cut out too between changes.

I get that Spillover is a hot topic - but I'd like everyone to consider a few thoughts: 1 - I've toured nationally, internationally, and had anywhere from 2-3 gigs per week for 10 years at least. So - I might be counted among the "vast majority" of players, or I might be pro...regardless I think that I've earned the right to say - I've NEVER once needed spillover - even when we did a U2 tribute show in Iraq for the troops and all I had was my POD HD500 and a Variax 300. Guess who cared about spillover? No one. I've never had a chick come up to me at the end of the night and say "gee your band was really good but you were really missing the spillover in your patch switches". The only spillover they care about is their cleavage...frankly - that might be the only spillover I care about as well. I agree that switching patches and having a dead stop is not ideal - but that's why you adjust either your playing style, or figure a different way to handle tonal transitions so that they don't sound silly onstage. OR just use the aforementioned (Several Times) way of getting a spillover-type effect from the Helix - lose your flexibilty and stop complaining. 2 - We're all trying to argue the merits of 30-year-old guitar technology. I owned a Digitech 2120, 2101, Valve FX - I remember those units. But I bet you don't remember how terrible they sounded compared to ANYTHING on the market now. I recently sold one that I bought for nostalgia - I loved it - but it was unusable on stage or in a studio (For me anyway) it was noisy and digital sounding. I would never keep it in a rig just for spillover. If your creative process and songwriting require spillover - then maybe this isn't the right tool for you - those others are available for a fraction of what they cost new. Or change the way you approach it. Sometimes that's where the most growth happens. In our playing and performing. I don't really see a strong argument for spillover in Helix: A - If spillover is so important that you can't live without it - then get the thing that has it. B - If you absolutely have to have Helix - then stop bugging Line 6 about spillover C - If you absolutely have to have spillover AND Helix - use the workaround D - If the workaround doesn't work for you - return to A. But I'm just the flip-side of the coin I guess.

So - cn you tell me what the Dynamic Range is for the: POD HD500 (not X) M9.. Strange Question - but I have a good reason. lol. Thank man! Cheers,

Just a few question - I'm about to pull the trigger on a pre-order. BUT I want to clear up a few things. I've toured with the HD 500 for almost as long as it's been out - and it's been great - with a few exceptions that I hope this item solves. 1 - Is there a signal loss from the Guitar input to the FX send (any of them)? In The HD - and it's WELL documented in these forums now - theres a noticable difference that killed an amps natural tone because there was about a 3dB difference (lower) between input and the FX send. will there be unity gain from input to effects send and the only thing affecting the signal will be what "Blocks" you put on the Chain? 2 - I'm seeing that there is a possibility of running up to 32 blocks (which I assume means Effects/or Amps - but for my case, I haven't ONCE used amps from the HD - It's only for Effects) Is that True? 3 - If #2 is the case, will it ever be possible to have an extension switch for the Helix floorboard? Or to make a firmware update that allows you to connect the Floorboard to the Rack Footcontroller through the VDI - so that you basically have instant access to ALL effects in your chain? I'll NEVER use 32 effects in a patch - but my current TOTAL Effects count for a live show is getting to about 20, and with the HD - I have to split it across about 5 or 6 patches and I'd like to Avoid that, I'd like to have them all on some individual switch that can be labeled. Would be amazing. 3 - If Question 3 = NO - then is it possible to hook up an external MIDI controller to add the flexibility (like a mastermind, or some other programmable footcontroller? Very stoked about this guys - Your stuff usually lives up to the hype - and I hope that's the case with this one. Cheers,

How about this one on for size? Key distinguishing factors from the HD 500x? 1 - Dual expression pedals with the toe activation switch. 2 - up to 16 effects at once. 3 - More buttons to assign to FX 4 - Full MIDI control functionality. (can control other devices, and be controlled by other devices) 5 - Clean Boost mod, always available at the push of a button NOT asigned to one of the 16 effects - it's like the looper - always available. 6 - fully integrated 4-Cable method inputs/outputs with Hard-Wired FX Loop - no FX loop that takes up a Mod. I want it. Rock On.

JTSC777, Thanks man - much obliged. Radatats - the POD can do 8 effects at once, it's true...KINDA. - it can really only do 7 effects at once if you use the 4 Cable Method, because one of the effects has to be an FX Loop. Also - what I'm hoping to do with the M13 is have 12 effects available at the push of a button...I rarely, if ever, have more than 3 effects on at once when I'm playing live.

Line 6-ers, I need help. Just want to know the capabilities of the M13 - as I'm thinking of replacing my HD500 with it. I don't use ANY of the amp modelling on the HD500 - but I use the effects. I currently have to have 6 Scenes to cover 1 gig's-worth of effects. (90's Cover band called Sounds Like Teen Spirit) - on any given gig I would use Fuzz, Distortion, Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, talk-box, delay, trem, leslie, compressor, whammy up 2 Octaves, Whammy Down 2 octaves, pitch up 5th, pitch down 3rd, wah, synth, Clean-boost - though I have an EP-101 for that now. It's not impossible - but it is annoying to have to jump back and forth for songs. It works, but It would be greate to get all effects into 2, or Ideally 1 "Scene". My questions: ONE Can I setup 12 effects on one scene - Drives in A, Mods in B, Delay/synth, etc. in C, and so-on. and then be able to turn on any 4 effects at once? E.G. - for Nirvana songs - could have distortion, and chorus on (one in A, one in B - then for Rage songs - could have Flange, Pitch, Whammy, on (A, B, C)? I guess the root of my question is - are you able to setup the M13 like a REAL pedal board - with the only limitation being that you can only have 4 effects on at the same time? (1 from each of ABCD columns)? TWO Does the M13 model input impedances of the individual pedals being modelled? (Like the POD HD 500 does?) Can I change this setting? I couldn't find anything in the L6 documentation on the M13. But the modelling of input impedances, While awesome, was a huge tone destroyer for the 4CM with my current Amp - so I had to set the global input impedance of all effects at the highest impedance (I think 3.5Mohms) to compensate. THREE Does the FX Loop take up one of the blocks on the M13 - or is it virtual...set it n' forget it? (I think I saw in the manual, that you can put it anywhere.) Thanks in advance for your feedback. Grunge on.

No - already have one - and it doesn't fit the need I'm trying to fill. Talk to me when you have to haul an AxeFX, guitars, MFC, Amp, etc. to anywhere from 2-5 gigs per week, with a few flyaway's every month for USO tours, Casino gigs, etc. AxeFx is awesome - I'm not saying I don't like them - I'm saying I don't need that much headache or horsepower for every gig I play...it's impractical. Cool, but Impractical. It's easier to take my POD HD on Flyaways - cause you never know what your amp setup will be, and what the venu can get for you - so you can have consistent good tones, in a single box. For home gigs - I don't want to take more gear than is necessary. Keep it simple, Keep it awesome. Besides - the AxeFx stroking is for the Fractal Audio forum - I want Line 6 input here. Rock on Man!