SaschaFranck

Well, the problem with balancing volumes in fact hasn't got anything to do with meters but all with the actual output volume parameter requiring a comparatively huge effort to get you there. Personally, I only "need" meters to watch out for potential clipping on the master output(s), which can easily become a critical thing in case your patches are leveled rather hot and then you're feeding, say, your sequencer out into the Helix via USB additionally.

A) Not really. At least other units offer *way* faster access to master patch volume. B) My main patch layout is the victim of a bug, I can *only* scroll to the lower output block from the upper output block, there's no way to get there whenever I'm in path 2 (already reported this), so while generally possible, in my case it doesn't work.

Well, I think meters are fine for inputs and outputs - but I'd rather have a quicker way to jump to an output block to actually adjust the levels rather than watching them... Seriously, I have no idea how something as essential as adjusting overall patch volume is handled in such a super-tedious way. Sure, the semi-modular structure, routing to various outs and all that - but I'd take a bet that 90% of all live patches use the bottom right output (ok, maybe the top right, too, for simpler patches) to feed FOH and monitors. So please give me a shortcut to get there quickly instead of having to navigate to it using the joystick. In the end, it's pretty much wellknown in the Helix crowd that balancing the volumes of multiple patches is just plain bad.

Yeah, even with 8 blocks, the Stomp would likely profit the most from something such as global blocks.

This. Really, once inside the Helix, there's so much headroom - clipping anything will be pretty much impossible. The only relevant things hence being in- and outputs.

Why? Do you have meters on your stomp boxes, too?

Yes, that'd be just *really* nice. And in case there wasn't sufficient block space and/or CPU juice - well, there's always the good old "Sorry, we can't do that!" message option. And now imagine being able to save such a mini-chain (say drive, amp, cab) as a "sub preset". Ok, we can dream...

Yeah, same here (see last post). Did so for ages with my real cabs, too. I usually used either a 2x12 or a 1x12, both sounding pretty similar, featuring Celestions or at least celestion-ish speakers, all pretty well worn in. Even replaced the speakers in my Twin with Celestions (well, not completely, a V30 and a Peavey Sheffield which is rather celestion-ish). When recording, I treat things pretty differently, but for live playing, I absolutely prefer being familiar over squeezing the last ounce of whatever authenticity out of my setup.

Well, yes and no - I am sort of doing this per amp, but usually that only happens when recording, so the IRs don't necessarily need to end up on the Helix, I only keep a handful of IRs I find useful at the end of the list should I record something at other places without a computer at hand (my 2008 Macbook won't run HX Edit, need something new soon-ishly, likely a 2-in-1 convertible or so). And as said, when recording, I can monitor through my live IRs just fine and slap others onto the recorded signal later on. On the Helix itself (apart from the mentioned "safety" IRs), I am so far just using exactly 2 IRs that I captured, mixed and matched myself, IMO they work amazingly well with all sorts of amps - but then, I'm only using 3 amp types anyway, a US Double Nrm for cleans in all patches and either the L6 2204 mod or the Voltage Queen for driven sounds. And I'm always just using one single IR for them, never switch during a gig or anything. Fwiw, apart from IRs being a rabbit hole and apart from the Helix not dealing too well with IR management (at least so far, 2.9 should be way better...), for me there's a certain "philosophy" (uhm, that's quite a bold statement...) behind doing it like this. For me (!) it's absolutely safe to say that using as little IRs (and amps too, fwiw) live is the easiest recipe for a balanced, homogenous sound. I got away with that very recipe for over 3 decades already, usually I was shooting for 2 (ok, sometimes 3) amp channels, a bunch of "modifiers" (drives, comps, EQs) and a single cab to work well with a broad variety of sounds ranging from completely clean to pretty well driven classic rock. I left that path here and there (using multiple amps and cabs, or mutlipe IRs with modelers) - and whenever I did, I would often run into situations where I felt kinda distracted. So I just returned to these rather simple setups, the main benefit being that I'm absolutely familiar with my live sounds. Add to this that most often, FOH folks and bandmates are quite happier, too, as they don't have to deal with a plethora of completely unrelated sounds always sitting in the mix quite differently. I can still add more than enough variety using different drives, some EQ-ing and FX. And quite obviously, there's also pickup selection, volume pots and playing dynamics. YMMV, but I have as well listened to plenty of players with very unbalanced sounds. Very often Top 40 players trying to mimic each and every sound as it is on the original recording - which, at least IMO, is quite pointless unless you do a tribute show with *plenty* of rehearsing and very accurate "sound management" all across the band. Having said that, if I was playing, say, in a Pink Floyd tribute act, I'd likely do it that way as well - for anything else I try to stay away from any attempts at covering sounds 1:1 as much as I can but rather stick with "more or less in the ballpark" sounds I am familiar with.

I would like 10 snapshots, too. The announced 2.9 update will allow you to select snapshots in stomp mode (via Command Center), so you could theoretically have 10 snapshots - but you'd lose stomp mode in that case, which I personally don't want at all.

Yeah, that'd be very useful, too. Along with an option for the entire preset to either be just a reference/alias or a "hard copy".

Tip for auditioning IRs inside the Helix (works pretty much the same as with the Variax method described above, just a little more comfortable, IMO at least): Fill all the slots up. Go to pedal edit mode and go through them with the -/+ switches. Once you find one you like, take a note. When done with all slots, move the ones you like to the top, remove the rest and replace them with a new batch. Personally, I'm doing it inside Logic. I usually just record something without any cab information (either by using Helix Native or by sending the Helix signal to a USB recording path before it hits the cab/IR block). In Logic, I'm using Space Designer to audition IRs. I have my entire IR collection converted to Space Designer presets (there's an incredibly handy tool called "Space Designer Manager" around), which allows me to go through the entire shebang just by navigating with the arrow keys inside Logics libary tab, don't even need to open the plugin UI for that. In all these years of dealing with IRs I haven't come across any method to wade through massive amounts of IRs any quicker. In addition, having things pre-recorded allows me to concentrate on the sound rather than on my playing and it also allows me to listen to things in context (alongside a backing). Once I find a suitable IR, I bypass that instance of Space Designer, copy it to another insert and continue with that instance. After a certain while, I just save the project, which will as well save all IRs used inside the project folder. These go into a favourite folder (or straight into the Helix - even if I am almost sorted regarding the ones I'm keeping inside the hardware). This method works amazingly well and I can listen to heaps of IRs before ear fatigue and option paralysis start to kick in.

Well, whether you call it "links" or "global blocks" isn't too relevant as long as the result is the same. See, I'm not talking about patch creation (I'm using HXN as a block stack all the time for that) but about live playing. And in that case, HXN won't help me at all.

Just that this hasn't gotten anything to do with what I want. I want to change, say, an amp parameter in one patch and have it automatically changed along with that in another patch using the same amp.

Fwiw, would be quite nice if the number of snapshots could be raised to any multiplier of 8. The up/down switches could then just take you to the next snapshot page.

And btw, I actually thought about going the extra mile and having the BCR2000 with me on most gigs (would've even built a case with a larger lid to slap it in) and do all my patch changes from there (even with global blocks, I'd likely not need more than one patch per song, so switching patches manually on the BCR wouldn't be an issue), but then I found out that for this to work, you can forget about snapshots as each and every parameter controlled via external MIDI CCs is automatically set to snapshot control - which I certainly don't want.

Edited my post already, but here we go for the exact procedure. All you need is an external MIDI controller allowing you to "send all current values" (or whatever it might be called on whatever controller). I'm using an outdated but still unrivalled and still working Behringer BCR2000 (32 rotary encoders with LED readout rings). So, as an example: You map, say, all 3 parameters of standard overdrive to CCs. That's all for this demonstration. The rest of the patch could be just anything. Adjust everything on the Helix, just the drive parameters would be adjusted by your external controller (reason: the values on the Helix and the external controller need to match - fwiw, not an issue if this was taken care of internally). Save this patch. Copy the patch. Alter any settings in the copied patch, absolutely doesn't matter. Have your external controller send the currently values - *blam*, your drive will now have exactly the same settings as in the source patch. So, all that needs to happen would be that a) the globally treated blocks would be excluded from the "save" function (with their values saved somewhere) or b) the blocks would get a value sent that was used before and saved somewhere (in my case on the external controller). This is really all it'd take and nobody will be able to convince me it'd be all too tough to implement in case a mere hack such as me can easily fake it using a 20y old shoddy plastic MIDI knob box. Fwiw, in case someone has contact to the Line 6 folks, feel free to forward this. Thanks.

Well, I can't agree on "close to impossible", not at all. The reason being that I can kind of fake global blocks already, using an external MIDI knob controller (I'd elaborate if required), an approach that a) just isn't too comfortable and b) impossible to use in case you also like to use snapshots. Otherwise, sending out the same CC values to the same blocks spread over patches is absolutely trivial and should be a piece of cake to implement internally.

Free switch assignments should come in extremely handy for me. Something I was defenitely wishing for.

Will the looper finally offer an undo/cancel option for the initial recording? If anything, this is keeping me away from ever using it live.

Ok, might get longer, but as you've asked, yeah, out of everything I could think of, global blocks for me would be *by far* the most exciting/important thing I could wish for. Sure, it's mainly for the live playing crowd, so in case you're merely using the Helix for home fun or recording, this would likely not even be remotely as interesting. But once you're playing live, this will be sooo useful. From my experience, very few basic amp sounds plus some modifications will take you through pretty much any gig (I could elaborate but I don't think it's required for this thread). For these few sounds, it's just incredibly useful to have global control. I have already mentioned this elsewhere, but as an example: Clean sound not loud enough? No problem, turn up the clean channel volume. As easy as it gets with a multichannel analog amp. But once these clean sounds are spread over multiple patches, even such a simple task very quickly becomes completely (!) impossible. Select patch, turn clean amp up, save. Select next patch, turn clean amp up, save. Repeat for any number of patches using clean sounds. Along this, you would have to remember how much you turned things up. Ok, soundcheck is over (and you've already spent all soundcheck time on adjusting clean channel levels...), the show is on. During the first tune you notice that you turned the clean channel up too much - well, game over, you will *never* manage to re-do all these patch modifications during a gig. Again, with an analog amp, I'd have a chord ring out, turn around to my amp and turn the volume knob down a bit. Mission accomplished. If you want to overcome this with the Helix, so far your only option is to use as little patches as possible (in my case exactly one per gig). As a result, you have to stuff all kinds of things into these patches. Which makes controlling them tougher (running out of footswitches and snapshots, way more block navigation required should you want to tweak things, etc.). Plus, you're losing options. There might be just enough juice/blocks for the phaser but the flanger has to stay out - unless you could use another patch. Which would result in - well - see above. There's also some further things that would be a lot easier. Let's say you have just managed to come up with a patch list for a certain gig. You'd only be using two amps all throughout (same settings, too). Now, all of a sudden you may notice that your dirt amp would work a whole lot better with another cab/IR. As is, you would have to enter each patch, reassign the cab, resave. Just to find out the old IR was the better choice... I'm sure you get the idea. True. And we will possibly not know for a while. Yet, as said before, personally, I sort of wanted to know whether the sound quality was up to date (which, regardless of any other features, is still the most important thing). Which it seems to be. Given some other things are done well, I would not drool over a touchscreen, either. But then, Line 6 could just add one. In form of a mobile app. Sure, there's no bluetooth on the Helix, but it would work just fine via USB. I'm not even expecting a fullblown editor but a mixture of a controller and a librarian would be just great (especially in case there were global blocks, hah!). Further things I'd wish for: - External MIDI control that *doesn't* conflict with snapshots (this is really bad IMO). - User definable knob assignments. Just as what you can do with switches (which seems to get even better with 2.9). - Block presets (and user definable defaults along with them). I find myself turning the same parameters *all* the time when inserting new blocks. - Grouped blocks and presets for them. Defenitely not easy to realize, but given the amount of times I use the same combination of 1-2 drives, an amp and a certain IR, these would be immense time saviours. - Decent IR management. Well, let's see how things go with 2.9. - And most of all: Global blocks (did I mention them already?). Hm, you might be right, but the JCM stuff starting around 6:20 or so is pretty damn great IMO.

No global blocks. Let's hope they're hidden somewhere...

My personal take would be that I'm more or less perfectly happy with the Helix regarding sounds. Sure, I wouldn't mind a thing here and there, but in case the Helix was all I had until the rest of my life (given it doesn't fall apart), I would get along just fine. As said, soundwise that is. However, I also think that the Helix is missing quite some things regarding organisational/utilitarian issues - things which are actually kinda keeping me away from using it to its full potential. Hence, if any other company comes along adressing these things, I'd be all interested. But quite obviously, the sonic aspects must be covered as well as with the Helix. I am now pretty much sure that with the QC, this will be the case. So I'll now be having a look whether they're getting the mentioned organisational things right as well. In that case I'd be all in. And quite obviously, I'd happily take amp capturing and the small footprint as a welcomed addition.

I think the tones in the video from Rabea Massaad are far from "completely average" - but in case you can get them from a Firehawk plus an IR, I'd sure be interested in your mad tweaking skills.

Well, business as usual. Bold claims, no proof. Sorry, but I've been through that way too often. So I prefer to not believe anything without proof anymore.