RD1967

Yes! I am using the XLR out.

I really need your help with a mystery. I was getting ready for worship practice and had all my sounds programmed in and everything was fine. I use snapshots exclusively. When I got to the church I plugged in my Helix and powered it up and it sounded terrible. The sound in my monitor was really low and nothing sounded even close to how it sounded at my house. The sound seemed heavily compressed and the overdrives didn't sound overdriven at all. I had to have the sound guy turn me way up in my monitor and I had to turn the Helix volume up to 100% just to hear it and it still wasn't as loud as it normally is at 50% volume and a lower setting at the mixing board. At church I plug the Helix into a power strip which is plugged into an extension chord and then into a wall outlet. At home I also plug into an outlet strip but it goes directly into the wall. There is no extension chord in the mix at home. That is the only difference. I've been playing this way at church with my Helix for the past 9 months and there hasn't been an issue. After practice I came home and plugged in and everything sounded just like it did before I went to the church. I'm stumped?? Can an outlet strip possibly let enough power through to turn the Helix on but not enough for it to function properly? I play every Sunday and just can't play this weekend if it sounds like it did tonight. Why would it sound great at home - then not great at the church - then great again when I got home? I'm having a hard time believing it could be the Helix. Does anybody have any suggestions?

MusicLaw is 100% correct. If you set up all of your patches this way you can have any kind of reverb sound you're trying to obtain. You can get extremely wet sounds with great note clarity setting up your patches this way. The definition you are looking for will be there.

I've noticed distorted delays mainly on the Digital Delays, Craig. How are you fixing this?

Phil.....this worked like a charm when I turned off the Cab Filter. I did have it in a parallel path, too, and I didn't notice any difference when I toggled it between path A and Path B or putting it in 2A or 2B. Problem solved. Thank you all for your responses.

Thank you for your suggestions. I will try them both in the next day or so and will post the results back here.

So I thought I would try my Strymon Big Sky with my Helix. However, it completely changes the sound of my amp model. I've tried just about every amp in the Helix and it does this on all of them. I was wondering if anybody else experienced this and if you can tell me how to fix it. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong because I've seen tons of posts where people have said they've successfully used a Strymon product. I ran it through the in/out of effects loop 2. -Ron

When line6 released the 2.50 update I was as excited as anybody else and upgraded my Helix right away. I could hardly wait to try out the new reverbs. I posted almost immediately that I was very disappointed because they didn't sound any more wet than the verbs already in the Helix. Today I was watching a youtube video where Brian mentions that there is a known glitch when running the new reverbs mono compared to Stereo. He continues to say that they won't sound as wet when running mono as they will when running in stereo. The "wetness" is what I was hoping for as I play mostly Praise and Worship style music. I almost always run mono and will continue to run mono. I have not heard about this glitch anywhere else and was wondering if any of you have heard this and if you know if Line6 is working on a fix. It would really suck if you can only get the "wetness" if you run in stereo. -Ron

True, but I was hoping this could replace my Strymon Big Sky where you can play single note stuff VERY VERY wet and still hear the clarity of the notes you're picking. Don't get me wrong....I really like these reverbs but I was expecting/hoping for something much different.

Thanks, Craig. I did put it in a parallel path but didn't play around with any of the sliders accept "mix" because I liked the sound of it but wanted it more wet. On the 2.3 reverbs all I had to do was increase the mix and away I went and everything was fine. I'll play around with the level and all the other parameters but the "mix" is what controls the amount of reverb (wetness) not the level. Have you tried the new reverbs yet?

Ok....So, I've been tinkering with the Reverbs for the last two hours and let me start by saying that I really like them a lot. However, I've noticed that if you increase the mix you almost completely lose your clarity of notes and your sound gets reduced. I tried to emulate what someone that was beta testing them did - which was a very wet sound and I couldn't make it more wet without highly diminished quality. Has anybody else used them yet and found this to be true. I admit there are quite a few things to tweak and I certainly haven't exhausted everything but just increasing the wetness shouldn't diminish the sound and clarity IMO. Anybody?

The Helix updater won't see your Helix if any other Line 6 software is running. You have to make sure you're completely out of everything like Line6 monkey and others, etc. Once you do this the updater will recognize your Helix.

Please explain step-by-step how you set this up in the Helix so that when you turn up the volume in your monitor it doesn't also turn up the volume in the mains. Please and thank you!

Dude.....thank you. You will forever be called "The Chad" or "the Chadster" in my eyes. Thank you for taking the time. I'll gladly watch the videos and take what I can from them. Thanks for sharing.....you didn't have to and I appreciate it.

Hey, Chad, I would love for you to share some of the things you tweak when you dial in tones in workbench. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Sometimes I'm not very bright.....how can the pickup height affect the sound of the modeled guitars?

I didn't have the exact issue with my HD500X. I felt the tones were much better through the POD than they are through the Helix but were still not great but definitely usable. The only tones I find usable through the Helix are the Les Pauls. I updated my Variax last night to the most recent firmware and there was no difference.....still just sounds bad. My son's Stat Mini that I paid $125.00 for sounds better than all of the models in the Variax through the Helix. Again, I'm not trying to be a hater but I am terribly unhappy with the Variax now and will probably sell it unless Line6 creates a major upgrade to this for the Helix. The magnetic pickups sound freakin awesome but I have a ton of other guitars that are equally awesome and won't need the Variax any longer.

I agree about the baby wipes. My wife and I have saved tons of money using baby wipes to clean almost everything in the house instead of buying something from the store that may have harsh chemicals. If baby wipes can clean the stuff that has come out of my kids behinds then it will most definitely clean the Helix. You might need to buff it with a terry clothe afterwards but will clean it nicely. I would use the baby wipes over the Windex.

Uber Guru - I have the 69S Variax. How do I download the latest firmware? Is it done through WorkBenchHD?

I haven't done that. I read in another thread that WorkBench wasn't yet compatible with the Helix. Based on what you're saying it sounds like that has been corrected. Thank you for responding. I appreciate it.

Please understand I'm not trying to be negative and I'm not a hater. I absolutely love my Helix. However, I've had my Helix for about a month now and finally had some time to fiddle around with my Variax and I was astounded at how bad the Variax sounds. I love the Helix and have created some really amazing sounds with all my other guitars and even the Variax sounds great if you use the magnetic pickups. Has anybody else found this to be true? Also, I have discovered I can't do all the tweaking I could when I used my HD500X and WorkbenchHD. WorkbenchHD doesn't work with the Helix. You can't change pickups within the Helix.....you can't use the modeled pickups and blend them with the magnetic pickups, you can't "design" a guitar. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Any suggestions would be appreciated. -Ron

I have the JTV 69S model. I do see on the Helix software where I can make changes to the Variax. Does this completely replace the workbench software?

I just bought the Helix and I'm loving it. In fact, I've been having so much fun with it I forgot I had a variax guitar.....so, I pulled out the Variax and I can make changes on the guitar but the software is not connecting. Has anybody else seen this problem that has a solution? Before you answer please know that I have the Helix set up for "Multi - Guitar, Aux, Variax" -Ron

I've had the same problem with my HD500X and I called Line 6 and they pointed out that I was using the usb ports on the front of my PC and suggested that I use the ports on the back of the computer instead. I ran into the front for more than 2 years with no issues and then I got the same errors you did. As soon as I plugged into the back of the PC the problem went away and hasn't come back. Good luck!

Thank you for the replies. I haven't soldered anything for more than 30 years....not sure how comfortable I am taking this on.