mdmayfield

http://line6.com/support/topic/16343-moving-the-joystick-without-rotating-split-from-on-the-fly-saving/ Issue: While in the Home screen, turning the joystick changes the currently selected effect module. One slip, and you lose the entire effect's settings, because turning it back the other way resets it to default. Possible software fixes: 1) When in the Home screen, you have to rotate the joystick more than one click for it to change effects. Or... 2) A mode where joystick rotation is ignored in the Home screen. (Push to select effect) Or... 3) Current effect's settings are restored if you accidentally rotate away, then rotate back. Or... 4) Something else clever we haven't thought of.

I posted an Idea asking for this feature: http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Looper-Undo-to-stop-recording-but-remember-it/789994-23508

Thanks for figuring that out. I'm really glad it's possible, but I agree that there should be a more elegant/intuitive way to do it. If there's not some other way we don't know about, maybe there will be an easier approach added in a future firmware update.

On my HD500 I can press Record, then while recording, hit Undo to stop recording *and* playback, but keep the recorded loop in memory for later playback. The Helix doesn't do anything when pressing Undo while recording the first pass; is there any other way to do this?

Here's an IR I made to try to simulate an acoustic guitar (attached, as a zipped .WAV). For me it seems to work best using the neck+mid pickups of a Strat-style guitar with rather bright pickups. It's not perfect (the Variax's acoustic simulation is better) but it works for strumming parts in a mix. You may want to EQ to taste and add a bit of reverb to disguise the imperfections. MMNeck+Mid=Acoustic.wav.zip

I really like this guy's simplified explanation: http://line6.com/support/topic/16164-irs-vs-cabs/?do=findComment&comment=120284 I'm biased, though. :-)

Thanks for the reply, Digital_Igloo. (And for your general helpfulness and generosity with your time!) On 10.6, the Helix shows up on the USB bus and as a MIDI interface, but not as an audio interface at all. On 10.9, all works as expected. I'm also seeing other reports elsewhere online that it does not show up as an audio device under 10.6, so I imagine there's some difference in the class compliant audio drivers between that and later OSes that prevents older OSX versions from seeing the audio side of the Helix.

I've been using an older white MacBook for live performances, which can't be updated past Mac OS X 10.6.8 (newer OSes won't install). When I connect the Helix, it shows up in the System Profiler as a working USB device. The MIDI functionality of the Helix also works fine; I can send MIDI messages from buttons on the Helix and they show up in Logic's display. However, the HELIX Audio device doesn't show up on Snow Leopard. It does show up on my other computers running Mavericks 10.9.5. Can anyone confirm that the Helix is unsupported on 10.6.8? If at all possible I'd rather not have to get a new laptop, nor use my personal laptop for performances. Thanks, Matt

Personally, I would prefer a mode where rotating the joystick does not change the effect type (i.e. you'd have to click/push it to select a new effect).

I made a new topic to continue the joystick discussion without hijacking this thread: http://line6.com/support/topic/16343-moving-the-joystick-without-rotating-split-from-on-the-fly-saving/

Hi all, I wanted to split off this topic, since it was kind of hijacking this thread - http://line6.com/support/topic/14849-will-helix-have-the-on-the-fly-saving-that-the-m-series-had/ Ideas people have mentioned so far: - Don't grab the entire control, but just push it down from the top on the edge you want to move it - Use the above technique, but with your thumb only while anchoring your fingers on the edge of the Helix Another idea I had, which is a bit silly but might actually work, is to create (maybe 3D-print?) a little tool that would look kind of like a miniature sink plunger - with a hollow rounded bottom that would fit snugly around the knob, and have like a 1" thin-ish handle that points straight up from the center. The difference in leverage from the top of the "joystick plunger" would probably be enough to easily move the joystick without rotating it. Then when you actually want to rotate it, you can hold it by the base. If anybody has access to a 3D printer, that might be something fun to try! Thanks, Matt

Thank you!

I worked around it by adding a new effect to an empty block, using Replace to assign the pedal to that effect only, then removing the effect... But that seems really clumsy and inconvenient. What's the proper way to do this?

I've checked the manual and have been messing around with the Helix, but so far I can't seem to find a way to un-assign a footswitch from an effect. It's easy to assign it to a *new* effect with Replace instead of Merge, but how do you actually remove all assignments from a footswitch?

Whatever it is, I bet it delves many layers into the math and science and is probably not something "ELI5" or even "ELI15"-able. I know a lot of audio stuff in a reasonable amount of technical detail, but my knowledge only goes a few layers beneath the surface; not into much of the actual math and physics. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if dither enters into it somewhere - for example, when you crank the gain WAY up, other processors tend to exhibit "spitty" quantization distortion as the notes die out. The Helix does not, and instead gracefully decays into a constant noise floor. That's similar to dithered vs. undithered audio, but of course it's only conjecture. They might be using part of U.S. Pat. #8,098,830, which looks like it was originally developed for the Line6 wireless systems. It describes using a stereo ADC to digitize a mono analog signal, by sending the mono signal at a different level to each side of the stereo ADC, then summing them in the digital domain. On the DAC, both sides are output, summed within the analog domain, then turned down to compensate for the doubling. Pretty clever! That would reduce noise and therefore increase dynamic range. I could be wrong about the reference of course.

Others have already said this, but it's worth repeating: the built-in cabs ARE IRs. IR stands for impulse response, which is a recording/measurement (in this case, of a mic+cab+room). Studio engineers (or you, with the right software) set up a mic on a guitar cab in a nice room, in exactly the way they would record the cab for tracking; but instead of playing guitar through it, they play test signals through it. It's very similar to the way the Kemper Profile takes profiles of an amp, except regular non-Kemper IRs do not capture any distortion characteristics - just the linear portions of the sound: the EQ, resonances, and reverb of the complete mic+cab+room setup. The quality of the IR depends mainly on the mic, cab, and room themselves; the equipment used to capture it; and the ears and choices of the engineer who recorded the IR. Common sense tells us that, almost certainly, there were professional LA studio engineers that Line 6 hired to take the measurements of the IRs included as built-in cabs. We also know that Line 6 have a pro-quality studio in their office facility, and that they're conveniently close to Los Angeles where there are plenty of world-class studios they might have recorded the IRs in. You probably can find IRs that you personally like better than the built-in cabs - for example, you can measure your very own cab with your own favorite mic in your favorite studio! - but it would be a mistake to assume that, just because the built-in cabs are built in, that custom IRs must be better.

Yes, the combination joystick/knob is the only ergonomic mistake on the Helix in my opinion. I believe it would have been better with a separate rotary encoder, and four arrow buttons next to it. Loving the Helix otherwise.

If I may expand on the general idea- This is something a lot of people might start doing, dedicating a path for a pass-through (with or without processing) for things like keys or mic. I can imagine it might be a chore, say if you wanted to change an EQ setting on the pass-through path (keys/mic/etc.) but have a couple dozen guitar patches set up. We'd have to change every single one of the presets. Might there be a fast & convenient way of setting this up, such as: (Ideal) "Hold" path 2 while switching presets on path 1 (OK) Copy and paste a complete path (1 or 2) instead of just one block at a time ?

I have a couple suggestions - 1) Big picture: compare an electric guitar's volume with the acoustic guitar's volume in some other device. (Like an amp or a recording interface.) Take the Helix out of the equation and see what the actual difference in volume is. 2) Specific about boost: Many non-studio-tech guitar players say "gain" when they mean distortion. Is that what you mean by wanting no gain? A studio tech says "gain" when they mean a 100% clean and un-signal-altering volume change. In the Helix, you can use the Output level of a block, and it won't introduce any distortion, unless you boost the signal higher than the *next* block in the chain can handle cleanly.

1) How do you feel about your new Helix? --> Very happy with it so far. I'm hoping to use some advanced routing options plus the Mic input to simplify my solo show setup and eliminate a mixer. --> I'm also very happy with the sound. My previous rigs were an HD500 and an XT Live; before that I used real amps. The XT Live was good but a noticeable tradeoff from real amps. The HD500 is excellent, and if I were pressed for cash, I would be OK with continuing to use it. --> My first impression of the Helix's amp models is that their default settings were all dialed in to sound excellent in a variety of contexts. Noticeably moreso than the HD500 and especially the XTL, the Helix has an organic and musically satisfying response in-between clean and distorted, so that it's more fun to use picking dynamics and guitar volume. --> I have played all my modeling gear through a FRFR system, in my case either a band PA or my own QSC K8. Note that any modeler in that context is not trying to sound like an un-miked amp, but rather, the theoretically perfect modeler will sound like a great amp, expertly miked up in a soundproof room (in another dimension...), and then the signal from that mic played through your headphones/speaker/etc. 2) What would you like to see changed or improved about it if it was at all possible? --> Faster boot-up time would be nice --> I personally would like a little more routing flexibility, but I doubt that the average person would want the tradeoff of complexity. --> One-click or one-touch access to a preset's Variax settings --> Some elegant way to have separate independent "mic presets" and "guitar presets" so I don't have to paste in a mic signal chain to every single preset where I want to use a mic (which is doable, but inconvenient) 3) How would it be then? --> Oh I don't know. I think half the fun is refining and improving, moreso than "arriving" at everything you want. :-)

Here's some info on ABX listening tests: https://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=16295& The HydrogenAudio forums in general are a fantastic place, with people who do their best to quantify results and be scientific, while still respecting the idea that we don't yet understand or have the ability to measure everything about how humans hear.

I just got a tracking number as well. I guess we'll wait and see what happens...

Count me in with the disappointed and annoyed MF customers. I'm very dissatisfied; I was told by one rep last week that the Helix would ship today or tomorrow, and now the date has moved to November. Chat quotes- Me: I chatted with someone last Friday who said it would be shipped this week. Rep: Yes looks like Line 6 Has changed the date. New ship date is expected 11-13-2015 Me: I was told last week that the shipments had arrived and were going out this week... My preorder was placed in early September. Rep: I am not showing this kind of information. Do you have the name of the agent or ext of the agent that told you this? Me: Unfortunately no; I didn't save the transcript. I seem to be in the same frustrating situation as a number of people on some web forums who preordered the Helix from MF/GC/WWBW. Rep: We are waiting for Line 6 to ship their order to use at that time we will ship out the preorders. Something is very fishy here. I wish I'd saved the transcript from last week; I know for certain that the rep said the Line 6 shipment was on the way and the preorders were going out this week. I smell terrible mismanagement at MF/GC/WWBW.

Although..... This doesn't look too difficult, as long as the band doesn't rush the song way too fast: Heck, I once had to learn the double lead on one guitar for And Your Bird Can Sing by the Beatles - this would be a piece of cake compared to that! :o :D

Byron, don't know if you saw this already, but Phil is a beta tester for the Helix and actually has one, so his confirmation above is reliable (for the current firmware version). It seems plausible that they might someday implement such a feature, but there's no guarantee... or even likelihood, unless it gets a lot of votes on the IdeaScale page.