SaschaFranck

Ah, glad you've got it solved.

Just tell your computer not to annoy you. There's not much reasons to update to Big Sur yet.

You can still set the big volume knob to only control the XLR, 1/4 or digital out. Chosing XLR or digital would not affect your amp out level. And it has always been exactly like that.

The volume knob never controlled the USB output. All the settings there are the same for me as in previous versions.

- Quit HX Edit! Don't start it again until you're finished with everything following. - Go here and download the Line 6 Updater (in case it's not installed on your machine already): https://line6.com/software/ - Also download the "Flash Memory" from there (it's the actual update). - Install the updater. - Reboot the Helix while holding down switches 6 and 12 (this will take you to safe boot mode). - Start the Line 6 Updater, select "Offline Mode" and see whether it finds your Helix. - If yes, select it and choose "local file". Point it to the Flash Memory file you've downloaded.

The rental HRD I was using had a Celestion speaker in it. Has likely been the CP-80 that Fender was using for a while. To me it seemed, hm, rather "neutral" (in lack of better words), maybe a tad on the brighter side (when it comes to Celestions at least), so I had to tame the highs on the HRD's tonestack a bit to get a sound after my taste. Btw, I've been really pleased with that amp, always had it on my radar for a small, rather portable combo - but then modeling came along and it's been time to say byebye to real amps.

The Princess with drive and sag (and probably hum and ripple, too) turned pretty much down should get you into the ballpark already. Alternatively, check the Cali IV Rhythm 1 channel. As far as cabs or IRs go, I'd check a Celestion type. I think with the HRD it's pretty much about staying clean and taking pedals well. At least that's what I liked it for during the few weeks I played it (rental amp for a tour kinda thing).

As has been said, for pretty much any AIAB pedals, the target amp is absolutely crucial. Whether it adds some drive/sag on its own is merely a matter of taste, but IMO it's mainly two things which are absolutely relevant for a great pedal platform amp (both in real life and virtual): 1) Slight amp compression. I'm not talking about any kind of noticeable compression, sag or whatsoever, just something to kinda glue things together. Pretty much any tube amp qualifies for that, even those with plenty of clean headroom. Before going for a fullstop modeling setup, my personal favourites (which I used for a very long time) have been a red knob "The Twin" with the stock cabs replaced (IMO absolutely crucial to turn these amps from utter garbage to fantastic almost instantly) and the clean channel of a Boogie MkIV. And yes, both of them do compress in their power amp sections, even at way less than earth shattering volume (I actually measured things a bit). Some solid state amps will work quite well, too, but given my own experience (and taste), the JCs are not among them, not even with different cabs. Polytones actually aren't too bad, but they usually require a different speaker for best results as well (I once owned one for some jazzy duties and still remember how amazed I was when running it through a 4x12 along with some drive pedals). Within the Helix, if I really want a clean platform amp, my first choice is what I owned in the past, namely the Cali IV Rhythm 1. The new Princess seems to be doing quite well, too, but the Cali offers the advance of a highly effective tonestack and the additional EQ. Fwiw, in case I want a slightly driven target amp, I usually go for one of the Marshall-alike offerings. 2) The speaker. This is exactly where my red knob Twin's stock speakers failed as miserably as it gets. Same for the stock JC speakers. Fortunately, within the modeling realm, replacing speakers is easy. And as far as the internal Helix speakers go, I like both the Cali 1x12 models and the Greenback 4x12s for such purposes. I usually tend to grab one of my own IRs, though, as they have some thick mids baked in, which I really like.

The warp function seems to be pretty similar to the hold function, just that apparently you can steer it into feedback (delay feedback that is). No idea what would be the closest on the Helix, maybe a combination of Poly Sustain and a delay.

Why would it not be? At least it's still available over here at all the usual places.

Uhm, well. Again, I would absolutely wish it was like that, but in a guitar universe where the major sound evolutions stopped around 1975 (with some digital up-spicing in the 80s) and where people are still praising 70 year old guitar designs and technology more or less as the be-all-end-all, I think it's rather unlikely to happen. And fwiw, when you look at the major feature requests for our beloved Helix, it's mainly amps and drives. Things to enhance whatever experimental sound sculpturing are really not requested much. Even regarding this very topic right here, you can clearly detect a similar mindset, PolyPitch apparently is much more seen as a kind of "helper" (aka "great, I only need to press this button instead of carrying another guitar around") rather than a creative tool along the lines of an EHX HOG or such.

I would love to agree with you, but as said before in this thread, I doubt there'll be realtime-capable solutions any day soon. I mean, look at the sonic differences between an E note played on the B-string's 5th fret and the G-string's 10th fret. They're really not *that* huge. Even the smallest variations in picking technique would result in larger differences already. Add to this that something such as Melodyne DNA isn't even able to separate a guitar and a piano playing unison voices. And that's got to be as advanced as it gets these days. And really, I'd love (!) to be proven wrong.

I think there's been some confusion between pitchshifting individual notes and pitchshifting individual strings - but I really thought I had mentioned that very difference in my comment(s) above. Anyway, as said before, while some superintelligent AI might be able to do this based on a polyphonic input signal one day, I think we're pretty far away from it as there's simply way too many variables coming into play. I mean, it's not only taking things apart based on pitch (which still isn't exactly possible in realtime) or whatever spectral content (some tools such as from iZotope or especially Steinbergs Spectrallayers are doing mindblowing things already - but again, not even remotely in realtime yet) but there's the myriads of possible input signal variations coming from all sorts of guitars, varying in string type and gauge, playing style, guitar type, pickup/mic type, tone controls and what not - quite a mess for any algorithm. What I could imagine (at least on paper) would be some easier way to slap a hex pickup system into existing guitars. Right now, the options are rather limited and they all require to either buy a complete guitar (Variax, Godin, whatever), do some hardware modifications (bridge saddle replacment) or slap some ugly/bulky mess (GK-alike pickups) onto your precious axe. None of these are exactly exciting options for people loving their favourite instruments as they are. Add to this that none of these options work through a standard guitar cable and there's yet some more modifications of your setup to deal with. I'm sure that quite some more people would try things out if it was as easy as replacing a standard pickup (which should still work as a passive pickup on its own) and running a plain guitar cable (ok, maybe a stereo TRS cable) into some box doing whatever conversion/processing while supplying phantom power for the pickup. Maybe even USB cable would be suitable for most people (with USB C the sockets became so small they could possibly be mounted next to the plain output without any woodwork on most guitars, think along the lines of the Fishman Fluence PUs which are charged by a mini USB socket mounted to a standard sized cable socket plate). Next step could be that companies would agree on whatever kind of broader and widely accepted standard when it comes to the signals sent from those pickups. As is, GKs, TriplePlays and Variax PUs aren't compatible, so to use, say, a Variax in full glory (controlled from a Helix) along with a Boss SY-1000, you'd have to slap an additional hex pickup into a guitar already featuring a hex pickup. And you'd also have to run both a VDI cable and a 13-pin GK cable. That's just absurd. A standard such as MIDI would be pretty much welcomed here - and possibly easier to realize than ever before, given that technology has such marvellous things as USB4 on offer already, barely getting in the way of bandwidth and transmission speed any longer. But then, maybe guitar players are just too conservative to ask for such things (let alone use them).

And fwiw, that is precisely what Melody *can't* do. Individual pitches =/= Individual strings.

You might want to read that sentence again. Or maybe just don't and continue with selective reading.

I did not make a blanket statement regarding Melodyne. Maybe you should just read it again.

If you asked me: Only partially. In other words: IMO they don't get *all* that much better with different input impedances. I think that out of the generally excellent Helix drives, the fuzzboxes are more on the somewhat weaker side. I for one never get their dynamics behave the way I'd like them to. But then, I might be an exception because plenty of folks seem to like them. Fwiw, I think the Top Secret OD does a nice fuzzy job in case you feed a slightly driven amp. Might need some additional EQ block (as it doesn't even have a tone control), but it's my to-go-for drive in case I want a little fuzziness.

Yeah well. Since around, hm, 3-5 years?

Well, decent pitch shifting and decent filters can take you a *long* way already. Add some envelopes and LFOs and you'll get really far. Just listen to the HOG stuff, it's basically all it does. But obviously all that kinda stuff is extremely low on L6's radar.

Short answer: No to both. A Sustainiac can't be replicated in an FX device anyway as it's physically enhancing your strings to ring.

I have absolutely no idea. But given that the HOG 2 is from 2012/13 and doing quite some other things along with pitch shifting, I would say the Helix should work sufficiently well. And uhm, even the Kemper does an impressive job at pitch shifting, being from 2011 and running its profiling engine at the same time. Personally, in case there were no tracking issues and the pitch shifting would cause less artefacts, I absolutely wouldn't mind sacrificing an entire path of the Helix for some HOG-alike goodness.

There's quite some people who'd like to see some kind of guitar synthesis built into the Helix.

Ahem - I *know* that. So what?

And fwiw, just in case someone hasn't seen it already, this is pretty much along the lines of what I'd like to see from a device doing polyphonic pitching:

None of these would do what I'd like to see. And fwiw, carrying another guitar wouldn't, either.