Leftzilla

I originally talked about this in the forums previous to the Helix release how it would be nice to be able to import my HD patches as I have to be able to recreate these patches from our first 2 albums.. But what I have found is that some of the effects between the HD series and Helix simply do not exist in the same forms, or quite frankly my understanding of some of the setups (especially the compressors) are hard to translate or hard to figure out which of the Helix effects do the same thing. However not having this capability has made me work the Helix in ways I probably would not have if I had a direct port. Right now I just open up the HD editor and my old set list and rebuild the patch and from right off the bat everything is sounding fresher and fuller to my ears at least (my band agrees also). In the OP's post having that many patches to rebuild would get pretty frustrating. In some of my rebuilds I am using way too many stereo effects in the patches and running in to memory problems (some of the effects become inaccessible) so I've got train myself out that.

Jandrio, once the 3rd album is mastered I will post clips from it. The first album used at JTV59 exclusively while the 2nd and 3rd use the 89F. comparing clips from the first 2 albums would more of a comparison of the subtle differences between the 59 and 89F than improvements between the HD500 and HD500X. The patches were imported to the HD500X from the HD500 and only some addition in effects or dual amp modeling were changed due to the increased DSP which I think would be too subtle to pick up in the recordings between the 2 albums especially with the rest of the band. My keyboard player does our recording and mastering and he could tell the difference immediately between the Helix and HD series. From his point of view the Helix required little to no post recording "corrections"

Nice! Very tight sound!

cruisinon2 pretty much nailed it I think, the nature of these forums since they are really for asking questions and support will be mostly filled with people having problems. You would spend as much on a top line guitar head and cabinet (or more) as you would for the Helix. And you wouldn't get any of the effects, other amps, control options, or routing options. The youtube videos should give you a good idea how the unit sounds (and it is a spectacular sounding piece of equipment) and the Glenn Delaune videos alone should convince you. As far as ease of use it is very easy to setup and use and edit patches. It comes with stellar company patches that are a very good starting point. (vs the HD series where the patches were more there to show off effects and routing than being truly something you could perform with right out of the box.) Personally I don't know what I would without it.

Yeah it does sound like a bad piezo, which sucks. I have had my 89F since they were introduced and have been very happy with it. Just finished up the guitar parts on a second album with it, and was only recording the modeling on this last one and using the Les Paul, Telecaster, Spank and acoustic models. 1st album used an HD500 with a JTV 59, 2nd JTV 89F with HD500X and the last album JTV 89F with a Helix.

As Cruisinon2 stated there are too many variables between when you hear a demo to when you try and recreate it. Guitar and playing technique I would say are the largest variables. That being said all of the factory presets on my Helix I thought sound very good and quite a few were very useful for me to build upon and edit for my personal setups and patches for various bands. (Much more useful than the presets in the HD500 series.) You could also have a bad unit. Best thing would be to record some examples of the factory presets that sound bad to you. It could also be you are very used to the sound of your HD500.

Well if it sounds good with the your JTV-59 mag pickups then I would say you are correct that there maybe something wrong with your Gadow electronics. Run some of the JTV Fender Variax settings through the Helix to get its reaction to single coils. I run a JTV 89F through my Helix and have been extremely pleased with the results. The helix is also extremely responsive with volume roll offs. I would use head phones or go straight to the monitors for now to make sure that the scarlet interface is not doing something unknown to color the sound or as others have suggested returning more of a dry signal than the Helix signal.

Thanks to Glenn who pointed me in the right direction. HELIX 1.03 app! And thank you Gawwuf!

Here's a weird one. And please bear with me this is a little hard to explain. I installed 1.06 a few days ago with no issues. Then today after hearing the factory setlists had been improved I decided to let the unit rebuild the setlists. Everything seemed to go fine until I reimported a custom setlist i had built with Glenn DeLaune's presets. It reimported the setlist but the patches were all shifted down by one patch. I.e 5A was now in 4D. To make it even weirder it was only the patch name not the patch itself. So say patch 5B was the Bogner Lead. The name bogner lead was now associated with 5A, a new name for 5B but the bogner lead patch was still in 5B. (With me so far?). And now every time I reimport the setlist the names are skewed by one patch. Not really a big deal since I can overwrite everything with the origina; set of GD patches but a little spooky

I personally have run up the almost entire line6 modeling line starting with an AX212 through POD XT, X3, HD500, HD500X and now Helix. Everybody is pretty spot on about you need to figure out what is best for your situation. There are some effects that aren't available yet in Helix that are in the HD500. Yet being the active word. I love the Helix, very easy to get a great tone out of quickly. IMHO the Helix is much more reactive to playing style and the guitar being played. Don't get me wrong I love my HD500X, but the Helix also incorporates as lot of the suggestions or fixes a lot of the criticisms that forum user's had with the HD series.

Scott, thanks for both of these videos. I really appreciate the one about the IRs as this was something I didn't fully understand. Thanks again!

I think that "Yet" is the key word here. To the OP I would definitely think that these type of effects will migrate to Helix (This capability was definitely there in the HD series so why wouldn't you have them for Helix? as by this topic you can definitely see the interest). We have already seen new effects and Amplifiers in the current updates and will be seeing more once 1.06 becomes available. I guess you will have to decide whether you need "faith" to purchase now, or "patience" to see if these will be added to HELIX.

Thanks PeterHamm I will try that out!

I also have run through all of the Line 6 modeler's, AX212, to Pod XT, X3 Live, HD500 and HD500x and Helix. I found the HELIX immediately had better feel and the amps were much more responsive to guitar and playing style. The only thing that is still a little elusive for me is a good acoustic sound using a JTV Variax. I had a good one dialed in on the HD500X but for whatever reason haven't been able to dial it in on the HELIX yet.

Well I am glad that you did post what happened to you and the reasoning behind it (encouragement). In my case the unit has been flawless other than the first update, which just required the factory preset rebuild. Since then the unit has bee flawless. I understand some peoples reluctance to adopt new hardware (especially 1500 dollar hardware) after reading some of these posts in the forum. For anyone on the fence, remember this type of forum regardless of what company, hardware, etc are by definition going to have more posts about problems than not. Obviously there are going to be some problems with new hardware/firmware/software and not every body is going to have a perfect experience, especially with the virtually infinite combinations of PC hardware out there. (3 different machines in my home alone, two of the machines have worked fine just haven't had a need to try it on the MacBook.) Glad things worked out for you and continue to do so.

5 gigs, multi rehearsals, 4 recording sessions using spdif out.

Definitely agree PeterHamm. The roll off on Helix with Variax is better than HD500 or 500X

Just my personal take on this so take it as you will. I have owned the XT, X3, HD500 and HD500X and now Helix and each iteration has improved the sound in my opinion and the HELIX just completely knocked it out of the park. My bands, especially my prog keyboardist who does all of our recording and album mastering noticed and love the how the Helix sounds. I would suggest posting some comparisons just to make sure that something in your Helix setup is not correct. Its been a long time since I Have heard my XT but I can safely state that the HELIX sounds better than the HD500X (which sounded pretty damn good)

It depends how you want use HELIX. I personally have not used an actual amp for years and run directly to the PA, or on some occasions use an FRFR amp as a stage monitor. But this more the result of wanting to be able to use the Variax acoustic emulations effectively. These will not work well with a dedicated guitar amp due to the frequency response

Okay this may sound stupid, but just covering all the bases. Do you have a quarter inch cable or vdi plugged in?

Unless you are purchasing in a store or from a reputable online house such as Sweetwater, your hands are going to be a little tied especially if you are purchasing from Ebay or Craigslist without being able to physically inspect the unit prior to buying it. All of the suggestions prior are very good. At least with a store you can physically check everything and without a reputable online house you would be able to return it.

I too still have my VAX-700 but I haven't fired it up since the JTV's arrived. (Though I would like to hear it through the HELIX). The other issue is that if the OP wanted to purchase I am sure he could probably find one but there would be the issue of the 6 AA Batteries/Powering the guitar and lack of warranty. And as you have say the older gen piezos.

As far as the sound of which sounds better the JTV or the Original VAX 700, there are champions of both here on the forums. In my opinion the JTV modeling sounds better along with the capability to detune on the fly.

If it still sounds bad, including all of the factory presets then I would say there is something wrong with the unit. PLease post some recordings with the factory presets to show us what you mean. Mine sounds fantastic and every place I have used it live with a soundman they all ask what I am using.

Where do yo get the Glenn Deluane patch set? As far the topic goes, the size of the initial production run was probably decided awhile ago based on perceived demand. What do you think the size of that run was? This is just a wild lollipop guess but I would figure somewhere in the 1500-2000 unit range