datacommando

Ah, yes! The memory of that first diddly bow, that I acquired from your sister. Yes, the short one with a beard - the diddly bow, I mean. ;-)

Hi Jim, As someone once said “yer ‘avin’ a bubble baff, ain’t ya?” This thing is built like a tank! I got my Helix in November 2015 and it immediately replaced my Focusrite Saffire as the main audio device. It is tethered to my Mac, and is used daily, as the heart of my studio. You say that you are “wary” of using it and the possible long term “wear and tear”. Yet, by the same token you would presumably run your £200 sound card for 16+ hours daily? Are you also concerned about running your PC for that amount of time, because the Helix is essentially a big computer/soundcard, but dedicated to doing one thing. It does that very well! Plus what about the strain put on the components every time you power these things up and then turn them off! Oh, yeah, that thing about gathering dust in the PC chassis - that’s not a good thing! Fire hazard! ;-)

Just wondering. When we all get our free pony, will “spikey” get one with a tuner in it?

Hola de nuevo, My Spanish is limited, but using the usual on line translation services, it looks to me as if the installation was successful. I found a reference (in English) about the “requiere más instalación” (requires more installation) here: http://kb.esi.ms/KB00234EN For the moment I would suggest that you revert to v2.6 that works and, hopefully, the new 2.80 firmware will be out soon and you can simply update to that without problems. hope this helps.

Hi Daniel, I have not encountered this issue myself, but it does seem to me that you have solved the problem on your own. You bought a pre-owed used item and discovered a minor problem, which Customer Support have told you that “it may be a hardware issue”. That seems like an answer to me, plus as you noted it may get worse over time. Why wait? Get it fixed now before it throws the towel in. This is a just my opinion and as usually stated on these threads -YMMV!

Hi, arifff, Hello, you are through to the Line 6 Psychic Department. A little complicated to answer this - you haven’t told us what you purchased and/or where from? Interesting error code, could be from anything, anywhere! Is it this? What are the Causes of Windows Error 8727 ? Eventually windows error code 8727 is occur because of missing registry files or dll files. Corrupt or incomplete download installation of windows update software. Virus or malware infection is also one of the main causes of windows error. An important program is mistakenly deleted. Windows error code 8727 can be caused by a variety of factors, so it is important to overcome from this error.

Tread carefully guys - there's a fellow user who occasionally comments on here, and he plays bassoon through a Helix! You may be O.K., as I haven't seen him post anything recently and this soon just maybe a distant memory. There may even be a video of him somewhere out there on the interweb thing!

Hi again, As I understand it, the point of using the SHARC processor in the Stomp was because it is used in all the other hardware products in the Helix range. The whole idea behind the next firmware upgrade to v2.80 it to unify the Core routines and code used across the HX range. People are already complaining on this forum about the delay in the software release, therefore it shouldn’t be hard to imagine the uproar if Line 6 were developing code to run the same FX, amps etc. using different DSP chips. Ultimately it should be easier to develop one piece of code for all. Regarding the TimeLine, which AFAIK was released mid 2011, and Helix released 2015 (although it had been in development for many years prior), they are using the same DSP chips, and from discussions that have cropped up on here as to why they are still being used, I think it’s because they do the job particularly well and there aren’t any cheaper alternatives that could be used without a serious re-write of the code - or something like that. I didn’t go searching for the reasons why, but you are welcome to. So, when you say “Perhaps there’s a good explanation“ - yes there is! Seek and ye shall find. EDIT: Just so you know you are not alone, this thread discusses the limits of DSP in the HX Stomp unit - started in mid November 2018. Although you may be more interested in the final comment made by Digital_Igloo (Line 6 product Manger). https://line6.com/support/topic/37291-hx-stomp-discoveries-and-disappointments-blocksand-surprises-my-experience/#comment-272872

Hi, I agree with the comment above from “cruisinon”. A Variax will give you the ability to control an effect parameter from the volume or tone knob, but not the dynamics. Using an regular guitar with expression pedal can be mapped to allow control of multiple parameters eg: delay time, feedback and mix. Sadly I don’t think there is a way to vary effects by playing dynamics.

Hi Sean, Firstly - nice website you have there, sir. O.K. Regarding the DSP “phenomenon”, sadly it’s the nature of the beast. I think that the HX Stomp was aimed at a user wanting to get into the Line 6 HX market but not wanting, or needing, the extra bells and whistles available on the larger LT model or the muscle of the full blown Floor and Rack units. HX Stomp is ideal for a gigging musician who could use it as fly rig they can keep in a pocket. To produce and sell the Stomp at the lower price and the smaller footprint it has meant somethings had to go - i.e. one DSP chip, and a whole bunch of ins and outs etc. You have said that you didn’t recall ever reading “anything to suggest that dsp horsepower would ever be an issue”. Well, it is documented in the Owner’s Manual on page 16 under the subtitle “Dynamic DSP” and another sub.section headed “Tips to Optimise DSP”. I don’t think the restrictions of using one processor were unknown or hidden away. It’s not unusual for people with Helix Floor units to push them over the edge, especially with processor hungry double amps and complex stereo reverb algorithms. When you take into account what is available from the Stomp, it’s very clever. For instance something like your Strymon Timeline uses the same single DSP chip as your Stomp, but it only does delay fx. It does it very well, but it’s a one trick pony. Regards

Sparks like these! Happy 4th July

Yes, that's the place I was thinking of!

Hi, Yes, that’s the way I do it, plus the option to re-amp the dry signal through Native is great. You could duplicated the dry track a few times and run each one simultaneously through a different instance of Native loaded up with various patches (depending on how much muscle your Mac has) - there you go - Helix orchestra. You couldn’t do that in the real world without a lot of hassle. Having Native installed also means that if you were travelling and recording stuff you can make changes to the audio without needing the hardware Helix to be hooked up. Have fun!

O.K. Jose, here is what I suggest. Remove any installed drivers that you think are troublesome then download and do a clean install of just the Line 6 Helix driver. Important - Install the driver with out your Helix being connected. Go to the Line 6 Downloads page and from the first drop down menu, scroll down and select “Helix”, from the second select “Drivers” and from the third select “Windows 10”, click “Go”. The driver required for Windows 10 is first on the list - the one released way back in September 2018 and is listed as Line 6 Driver2, version 1.91. This should work with either 2.70 (The Marketplace Update) or 2.71, which was supposed to be only a minor “bug fix” revision. Try this first to see if it fixes the problem with 2.71, if it doesn’t work, you can always roll back to firmware 2.70. Have a look at this video - especially the section about v.2.6 driver installation to see if it helps!

Hi jnnh73, This could be the place for some of the info you require - look under the section labelled "Tips" and find "Common Effect Settings" https://helixhelp.netlify.com Hope this useful/helps

Yes, just replace them with empty presets or overwrite them with your own patches, but save a back up in case you decide to try them later.

Hi Morten, It appears to me that what you describe is a situation where the blocks you have selected to build your patch have used all the available DSP power in you HX Stomp. When you run short of DSP, then various FX and amps cannot be selected and because the Stomp only has one DSP chip you can run out of power really quickly, especially when using stereo blocks. Obviously - stereo uses twice as much processing power as mono, so a quick look at your patch shows some clues. Double Tank reverb is processor intensive and do you really need the Tape Delay in stereo? The US Deluxe Nrm with a cabinet will probably grab about 40% of you chips power before adding anything else, but you also have a looper in there. A forum user named “Malhavok” has a website where he has worked out how much DSP juice is used by each block in the Helix units. Check it out. http://benvesco.com/store/helix-dsp-allocations/ If you recreate your patch using mono versions of the blocks you should be able to add a distortion in front. Hope this helps/makes sense.

Hi, DunedinDragon stated: “The Helix connection doesn't work well with non-direct USB ports“. Non-direct USB ports = USB hub. Sadly you have fallen into the trap of using a USB Hub, in fact you used 4, and concluded that this is a bug. So, no sorry, it’s not a “bug” as such - the issue about using a hub are well documented and are usually the one of the first things mentioned when troubleshooting connection problems. In fact this “hub problem” was written about, in English, German and French as far back as November 2006 in this specific article: Hope this clarifies the USB Hub issue for you.

Other people have had the same problem of “no device connected” - check this thread to see if there is anything that may help. Someone suggested a Windows fix from Microsoft? https://line6.com/support/topic/38786-no-device-connected/

That was the point that I was aiming to put across when I mentioned “poor deluded fools” in the earlier comment. Because you can spend a heap of cash on an iconic item like the Gilmour Black Strat or the Hendrix Epiphone acoustic (higher up the thread) - they are only talismanic touchstones. They aren’t really imbued with the creative genius of their previous owner. I don’t think I recall anything being written and/or performed by whoever it was that bought the Hendrix acoustic, Clapton’s Blackie or any other collectible instrument. As I said before - they are trophy hunters - all the gear and no idea! Now, all we need is the “can Helix really reproduce the Andy Summers tone” debate, again, just to kill some time waiting for 2.8 to land. Arrrrrggghhhh, no, no, no! ;-)

Yes the Helix MUST be powered ON throughout the entire update. Also avoid using the USB ports on the front of your PC, they act like a hub and the Helix doesn’t work properly through a hub. Use the USB ports on the rear of the PC. Edit: Furthermore, your Helix must be powered on in order to use the HX Edit application - it is a real time editor and has to be able to access the controllers inside the Helix.

I found this thread about HX Edit crashing on Windows 10 systems - you might want to check it out and see if it helps you.

Sorry, I copy and pasted those instructions from another post I made in another thread and I must have listed the previous version of the Updater Application. The version 2.71 HX Edit package is the only thing you need to download and that will install the latest Updater software. I still don’t understand how it is possible for you to listen to music from your computer with headphones plugged into your Helix if your computer doesn’t know the Helix is connected. Now that you have told me that you are using Windows 10 on your PC, I suspect some of this may be a problem with the driver, which may need to be fixed. Windows is not my thing, but I think you may need to mess with the ASIO settings in the device manger. hope this makes sense.

Hi Prof Thark, This is really interesting stuff, because I fell for that old thing of if you guitar cable was 300,000km long you will only perceive a one second delay in your signal. Yeah, right, who is going to be listening that far away. Anyhow, I digress, because what I wanted to know is if you may be able to throw any light on the issue raised by brother “jabziz” . Do you think it is psycho- acoustic? We are all aware of the speed of light, but any idea on the speed of dark?

Damn! I thought that Line 6 were going to invite Spikey to Summer NAMM so he could unveil the tuner in the Editor! That’s why there is a delay in releasing 2.8