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Dang. Seems a bit limiting. 

19 hours ago, christroiani1 said:

An aside - the only bummer about the Focusrite S 2i2 that I have at least is that it HAS to be plugged into a PC USB port in order to power it, even if, for example you want to just use the mic preamps live. 

I wonder if you could power it with a USB charger?  Have you tried that?

Not sure that the Helix's looper can send out midi messages but I could be wrong.  As far as I can tell, the Helix's looper is merely a convenience feature and is very very basic.

I continue to use my Boss RC-10XL because of that. Well, that and the fact that I'm very used to the RC and don't need to form new habits for a different looper.  If the Helix's looper had more capacity I might have a different opinion.

On 12/5/2018 at 1:35 PM, rd2rk said:

 

Yes, agreed, these applications are LINUX's strong point. I always wonder why someone as brilliant as Linus Torvalds can't come up with a way to solve the desktop conundrum. While I'm (blissfully) ignorant of the details of Penguin Politics, hopefully now that he's chosen to reenter the fray some progress can be made?

Because as Steve Jobs once said, making something that’s very complicated easy to use is very very difficult.  This is also compounded by how engineers think. They have zero clue, nor do they seem to care about how non-engineers might use the things they design. 

On 6/19/2016 at 1:07 PM, DunedinDragon said:

 

Why is this exactly.  We provide phantom power and it doesn't affect my unit at all that I can tell.

It’s likely that the mixer you connect to have individual phantom power switches. That’s rare in most smaller mixing boards - especially the ubiquitous 8 - 12 channel variety. 

I second that!

I think it it should work quite well. The only thing you might have to do is cut the low end a bit. Since it’s designed for bass, it’s designed to accentuate the low frequencies more so than the others. 

On 10/28/2018 at 11:56 AM, mountain2012 said:

 

You probably already know this, but Line 6 said they don't want to separate the preamp and power amp into separate blocks because it would reveal too much about what is going on behind the scenes with their models.  I assume if the models were separated then we would probably see a Behringer rip-off in the near future...

I don’t get how separating the preamps and power amps would reveal anything about what’s going on behind the scenes in the amp models. That makes zero sense to me. 

2 hours ago, codamedia said:

The Helix Loop is not part of the amp emulation, it is it's own separate block. It can be placed before an amp block, or after an amp block - but it does not separate the PRE/Power section of an amp model.... if that is what you are asking. 

 

Are you looking to just get the "power amp model" of an amp on a Helix? If so, those are not available as separate blocks, they are only part of the "amp model" and "amp/cab model". 

However, lots of us have signed up and voted up the idea for separate preamp and power amp  models in IdeaScale. Please join and upvote it! Thanks. 

https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Independent-pre-and-power-amp-blocks/748793-23508#idea-tab-details

Accurate AND stable!  Love it!

17 hours ago, dragonfet said:

 

Embedded programmer and software test engineer here. Since you seem to prefer voicing your opinion in a very direct way, I'll do so too: This crap is becoming tiring. You seem to have zero insight into software development, yet you come here and know exactly what the developers at Line 6 are doing wrong because... Yes, why actually?

 

As an attempt of explanation: Resources are limited. The main resource in this case is the time a team of developers has in total. This time can be spent on concepts, architecture design, implementation design, implementation itself, testing, debugging, maintaining and many other tasks. Developing for a real time embedded system like the Helix isn't like clicking on a few icons in an Android App Maker to build the 16931st whoopee cushion soundboard for the Play Store. These projects eat a ton of time in every stage from concept over implementation to maintenance. Almost everything has to be optimized because any code that is inefficient would result in an audible delay, every bit of wrong code would distort the sound in various ways. This is one aspect.

The other is what amsdenj mentioned: Technical debt. It's a term for tasks and unsolved problems that have accumulated over the development of a component or a product, basically a To-Do-List. This list has to be tackled someday if you want to keep your product in the market. If you look at the changelog for the 2.7 update, it's a lot of those minor annoyances that may be major ones in the wrong setting, like polarity/phase issues and amps that become quiet.

The third aspect is that we are not talking about a single device here. Helix is a platform with by now a whole set of different hardware devices and a software plug-in. "Platform" doesn't equal "I write a line of code and it works everywhere". It once again may have to be optimized and it has to be tested. And no, testing isn't plugging in a guitar, checking if there's sound and if so, ship it. If that was the case, we wouldn't have to fix bugs at all.

 

 

Look around in the forum. For over one year there have been complaints about the tuner, including lengthy posts, heated discussions, YouTube side-by-side comparisons with other tuners, people testing it with different instruments and what not. I play bass and have had very few issues with the tuner, but it seems to be a problem for many users. What did Line 6 do here? They addressed a complaint. Isn't that what you wanted?

 

No, you're one of those people that not only buy a product and then somehow feel entitled to get something they want, you also have the impudence of putting yourself above a department full of most likely very experienced software engineers, programmers and projects leads saying "They're all idiots because they can't do more.". I recommend you get yourself a SHARC evaluation board, a matching C++ IDE and start writing your own DSP accelerated real time sound processing pipeline. Then you can use all your insight to add amp models, fix bugs, walk and chew bubble gum every day.

BOOM!

56 minutes ago, spikey said:

OK, even I'm not that anal... Well maybe, and Im not thin skinned either. The BS is from what I can tell coming from your side. Why? Because Helix was what it was when you purchased it. PERIOD. You don't like it, move along then. Anything else that's added later is only icing on the cake, and NO, there is no "contract" or promise or guarantee that Line-6 owes us anything else but warranty work during that period of time it's actually under that timeframe. They dont owe us a thing but what we purchased. Whats pathetic to me is thinking they still somehow do.  My thinking is that Line-6 does not have to (legally or otherwise) add another single Amp or Cab if they choose not to. So count your blessings on the fact that they did address the overly nervous and jumpy tuner issue because in retrospect they didn't even have to do that.

^^^THIS!!!^^^

42 minutes ago, tenorkeith said:

rd2rk, thank you for proving my point.

 

That's exactly the kind of response I was expecting, proving that fanboys have extremely thin skin.

Any criticism of their beloved company or product results in a reflexive shriek.

 

So what you're telling me is that Line 6 is incapable of walking and chewing gum at the same time? They can't fix bugs and add amps simultaneously?

As I said before, I love my Helix, but I'm not afraid to criticize when I feel it is warranted.

 

The fact that your response is to marginalize anyone who dares to dissent from the herd is exactly why Line 6 will never get as much honesty as brown-nosing in this place.

Well, since you seem to think you know more than they do, why don’t you mozie on down to their development lab and take over the amp model development department and get some new amp models out the door?   The simple fact of the matter is, no one but the Line 6 guys and gals knows what it takes to get amp models done. So unless you are intimate with the details of how they create our wishes, you’ve got nooo credibility here and yeah, you sound completely entitled. 

6 hours ago, SteveFrance said:

 

I had a firehawk FX before and it was a good stuff to change the parameters with the device (it's the only way to tweak things in fact) even if some have some matters to connect their devices.

Unfortunately, the Helix is not provided with bluetooth or wifi so, it won't be able to have this implementation.....

 

I think, the best way would be to have a computer on a stand with a long cable......

It doesn't necessarily have to be wireless.  It should work with a USB adapter and cable.

I think the Helix ported over to the UAD Apollo series as a Unison Plugin would be completely killer!

On 9/24/2018 at 6:40 AM, shanecgriffo said:

some sort of tape saturation emulation so you can recreate some 50's-70's recorded tones 

Indeed!  A tape saturation effect is something I’ve hoped for for a long time now. 

4 hours ago, cruisinon2 said:

Just for my own morbid curiosity... whatever the answer is, what are we going to do with that info once we have it? 

Just curious myself. I just continue to be surprised by what remnants of old tech the bean counters force manufacturers to use to save a penny. Even when the newer tech has come down to reasonable prices, the glut of old tech that is cheaper still are foisted upon us. Case in point, transformer based external and internal power supplies. 

Anyone out there know of the Helix maintains its user preset memory with a lithium battery like ye pedals of olde?

2 hours ago, cruisinon2 said:

Personally, I've yet to hear a pair of computer speakers that sound "great". Any decent pair of studio reference monitors will do what you want,  won't break the bank, and will be more than adequate for your volume needs. Stick with the big boys...JBL, Sony, Yamaha, etc. 

 

https://www.sweetwater.com/c405--Active_Monitors

I like the Audioengine A2s but at their price point, you may as well look at actual monitors. 

I hadn’t edited anything in my Helix for months but a few days ago I found myself wishing for a few ways to make some things easier to do. Just to be able to copy an existing path to another or to copy one snapshot to another preset with the same effects chain. It would even be nice to be able to clear out a snapshot and start from scratch or to be able to instantly compare the current edit with the preexisting saved preset to see if the changes are worth saving. 

All the new amps and effects are nice and lots of fun but a few utilities to expand the edit, copy and store facilities would be very welcome additions I think. 

At a recent gig, a guy showed up and said he liked my tone and playing but was very disappointed to find out there were no tubes in my rig.  I laughed and he started to extol the "virtues" of tubes. I parried every argument and he could not counter any of them, especially when it came to weight, consistency, flexibility and maintenance. I told him that I'm convinced that there will never come a day when tube amps will equal the flexibility, consistency and reliability of modelers - ever.

Thanks for posting this, richardcuccia!

Have you considered the fact that the Helix has a microphone in the signal chain?  Are you comparing the sound of the Helix to that of an un-mic'd Bogner?

If so, that's why they sound different. The Axe FX II may be closer ( and I think that's debatable ) but it's still going to sound different than the real thing because the Axe FX II also has to have a mic involved in the signal chain.  Not sure if we'll ever get past this hurdle.

On 8/16/2018 at 1:41 PM, robbieb61 said:

I have always felt it's a lot about what parts you are playing in a 2 guitar band.

The masters of it are The Stones and Aerosmith. Making 2 guitars sound like one big one 

But if you're both playing distorted power chords, then it gets tricky.

That's certainly a big part of it.  Playing in the same register as the other guitarist doesn't help either.  Gotta find your own space in the spectrum.

I start with slow increments at 2.5Khz.  A little can go a long way.