chuskey

Just made a patch using the 3 note generator for pads/drones. Fun stuff!

That it was :D

Not cool!!!! :P

I have an Alto TS110A and it does a pretty good job, especially for the price. I don't find I need to tweak my patches to get them to work well with the Alto. I'm not aware of anything else in the Alto's price range that really competes with it. Small, compact, lightweight, and PLENTY loud enough if you ever need it to be. So it's a great solution for bedroom or gigs. Not saying it will sound as good as L2T or CLR, but those are much more expensive and as you stated overkill for what you're looking for. One other option to think about if it's just you practicing is getting a really good pair of headphones. I have a pair of Beyerdynamic dt 770 and LOVE them. When I'm in the studio that's what I'm using the majority of the time. They are what I've used to build all my patches and the patches translate very well on different PA's and different rooms. I love the way they sound and I can blast them at midnight without waking up everyone in the house :)

Nice!!!

That's cool. I think the stock neck is ok, but left some room for improvement. The new neck makes me happy :)

For anyone wondering if it's worth it to swap the neck out on a JTV, it is :)

I did a patch going for this sound. In my patch I'm using a Variax, but I believe I mention how you could change it up to use a regular guitar with it. The link to the patch is in the description of the video.

I got a Sweetwater gift card for my birthday and just pre ordered one of these to put in one of the Helix fx loops. I'll probably make a video review of it for my YouTube channel and will post here on how it works with Helix. I would LOVE if it was added in a future Helix update. However I believe Digitech said in another forum that this pedal was patent pending, so it might be a little dicy on if they can model it. Not sure how that would work? The geniuses at Line 6 could probably come up with a different method of achieving the same goal. Either way I can't wait for the new firmware update to come out. Among other many exciting things no more dragging out my USB interface for the Variax!! :)

This is a work around for sure, and wouldn't be very helpful if you needed to use different effects in the same slots, but you could use snapshots. Snapshot 1 could be your baseline and then use snapshot 2 to make your adjustments. You could flip between them to compare your changes.

Very cool! Just saw your message and responded to my inbox. Sorry, haven't checked this forum in a couple of days :)

Awesome patch!! A comment on one of my YouTube videos asked me to make a Mysterious Ways patch and I saw you posted this. I just pointed them to your patch. No need to reinvent the wheel. Great job!

Thanks for the replies. I'll check that there isn't any debris on the connector. I'm using the apple camera connector but didn't have the power cable plugged in at the time. I had garageband recording in the background and BandHelper displaying lyrics. I do have one cc message from helix that triggers audio in BandHelper, but I wasn't using that when the connection dropped.

I'm just starting to explore using an iPad with helix. Eventually I hope it can replace my jamman and use it for playing backing tracks and looping, but that's another topic. I hooked them up today for the first time using the apple camera connector kit. Everything worked right off the bat no problems. I was practicing for a couple of hours today and I was running garageband in the background off and on to record the practice while displaying lyrics on the screen. Twice the connection dropped. Both times while garageband was recording. The message on the screen said unrecognized device. As soon as I unplugged and then plugged back up everything was fine. Has anyone else had any issues with helix and the iPad? I'm hoping that it's just a garageband issue. I'm not planning to use garageband live. But it made me a little afraid of the reliability of the setup.

Wanted to get some input on maybe changing my Helix setup a little bit. Right now I a Digitech Jamman that I run through one of the loops on the Helix for backing tracks. The features I use are: Selecting different tracks Playing back whole tracks (one shots) Playing back songs on multiple tracks (intro, middle, end) On this part I have the intro and end as one shots and loop the middle. Once I trigger the intro I can immediately select the track with the middle loop on it and it will finish playing back the intro before switching, so I don't have to worry about timing. Once I'm finished looping I select the end and once it finishes playing the middle loop it switches. On the Helix I have a volume pedal after the return block for the Jamman so I'm able to fade out the loops That's pretty much what I use the Digitech for. If I'm just doing a live loop I usually use the Helix looper. In addition I have a tablet on a stand that I use for lyrics using BandHelper. My question is this: Is there a way to use an iPad with the lightning connector to USB to accomplish all of this with just the Helix and iPad? A couple of things that I've looked into: Loopy HD. Doesn't do one shots and can't select load sessions via MIDI. The one shots is a deal breaker, and having to go into the app to change sessions for different songs would be a pain. I've looked at some backing track programs, but they don't seem to have a lot of midi control and doing a setup where it's one shot, going into a loop, then to another one shot seems to be elusive. In a perfect world it would be awesome to find an app that could play back the way that the Jamman does and be midi controlled. I'd love to be able to create presets for each song and have midi select the right loops when I load the preset (that may be asking for too much). Reason being I'd prefer not to have to jump from app to app on the iPad to go from lyrics, to selecting loops, then back to lyrics in between songs. But even if I can find something that mimics what I'm able to do with the Jamman and eliminate a pedal that would be awesome!

Hey Markus I replied to your YouTube comment as well, but in the video I'm using a Variax and acoustic modelling so it wouldn't get the same result with a regular Les Paul. You could try some acoustic IR's, I think 3 Sigma has some, but I don't know how well a regular electric guitar will sound with them. Hope this help. Chad

I've had really good results using the acoustic modeling with the Variax. I haven't really messed around with IR's for acoustic yet. I've heard good things about the 3 Sigma acoustic IR's. I just posted a video for the Helix Italia Facebook group using the acoustic settings. Just skip to 1:00 or so in the video to get to the playing. If you like the tone this is the patch I used: http://line6.com/customtone/tone/1967148/ I've tweaked it a little bit since I posted it, but just some minor EQ adjustments. As with any patch you download, if you use it you'll need to tweak it to your guitar.

This won't help for playing in real time, but for recording I like capturing the Helix sound on USB channel 1/2 and then capturing the dry signal over USB 7. Then I can use S Gear 2 or Guitar Rig 5 to apply to the dry signal. Gives me tons of flexibility when I get to the mix down phase. Using Amp sims to augment Helix is the best of all worlds :)

Spent the afternoon today at my buddy’s house with the Helix and AX8. Also on hand was a Friedman Dirty Shirley with 1x12 (greenback I think), and Friedman Small box with 2x12 (V30’s I believe). Had a great time jamming! It was gear heaven J I did record some clips, but honestly we spent most of the time just jamming and having fun so I didn’t record too much. But as soon as I have time to go through the audio I’ll post some. For amplifying the Helix and AX8 we alternated between an EHX 44 Magnum through the Friedman cabinets and a pair of Alto TS212A powered speakers. Obviously with the Freidman cabs we disabled the cab block on the Helix/AX8. Here’s the bottom line: both units sound amazing. Not to mention those Friedman amps weren’t too shabby either J If you can’t find your sound with Helix then AX8 probably isn’t going to rock your world. If you can’t get your tone with an AX8 then the Helix isn’t going to be Earth shattering. One isn’t head and shoulders above the other, despite what certain fanboys may lead you to believe. Tonally they were very close. If you hear comments like “the Helix sounded like crap, but the AX8 was in a whole other leagueâ€, or vice versa one of two things is happening: You’re hearing someone’s personal bias, or you’re hearing someone who for whatever reason didn’t know how to tweak one of the units. Tonally they were VERY close. For some reason a lot of people feel the need for their favorite to be head and shoulders above the competition usually at the expense of putting down the competition, but that’s another discussion all together. Put another way I grew up playing in the early 90’s and owned all kinds of tube amps: Marshall, Fender, Ampeg, Laney, Rivera, Sovtek, etc. Both the Helix and AX8 sound better than any tube amp I’m owned in real life. It just comes down to how you amplify them and how you tweak them. You can make the world’s best tube amp sound bad too if you set it up wrong. I’ve said this before, and will say it again, at least for me personally features and form factor come in as the deciding factors when comparing Helix and AX9. If you like the smaller footprint and are accustom to the Fractal product line the AX8 is great. If you will get use out of the extra bells and whistles then Helix is the perfect fit. The differences have been debated ad nauseam so I don’t really have anything to add. So here are a couple of observations that I found interesting. The combination of the EHX 44 Magnum and either of the Friedman cabinets was awesome!! With the Friedman head still sitting on top of the cabinet I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t playing through the amp itself. It sounded and responded just like the “real†amp. And I’m speaking of both the Helix and AX8. If I were going to play out in a rock band and needed a stage amp I would do a 44 magnum and a good 1x12 or 2x12 any day of the week. Sounds amazing. Stunning. Considering that both of those Friedman heads have a MAP price of $2700, the fact that the Helix and AX8 both kept up with them was a great testimony to both Fractal and Line 6. We used Plexi models on both units to get tones in the same ball park as the Friedman amps. It’s a matter of taste, but I personally preferred the digital units to the real amps. But it was close. Guitar cab vs FRFR. Next we switched over to the Alto’s. They had good volume, but did struggle to get the same punchiness of the guitar cabs. Although once you got them close to the same volume as the guitar cabs they did move some air. I would say that the guitar cabs “felt†better more than they “sounded†better if that makes any sense. I certainly didn’t feel like I was giving up much and would happily gig with the Alto’s. Especially if I needed acoustic tones as well. But, and maybe it was purely an emotional response, playing through the guitar cabs was a more fun experience. Can’t say enough good about the 44 magnum. Awesome little unit and super effective. The new Litigator model on Helix is off the charts!! We compared it to the ODS model on the AX8 and eventually I’ll get around to posting the clips, but man Line 6 knocked it out of the park with that model. Instant SRV with a Strat, but was also really crunchy and great with a Les Paul. I don’t remember which one, but one of the Cameron models on the AX8 totally nailed the Appetite For Destruction tone. It was awesome. I didn’t have the time this afternoon to try and mimic that on Helix, but I’m sure I could get close. Just wanted to say that Fractal did a really good job on that one. At the end of the day we had a great time jamming with some amazing gear and it was all smiles the whole time. So grateful to get to play with equipment that sounds this good. It’s hard to really come away with anything negative to say about anything we played today. I personally recommend picking the unit that best fits your needs. For instance for me having the Helix be an audio interface, more flexible routing options, scribble strips, Variax integration, built in expression pedal, etc put the Helix over the top for me. Others may differ and find the AX8 fits their needs better, and that’s great! Bottom line: both of these units are winners! Get out and use them to make some music J

I'll be sure to make some audio examples of that. Thanks for the suggestion. I've found the Helix to be extremely sensitive to both touch and volume knob roll off. I'm sure the AX8 will be as well. I'll post what I find :)

Don't worry, I'll lock it down in a minute if it gets out of hand :)

Rereading my reply it came off like a smart a$$ comment. Sorry about that. Wow, I've never posted a thread in this forum that got so much reaction so quickly. Usually this forum is a bit slower to respond. Must have hit a nerve :) So just a couple of thoughts: Again, this isn't a "which one is better thread" This is just a good excuse for my buddy and I to get together and play guitar. Which we do maybe 2-3 times a year. Playing around with gear when we do get together is fun. We enjoy it. Simple as that. I'm not a gear reviewer and don't spend hours of my life doing gear shoot outs. If I have free time for music I like to work on writing, recording, and performing music. I thought hearing some comparisons might be of some interest to others here on the forum. Maybe I was wrong I have zero interest in starting arguments over "mine is better than yours". If I do get the time to do this and post results, the second it devolves into a bunch of arguing I'm deleting the thread. In my opinion if you own either one of these you own a great unit. That's pretty much it. This was just something fun my buddy and I were planning and I didn't have any intentions of ruffling feathers over it. I haven't read any of the other Helix Vs AX8 threads on here, because like others on this thread have said, I don't have any interest in them. So maybe there's been a ton of arguing about this on this forum that I'm just unaware of. If so I get why some of you guys are saying you're sick of "these types" of threads. I assure that's not what this is. This was just meant to be a fun little comparison. Peace :)

They are both good units. I did this type of thing months ago when he and I both got these units. In that thread that was the first thing I stated. If you can't get a good tone out of either unit, the unit isn't the problem. I'm not looking to establish which one is "better" because that's pointless. I love my Helix, he loves his AX8, it isn't a competition. It was just fun last time my buddy and I got together and jammed with both units. I also thought it might be fun for people who are interested in hearing how similar/different these units sound. That's why I titled this thread a "comparison" not a "shoot out". If you don't like these types of threads don't read them.

So I'm trying to work out a time with a buddy of mine this week who has an AX8 to get together and do some A/B comparisons. No specific game plan at this point so I thought I'd see if there was anything in particular that folks want to hear compared. With so many variables such as comparable amp models, cabs, IR's, etc there's a lot of ways we could go with it. So you guys let me know if there's something specific you'd like to hear compared. To keep things simple whatever tones I capture will be recorded direct, without micing a real cab. Right now it looks like I will be able to make time this week to do this, as long as work doesn't throw me any major curve balls between now and then :)

You're very welcome!