SaschaFranck

In fact, for the moment, there's 3 options for you, only one of which has been mentioned so far: 1) The (global) Input Pad setting. Which can't be finetuned and might hence be too much (or too little, even if that's unlikely) of a difference. 2) Using an external booster (or an EQ or whatever, but a small booster would likely cause the least hum). No fuss, easy to operate. Downside: You will completely lose the input impedance feature of the Helix as soon as it's switched on. Personally, I wouldn't be bothered too much, pretty much depends on whether you're using HX drives that just don't sound well without that feature. 3) Using an external switch (on/off type) for the EXP input (in case it's not used already). This is what I'm doing (for some patches, as it's kinda like working globally and patch based at the same time, if you want). Note: Before going that route, you should make sure that even your highest output guitar won't clip the Helix' input. You might want to set it to "on" in case that's happening, then readjust all (unfortunately) your patches according to the new input setting. But from my experience, input clipping is really only happening when using pretty hot pickups (they designed the HX input pretty well, so it offers a lot of headroom). You would now insert a simple gain block or an EQ (I'm using the latter) as the very first thing in your signal chain (these are using *very* little CPU, so at least on the Floor/LT/Rack units you should be able to add them to pretty much any patch). Then you would set the on/off status to be controlled from your external switch. Adjust the block itself so it compensates nicely for the pickup level differences and keep it the same all throughout your patches (or maybe don't, in case you feel there's patches that may need different treatment). Due to the block being controlled by a hardwired on/off switch, the setting of that switch will be valid globally. Sidenote: This is really the *only* way you can control something happening within a patch globally. Downside: You will not lose the entire input impedance feature but the "auto" part of it once the gain/EQ block is active. Doesn't bother me at all, as pretty much all my patches are using a fixed impedance setting. It's also not exactly a global setting, only the on/off status is, so if you later on decide that the boost/cut was too much or too little, you'd have to go through all the patches using this boost and re-adjust/re-save (which is exactly one of the reasons why having a "global blocks" feature would be kickass, but that will never happen with the HX family anymore).

Oh, one last thing, where's your FR on Ideascale for a switchable input gain in the input section, @rd2rk? Can't find it. I mean, in case it'd be so tremendously useful, you should've posted it there, no? Over and out.

At least that is what has been asked for. And it could obviously be switchable. And guess what, Sherlock? I had it like that on my analog boards for ages - I simply used a small booster as the very first thing my guitar was running into. Worked like a charme. The rest of the switching was largely programmable (the on/off status of things at least), that booster wasn't. No idea why you wouldn't understand why this is useful - but all too apparently, you just don't. Probably says more about you than about me. All throughout this thread (or should I say as usual?), you show a lack of comprehensive reading. To recap: Pure comedy gold. I'm done here.

No, there isn't. But there's a question asking for a global option. Apparently you don't seem to understand that, for whatever reasons. A switchable gain control in the input section - as useful as it might be - would not adress this even remotely.

Did you update *both* HX Edit and the LT? Better crosscheck that because very likely it's the issue.

As said, you can do that with a gain block already. And well, you'd have to do it for *each* preset - which is pretty much the polar opposite to a global solution (which is what has been asked for). No. A global adjustment should explicitely *not* be adjustable per preset. As it's global.

How is that unfortunately? Not only that this is what has been asked for, in case you wanted per preset gain control, just add a gain block as the first thing in your signal chain. IMO, the only bad thing here is the rather huge differences between Input Pad on and off. I'd vastly prefer if this was done the Boss way, the GT-1000 offers 1dB steps for the global input control and 10 presets, which should suit pretty much any guitar just fine.

You gotta pay VAT over here (generally in all of Europe) anyway. You can just get some (or all) of it back through your tax declaration. In Germany it's 19%, so all you need to do is to calculate 19% from the Helix Native price - but in my case, it was on the bill already (simply got added to the €99 it cost back then).

The guitar cable isn't part of that. Unless you'd like to plug your guitar in on the floor. It's really just 3 cables. Send to amp/FX, return from amp/FX, output to amp return/input. I used to use shrink tubes and made these things myself.

Well, given that the TI Boost comes with 1MOhm input impedance, it should work fine within an otherwise empty preset. In case it doesn't, /cue my reply from above: it's not all just about the input impedance, some pedals simply don't like buffers in front. However, in case it does work fine, you might think about whatever switching strategies. But I'd check that before.

Ok. If you want to check what might be the best for Windows, you might want to try out Gig Performer. It's entirely programmed around live useage. https://gigperformer.com/ You might as well want to have a look at Blue Cat Audio's Patchwork: https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_PatchWork/ The already mentioned Cantabile is worth a try, too. I think they even have a feature reduced free version. These aren't free, but I would highly recommend checking them out because they might save you *lots* of trouble compared to hacking your way around whatever other host. Also, they allow you to add other plugins, which I think is something I'd do in any case if I was using a computer live (it's actually why I thought about doing so already). Anyway, there's also a pretty simple program called Savihost, turning pretty much any plugin into a standalone: https://www.kvraudio.com/product/savihost-by-hermann-seib

Fwiw, a decent DAW should not waste much CPU, if anything. Using a dedicated live host is more about that host being, well, dedicated for live useage.

Are you on Windows or macOS?

Just like you, I got used to playing through buffered things through the years, but on the Helix I'm usually going for 230k in all my live patches. For whatever reasons, this feels closer to what I'm used to, even if, at least on paper, it shouldn't (I'd get away with 1M just fine, though). Anyway, I also prefer a fixed impedance due to the way my patches are laid out. I would possibly reconsider this approach and go for "auto" in case I liked the fuzzes in the Helix, but I don't (fwiw, for a sort of fuzzy sound I really like the Top Secret OD - which IMO is working best with 230k).

This is where you select IRs after you've inserted and selected an IR block:

Yeah, this! Absolutely mandatory!

Fwiw, I would try all the things rd2rk suggested. But, for a start, just connect everything the way you had it and see whether the input impedance changes things for the better (for this test you could ignore any nifty switchings and/or the global settings, just try the various input impedances before tinkering any further. Because, as unfortunate as it might be, I think it's not all just about the load presented to your guitar. A lot of the behaviour of several pedals is related to that, but some pedals don't seem to work properly anymore with a buffer in front, regardless of the impedance your guitar will "see" on any previous devices. At least that's my personal experience with some drive pedals. They just sound and feel different in a loop, sometimes *very* different. Fwiw, do you use the amp switching remote output of the Helix? In case you don't, you could build yourself a little A/B loop switcher with a remote control input to switch between loop A and B (there's circuits around for these kinda things pretty much anywhere and assembling them is pretty doable even if you're a DIY hack like me). You could then slap the Helix part from input to send into one loop and your drive into the other. That way, you could control the status from the Helix and still have the plain sound without the Helix buffering (or otherwise altering) the signal.

Fwiw, I think the MS3 loops are buffered, too. In case money and space were no issues, you could purchase a dedicated loop switcher as a sort of "sidecar" and control it from the Helix via MIDI.

Well, do you necessarily have to have it programmable by switching the loop? I mean, otherwise you could just slap it in front of the Helix.

Some pedals (most notably fuzz types) just don't work well with a buffer in front. Apart from pulling the pedal out of the Helix loop and placing it in front, there's very little you could do about it. It's not the Helix' fault, either.

Global Settings > MIDI/Tempo > Tempo Select Set that to "Global".

Hm. There's really not much of a reason why your pedals shouldn't work well in front of the Stomp. Did you check all impedance and Input Pad options?

Page 18 of the manual describes how to access it (input block). Basically, you can set the input impedance manually (and save the status per preset or snapshot) or you can set it to "auto", in which case it will select the proper impedance either to suiit the first block or to suit the first active block (you need to select that behaviour in your global preferences).

And while we're at it: Floor users are offered the "luxury" of 10 stomps (instead of just 8 on the LT - something I don't understand anyway), so why can't we get a 10 snapshot mode, too? Or a 5 stomp, 5 snapshot mode? That would make my live life a lot easier already. Doing it via control center results in sacrificing "plain" stomp mode.

Yes please! I know this was not adressed at me, but no. I'm only using one patch per gig (for good reasons), so having more footswitches would be great, especially in case you're also using snapshots arranged in control center mode. Further, the capacitive switches offer the quickest way to access parameters (way quicker than fooling around with the cheesy joystick, which I tend to avoid at all costs because that thing is the definition of planned obsolescence), so I would even assign blocks to footswitches if I was never actually switching them.