lawrence_Arps

the combined wisdom seems to be - Set levels at rehearsal - or at least at performance volume. My own opinion is that people overthink this. Before the digital age people happily did solos by either turning up their guitar, or by stepping on a pedal. No-one worried about the tiny tonal changes that we currently debate. Sometimes solos were thin and cutty and not that high in the mix...sometimes they were fat and loud in the mix, sometimes they were wet, sometimes dry....we accepted the challenge of the performance and worked with the results and he music benefited. Great performances were dome with a multitude of different tones and levels and that variety was a good thing. Now I'm not saying we shouldn't use the technology to fine tune what we do or to plan more for exactly what we want but there is no right answer. Santana's lead tone works because its all mids.....Carlton's is way thin and toppy - and set lower in the mix, Holdworth's is very compressed, Robben Fords is more dynamic....and all of these example have fairly simple signal chains and no major tweaking My own approach is to use amp settings rather than adding pedals (im talking virtually in my Helix). My lead patches or snapshots have completely different amp gain and tone control settings than my rhythm patches...but no changes to the speaker/IR end. I set levels using the Channel Volume while playing to backing tracks as loud as I can. There is no right way to boost for solos....there is only what you want to do as an artist. Embrace it.

I don't hear anything that could possibly make me use the word "Digital". Its highly overdriven and has a sustainer on it which is a bit "unnatural" but neither of those things mean digital. There is a bit of chorus and reverb as well which may have been created digitally, and the actual guitar tone may well be an AxeFX...which is digital, but none of those things when used properly (as in this case) has any factor in the tone which would give a listener a clue that it was being produced using a microprocessor vs a set of analog gear (which the old Rockman tones were). Mostly I hear a marshally tone with extra overdrive that could be coming from anyone of a dozem amp brands and a hundred pedals.....pretty standard stuff (apart from the sustainer) anyway - glad to hear you were successful!

I find some of this very frustrating to read. You do not have to "max out" the Helix patch volumes to get PC to work. If you run the output meter in the output block to around 75% - 80% (which is arguably the optimum level), your big knob at full (or disabled) and have your PC input level at 0dB then the LED will be mostly in the green/yellow zone and very briefly the odd little red flash. This is optimum input level and is 3 - 6dB louder than with all blocks bypassed. I run my speaker emulations at -15. I find my Rhythm volume is almost exactly the same level as the all blocks bypass vol. This leaves a lot of headroom on the helix output (and we all know by know its virtually impossible to clip the helix in normal use) At this level the PC is far louder than needed for a bar or medium club size gig. The 1 x 12 sound is great in any style other than the hard rock/metal genre which tends to want the sound of a 4 x 12. Do not expect the same air movement as a 4 x 12 with a 1 x 12. Nothing to do with how loud or powerful it is. Ironically, any good sound engineer will be filtering out those silly sub 80HZ rumbles from the guitar tone due to it ruining the mix.... For comparison, prior to the PC I used a Mesa Boogie Express 50 on about 4 on the master....thats pretty loud. If I ever had to work with a drummer who drowned out the PC I think I would just walk out of the gig as the drummer clearly has no respect for the music!

if you are careful with your level setting this doesnt happen. Make sure you keep your blocks near unity (same volume switched in or out). Also, remember that parameters in blocks not used in some snapshots may also be changing. I had this issue early on - doesn't happen anymore because I am careful with my block levels. I saw example from some peoples patches where they had not realised that on one block the snapshot was turning up the level, yet on the next block it was turning down the level. Since the parameters changes in order that effectively was turning the volume up briefly

Hi Me again With respect to others who have given advice - we are all different in our needs. You have not indicated a particular genre nor a fixation on a particular artists sound. That bodes well for your mental health ;-) I do not recommend downloading other peoples patches YET. Warning - the advice below will be rubbished by lots of people. First listen through to the basic amp factory presets - not the song or artist ones. Every single one of these should be usable as they are. maybe not perfect or exactly the tone of groupie rubbed grill cloth dipped in nicotine that you think a particular speaker cabinet might be.....but usable. If these are not there is some issue with your monitoring. If so get that sorted. Assuming that all goes fine, start with a empty patch and pick one amp that is vaguely close to something you might be familiar with...same with a cab....play around with the amp tone controls for a while....maybe an hour or so as you acclimatise to the tone....Maybe try one or two variations on cabinet....and one or two variations on mics. the STOP. Go to bed, watch a movie, go for a run. Repeat, repeat. After a few sessions try adding your favourite effect - for most this may be a drive. Start with something obvious. Same with some ambiance - a plate or spring reverb. then learn to switch to stomp mode and assign stomp switches. Then learn to save patches... then learn to set up snapshots... By thus time I am assuming you have done 20 plus hours on a few basic settings. Then try something more ambitious. If you really must try to copy another artists tone, start by researching the gear they used and set up a close match in Helix.....and spend a few hours playing with that. only now ...say 50 hours in would I consider there may be some value in considering downloading someone elses patches to see how they have created tones. - the point is that by now you will have enough basic familiarity to be able to analyse their patch and understand why it sounds the way it does. Full disclosure...I have never downloaded another persons patch - probably never will. I cannot imagine any value in getting into IRs in the first 100 hours of Helix (unless you are an experienced studio engineer). If moving a tone control on your amp a millimeter is audible to you then by all means try some IRs. In my third year of Helix I tried a few....Ive stopped using them....(btw Im an experienced engineer) I use a powercab and the built in speaker models. My last advice to to try to limit the number of patches you have. If you are in a tribute band then a patch per song makes sense. If not then less is probably smart. I have settled on 5 Rhythm patches and 5 Solo patches set up in 1 path with patch spillover activated. and in 10 stomp mode with 10 patches always available.......and I havent felt a need to change these for months.

Hi it wont matter what order you down load. Check the version of HXEdit - but if its a new download you should have the latest version. In most cases that's all you need as it will do the rest for you...I havent used the updater for a couple of years. HXEdit will check your Helix version and tell you if there is a later update. It will also guide you through the backup process - . There seem to be some very rare cases where people have needed the updater to fix some issue but its very unlikely. My number one advice....read the manual- its on the USB stick that comes with the Helix but its worth going to the manual download and checking you have the lasted version. Start with the basics but get comfortable finding your way around the manual. It never lies!

I too am tired of people talking about things "sounding digital". There a great vid around from an Audio Engineering conference where they ran a file through a cheap ($30.00) soundcard over 100 times and no -one could hear any difference. Yes, back in the first year or two of CDs there were issues with the brick wall filters on the Players....and issues with mastering engineers preparing tapes for vinyl and then having it put on CD. None of that is relevant now. plastic is also a useless term - just like saying it sounds too orange, or too fur coat. also unhelpful is not specifying the signal chain and the monitoring system. If you run your helix though a headphone amp and into a 1000w poweramp then into a 1 inch compression driver with no horn there is a real chance it will sound "thin".

Paulzx - the best approach is to run the Big knob as high as possible - I run mine full on, but some pull it back a fraction in case they need a bit of control at the gig. Many switch the Knob off altogether under Global. As a general rule the most appropriate gain-staging for any signal chain is to run each piece of gear at optimum (OdBm for analog/-14dBFS(ish) for Digital) and control volume at the last point in therchain.

remember that the feedback is coming from the guitar......its the instrument reacting to volume. Therefore any and all sounds travel from the guitars output.

I seem to have lost a post...apologies if it turns up and I repeat myself I have a few presets with 8 snaps...and some with 10 stomps. The complex 3 amp presets can easily introduce gain blips as settings between snapshots are not simultaneous...so if your solo sound has a boost later in the chain (amp 3 say) while your clean rhythm has amp 1 on there will be a split second when both amps are on. I know how to eliminate these issues but given that I found I only really used 10 tones (and some of those slight compromises to stay within 3 amps) it seemed like a good idea to try for a 10 patch single path approach. And its worked...except for the LEDS. My previous best solution was a 2 preset model with 5 snapshots, 4 stomps and a patch change all available at once. The patch change also didn't have an LED but it was always the switch for the other preset. In that version preset A was my "vintage" tones and preset two was my "modern " tones. The snapshots were consistent (clean, clean with mod, drive, Clean Solo and Drive Solo) and the stomps on both are Comp/more drive/more delay/more rev. If I cant adjust to losing the LEDs Ill go back to that model.

you are forgetting that the PC uses an active crossover. The Celestion is a passive speaker. I am assuming this because you can change the level of the HF driver and/or switch it off.

It seems that way. Shame. Just to clarify your second sentence doesn't seem right. Im using Stomp mode because it gives me 10 active switches. Im not using snapshots in this case because the idea was to avoid trying to cram all the options into one preset with say, three amps plus the various FX on 10 snapshots. Im choosing to use 10 presets built on a single path (only those blocks as needed for that tone) and achieving seamless switching. The 10 switches are assigned in the Command centre. As an approach for 10 tones it works perfectly well (so far I have not run out of blocks). I guess if I stick with this Ill have to learn to look at the screen for preset identification. Thats not so good....

I was trying out preset spillover mode. My essential pallet of sounds numbers 10. 5 rhythm sounds and 5 solo sounds. Based on that I used Command centre to set up 10 patch changes on a 10 stomp page (I had to do this on all 10 presets). This all worked perfectly. I had the 5 rhythm tones on the bottom 5 switches and the solo tones on the top. In case you cant work out why - this allows me to access all 10 patches on a single click. What I cant achieve is the Switch LEDs. In Preset mode (maximum 8 showing) the active preset has a lit switch . when I switch to the 10 Stomp mode (which now has 10 presets set up) everything including the scribblestrips work perfectly except for the LEDS. The Customise function in Command Centre is greyed out. Any thoughts??? (Note: Im at work so cant post the 10 presets....)

This. There is nothing lifeless or flat about the PC speaker emulations!

there must be some other factor here. There is no issue with the response of the PC speaker models. I mainly use the Cream which is much less bright than the V30 model which I find too harsh... I dont use the FRFR mode but I tried it out - and had to cut the tweeter level down by about 6 dB to get a flat response -otherwise it was overly bright..

This one seems odd to me. I usually start with my blocks all close to unity, then by the time I do some boosting on solo snapshots etc helix is running just over half on the output meter. If I turn this up any more then my clean tones trigger the red led on the powercab. based on my daw meters Im probably running the Helix at about -12. Overdriven sounds done trigger the red - that figures due to the compression. Anyway - my point is I dont have any issue getting strong output to the PC using L6 Link.

Im unclear on this. The meter is kind of nice - but faily redundant if you maintain unity thoughout as recomended, leveling each block to its bypassed state.. Unity gain will be fairly low on the meter...havent actually checked that but -18 would be a reasonable guess with all blocks bypassed...might be lower. (and yes there is an exception when using a drive block to hit the front of an amop hard- in which case you balance the pair of blocks to bypass) The difference in volume between say, Rhythm and solo, may not show clearly on any meter - it must be done by ear. Given no one would reasonably be boosting by more than 6 - 10 db in volume during any edit why is it required to be jumping back and forward to the meter?

Hi Michel There is no fixed preamp in Helix. There is only an amp or preamp if you put one of those blocks ibnto your signal chain yourself. If you are working in 4 cable mode, then just load the blocks you want as your FX - obviously deciding which ones you want before or after the Mesa preamp. If you decide to use a patch made by someone else (which I strongly recommend avoiding at al cost) then just delete the amp or preamp block.

I opened HXEdit and it told me an update was available. I clicked on it and followed the instructions. All went well. I then went to read the notes and it mentioned downloadiong HXEdit 2.9.2. I checked HXEdit and it was still on 2.9>(I updated Edit at this point) Everything seems fine......should I be concerned?

zombie2473 To answer the question you asked: There is no poweramp modelling in the Powercab, only speaker modelling.. The power amp modeling is part of the amp bock. Therefore, the reverb is always going to be after the poweramp modelling if its after the amp block..

can someone tell me why you would want the tempo light to be off??

I refuse to believe that you need all of that in in 1 song....I will bet you have never actually had Phase, chorus, trem, and flanger all running in the same song. I have a pre 2.9 set up with 4 patches and 4 snapshots and 10 stomps that gives all you ask for in a very simple and easy set up. I also have a post 2.9 set up that I like better - two patches "Vintage" and Modern"", with 5 snapshots (three rhythms, two leads) plus 4 stomps plus the patch change to the other patch....all available without hitting the mode switch. The Vintage patch uses the Litigator and the Interstate, with phaser and tape style delay, the Modern uses Placator and Cal Texas chan 1, with chorus and digital style delays.....

if the line does not go al the way across press the page button and get more parameters

so HO, Im not clear why you need to monitor how strong your guitar signal is....I mean , you cant change it!. yes if you install hotter pickups it will change but that's obvious. The only purpose for the green signal present on the input icon is for troubleshooting is there is no sound - its a way to check your cable is not dead. Its a very rare thing to actually need. With the output meters, again,the number one use is to check that there is signal laving the Helix. Sure you might check the signal strength while editing a preset but if you follow good practice (ie. Keep blocks close to unity) its always going to look right on the meters. I do appreciate that people find GR meters useful - but at the end of the day its the effect on the sound that should drive setting changes on a compressor. Im fairly experienced with compression so I have not changed any of my compressor settings since I got the GR metering - but Ill probably look at them briefly while setting up new patches.

its not "in the block" , its "in the icon". this is good - but I was looking for it in the Block settings for input. Excellent decision - now that i know where to look.