markpaterson

I get it. I know it's never going to sound exactly like the one I already have. I get that mics and placement play a big part. My post was just about the confusing extra pots and how dialing them in caused the sound to stray quite far from the original model. I'm sure anyone would agree that aiming for the baseline sound of any desired amp is a perfectly normal impulse to have. Otherwise, what's the point of modelling anything at all?

Thanks guys, this all super helpful. Slightly overwhelmed by the awesomeness and depth my new Helix LT so forgive me. I'm looking forward to installing the editor app when I get a minute, although I've been incredibly impressed how much I've managed to figure out with that or even a glance at the manual.

The Helix LT is awesome. Not had it long, but damn is it impressive. There's just one thing bugging me about amp emulation. Example… Fender Deluxe Reverb. On a real one (excluding the built in Vibrato and Reverb) the only pots are VOLUME, TREBLE, BASS. Note that there is no MIDDLE pot, unlike a Fender Twin. However, on the Helix Deluxe Reverb model, I have DRIVE, BASS, MIDDLE, TREBLE, PRESENCE, CH VOL, MASTER, etc. I dislike how Helix amp controls seem to be a one size fits all approach. I find it very hard to dial in the sound of my real Deluxe Reverb into a Helix emulated version. There's effectively THREE pots that control volume! There is no DRIVE channel on a real Deluxe Reverb either, yet dialing down the DRIVE to zero gets you complete silence. Then there's the EQ issue. I could be wrong about this, but I've heard that the EQ on a Fender blackface only 'removes' frequencies and doesnt add any to the sound. It certainly behaves that way. So having both TREBLE and BASS dialed up to 10 is basically your guitar's original signal, and anything less is either removing bass or treble, depending on which pot you adjust. The Helix pots do not seem to behave like this though. It seems more like 50% is the normal signal and anything more will ADD to the signal. Again, frustrating. I realize that Line 6 can't really change this way of working without screwing up everybody's existing patches, but it would be nice to have an option in the preferences (or perhaps on a per patch basis) for 'Legacy' or 'New' amp controls. 'New' of course being a more faithful to what controls are on the actual amp. Strange that they DO appear to go all out on modelling the controls of effects pedals, e.g. I noticed that the OCD effect even has the HP switch and a switch to toggle between versions of the pedal! You may ask why I need to have the amp modelled so precisely, if I have the real amp, but there's a million obvious reasons why i'd want an emulated version too, such as for playing through headphones or recording direct to Logic. Anyway, i'm mainly just sounding off, but any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!