boynigel

How old is your powercab?

I just found an old sweetwater catalog from 2007. It had 13 pages of effects pedals, including multi-effectors, loopers, acoustic and bass pedals, in addition to all the usual guitar pedals. Fast-forward to the sweetwater catalog that showed up yesterday. All the same types of pedals listed above now take up 43 pages! We all know there was a pedal boom, but now will there be a bust? It wouldn't surprise me. Maybe we're already starting to see it- just look at the recent demise of fulltone and digitech. Everyone and their brother makes an overdrive pedal these days. If everyone stopped making OD pedals today (to name but one pedal type), as in not introducing anything new, we'd still be set for a lifetime. gonna be interesting to watch what happens, especially considering the state of this crap-economy.

I come for answers. I stay for the verbal abuse. ;)

Okay, I think my tone is being misinterpereted. I've got a great sense of humor and wasn't offended. I can't RTFM because I'm at work since 7 a.m. this morning, here until 11 p.m., and it's no fun to read/navigate the manual on a tiny phone screen w/constant interruptions. I've been sneaking on here when I have a chance to post/respond as time allows. this forum sometimes lets me circumvent the manual in that I can usually get some quick answers, go home, and cut to the chase given that I'll have a whopping 1 hour to play before having to go to bed to get up to work another double. you don't have to answer me if you're that irked. Shoot me, I'm busy. As in 16-hour, consecutive days, forced OT- busy. btw, if you read the posts above, you'd know why I was lead to believe that the LT might not do amp switching (a relabeled back panel). Now understand that I mean this w/no hostility when I say I'm glad you brought up the Simpsons, because you sir, are Comic Book Guy. I'll RTFM when I'm home for more than an hour and not getting interrupted every minute. thanks, and tootle-ooh!

previous owner used a label maker and put them over the factory text, upside down, for easier viewing from above. my bad for assuming he labeled them verbatim.

ooh, I bet you felt SO clever/satisfied. typos happen. I wonder how many of yours I'd find if I reviewed some of your posts? anyway... due to my low skill level I'm not sure what this means. My amps are Bad Cats and I've heard people who have Helix Floor models are able to do channel switching w/them via the Helix. However, my LT doesn't have an Ext Amp jack, which is what raised my question initially.

my amp would be using TSR. would I be using the EXP 2 jack on the helix to go to the amp?

not seeing any "how-to" in the manual.

bingo

I use my LT as a preamp (and effects) into the effects returns of a pair of Bad Cat combo amps. you obviously don't want to use speaker modeling, but don't rule out using the amp model along with its power section, as opposed to preamp only. I was surprised to see that the models, at least the ones I use, sounded better w/the full pre/power sections on their own vs the preamps by themselves. I use models from the Vox, Marshall, and Fender camps, so YMMV. try them both ways and see what sounds better w/your setup.

Right, I had to be honest about how I use Helix. BUT, given that a lot of people use IR's it would stand to reason that if you're an IR user you'd have similar findings as mine given the level playing field of using the same IR. Interestingly, when using the Helix into an amp's FX loop return, many amp models sound better keeping their power section intact (vs preamp only). You'd think it'd sound hyped putting a preamp & power amp into a physical power amp, but it really doesn't...at least with the amp models I use and the physical amps they're going into, again- two 15-watt Bad Cat EL84-based amps (stereo).

Update. After spending two solid days with the FM9 and comparing it with my LT, I’ve sold the FM9. My main condition for it to retire my LT was simply that it had to sound markedly better. It did not. It did sound better “out of the box” as many have said, meaning its presets are better dialed in than Helix presets. For my uses, I use a handful of “core” amp tones from the Vox, Marshall, Fender, and T-Wreck families (and their boutique knock offs). When I compared the FM9 sounds (from the same families) to my core tones, they were neither better nor worse. Any differences could be compensated for quite easily via EQ or a modeled amp’s tone stack. Disclosure- I use my LT into the effects loop returns of my Bad Cat amps, which means I don’t use cabinet modeling or IR’s as I prefer “amp in a room” tones. Perhaps if I were comparing the full scope of modeling (amp AND speakers, mics, etc), I would have chosen otherwise, but for my needs, the Helix LT remains king because: · Tonally it’s every bit as good as the Fractal, at least the way I’m using it w/my amps · Obviously its UI is far superior · Built in expression pedal · Better price · The updates keep coming! · Snapshots are better than Scenes, IMO …and easier to set up …these are just off the top of my head, but the biggest reasons, again, are that the tone is on par, and snapshots. I will admit that the Helix reverbs can’t compete with the FM9’s cloud style reverbs, but hey- I’m not an ambient guitarist so that’s not a big one on my list…plus i have an Eventide H9 Max if i ever needed "more" out of a reverb. The Helix can still do some pretty great time-based tricks, just perhaps w/a bit less fidelity than FM9. So yeah, I’m staying put with Helix. I’m glad I got to try the FM9, but I’m even more glad that my LT is staying, because now I’m saving a ton of money as well as not having to deal with the headaches of learning a less user-friendly system. Sure, it would be nice to have 4 cores, vs the Helix's 2, but very seldom do i run in to the problem of running out of CPU. Sold the FM9 on CL at a profit (no, I didn’t gouge!) within 4 hours of listing it!

yeah, looks like I would just need to add a 4th snapshot for that last note of the solo...hopefully having spillover "on" will do just that, and not cut the tail off when I go back to the scene that has the reverb set to the exp pedal's value range. we shall see.

never tried. I just assumed that, like most forums, you could.

I don't know where you live, but where I live a fm9 is NOT 2X the price of my Helix LT. Not even close.

I've created a preset with 3 snapshots. I have a reverb (plateaux) shared for all 3 snapshots within the preset, and have the exp pedal assigned to its decay and mix parameters. for snapshot 3, which is my guitar solo snapshot, I wanted to have the decay value go way up to 9.6 (w/exp pedal toe fully down) so I could have the last note "hang" as I go back to my verse snapshot while it's still ringing out. Problem I'm running in to is that when I change the expression pedal tow-down value to 9.6 for decay, that 9.6 max toe-down value holds for all 3 snapshots. I've read the manual, saved like they said to, but this is what I get. I don't get it.

Driving to Fractal on Tuesday to pick it up. Once I get some time in w/it I can DM you if you're truly curious.

Another potential selling point of the fm9 is 4 cores versus 2 cores in the helix. more HP.

Well, at least you didn't flat out say, "WRX". LOL I drive a 2017 wrx...but I'm 54 and don't drive it like a douche. I wanted 4-doors, all wheel drive, and a car that could get out of it's own way...and priced under 30 grand as I only drive 8,000 miles a year and can't justify $45,000 for a vehicle. Not to hijack my own post, ha!

Life's hard for some people.

here's where it gets tuff- my invitation from fractal came yesterday at 2 p.m. i would imagine, based on their email, that if i don't reply w/in the next 2 hours i'll lose my reserved unit. time to do some coin flipping!

anything that would improve sonics (tone) that would narrow the gap in terms of how it compares to the tone of the Fractal stuff. I'm well aware that it's a narrow gap already...nearly indiscernible (if not totally) in the context of a mix...at least listening to compressed youtube vids. but as an OCD guitarist, i'm always looking for the best tone i can get. I think what it's going to come down to, for me, is just buying the FM9 and comparing it side by side w/my LT. If the FM9 sounds significantly better than the sounds i can dial in on my LT, i'll suck it up and learn the new (fractal) language. If the tonal differences are like splitting hairs, screw that, I'll sell the Fractal and recoup my money. I'd rather be playing, and i'm not going to commit to all the time of learning a new language for the sake of something that sounds maybe 3% better. With all that said, my guess is that any update wouldn't improve upon tonal realism of existing models, but rather, all the things we've come to expect from updates- bug fixes, glitches, etc as you mentioned. I just thought that maybe, given that Helix is getting on in age, that L6 would consider that type of improvement in an update as to hold us over until Helix 2 arrives someday...especially considering all the recent competition, to stop people from jumping ship to things like the FM9. I'm not holding my breath though. I'm not disappointed w/my LT's tone, but i'm honest enough to admit that if something sounds significantly better, and it's out there, i want it...as long as the learning curve to tonal rewards ratio isn't totally skewed in favor of operational headaches.

Cue eye roll. I play 3 hours a day. Not bad considering i've a full time job, go to the gym for an hour, walk my dog for a half-hour, and still manage to have family time. Oh, yeah - your chance to wait will be soon! Nope. people with the same waitlist signup day as me have been getting invites this week. Still very much on the fence at this point will be a tough decision when the email does arrive.

I'm always anxious for new features/improvements. Any rumors as to any big updates on the horizon? Fractal should be sending me a FM9 waitlist invitation any day now. As exciting as it is, it's also daunting as their "scenes" vs the helix snapshots is hard for me to wrap my head around, having to learn a new language, etc. the consensus seems to be that the FM9 does sound better, and it's allowed to given that the helix is now 7 years old, but will it be significant enough to get me to leave the Helix ecosystem? I know L6 has said, "don't hold your breath on a V2 of Helix anytime soon" but perhaps another big update could offer a glimpse of what's to come, and what to expect when V2 does arrive. I'd stick around for the ecosystem alone as long as the sound quality isn't night and day better on the FM9.

how many db is this "major" boost? thanks