SaschaFranck

Nah, that's an entirely different thing, really. Especially once you're using the volume and tone pots of your guitar, different input impedances can make a difference almost like night and day. And the new global "impedance follows first active block" option (fwiw, I wish it wasn't global...) to allow the Helix to impersonate an analog pedalboard, is highly useful. Fwiw, in many patches I chose 230k, even when just running a single amp block. That setting just seems to work better than 1M with some of my most used guitars (almost all of them feature a 500k volume pot and a treble bleed cap). Hence I can't use "auto", because that'd automatically set the impedance to 1M in most situations (and I couldn't be bothered assigning the impedance to snapshots or switches). That's why I wish things weren't global - or, alternatively, I'd like to select 230k as the default for all things by now defaulting to 1M.

So, have you tried plugging straight into the HXS yet, just using an amp&cab block, monitoring through headphones?

See, we're all set then.

Sure. But the very first thing to do would be to check things with the Powerstage and cab taken out of the equation.

Such as? With all my guitars but one, when their volume pot is all the way turned up, input impedance is almost irrelevant.

So, are you running your drums through a Helix?

Checking cables: Yes, definitely. But as far as speaker impedance curves or input impedances go, these should be pretty much irrelevant. I mean, we're not talking about whatever finetuning tips here but about a situation where someone apparently needs to turn up presence and treble all the way up. That's pretty much never related to whatever impedance issues in case everything else is working properly.

Yeah, that'd help nailing down whether it's an HX issue or not.

Ok, so, when you use headphones and add the stock cab usually loading with the amp, do you need to add treble/presence as well?

Are you using just the amp models and no Amp+Cab blocks or any separate cab blocks? When running the Stomp through a guitar cab, no internal cabs should be active. Otherwise yes, it would be odd. Usually, IMO at least, the Helix amps are pretty much on the bright side. Edit: waymda beat me to it.

Oh, as far as sun protection goes, I could actually use the lid of my case if it was a mixer-style case. But as you can see (or rather guess), the lid is kinda L-style, so that very L-part is getting in the way quite a bit. And once there's light from the L/R side or diffuse light conditions, it all won't work too well anymore anyway.

You could use angled plugs (which is what I'm doing, even on the XLR out which I use to feed the FOH system). But yeah, in case you're using the sends/returns as well, angled plugs may not work anymore. But I could almost fit straight plugs in there (by lifting the Helix while plugging in, it's only held by velcro), so they really only need a little more space (and there's pretty small ones around, too). If I were to build a case around the Helix (which I planned but abandoned, see above...), I would give it a little more space in the back, use straight plugs and cables running into a patch bay (there's pre-made ones just for these purposes, but on an older pedal board, I built one myself, really no rocket science). For that patch bay and an additional expression pedal (which I'd like) to fit, I'd possibly need another 3-5cm more space on the right. But well, for the time being, this is working quite fine for me and I've got no plans on adding external pedals or whatsoever any day soon. I may go back to a half-analog setup, though, we shall see next year (when all the live stuff will possibly be happening again).

Fwiw, this is my current case. I know, the foam looks lousy, but it's working well. I'm using cable extension "adapters" (don't know the english word) for anything that goes in/out, so no cable ever has to be connected on the Helix itself, the cables connecting to the Helix are locked at the side of the case (just using some binders), so there's no pull happening either. Originally I wanted to build some kinda patch bay into the case but there wasn't enough space - and for the time being I didn't want to build a new case (this one is absolutely high quality and I may not use the Helix for live playing anymore next year due to the issues described in this very thread).

As far as protection of the connections goes, build a case that protects them (a mixer-style case will do, or a sort of flattened L-rack kinda case). As far as the sunshield goes, it won't do much in diffuse lightning conditions. I have tried some things with cardboard for a test, better but still very bad. Line 6 should adress the issue - and they could, at least partially.

If you wanted to do that without the split box MGW-Alberta mentioned but still use it on any patch, insert a send anywhere in the signal path and grab the dry signal from the send's output jack.

No problem. Should the dry signal be the DI guitar signal or the amped signal minus FX? Either way, it's easy and can be done in multiple ways, the only relevant thing being that you pan the individual 1/4 split outs all the way L/R. Here's two patches, each with one dry out (left 1/4) and one wet out (right 1/4). 1_4 Split 1.hlx 1_4 Split 2.hlx

Ok, reviving this old thread. Had another outdoor gig yesterday. Daylight, no direct sun, light clouds, diffuse light. In terms of having visual control this has been *by far* the worst gig in all my life. I have no idea what made this so bad, maybe the angle of the sun behind the clouds, the white pavillon kinda thing covering the stage, whatever. But I couldn't see anything, I had to rely on the somewhat bolder font of active switches - which is nothing short of a nightmare. The LEDs weren't even barely visible but not visible at all. The bass player, who's also an excellent guitar player and interested in getting a modeler, was almost shocked about how bad it was. At first he even asked "Is it switched on yet?" Also, adjusting some parameters is pretty much impossible. you can sort of read out the parameter type, but as the values adapt the block color, there's almost no contrast - hence, you won't see anything. I couldn't see the blocks in my patch, either (just the selected one). All this is shockingly bad - and it's just as clear as it gets that the Helix hasn't even been checked once under daylight conditions when it was developed. Or Line 6 ignored whatever someone might have said regarding that miserable situation. Add to this the super cheap LED rings and the bad display (even the cheapest tablets offer more contrast) and you're all set for a truly horrible experience. Also add to this that Line 6 could at least partially adress the issue (which, fwiw, is a very wellknown issue ever since the Helix was released) - but they just don't. It'd simply be peanuts for any programmer to code inverted channel strip labels. Or heck, give us an LT-alike screen with 2 rows of 5 squares, representing the switches. But no, they just won't do that. Oh well, none of the competing products is as bad, either. I have a bunch more outdoor gigs coming up the next weeks (still the only gigs allowed over here) and I'm p***** off big time in advance already. Maybe I will try to go for 8 snapshots instead of 4 snapshots and 6 switches - but I'd hate doing so because that'd make some things much less comfortable. Whatever. As things are that bad, as I'm majorly annoyed and as Line 6 continues to ignore the issue (since around 6 years already), I will not recommend the Helix to anyone anymore. And once gigs are coming in more regularly again (unfortunately that'd likely be in 2022), I'll possibly be switching to a GT-1000 which doesn't have these issues.

Fwiw, I would just compare only the HP outs of the UAD and the LT by playing some music you know well through either of them alternatively. That would at least help to tackle the issue down a bit.

From all I know (I own a Floor) on the LT, the headphone out is just an always active tap of the main volume knob. But as said, it's got nothing to do with the USB streams anyway. Maybe the headphone out of the Helix simply isn't too great (wouldn't make me wonder, Line 6 is using pretty cheap components on quite some I/Os).

No. Regardless of your settings, the volume knob never affects the level sent through USB, it's only there to control whatever physical outputs.

Distorted in what way?

It's not exactly a chorus but a pitching effect that is modulated (I know, a chorus is pretty much that, but the HX choruses aren't ideal to replicate that). Unfortunately, there's no modulators inside the Helix, so our best bet would perhaps still be the chorus, though.

Well, it's a pretty generic clean sound, check the Jazz Rivet. Really, Metheny's basic sound isn't anything to write home about. A rather balanced totally clean sound with maybe some mid-emphasis will do.

Shouldn't be too hard to replicate, given that Metheny himself describes pretty well what he's been using for many years. https://www.patmetheny.com/qa/questionView.cfm?queID=56