donkelley

It's possible, although not very likely, that something is electrically wrong with the instrument input on your amp (just because it's a great amp doesn't mean it is problem free, although unlikely). It might have a non-zero voltage on it, or it might have ground connected to one of the pins, and the result could be what you're hearing. since the helix can be powered off for this to occur, you know it's not firmware related - it's a simple electrical issue. To make sure I have this all straight: Does it happen with helix connected from amp-out (like the left channel 1/4" output, for example) to the amp's instrument (guitar) input, with the helix powered off? If the above question is true, does it only happen with the helix power cable connected to power (but still powered off, but plugged in and ready to be turned on)? OR does it also happen if the helix doesn't have anything else connected to it, not even it's own AC power cable? I'm not a helix repair person, but as someone who works with electronics a fair bit, those are critical details to know before understanding what could possibly be going wrong.

Variax is not obsolete by any means since it can do so much more than move the entire guitar tuning up or down a few semitones. If that's all you ever use it for then sure, stop using it. I stopped using and sold my variax many years ago because it was clear that the technology hardware (the cpu and electronics that ARE variax, within the guitar) were not being improved upon and updated in the line6 R&D plan, so I realized then that any issues I had with it would not improve in the future. It was cool, I used it to record the guitar solo for rock around the clock in a chinese language movie about bruce lee (Bruce Lee, My Brother is the english translation of the name). It did the tone of a vintage hollow body gretsch style guitar great when I didn't have one around. I also used it's sitar sound on some album work. But as a guitar itself, using the variax sounds was never all that expressive or satisfying to me compared to using any other good guitar with magnetic pickups, and I'm not doing much live work any more (this is even before covid, just too busy to gig), so it was clearly not for me. I do think that live they are super valuable. But if I want to play in drop C, for example, even a variax has it's issues compared to having a 25.5" guitar with proper string gauges tuned that way.

On the helix, everyone, literally everyone, was told from the start that using any of the thousands of main stream cab IR files removes fizz. You can also accomplish this with the built in cab emulations (through proper understanding of how they work) as I posted a helpful thread about several months ago. The pod go seems to my ears to have less treble above 7k or 8k by design on many of it's cab sims.... because it shortcuts a simplistic solution to fizz control that way. This is how some people have classically eqed the helix, also, but the big difference is that the helix requires you to do manually as though you were a real recording engineer in a real studio where every piece of gear requires extensive knowledge, and nearly all guitar chains have a lot of processing done to make them sound so good. This also gives helix users FAR more control over exactly how the treble reduction is accomplished, through mic position type and distance through tilt eq and other eq types and through extreme control over power amp biasing, speaker choice, and so forth. They are for different purposes, these products. The Pod Go is great, but as someone who's started using the helix for the beginning of tracking an album, I'd rather have the helix that lets me have a lot of high frequencies in the cab output for cleans than be stuck with something designed for more "grab and go" music making. The Pod go reminds me more of my pod xt live.... it is darker sounding than the helix also, and fizz free, but also lacking in the power and tone subtle control that the helix gives me now. Edit: Of course the Pod Go blows away the xt live in most ways... no comparison ;-) Just like how I far prefer my very elaborate modern tube guitar amp (that has multi band active EQ and several tube gain stages and switchable power amp circuits etc etc) to a single classic great sounding rig that has one or two perfect tones (for example a great classic early 70s marshall stack)... out of the box it takes more work to make my modern versatile complex amp sound great without fizz, but after the effort is put in, it can sound like nearly any of the greatest amps in history without a spec of fizz, or like something new and different. It's a choice thing - and the pod go is great for many folks, while the helix is like the pod go but without the default "magic sheen" of the pod go... you do it yourself by working with the detailed editing power of the helix and can change it with far more control than the pod go allows. Different strokes for different folks - both are excellent products. Edit: I see info that the helix and pod go both have similar (or identical maybe) eqs on the built in cabs now for a few months.... that probably makes moot much of the info from this old thread (and from my old experience with the pod go). Cheers :-)

It "might" work on the 3.0 port, but generally speaking most USB peripherals work on usb 2 ports (the normal black ports), and some of them "might" work on a 3.0 port, but some won't... and only usb 3.0 peripherals will work on a usb 3.0 port (the blue one). So I mean, you can try it, but there's a reason why computers with 3.0 ports also still have 2.0 ports.... the backwards compatibility seems pretty hit and miss when using 2.0 stuff on 3.0 ports. For me, I put a 3.0 external video dual display dongle on my 3.0 port, and it also adds several 2.0 ports since my laptop only has one 2.0 and one 3.0 port. I use the remaining 2.0 port for my usb audio interface (since I'd rather have it directly connected to my laptop), my 2 external monitors on the video outs from the 3.0 video dongle, and it's remaining 2.0 ports are for mouse, my helix, etc etc. I have never tried my helix on the 3.0 port because I've found in the past that many 2.0 devices are ignored on the 3.0 port.

That's an assumption, but it's more likely that they aren't able to hire pros to focus entirely just on consumer facing web design and development from the ground up. I don't always agree with their design choices (I hate pop-overs, specially when they overlay the login box LoL)... so I'm not defending the design as perfect by any means, and I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you per se. It just doesn't mean they don't have qualified pros doing their website... I'd expect the consumer site is limited by technology, resource specialty and priority of budgeting. If you 2 work in web development/design then you probably are aware that senior web developers/UX specialists tend to work on the web projects that are more application based and built from the ground up, where as consumer facing sites generally are designed/maintained by marketing staff using templating engines. Graphics quality matters, but the design choices are often cramped by the lack off flexibility of the templating engine being used. So I wouldn't jump all over them just yet. However, their bread and butter is products for musicians - products that are supposed to sort of self-update and self-maintain, hence why they added the updating layer into HX edit long long ago instead of forcing you to use the line6 updater for such things. So I'd think their serious developers and UX folks are more involved in the actual product design/development, not in the website. Having them hire a $70k+ web UX designer (UX as opposed to graphics, two different skills), then hiring a full stack web developer to build the consumer site from scratch without a templating engine, would probably cost far more than they could budget for, just to make a few little things in the downloads section look a little different It works fine - it's not going to make everyone happy all the time - but it's not a big deal for most people to wade through it as it is.

But, also, the OP's question was how do Helix reverbs compare to, say, a lexicon (a good lexicon)? IMHO the verbs can be pretty darn good on the helix, but people have a certain dislike for the spring reverb on the helix. Since I normally hated spring reverbs I haven't even bothered to try that much, but I'm sure it's true. For halls etc, they are very good very convincing verbs though, imho. They don't have the lush magical tails and high end of the better Lexicon verbs, because those algos are pretty legendary and also are still patented and owned by whoever owns lexicon now. But, you won't find it too bad on the helix imho. People complain about the verbs but from what I can tell it's guitarists complaining, not sound engineers. I'm both, but lean towards sound engineer when I'm editing the helix, and I've stumbled across some huge, long, wash verbs in the helix that are pretty astounding, really. It's not the most amazing reverb machine out there, but to put lexicon in it's place a bit - the lexicon technology is roughly, what, 40 years old? 35 at least. There's nothing, technically, that the ancient lexis could do that the helix can't do, patents and software ownership rights aside. One side note: from what I have seen, helix software contains, MOSTLY, original reverb algos, not copies of famous reverbs (such as lexicon). I made assumption earlier that this is due to legal restrictions, and it might be. But it might not be, too. It seems like it is sort of a line6 thing, really. Rather than license or model other verbs, they've forever made their own verbs. I think it's not all their own original reverb designs, but mostly is.

Well imho no since the way they have it is pretty much the way most companies have it. Like laptop companies... the line6 system is very similar to dell, toshiba, etc etc (well toshiba is out of the game now, but they were huge). Hardware is for choosing what hardware you have. Then there is software, which means anything you can download, for that given hardware. Software technically includes both applications and firmware. Arguably these days it also includes documentation since manuals went away from printed form. I know I'm a geek, but since line6 is using the correct definitions of those terms, to me it makes perfect sense. I think maybe you can't please everybody all the time :-) Side note: I thought that this was how this downloads section looked a good 10 years ago when I played a variax through an xt live? If so then it's been deemed "not a big problem" for quite some time now :-)

Yea Nita's amazing. I'm not good with names, so I figured the obvious differentiator for most of us who haven't seen either before was blonde vs brunette. I was blown away by Nita's playing for sure, and Jen didn't even try to play anything of consequence after Nita demoed her guitar for 30 seconds of very impressive speed playing and pinched harmonic whammying. The boss unit can sound amazing I'm sure - I used to use roland/boss modelers for a while and learned that the world of people who use them professionally is amazing. They're all just tools. On youtube both of their tones were acceptable. I'm pretty sure that Jen gets much of her tone from her amps.... and it sounded in the video that Nita does too. And just in case anyone was wondering, calling her a blonde chick wasn't diminishing Nita - it was sufficient to differentiate her from the brunette chick, and the host whom I've seen many times on youtube but would be referred to as a dude (a very lucky one), not a chick. LoL :-)

A way better video of Jen with her helix. She was totally being outshone by the blond chick in the previous video and didn't really get to show her stuff being limited to ACDC rhythm parts to demo...

Well folks - that there is an example of the detune thing going on. I heard the glitch several times through her playing and was thinking to myself, wth is she running through a weird effect? Tone sounded great (I suspect it's just amp tone), but yea a few little glitches. But she played the whole thing with helix detuning by a semi-tone. On purpose (to fit tuning with teh other girl's guitar). I mean, that's not a poly tune thing - that's the old helix detuner effect. And it's plenty good enough for a highly paid successful pro touring guitarist. I bet she's blown away now with 3.0, assuming she's had a moment to update it. This video is from 2018!!

I don't see a problem with the way it works now. HX Edit stays at version 3.0, so if you choose to download only the software called hx edit, it'll only show you 3.0. There is no 3.01.0 HX Edit. If you choose All software, you get everything including firmware. Firmware is not HX Edit. HX Edit is just one (of two) ways to update the helix hardware series with new firmware releases, whether you download them yourself from that website or use HX Edit to download the fw update for you. I see nothing to fix or change on the website based on what you described.

To quote a great song from long long ago: "Communication breakdown, it's always the same Havin' a nervous breakdown, a-drive me insane"

Wow I know you weren't talking to me, but ... One thing I learned after being a professional musician for decades (with 2 degrees in music and having worked in classical symphony orchestras as well as touring rock groups)... one thing I learned is that the better you get, the more you realize how many amazing, experienced, incredible musicians there are... most of whom can offer useful advice while having their own challenges they are working through with gear, playing, creativity... tone. It's never wise to assume you have nothing to learn from other musicians, specially so when you are on an internet forum with no idea who you're actually talking to. You could learn a lot from many of these people. But if you choose to post an arrogant insulting rant it will not earn the respect of anyone here... which is really too bad if you are as good as you say you are.

I'm sure you didn't get a corrupt download (It likely wouldn't have tried to install if it was corrupt). it'll be something probably for debugging that accidentally got left on in the release build of 3.01.0, probably. This stuff happens. If you can figure out what it does, then it probably still does the normal stuff (I presume). Unless you have uncovered a super-power knob that does more than normal!

Looks more informative than yer typical "MOAR" sorta knob label, whatever it normally says there. LoL

sounds like bitrate or sampling rate is different on the helix than what your computer thinks it should be

Ok, so I'm "a special user", but still it's there in the public downloads. 3.01.0 replaced 3.0.0

I've been using line6 updater for my helix LT off and on for a while, including during beta testing of 3.0 - it works fine and has some advantages and disadvantages compared to hx edit for your updates. But it should see your devices. Are your devices added or anything that you need to do to configure it? Maybe your issue isn't hx edit as much as your pc right now?

" The Helix 3.01 update addresses potential severely corrupted audio output. Due to this, we recommend updating your Helix family device as soon as possible. This issue may also be experienced on Helix Native, an update for Native will be available in the very near future. "

So "What exactly is 3.0.1 supposed to fix?" It says clearly that there are some very serious audio problems that can happen with 3.0 that are addressed by 3.0.1 I doubt it fixes anything else yet as that is a pretty fast, and rather urgent sounding, update. But it might solve some of the things folks here are talking about!

Totally

That makes a lot of sense. Just tuning your strings super accurately relative to each other, not whether it's at 440 or not.

That sounds logical...and of course pitch bends, vibrato, whammy effects work which backs up your points. However I have also found that having my guitar tuned accurately to A440 makes it work with less artifacts in some systems, and I'm not talking about harmonists here, I'm just talking poly shifting systems. However what those given systems are doing behind the scenes I do not know - it seems plausible to me that, based on my findings of tuning to concert pitch, those are examples that work as my former coworker explained. Either way, as I mentioned, I'm basing that description with the caveat that it's old 3rd party information from a guy who was a lead developer at digitech for their pitch based products. My conversations with him were roughly a dozen years ago at that, and even then he hadn't worked at digitech for many years. So both his info, and my own memory, are very old :-)

Depends on the business logic used. But yes for the basic old fashioned pitch change logic as found in the pre-polyphonic systems (such as 2.92fw on helix), I'm certain it's using a variation of the standard logic that isn't aware of your pitch... recognition isn't part of it. In poly pitch shifting though, from what I've read about it there is pitch identification as part of how it works - even if it doesn't use that logic to do intelligent pitch shifting, it is part of how it maintains identify of each note being played before shifting each note using more traditional methods. That's how poly shifting works, apparently? According to my understanding (it's been a few years though since I worked with a guy from digitech who talked to me about the concepts used) - and is the only way it allows complex chords to be shifted. I'm only relaying my memories of what I was told by someone involved in coding this sort of stuff though. It's 3rd hand info. It's not new tech and has been around for years, but is highly patented by various manufacturers, including digitech which, even after the buyout, prevented line6 from using their algos for the fw3.0 poly shifting stuff. I fully admit that some companies have done a better job than in fw 3.0 for complex chords, but fw 3.0 is far better than what the non-poly stuff would do in 2.92 from my own extensive tests. Since this is the first release of poly done by line6 engineers from scratch themselves, I'm excited to see it improve over time. But it's already plenty good enough for me - on my guitars - how I play - for my needs. I have heard bad examples out there, but for me it tracks quite well.

That video is an excellent example of it working well, and that's 2.92 or something? Amazing :-) It's really in knowing how to setup a patch with pitch shifting properly, and how to play cleanly. Compared to my days of playing with my old kramer pitchrider guitar to midi interface back around 1990 1991 in live shows, playing with the shifting capabilities in any modern system is just a welcome breath of fresh air. And on the helix 3.0 fw, you have engineer-level control over performance versus latency and accuracy, and so forth.... far more so than on any other system I've ever used. It's truly excellent. Note in the video that you can hear his acoustic guitar sound through the mic - but recorded it would sound amazing. Also - gotta love his guitar :-) Brian May all the way