floyd99

hahahaha! sorry!! I haven't got rid of any of my pedal board or amps yet.. not sure i can bring myself to do that. where the helix, for me, has really helped isn't the show so much (as once we've loaded in I'm basically set up for a while).. it's the couple of rehearsals prior. Previously i'd have to lug my amp, plus a separate acoustic amp, plus separate pedals for the acoustic etc. When i'm also having to carry a car load of guitar cases, having to also fit the extra acoustic amp and stuff really made it painful. The one thing i'm not liking on the helix is the footswitches are a bit too close together. I, more than once, have hit two switches at the same time by mistake - and i have small feet. The other thing for me is they all look the same. The coloured scribbles are cool but don't really help too much - stompboxes are good in that they're so obvious. In the show there was a really fast change and i hit the wrong effect a couple of times (supposed to be the rotary, and in a VERY exposed section- just me).... ended up putting white electrical tape surrounding that switch just to make it stand out.

Cheers :) Shame it's pretty dark down there, the go-pro had a bit of a hard time! But you get the idea.

Thanks guys! Here's a couple more this time from Legally Blonde... Frikken huge show.. Just doesn't stop! This is pre-helix purchase I'm afraid haha.

Thanks Bill :-) In one of the videos I actually take the camera to the conductor position so you can see what they do :) It varies. In some shows (like this), he can see the stage as they are elevated on a podium with just their head sticking out at the front apron of the stage. In others, and becoming more common these days, we are completely enclosed either in the pit or under the stage or even a different building. When that's the case, they have monitors. In all cases there is a camera pointed at the conductor with screens in the auditorium so the cast can see the conductor without having to look down at the floor. The most common spots in a show for stretching music is when there is dialogue mid-song. These are generally written in the score with open ended repeat sections (called a vamp). That could be just a single bar of music or multiple, and we basically repeat until the conductor hears the right line and we move on. Once the show is running smoothly it's extremely rare for unintended mishaps as the cast tend to do it the same way every time. It does happen, but we can hear them in addition to watching the conductor, so we know when something's gone wrong and as a band we generally can pick it up. What might seem like a trainwreck moment to us is probably not even noticed by the audience :) Yes it's relaxing in one sense in that no one can see us. And whilst I look relaxed, it's a mammoth concentration. Time signature changes everywhere, and nasty ones. In the middle of a page if you miss that elusive 2/4 bar, not good! What you can't see is that almost all of the accents that the drummer/band hits are also hit by the cast in their dancing/choreography. And yes, it's very much like a studio but live. Especially as we're running silent with headphones, drummer in a booth, etc. :-)

Thanks Bill :-) In one of the videos I actually take the camera to the conductor position so you can see what they do :) It varies. In some shows (like this), he can see the stage as they are elevated on a podium with just their head sticking out at the front apron of the stage. In others, and becoming more common these days, we are completely enclosed either in the pit or under the stage or even a different building. When that's the case, they have monitors. In all cases there is a camera pointed at the conductor with screens in the auditorium so the cast can see the conductor without having to look down at the floor. The most common spots in a show for stretching music is when there is dialogue mid-song. These are generally written in the score with open ended repeat sections (called a vamp). That could be just a single bar of music or multiple, and we basically repeat until the conductor hears the right line and we move on. Once the show is running smoothly it's extremely rare for unintended mishaps as the cast tend to do it the same way every time. It does happen, but we can hear them in addition to watching the conductor, so we know when something's gone wrong and as a band we generally can pick it up. What might seem like a trainwreck moment to us is probably not even noticed by the audience :) Yes it's relaxing in one sense in that no one can see us. And whilst I look relaxed, it's a mammoth concentration. Time signature changes everywhere, and nasty ones. In the middle of a page if you miss that elusive 2/4 bar, not good! What you can't see is that almost all of the accents that the drummer/band hits are also hit by the cast in their dancing/choreography. :-)

Hi all, I posted this photo a few weeks ago but in my sleepy haze, clicked the wrong button a day later and deleted the post by accident. I took the GoPro in one night and did a little filming, so decided to hold off re-posting until I'd made some videos, a couple of which I've posted links below. On my channel there's a couple more. I thought folks might be interested given theatre shows is somewhat unique and most people never see what goes on down there! I'm using the Helix for everything except the banjo. I'm using just a single patch and running in 10 footswitch pedal board mode. Paths 1A, 2A & 2B are basically one big chain, output to Left XLR. This is the electric signal path and i'm just using a clean fender amp model. In an FX Loop & assigned to a footswitch is a Line 6 M5 purely for the Seek Wah effect. Path 2B gets input from Aux In and is used for the acoustics, simple pre-amp and reverb output to Right XLR. I have a volume block in there as well, with level assigned to a footswitch to basically mute/unmute the acoustic so I can swap the cable between guitars as required (sometimes up to 4 different guitars are used in a single song - that's theatre for ya!) Cheers, dave Run through of guitars and most of the sounds used in the show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3aZtCspcFU Bows & Exit music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Cz4UqKpbo A tour of the orchestra pit & a few other areas - FOH audio etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8fQZT4aY-0

Ditto. I haven't played with the editor yet as it's not all that important to me. I find the editing on the Helix unit to be so damned easy that I'm not too fussed. When i want to, I pick the unit up and put it on my desk or coffee table for trial and error testing etc. I'm sure I'll play with it in due course. But I didn't purchase the Helix with an expectation of its existance. I get really annoyed with people on here totally complaining about this and that (and this editor thing has been a major one.. when will it be out, yadda yadda..)... they knew it didn't have one when they bought the unit. If something like this (and certain functionality that it affords) is a show stopper for them, then why did they buy the Helix in the first place? You don't buy something and then complain that it doesn't do something that was never advertised on the box as a feature, or from what you could have noticed during testing the unit in store (eg. patch changes delay!). Is there things that bug me about the unit? Yes. Are they enough that I regret my purchase? God no. The little annoyances I have i'm sure will get fixed over time. While i'm ranting, the other thing that annoys me is people comparing devices (Axe does this, Kemper does that..). They're not the same. They're not the same company. They're not the same prices. If another device does something better, then buy that one and stop complaining. Might AX8 sound better? Sure. Does it have a built in pedal and multiple inputs and outputs? No. Does it have a GUI that is ridiculously easy to navigate and use? No. Are those things a showstopper for ME? Yes... that's why I chose the Helix over another product, as it works FOR ME. If it didn't, then I wouldn't have bought it. Sorry.. lol. Rant over.

i can confirm the line 6 L2M / L2T is extremely loud and is fine for backline and in a smaller gig with a vocal only PA, would provide plenty enough volume. I used it last week running it at half volume and the stage sound was huge.

Line 6 L2M is working well for me, and has a nice soft case with wheels & luggage style handle too.

this would be an awesome feature.. being able to "group" effects blocks together such that only one block in the "group" is active at a time, and hitting another member of the group automatically turns off the other. I think others have requested this too.

used mine live with a FRFR for the first time the other day. I set the volume control to just control the digital outputs (which includes Line 6 Link, which is what I plugged my foldback into), which meant the volume control only adjusted my personal foldback and not the FOH send. Likewise, if you didn't want the volume control to do anything at all, just set it to control an output you're NOT using (such as digital in your case) it's a quick and easy setting to change on the fly at the start of the night, depending on the current gig setup. I do wish there was a more granular setting though.. for example instead of just "all 1/4" outputs or all XLR outputs" to be able to split that into Left and Right. For example, if I had to use 1/4" left to FOH and 1/4" right to foldback (for whatever reason), I could therefore set the volume control accordingly so that i'm not adjusting the FOH send.

Line 6 L2M as foldback

hi all i've put an ernie ball volume pedal as an expression pedal, to do volume control. Into EXP2, using just the pedal's output jack as i'm supposed to. it works perfectly fine.. however, the calibration keeps changing. it'll work for a short while, 0 to 100 all good as expected... but if i do a few sweeps in quick succession over and over a couple of times, the pedal works fine, but the maximum value (toe down) will start to alter. In other words, it'll change from being 100% at toe down to 95% and then maybe as low as 85% at full toe down. Then the only way to rectify it is to unplug from EXP2 and plug it back in. And without changing anything else, the values will go back to 100% at toe down. Therefore i know it's not the pedal's pot. It's as if the auto calibration is getting mucked up ? i've had to resort to plugging it in as a real volume pedal in an FX loop instead of a non-audio expression for the time being. And before anyone asks, yes I know the internal pedal does volume.. but as I sit down in an orchestra pit a lot, I don't like the raised height off the floor of the internal pedal. It's not comfortable for having my foot on full time when seated, the angle is just a bit off. cheers dave

Went well!! No valve amp and it sounded fine! Used XLR out to FOH and L6 link to my onstage foldback. The L2M was plenty loud enough.. In fact it had more available. Was cranking and sounded fantastic. Sound guy said there was no noise although I did ensure phantom was off on my channel. Only issue was a little harshness with overdrive on bridge pickup but I'll cut a little more on the EQ to fix that. Until tonight I'd only experimented at home and not at gig volume so a little tweaking is to be expected I'm still baby steps with this whole modeling multi fx thing so I had everything I needed for the gig in a single patch. Sounded great and to be honest, kicking the Minotaur and the Timmy in together with some delay really kicked butt and I actually played better as a result. So, definitely not regretting this purchase at all! Made even better by the fact I got the L2M almost half price as an ex-demo unit :-)

Thanks all - greatly appreciated. I'll give it a try and post back how I go.