SaschaFranck

Personally, I'd either go for the onboard cabs and check the mic options or download the free RedWirez teaser pack (all you need to do is to subscribe to their newsletter, which you can of course unsubscribe from), the supplied Marshall cab IRs are pretty good IMO.

The answer is: Without any further information from the patch creator, you don't. One of the biggest omissions in the Helix' IR management. And IMO almost inacceptable (just that there's no way around in case you want to use the Helix). Also, it could be solved quite easily. HX Edit should just tell you which IR is missing and should also offer a search function (on your computers storage devices). Just what each and every software sampler is doing since decades by now.

Strg. oder CMD + S ist ein absolutes MUSS, wenn man mit dem Helix arbeitet, egal ob am Editor oder am Gerät selber (bei letzterem muss man eben zweimal "save" drücken).

As has been said, forget about BT for anything regarding live playing through it. Even the latest aptX codecs come with 40ms of latency - way too much for realtime playing.

The global EQ works great for such purposes. I don't exactly need it much anymore (if at all), as by now I had enough time to bake my own IRs for rehearsal/gig volume, but it's still there, just in case (or whenever I want to check some new IRs). Just set up a broad midrange boost/cut. Personally, I usually went for a boost to take my homebrewn presets to gig compatibility rather than the other way around. Frequency is something around 700Hz, Q is around 0.4-0.5, plus I might also add some low cut on boomy stages. It's only applied to the XLR out feeding my personal monitor.

Fwiw, it's a pretty sad affair. My prediction would be that in, say, 5 years (at best) from now on you won't be able to sell any top modeler without a mobile editor anymore. For me, it wouldn't even have to be wireless, using an USB OTG cable is just fine with me. Alternatively, Line 6 could release their communication protocol so 3rd party folks could come up with an editor (just as in Fractal land).

Exactly zero. Quite unfortunately and one of the reasons I might quite likely switch to a GT-1000 at some post-pandemic timepoint.

Yeah, but the point is, when running a DI box, you're usually feeding an XLR in as well. Alternatively, you're feeding a stagebox - and on the console end the signal could be routed into whatever inputs. But then, the very same is true for the XLR outs. Sure. I'm all for it. I'd rather prefer some other synth-ish options to be added before that, though (already mentioned them, decent filters and all sorts of modulators being the most important things).

Fwiw, something I'd really like to see is a direct communication between the Hardware and the native version. Should obviously be bidirectional, so any changes made on either side would automatically be reflected on the other side. You could as well just save the always open HX Edit (at least I have it opened all the time). All hardware options could be hidden in the plugin until you actually engage such a "link" mode (should only be available for one plugin instance at a time to avoid confusion). That'd likely be the most comfortable recording and reamping setup ever.

No, I'm not. I'm arguing with your statements. Posting something about impedance mismatching (which, for whatever it might be worth, is very unlikely to be the reason of your experiences, unless you're constantliy gigging through whatever ancient and esoteric consoles) and not exactly knowing anything about any values involved - well, sorry, but that's pure speculation, nothing else. And that's not helping anyone. I have done quite some tests (I do have regular access to quite some consoles, one of my rehearsal room mates does live mixing and keeps his stuff in that very rehearsal room, I also own 3 smaller mixers myself) and my findings were that the XLR outs are just fine and that I could absolutely stop using any kind of DI boxes (I own quite some of them). If it wasn't for the phantom power issue. Based on my personal findings, anything else (apart from flakey cables, stageboxes and whatever there might be) is almost exclusively related to levels - and fwiw, this is where I'm even with you, at least to a certain extent. Most DI boxes offer some attenuation (the Klotz one I use the most even has two attenuation options), which occasionally comes in very handy. And apart from me getting tired of asking the sound guys to look out for phantom power and switch it off (which they sometimes forget, I even had it with a digital console that it was turned back on after a power on/off cycle that happened just before the gig...), that very attenuation option is precisely what speaks in favour of a DI box, simply because the differences between line and mic level on the Helix are pretty huge (and I reserve the big volume knob for my monitor level), sometimes so much the FOH guy might struggle to get the level just right (on paper, it shouldn't be an issue, but oh well, that's on paper...). So I usually start with line level and no attenuation. In case the level is too hot, I've got two attenuation levels, so far these have always brought me in the "perfect" ballpark. In a nutshell: Most of the times I'm actually running my Helix exactly like you do - but that's got nothing to do with impedance mismatching, it's simply a result of a mix between the phantom power issue and ease of leveling. In case phantom power was no issue, I'd possibly kick the DI box out and do the leveling on my output block (I'm never switching patches live, apart from the occasional gig when I also bring an acoustic).

Fwiw, this is precisely how myths spread.

Let me quickly recap that: You're making a statement about there being a very noticeable difference in terms of impendances, possibly even leading to "impedance mismatching" when using the XLR outs of the Helix - without even knowing the impedance? Awsome! Let me just quote what you wrote when you jumped into this discussion (and on me): Yeah well...

So, I gather you have measured their impedance?

I think the Logidy's marketing was pretty bad. I mean, back a few years I was actively looking for such a unit, couldn't even find it through a normal search, took a hint from a forum. Apart from that, I think you really need to demonstrate what IRs can do properly. There's so much more to them but the plain old boring hyperrealistic reverbs - just that very little folks seem to know about. Sure, with the current HX hardware, it'd be no option at all. But we're talking about a future incarnation here. Adding some more RAM should be a rather trivial thing (adding some storage space for unused IRs should be even more trivial).

Different as in? Please elaborate.

Others than the phantom power issue, there's not exactly a logical explanation for that. Having said that, as soon as I knew it'd be safe to use the XLR out (after ensuring there's no PP running), I never even once had a problem with the XLR outs.

Err, you could run into the same leveling issues as on the XLR out and there's no risk of impedance mismatching when using the XLR outs, either. They're really nothing else but a built in DI - just with added phantom power issues.

I'm aware of all that. But when you think about it, those are still neglectable amounts in terms of size. I mean, these days we're talking several GBs on even the cheapest computers. And IMO it'd be fine if you could always only load one longer IR at a time, the rest could sit on whatever cheaper flash memory. And fwiw, there's already been the now discontinued Logidy Epsi, allowing for a maximum IR length of 5 seconds in a 200 bucks device - so it should be pretty much doable. Unfortunately. I've got some IRs that simply can't even remotely be reverse engineered (if you will) by algorithmic reverbs. Just recently I started creating some from blending various shepard tone alike samples - pretty astounding (if you haven't already, check that out - a nice plugin to create shepard tone-ish things would be Corkscrew from Anarchy Effects, it's free). I also got incredibly great IRs from frogs I recorded. And from a crumbled plastic liquorice bag (could post sound examples, it's quite astounding, doesn't sound as one probably would expect). Whatever, these are just a few MBs, so even in case some highly specialized RAM is used, it shouldn't add too much to the overall cost.

No, you're not. It's the basic purpose of balanced XLR outs on all units I know. Just that the Helix XLR out can't deal with phantom power, which might become a big problem in case it can't be turned off per channel on the receiving console (many smaller ones only allow for global PP switching).

Other modelers don't have that issue. And I'm using the Floor due to "professional" reasons, if you will (better transportability = better job flexibility). Regardless, in case there's an onboard EXP pedal, it should work just fine, especially on a 1.5k unit. The ones of my decades old GT-5 and GT-10 still work perfectly fine. Well, usually balanced XLR outs are there just for that purpose, to save you from using extra DI boxes. At least that's what most people usually use them for. And they should not have issues with phantom power, regardless of what you use them for. They'd only have to publish a common communication protocol. 3rd party editors would follow (look at the inofficial Zoom editors). Besides, Boss is doing fine in case of mobile support. Fwiw, they would not change automatically. They would only change all at once in case you've decided to set a block to "global" in multiple patches. And quite obviously, you'd still be able to use the same block in a normal non-global fashion. Again the way Boss does it is excellent. No worries, I will.

And fwiw, in case you were refering to my "rant" (which it actually isn't, but let's not get into that), for obvious reasons this should be repeated - it's the only way Line 6 might one day respond (or not, but in that case it's obvious what their preferences are).

Pro tip: Just stop popping in every now and then. You can thank me later.

- The XLR out can't deal with phantom power. Pathetic. No other unit in my arsenal (not even the <100 Zoom G3) has any such issues. - Visibility under critical lightning conditions is absolutely horrible. Regarding that aspect, the Helix is the worst floor unit I've ever seen. It has clearly never been properly tested under any such conditions (or the outcome of those tests have been ignored, pick your poison). - The switches aren't road ready. Countless reports of replacements. Same goes for the joystick (which, btw, serves no purpose anyway, joysticks are needed to allow for diagonal movements, for anything else 4 arrow buttons would be just as fast - the joystick is offering movements in 7 directions, which is like asking for things to break, unless it's military grade, which it clearly isn't). Out of 7 Helix user I know personally (ok, make that 3, the other 4 are ex Helix users), 6 had to have their units serviced, myself included (Tap Tempo switch broken), Line 6 support in Europe is downright horrible (one guy I know waited for 2 months). - The EXP pedal, while rugged, is a really critical thing (let alone an entire LT production run with pretty much 100% broken pedals). The toe switch on mine requires massive pressing by now and you can't recalibrate it (which is great on Boss units - and yes, it includes the switch sensivity). In a nutshell, all moving parts aren't built to last. - The mic preamp often breaks in case you are lucky enough to reach for the wrong combination of plugging a mic in and activating phantom power (it's even reported somewhere here). - The audio interface performs worse than a 50 bucks Behringer. No way you could ever do software monitoring through it at latencies of 15+ ms. - Apparently, the little plastic piece in the middle of the USB port often comes off (also reported in this forum). But hey, keep calling BS (and I might've even forgotten some parts). You have been asking this before and I have explained it in great detail already. "Favourites" and "global blocks" are almost fundamentally different. In a nutshell, I want to change whatever parameter in one patch and see this reflected in all other patches using the same "globalized" block. Doing this via favourites would take ages whereas with global blocks it requires adjusting whatever parameter once. And my personal outcome of any of these discussions has always been that it's just Line 6 being stubborn. Others not having it isn't an excuse. Besides, for the Fractal units there's FracPad. Fwiw, I can almost "hack" myself a sufficient mobile editor by connecting a smartphone or tablet via USB and adjusting things via MIDI (using an appropriate app). But that's completely pointless because each parameter controlled by MIDI becomes a "victim" of snapshots. Which is simply stupid (no way to call it any different as it serves absolutely no purpose others than getting in the way).

Fwiw, in case Line 6 wanted to peak my interest in a follow up of the Helix (which I guess is completely irrelevant to them as I'm defenitely not a typical target user), it would have to feature these: - Professional hardware. The current HX line is flawed with too many things that were simply chosen to save some bucks (in case someone's interested, I'd elaborate). - Any kind of a "global block" functionality. It's one of the main reasons why I will likely switch to another modeler at one point in time. - A mobile editing option. Crawling on the floor to adjust things simply s***s and I don't want to carry around a laptop all the time. I have at least one mobile device with me all the time anyway, so it's about time. At least give us an option to connect whatever apps. Fwiw, for me it'd likely be fine if such an option required a USB connection, but BT/Wifi would be welcomed. It'd further be tempting if it had these: - More options to achieve a bit more than bog standard guitar equipment modeling. Envelopes, LFOs, other modulation sources (especially input level), some more synth-alike blocks (at least a bunch of decent filters). - Reverb IR loading. It completely escapes me why none of the top modelers allows for that, expecially given that even on my aging 2008 Macbook I can run a whole bunch of them simultaneously. Reverb IRs can be an endless source of joy in terms of sound design, especially in case you roll your own (which I happen to do a lot). These things might take whatever sucessor to another level. Just more "accurate" amps and what not would be completely boring to me, and especially in case the hardware isn't improved, I wouldn't even be remotely interested.

Rebooting is recommended as the Helix is rebuilding its database that way.