BigRalphN

The entire site, including the forums, has been ridiculously slow as of late. Yesterday was terrible for me as well. Every other site was working fine. This has been an ongoing issue with the Line 6 site for me. I didn't see others complaining so I I have just dealt with it. The should at least have mirrors for downloads.

Great info man. Thanks.

I did want to add something here. I keep seeing on various boards that Helix does not support Mission Engineering pedals. That it hogwash. The Mission Engineering pedal designed for Line 6 products (the one that says Line 6 on it) works fantastic. You have to have the right ME pedal.

Finally someone else dared say it. Lol. Too each their own but this is how I have always felt about modeling. If you plug it into an amp then you just have a very expensive effects box and there are others that function as well and at cheaper there. In fact I would just use my old board. I realize Helix has extras. Multiple routing, amp switching (on some Amps this works) and higher quality effects. I do understand studio use and just wanting to find a way to use it live also.

I have been reading over this and have some thoughts running through my head. As an old guy that actually remembers when the first Boston album came out I have always been intrigued by the guitar tone. Initially, before he designed all of the Rockmann gear to make gone tones, he used his Gibsob, Stacks of Marshall Amps and some of his home made effects. One of the things I remember from an interview was that he attributed some of the tone to weak tubes and faulty circuits. This was part of the reason he needed to make the gear to create the sound live. Now I may be mixing some fact with urban legend but in any event I was wondering if we might be able to get in the ballpark by experimenting with all of these features and adding effects. Load up a Marshall and go from there. I may start trying, though I seldom get close to artist sounds. It might be a good challenge for people. I do know analog chorus and tape echo are a must.

I just wanted to thank Line 6 and Sweetwater for a very quick turn around on my Helix with the burning issue on the mic input. Line 6 responded quite fast and was working on a return/exchange. ImletbSwetwaternknowmthensame day and they said ship it right out to them. I did since they are close and I was only without the Helix over the weekend. Great service. Sweetwater even checked out the replacement unit to make sure the mic input was fine. Great service from both. Now ifmLine 6 wouldmjustbfix this slow lollipop website.

I can't ever see most Helix users wanting or using this. It would be like putting a Pinto engine inside a classic Mustang just because it fits. I think what you will see though is that as things go on they will find ways to optimize DSP that will allow some effects to use less processing and free up more memory. Keep in mind this is all new. We have just begun to see the Helix.

I use Dude Wipes

People comparing Kemper to Helix or AXFX are really comparing apples to oranges though I understand because of the price points. I am Helix all the way (despite the fact mine has to go in as I was one with mic input issues) but all of them have pluses and minuses My issues with Line 6 and why I almost went with Kemper, are reliability issues. Every single Line 6 product I have owned has broke within the first year and a couple later on. Yet I keep buying them because I hope they fix QC sometime. And now the Helix broke. A list of some of my line 6 products. Toneport for recording (bad out of the box with phase issues on the inputs) , Bogner Spider Valve (amp stage went out), HD Series (expression pedal quit working), X3 live (every footswitch needed replaced over time) . The X3 is still going after switch replacement as a friends kid has it. I will stop there. And I am not rough on things. In fact I am anal about keeping stuff up. So more than future development I think they need to continue to work on QC and improve component quality so that down the road quality is top notch. You can never buy for what features you hope will be added in firmware updates. That will disappoint you every time (just ask Apple and Microsoft users).

Apparently Line 6 has a very serious issue with the mic input/preamp on these early Helx units. I plugged n my SM58 and got nothing. I checked everything and still nothing out of the input. I changed gain and settings. Just for a test I tried my Blue Dynamic that requires phantom power. I turned I on and no power and something fried in the mic circuit. Within seconds I smelled heating/burning. I unplugged it and turned it off. It cleared and all is fine for playing but no mic circuit. I will call Line 6 tomorrow then probably talk with Sweetwater and go,with the quickest turnaround for repair. I suggest everyone test theirs with and without phantom but do not plug in a real expensive ribbon or condenser until you are sure you won't fry the mic.

Not so odd (though he said his is a condenser).. Blu makes a very good dynamic that requires phantom power. I have one. I is a great dynamic mic for vocals . I am gong to test my mic input now. I haven't grid it yet.

Also it would be cool to have an iPad holder on your mic stand and have the iPad show the Helx display. Even if that is all it did it would be cool. Especially with my vision issues.

I actually have done recordings with the Helix and iPad using the camera kit. It works well for the most part. Obviously it is limited with no reamping and storage space (pretty much forced to use cloud storage) but it works. I have a laptop now but haven't but the bullet on new software yet.

A fallopian what?

I was offended by the bagpipe abuse. :).

According to what they have said so far it will have nothing that we have not seen. They have stated it us the Helix screen on your computer with the exact same features. I imagine the only difference will be in ease of changing names are of patches. I have wondered how the editor will,handle,knob changes. Will it be turns of an on screen knob or will there be alpha numeric values attached? Or click on the knob and get a slider? Either way. Hopefully something like some of,the latter ideas as on screen knobs are difficult to deal with. From the screen shot it looks like slides which will be great.

That would be a great idea. I will have to search for the one you mentioned. Was this one from Chad Boston? I thought I saw a Dumble patch challenge from him on Facebook.

Sort of true. There are not any additional IRs included but all the built in cabinets are actually impulse responses.

, Are you on the most recent firmware? It almost sounds like he may be using the Matchless amp. If he is and you are not on the current firmware you could get that message.

Ha ha. Not laughing at you. I am chuckling because I just posted in another thread that my Sony MDRs sound absolutely with my Helix and I can't understand it since they are amazing for studio mixing and super comfortable. Mine get real flabby on the low end of the Helix and tend to distort at louder volume. Mine have been run through the wringer and are a very early model as they have had up great. I also have a set of MDR V6's. They sound a little better but same basic issues. I had just assumed it was an impediance thing between the Helix and the Sonys. My Fischer Audio studio cans sound amazing. Now I am confused...lol. I do want to add that I have always loved the Sonys and you are so right about how great they are for mixing.

I am a little confused. Is it a preset/patch you are getting from Custometone or an iR? From your description it sounds almost like you are trying to load a preset into an IR slot. If it is an hlx file extension it is a custom preset and loads in a preset. If it is an iR it will be in wav format. I apologize if I am just misunderstanding. I know user name Bart2580 makes presets. I have tried a couple of his.

+1 on both suggestions above. Especially if you are using headsets. Headsets can be real flaky. It seems like high end cans are the only way to go. My Sony MDR series actually does not do well with the Helix and they are an expensive, fairly flat set of headphones designed for studio use. Thy sound flabby with the Helix bass and distort easily. It's weird because they sound great for mixing on a board. My Fischer Audio headsets, which I bought as a backup to Sony set for mixing (They are Super flat studio cans that sound great but are not as comfortable..I got them at a stores going out of business sale) sound freaking amazing with the Helix and identical to what ever I do live. Also my KRK monitors need isolation stands to sound good (not a Helix issue). It is sort of odd that only neck pickups sound muddy though. I could understand if it was all humbuckers but the fact that singles do as well is very odd.

+1 for a compressor at the beginning of your chain or use an eq for a clean boost.

Definitely not. I go direct for live stuff. The KRK are fine for bedroom jamming.

I would love one of those but I am not sure that it would be cost efficient to have one shipped to,the US.