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That would not cause this issue. No way.

No apologies necessary, sir. I'd be much appreciative if you were to share whatever you come up with. Thanks in advance!

I am a singing guitarist and I absolutely do not want anything diluting the Helix's capabilities as a guitar processor. When playing live, what my mixer provides is everything I need for my voice. In the studio, everything's covered too. Besides, when you're playing live, what if you need to adjust something on the vocal sound? Are you really gonna bend down to the floor every time you need to? At times vocals can require several adjustments so you'll be bending down quite often. Not for me, thanks.

I would expect it to exceed the quality of all of those devices.

Or the Felix! :lol: All kidding aside, I think it's a brilliant idea. Give it the same dual processing power as the Helix and it could be the answer for all those who wrongly bought the Helix for the wrong purpose - for effects only. It would likely be able to do Polyphonic Pitch Shifting quite well!

Indeed!! As much as I love convenience, diverting the Helix's focus from guitar and bass to add features for vocals would stunt the continued improvement of its sonics and usability. There are plenty of products already available for vocalists. Buy one of those. No need to dilute the Helix's core purpose.

Interesting. Thanks, ricksteruk. My issue is pretty much the opposite of yours. I need to get a bit of resonance happening with my stick bass as it's fairly piezo-y sounding. It's ok, but I know it could be a lot better with the help of the right IR.

Well, that's one. Thanks, Zooey! Wish I could find those acoustic bass IRs.

Dude. Sorry for your troubles.

Wow. Zero upright bassists.

Well, if by that you mean that the OP is looking for a pedal that specializes in effects only with no amp modeling because that's how he intends to use it, then yes. The pedal that the OP is looking for and what the Helix is are two different things.

So you've had no troubles after the update, say, with the expression pedal?

Ok, but again, those are dedicated effects systems. Multieffects yes, but no CPU demanding amp modeling. This is really the point I'm trying to make. And I can think of no amp modeler with an effects section that can truly stand on its own. At least not one with an effects section that can go toe to toe with a bunch of dedicated single effects boxes. Correction: Maybe one. The Digitech GSP 1101 and even the 2101 had decent Lexicon effects. I do not remember how good the Whammy was on the 1101 though and certainly don't remember if my 2101 even had a whammy. Certainly, the reverbs and choruses on both were very good.

I'll give you that but is there a particular effect in the M series that has gotten acclaim like that of The Whammy, Strymon Bluesky or EHX Pitchfork? I've not heard of any myself.

Here. http://www.guitarpitchshifter.com

When you consider how long it took for polyphonic pitch shifting to get here, I believe it is an issue.

Agreed. Also, if you watch any of the promotional videos and reviews of the Helix, what do they spend most of the time talking about?....... Yup. The amp modeling. In fact I can't remember any promo or review videos that spent any appreciable amount of time promoting the Helix's effects other than a perfunctory mention. I dare say that the Helix's effects are very good and serviceable, but they're nothing to write home about. Yes it has only 50 amp models compared to 70 effects, as the OP pointed out, but that doesn't mean that quantity equals quality. Furthermore, amp modeling has been Line6's focus from the beginning, not effects. If you just need effects, TC Electronic has far superior products available. The G System in particular is solely dedicated to effects. But I can't speak to their pitch shifting ability.

Wow. That would be really handy... wait...should that be footy? lol. Seriously though, that would be quite useful.

I've got an NS Design Wave 4 that could really use some help from an acoustic bass IR. Anyone know of any?

My apologies. That wasn't the intent. Just stressing the points. I'm not denying the popularity of pitch shifting effects by any means. But that's not going to change the fact that there are limits to what even the Helix can do. It also feels like there are those who simply refuse to recognize this. It's also tiresome to read about people who use dedicated single purpose devices and expect a (somewhat) multipurpose device to be able to perform at nearly the same level. Even Digitech's own MFX/Modelers' whammy emulations aren't quite as good as the real thing. Sure, they're better than Line6's pitch shifting but they also have the advantage of having licensed the technology and have had years to tweak it.

I have wired these things up myself for years and I know for a fact that it absolutely can be. There are two ways to wire it up. One would be as you'd want it - in stereo where one of the XLR's hot conductors goes to the Tip and the other goes to the Ring. This could also be used as an Insert Cable if one of the XLRs is Female. The other way is to have both of the hot conductors go to the Tip. This would be a true Balanced Splitter and cannot be used as an Insert Cable nor would it work as a Stereo cable. It would be Mono. I just had a look at the cable again, the two XLRs are identical so the connections at the Tip and Ring may be incorrect. The confusion here is that people and companies often conflate Stereo and TRS as being the same thing. I've bought too many Y adaptors with bad descriptions from the retailer.

Pitch shifting is not the main focus of the Helix or Line 6 in general. It's an amp modeling device. Regarding this statement, How do you propose one would do that? If it were as simple as you seem to think it is, we'd have had polyphonic pitch shifting in the early 70's with the advent of the Eventide Harmonizer. Alas, that is simply not the case. It took Digitech licensing a technology from IVL Technologies before polyphonic pitch shifting became a real practical thing. Digitech first used it on the Vocalist Harmonizer, then they came out with the Whammy a few years later. All via developments from IVL. So you admit that you're not a software engineer, yet you post like know exactly what Line 6 needs to do with the software. As for the EHX Pitchfork, that is a fairly recent effects box. I stress recent because it has taken a long time to develop and mature polyphonic pitch detection technology. Why? Because it is extremely difficult. The other thing is, and I've said this before, those types of effects are doing one thing and one thing only. The Helix is using most of its computing power on amp modeling - and rightly so. Polyphonic pitch shifting is not the priority for the Helix. It's an amp modeler first and foremost. Effects unit last.

Something tells me that the cable in your link is still a balanced cable. That it doesn't split out the left/right signals to tip and ring. That would be fairly uncommon unless what they're showing is an insert cable. What kind of mixer are you plugging into and do you have any specs on it? I think you'd have better luck using a 1/4" stereo to two 1/4" mono "Y" cable. These are more readily available and you don't have to worry about balanced or unbalanced signals.

Well there's also the fact that I have to reload my presets, IRs and set lists. The update process already feels treacherous. This part seems downright Neanderthal considering the helix's level of sophistication.

Indeed. All of the subtleties that really shine in the low to midgain regions would be completely lost with high gain. What would be the point since everything that makes this amp model what it is would pretty much become inaudible?A small vintage amp makes a lot more sense. My vote is for the Supro or the AC15... or both!