Jos_K

Hello, This weekend the weirdest thing happened. The XLR output were connected to FOH and the 1/4" outputs were connected to a small mixer for my IEM's. During soundcheck the right channel appeared to be about 6dB softer than the left channel on both the 1/4"outputs and the XLR's. When I unplugged the XLR's everything was back to normal for both outputs. Unplugging the XLR's on the FOH side also fixed the problem. I rebooted Helix without success. Changing channels or swapping cables made no difference. After 10 minutes all of a sudden everything was back to normal and I played the whole gig without issues. Last week I played a gig with two L2's in stead of IEM's and I had the same problem, but I thought that one of the L2's was defective, so I played mono on stage. The soundguy (a very experienced and capable technician) complemented me on my sound, so I guess during the gig there were no issues. Anyone ever experienced this?

If you would buy a Variax because you want to dig in to playing resonator and/or banjo, I doubt you'll get a satisfying experience. Variaxes are well built guitars, but they feel and play like electric guitars (body size/neck thickness/string tension/string spacing etc.). This means they don't feel like an actual resonator or banjo. The sounds get close, but are more suited for a guitar player who doesn't want to change guitars for the occasional acoustic/resonator/banjo part. But for instance, I would be very frustrated if I had to change my acoustic guitars for the acoustic sounds in the Variax.

Fantastic stuff! I implented this in two of my favorite patches and it's great. Nice, dense and smooth. Thanks man!

I've had the same issue and I really don't understand Line 6's logic behind it. As soon as Helix is connected to L6 Link, it overrules the regular stereo 'logic'. The only way to make this work for me, is to use an external mixer (or go with the built in mixer of the L2/3M) to connect Helix and the backing tracks to the mixer and then the mixer to the RCA inputs. However, when the speakers (an 'M' and a 'T') are laying down (in monitor position) and they are connected via L6 Link, both of them play back the same signal. So even when you're using the built in mixer, it's always mono. In that case you have to use an external mixer to connect to both speakers individually if you want to hear stereo. But when you connect Helix to speaker A and then speaker A to speaker B, all via L6 Link, it's stereo again. Confusing and annoying for sure!

Just out of curiosity. Does anyone know yet?

I totally agree. This is an unbelievable and very generous move. Thanks, Line 6!

I've tried Beyers and they were way too bassy for me. I own AKG K271's and 240's but my favorites for guitar are by far Shure SRH940. They look a bit plastic, but they sound amazing for guitar. Very nice and detailed mids. And they're closed, so minimal leakage.

The 'Decay' setting determines how fast or slow the gate closes. If it closes fast, you get a sudden 'stop' and if you set the decay to a longer time, it fades out more gradually. If you get a lot of stutter, increasing the decay might help.

It all comes down to personal taste, of course. But I tend to keep the tone controls around noon (e.g. bass 4, mid 5, treble 6 and presence 6). I also go easy on the gain and use a klon or timmy for gain boost. For my 'fatter' JCM800 Marshall sound, I ended up using the 412 Greenback 20 cab with the 121 mic (5" away, lo cut at 80, hi cut at 10kHz) and the Matchless H30 with the 409 mic (lo cut at 90, hi cut at 6 kHz). The master volume parameter is at 8 as higher settings muddy the tone). Marshalls are made to scream, but I use the above as a basis for my crunchy, mellow lead sound. I also play a lot with my fingers and that mellows the tone too.

When I use my acoustic guitar (a Cole Clarke Fat Lady) with Helix, I find I don't need a lot. Only a little EQ, the LA2A compressor and some reverb. The preamp in Helix is very good and gives great results, so when you use a path without any amp modeling you're already good to go. The EQ's in Helix are also very suited for acoustic guitars. When playing bass, well, you have the bass amp models and cabs and headroom in Helix is not an issue.

The phone is also inline with Paul's amp. Joe's amp is all the way in the back explaining his less 'in your face' sound (aside from his more violin-like tone of course). But I wouldn't call it mediocre.

It keeps getting better and better!

I've owned various POD XT/HD models, Vetta II, M series FX etc. Right now I use a variax 69 for the coverband I'm in and I use one big patch with eight snapshots controlling four amp sounds and Variax: clean tele, clean strat, acoustic, crunch LP junior, crunch strat, lead Les Paul and two weird ambient sounds. Works great. Creating patches couldn't be easier, though programming Helix to control Variax was not the easiest. But it does work and has been reliable so far. I really like the versatility of Helix to be able to use it in all kinds of situations, before an amp (or in 4CM), direct, frfr, with or without Variax or all of it at the same time. Experimenting is easy, creating a quick and simple patch from scratch is simple too. The effects sound amazing. In your case it sounds as if Helix LT would be ok for you. You can always try. Good luck with your choice!

Very useful stuff indeed. Thanks!

There's also a website called helixhelp.com with many resources, original amp descriptions etc.