Well this has been an entertaining thread for so many reasons. I found it purely wondering if an H2 release has been speculated with good reasoning, so thanks rabbithole.
There is definitely a lot of misunderstanding and assumption on a number of subjects, which to be honest I'm unsure have been clarified....I started getting thread fatigue after page 2 :-)
BEWARE: I am likely wrong or have not fully thought out the points in this post. I hope it clarifies a little or brings bluesky thinking into a more real context in some manner. That's my intention anyway.
Regarding the capabilities of the Helix over the previous generation HD products; the Helix runs two 4th gen. SHARC ADSP-21469 DSPs versus the single 3rd gen. ADSP-21369 in the HD. The power here is not simply a clocking upgrade, even though the architecture is fundamentally similar between both generations. The 4th gen. can access faster external memory (DDR2) than the 3rd (SDRAM). It's not a magnitude of difference, but not merely an incremental one.
To throw one out there, the 5th generation of SHARC DSP chips are a similar gear shift such as the capability to model 3D space natively which might be a poor thing to be chumming the waters of this thread with. The same power and capabilities being under the hood of the entire H range will likely translate to the H2. Improvements in grunt will likely be in line with that of the Quad Cortex; four processors rather than two would seem a reasonable assumption in that particular sausage-waving arms race. Sticking with two 5th gen. SHARC might seem a little backward even if the power upgrade would still be significant by comparison. I wouldn't imagine that the Helix lineup would be fragmented between say, something like a dual DSP LT and quad Rack/Floor models....that would be incredibly detrimental in my view.
The discussion about touchscreens and other physical interface points is a worthwhile discussion. I'm of the opinion that the more complex something becomes, the more that there needs to be an upshift in durability. This is more of an issue for floor models since they see the most physical abuse with stomping, dirt and transport. I would personally like to see HX Edit become less of a desktop-only application and also see it on iOS and Android portable devices for deep diving with a very similar physical control space as current. The Helix floor has always struck me as the most durable and use-appropriate modeller for gigging, so adding in more fragile complexity would undermine that. Replaceable external deep control through devices feels like it allows for a robust powerful workhorse; fragile stuff can be outsourced to phones, tablets or laptops via Bluetooth or other wireless protocol.
The absolutely valid comment about developers reach being deeper than their grasp says a lot, and unfortunately I think this was either missed, or worse dismissed if it didn't align with any particular view. I'd add that this reach is into a space that is constantly evolving and moving away from one's grasp so no one "perfect" unit or modelling paradigm can ever exist. Suggesting that there is a single goal is fatuous at best. Every solution and every update to that will always have development that can be done, with the market changing and providing new requirements. I personally haven't latched onto the Quad Cortex as I feel it wants to try and be some sort of end run pioneer ahead of the modeller market trend when really, we're not that much into innovation on the whole. Certainly a case for the slow reliable tortoise than that new-fangled hare thing. Pioneering might reveal new ideas and direct trends, but they tend to be pretty unstable platforms with a high miss ratio.
For what it's worth, what my Helix floor does today will likely be just what I want it to do in ten years. This is perhaps Line6's biggest problem in that the devices out there are going to be hard to replace with an H2 unless it again ups the standard of solid hardworking devices. If it goes into gimmick territory, I think we'll end up divided between accepting the fluff to stay in the ecosystem with the hardware we like, move on to Kemper (or whatever is ticking the boxes at that time) or more likely stick with the Helix we have until it EOLs in preference to current market lineup.
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A separate conversation about what I'd like to see in an H2, or what I'd want it to be.
Visually, black is nice. The durability angle of the Helix floor really should be the same or better. That said, under this desk everything blends into one dark mass. Ring lights and backlit buttons that can be universally controlled for brightness (colour would be a gimmick bonus) with a switch to mute/light the lot, activate when using controls and fade out after 10s or other would be great. I like that my Helix can be unobtrusive but that same thing can make seeing things a chore. I like the controls as they are for the most part, but the joystick can be a bit hit and miss.
Dual expression controllers with the option for switchless activation. Dual is perhaps less of a priority, especially for those that don't even use one. Being able to powerfully assign the switchless activation flag to other blocks or even snapshots would be immense; simply putting your foot on the pedal to turn on the wah that also changes up amp and effect settings? Nobody has that right now.
Tone matching would be excellent. I have a swathe of IRs I created with plugins in my DAW, so having this brought under the Helix software roof would be fantastic, especially if its integrated well rather than being a satellite "feature". Capturing a tone from a recorded piece, comparing that to me playing the same thing with my "best guess" and the IR transform being generated is crazily fun. A more out-there extension of this might be GAN AI analysis in software to suggest this-verb, that-EQ, etc. plus a generated IR. This is definitely more a desktop GPU thing, possibly Helix Native-angled?
"Studio blocks" leveraging the 3D audio processing capabilities of the 5th gen. SHARC DSPs would allow for movement beyond simple stereo into modelling more complex spaces. This is more chumming of course. I don't fully see how live floor users would find that much application for this, but certainly it would add to the production capabilities of the rack. Perhaps this would bake in too much of the sort of thing that would be done DAW-side but hey.
External pedal power output?
Okay, I'm out of steam guys. This has bitten into my Sunday more than I expected :-D
Be constructive and realistic in response to anything written.
