soundog

Agreed. Those Michael Britt presets are meat and potatoes tones .... not a lot of fancy frills, but they sure do sound good.

Yes, creating your own is a beautiful thing. Learn to fish. Still, I use and have learned a lot from third party presets. The best I've found are ones for which the author created their own IRs to match the preset. That can be an unbeatable combination, and something out of reach for most of us in terms of required time, expertise, equipment and experimentation. With those, you end up with some useful IRs plus the presets. They include stuff by Fremen and Glenn (there are others, of course). I've also been happy with these https://mbritt.com/product/m-britt-helix-preset-pack-1/ although I wish Michael would make some new ones for the more recent Helix amps.

That's great info, phil_m ... thanks.

Glad to help ... I've been helped out countless times on these forums when I was stuck. Lots of good folks here....

Yay! Glad it worked! If I remember correctly, you might need to save your controller settings with a template, then start with that template when you create a project. I can't remember if they are saved with a project....

I agree ... a clipping indicator should have been added a long time ago. Here are a couple of ideascale proposals, so go vote for both of them.... https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Helix-Guitar-Signal-Metering/741210-23508 https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Digital-clipping-indicator-for-Helix/790424-23508#idea-tab-details My personal preference would be to be able to assign an LED to light green, yellow, or red depending on input level.

pete the strat guy, thanks for verifying the summary of what you want to do. I now see this as a mental challenge (good for my aging brain) so will try to duplicate and get it going here. I'll get back to you...

...that looks very useful, thank rsvette, I'll have a look at the whole thing later. petestrat guy, let us know if you get it working in the meantime....

So give me the short version of what you're trying to do and I'll see if I can do some troubleshooting over the next day and see what works for me. (I've got an HX Effect, which has the same Command Center as Helix floor). Can I assume you want to control Snapshots real-time in HXN using your Helix hardware, and using USB as your interface?

....not sure if you mentioned if you were using the latest version of HXN or not, but I think MIDI Snapshot support was added with V1.7 and didn't appear in early versions.

I also use Logic Pro X, and it works best for me to simply use a Logic automation lane to control Snapshots. This is my workflow for recording a guitar track within a song: 1) set up a HXN preset that fits the song, along with Snapshots as needed for parts of the song (chorus, verse, etc). 2) set up a Logic automation lane to switch HXN Snapshots automatically as I record the guitar (this assumes the tempo track of the song is already in place) 3) record the guitar track real-time (using software monitoring). If I don't have enough horsepower to get the latency down low enough, I will temporarily freeze all my other tracks first (especially virtual instrument tracks). This step is just to get a "raw" guitar track recorded, while still hearing the modeling and effects within HXN to get a better feel. Another reason I like Logic to take care of the "foot work" is that I can focus on the guitar playing without thinking about the controls. 4. after the raw guitar track is recorded, I can later tweak HXN if needed during mixing. 5. After I've got the track where I like it (late in the mixing process), I bounce it to audio and remove the HXN plugin, to free up CPU. 6. When I archive the song, I save and include the Helix preset, as well as the raw recorded guitar track(s).

Nice comparison! It makes me appreciate just how much time must have gone into the Helix modeling of any given stomp box.

- Make sure your MIDI channels are set the same (Stomp and Goose) - Make sure USB MIDI is turned on (Stomp) if using USB as your connection (but I think Goose is 5-pin DIN, anyway, so wouldn't matter) - Make sure Stomp has PC Rx turned on

I sold my Helix and my wife's car and bought the 194 real stomp boxes. Now I can't afford to buy the 74 amps. I think I may have made a mistake.

Yes, thanks. For live, I'm happy with my B-Band pickup and sound hole cover. But I may hook the iRig up in my living room with my live setup and see what it does at higher volumes with a PA. I'd have to modify my sound hole cover, though, to accommodate the mic clip. And, I'm not sure if using the "blend" (MEMs and regular guitar pickup) would get feedback suppression for the whole mix, or just the MEMs microphone.

Last Aug you came out with a bunch of mini amp packs that were heavy/metal focused, and mentioned you would be next be doing vintage/blues focused. That's what I was inquiring about. Perhaps demand would be higher for meat and potatoes amps? The Brit Plexi was nice...

On sale now for all bona fide new hardware owners of any Helix device, now including the LT, HX Stomp, and HX Effects. Non hardware owners, the price is still $279.99.

Is your new vintage pack still on the way?

If the six block limit on the Stomp wouldn't be a problem (sounds like it wouldn't), get the Stomp. If you have MIDI equipment you need to control, get the Helix (the Stomp has very limited MIDI control). The Helix is WAY to big for open mic acoustic gigs in my opinion.

Well, I got the iRig Acoustic Stage and had a chance to try it in the studio, and was surprised by the sound quality. It uses a MEMS microphone clipped to the sound hole, so its VERY sensitive to guitar noises (buttons on sleeves, rings on fingers, string squeaks, etc). You have to play carefully and clean. But the sound is surprisingly full-range and rich. I plan on doing takes with my usual small diaphragm condenser mic along with the iRig, so I can blend the two as needed. Certainly worth the $70 I paid. I doubt I'll use it for live gigs as I play close to my Bose L1 array, and normally need a sound hole cover to discourage feedback. I think it might be overly sensitive, but I might give it a try some day. @datacommando, sorry yours failed so quickly. I hope mine fares better! Three uses is a poorer return than a nice bottle of wine or spliff of Blue Hawaiian.

That was cool, thanks for sharing it!

I'll echo what others have said on these forums. Glenn's patches are a bargain, so go for it!

@blekenbleu --- thanks for researching and documenting this info, I'm sure it will come in handy when I hit the wall for Workbench support! Line 6 customers shouldn't have to resort to keeping an old computer or performing Java workarounds just to use their trusty old Variax guitars with Workbench. There are a few things we can do to pressure Line 6 to update Workbench so it works with recent computers and operating systems: 1) open a support ticket here https://line6.com/support/tickets/add.html and the more the merrier. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. 2) be vocal on these and other forums 3) vote for support in Line 6 Ideascale right here. You'll need to register for Ideascale if you haven't already. (In my opinion, the lack of legacy Variax support shouldn't require an "idea" for submission. But sometimes you gotta approach a problem from all angles.)

Yep, HX Effects can be used as a MIDI controller for Helix Native to turn blocks on/off and control effects parameters. BUT not as an audio interface. And NOT to select Native presets via MIDI (not easily, at least). HX Stomp can be used as an audio interface with Helix Native. BUT not as a MIDI controller. And NOT to select Native presets via MIDI (not easily, at least). We hope that is all clear. As mud.

The one about the swollen organ is my favorite!