TheDaveDaveDave

Good call!

Hmmm...taking a shot in the dark here: Are the H&K programs saved with the FX loop off? Perhaps Helix is sending the CC to turn the loop on just before the program change is sent, which is instantly turning the loop on and off.

If you *do* have problems with driving the Helix input too hot a signal from active pickups, the first thing you should look at is adjust guitar's internal trim pot. Chances are you'd be driving everything too hot (except a real tube amp, of course). Some folks don't like the way active pups sound because the resonance of the complete pickup-to-tube LC circuit is different than with passive coils. Into the right gear, weak passive pickups tend to sound more "vowelly" too me. Active pickups are basically like using a buffer pedal bolted onto the pickup, and they can be waaay punchier sounding and more linear in response without the cable and other junk in the way, without as much comb-filtering. It's always about the right tool for the right job. Different pickups, pedals and amp combinations make me play differently, and of course, conversely, what I want to hear makes me choose different gear and settings for the task at hand.

Have you tried increasing the buffer size? You might also want to make sure you disable Time Machine, turn off any iCloud syncing services and notifications. Also, what kind of Mac is it?

Although I always use the volume pedal, I usually also use a cable with an auto-mute, just in case. While big pops are not kind to speakers, to my band mates and to an audience, my main concern is always not pissing off the sound guy or the recording engineer!

All good questions and great answers. Of course, you can solve the impedance problems with passive pickups with buffered pedals, meaning even tuner pedals. Not ideal, but a solid way to haven4 instruments modeled with the helix.

+1 I've even thought about checking the helix knapsack - I do think that it would protect it well enough, but I'd probably put it in one of those motorcycle wet-sacks just to keep my Helix gig bag looking so swanky!

I picked up the pack this morning too and played the Trainwreck for a good 45 minutes. Wow - it sounds really good! Thanks Glen!

I can relate, although I'm not playing live so much these days. I've broken my patches out into 3 distinct setlist: "Pedals", "4CM" and "Direct". Mostly I want to make sure that I can *never* accidentally jump to a patch that won't work with the rig I'm using. E.g., switching to a 4CM patch while you're hooked up to a PA could *really* hurt some people's ears! It think that an alternate potential Helix feature could really help - "favorite" models. If I could save an amp, cab or pedal as a favorite and when it's changed in one patch, all other patches with the modelled component are updated. That way you could have 4CM patches and direct patches that shared effects settings. Of course, this could be too much for a lot of users to deal with though, with unexpected side-effects and confusion.... Here's an possible here-and-now solution - I'm not %100 sure how well it will work, but I'm going to try it out. Set up your patches with paths A and B - where B has your modelled amps and cabs in it. Make sure you allow both paths to operate in parallel. At the end of the chain, route one path to the XLR outputs and the other to the 1/4 outputs. One drawback is that your post-amp or post-insert effects would have to be duplicated for each path, and would use up more processing power - but I think it really could provide you with less fuss on stage. Hope this helps!

Guys - aim HIGH! Amps like Trainwreck and Dumbles are truly unique, and not just Bassman permutations..... why not get a model of something that you can't even *buy* at *all* instead of these awesome but quite available amps that come up so often? Trainwreck FTW! I'd happily settle for a Komet or a Ceriatone model though... I've never heard or played a real Trainwreck, but I have played a Komet for 2 minutes at full till, and there's nothing else like it. For those who don't know, start here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trainwreck_Circuits

Actually, I've done that in real life....'72 1987 super lead into an EVM loaded Boogie thiele cab. Turns out I likes the stock cab better, but I reallly hated gigging with it. The Theile sounded good unless you were standing within 10 feet of it, where it had some shrillness that could really hurt your ears. Point is, for all the "work" of spinning dials on the Helix, its sooooooo much easier than trying 4 or 5 heads into 3 or 4 cabs and THEN working on mic selection and placement. As for all the back and forth about IRS versus stock cabs, I did my own experimentation, A/Bing some of the 3 sigma, Glenn D and Freeman IR based patches, comparing them with built in cab models. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm consistently able to get a solid equivalent tone from modelled cabs. The lessons learned from comparing them help me to tweak the cabs pretty quickly now. In the end, it's all about what sounds good to your ears, and what gets your fingers stoked!

Apologies if this has already been brought up - I'd just like to be able to save my favorite settings as a global "fave" for each block type saved and quickly accessible to drop in to any preset that I'm working on. Even cooler would be if the "faves" would be persistent across all settings that contain them, so that changing them once changed them in every preset within a set list that they're a part of. Admittedly, this could confuse a lot of users, but I know that it'd work well for me.

Sounds like a really cool rig. Which pedals though? I do something similar, but not for live use. My current analog board consists of: PolyTune mini -> Morley ABY -> MonsterPiece MegaStud -> Keeley Tone Workstation -> Mission Volume Pro -> Eventide H9 -> Mesa Boogie Maverick. My Helix is running 4CM into a Mesa Mark V, and also into my DAW. For live gigs (small club player here) I just use the Helix into a Traynor YGM3 or YGM4. Cheers

Caveat: no life guards - swim at you're own risk! That said, this weekend I ran the Helix Editor on Sierra with no issues, and the Helix audio driver didn't present any issues with iTunes or with Logic. I was scare-full carefull to a) make sure my time machine backups were up to date and b) install everything on yet another external TB drive. Anyhoo, I didn't encounter any problems with Helix, nor with My Avid Artist controllers or the RME UFX. MUCH better than back in the El Capitan days Hope this helps! Be careful!

Well, I've never really gone hardcore scientific and tested my theory, because it'd be a pain, so it's really just notional, and it goes like this: The strings and the fretboard make for two sides of a near equilateral triangle, and let's just call the bridge end of things the "base". Higher action means that base is wider, whether there high or low relief. Temperature affects the tension of the strings more so than the neck side of our triangle, and that tension is counterbalanced by our trusty truss rod and neck. However, the wider that base is, the more leverage is impacted upon the neck side of things. Picture if the action was 12" high, for arguments sake - pulling on the strings would impart more lateral force against the neck. I.e., it would be easier to flex the neck by varying the tension of the strings by way of leverage.. (it's just a matter of vectors). There are so many other factors with tuning and intonation.... thankfully I've worked out a lot of issues over the years, thank to all the great ideas of friends and folks out here on the internets. One of my most stable guitars is a tele with Warmoth 1/4 sawn baseball neck, with a Nitro finish. I often joke that I could put it an oven, then a freezer and it'd still play great! Action doesn't seem to affect that guitars tuning fluctuations w/r temperatures at all, low or high. In the end, the way most guitarists "fret" about tuning you'd think they don't know the difference between equal temperment and well temperament. ;-P Cheers!

I'm just curious - what other pedals are you planning to build your board out with? The only pedal I'm wanting for is a Rangemaster style treble booster with a variable Q setting - but even without it I've got all I need from the helix, so I just use the 'ol floorboards, no Velcro or nuthin ;-) Those Temples are really cool looking though - I've been thinking of replacing my Pedaltrain analogue board for one.... Cheers!

Yup - physics. When a fan blows on my guitar I notice the change in tuning. My basement studio in my last house suffered from the same thing, and many other annoying problems like a broken neutral to the pole! For the temperature fluctuation issues I jammed up the windows with insulation and sealed them with caulk, which really helped. It also helped to stop the neighbours with their annoying noise issues/complaints to the cops! ;-). More importantly, it helped to even out the humidity in the whole house, which not only made it more comfortable but also helped keep my gear in better shape. If there's anything you can do to remedy your HVAC and insulation issues, I highly recommend it. Good for the planet too ;-) As for your guitars, I do notice that keeping a low action with less relief in the truss makes them less susceptible to temperature changes. The drawback is that the lower your action and string height is, the more often you need to tweak your truss rod - flying "close to the trees" means that there's less room to avoid fret buzz with every little change in temperature.... Hope this helps!

Actually, I think you've covered the only real important pitfalls, which is why no one has commented yet. Of course, you'll also be tracking helix at the same sample rate as the project - what rate are you going to use? I really can't think of anything else. Can't wait to hear the results!

FWIW, with .011's on all my guitars (3 pleked, 1 PRS BRW, a couple of stainless fretted and a ROCK solid quarter-sawn baseball-bat tele) they ALL will vary 3 cents with my Peterson strobostomp with the heat of my hands - I forget about everything technical and just PLAY. Whatever the dead horse you're all beating, I hope you can make it sound good in the end. I assure y'all: not 1 cent or 2 cents of tuner accuracy reported to you from a machine are going to make you sound that much more awesome than just feeling your instrument and working with it ... ;-)

Oh, btw, the sound would probably be complete poop.... but IMHO the idea is that you could use other IRs of mics in spaces without a double-coloration....

+1 on reference mics, with distances up to at least 6'. Although, I'd believe you'd need an anholic chamber to deconvolve it properly....jus'sayin.

I've got a Mission for the Helix, and two other Misssions for my hybrid H9/analog rig. I'm still getting used to the shorter Mission sweep after 3 months. I appreciate the smaller space of the mission pedals. My prior EB VP Jr.s started acting up, and I can't stand unpredictability, so I prefer the idea of adjusting my preference for the longer EB sweep for the purpotadely better Mission reliability. Only time will tell though!

Congrats Laurent! Btw - if you up the high pass filter to 7000k or so, do you still have issues? Are you able to try different guitars? Cheers!

Couple other points: 1). Testing with headphones is a great idea, as you're isolating more potential problems.... 2). Check the global settings and make sure that the impedance is set to auto. 3) do you have any spdif devices connected? I can imagine word clock issues causing the problems you describe.... 4) perhaps try a factory rest and use only the factory presets? If.you still have the issues, then I'm afraid It really does sound to me as though you have a faulty unit though :(

Great video and great tones, Sir! I picked a couple new thinks here, like using the merge block for balance. Small nitpick - you should bump your voice up with a compressor! ;)