Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Jump to content

RPascarella

Members
  • Posts

    51
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Not Telling
  • Registered Products
    1

Recent Profile Visitors

1,041 profile views

RPascarella's Achievements

Contributor

Contributor (5/14)

  • Week One Done
  • One Month Later
  • One Year In
  • Reacting Well Rare
  • Conversation Starter Rare

Recent Badges

35

Reputation

1

Community Answers

  1. I was able to snag one through Guitar Center. I actually ordered it back at the beginning of the year and didn't think it would actually appear. It was scheduled to ship to me in mid-March, but then got delayed until now. Just arrived today! She's a beaut! #204.
  2. I just received #204 today! Gotta be one of the last new ones available. I had to wait months to get this through Guitar Center. I almost didn't think it would actually materialize since there are so few left.
  3. Hi, not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I just updated to v2.30 firmware and ran into a few issues to report: 1) When I first went to the Global settings to change the USB In 1/2 trim level, the value was stuck at 0dB and wouldn't change when rotating the knob. After paging left and back right again, the value was non-zero and was able to change with the knob. No issues since. 2) I was not hearing audio playback via USB through Helix, so I went to Globals and I could swear the USB In 1/2 Destination value was 5. When I rotated the knob, I could hear audio. Now the values allowed are Multi, 1/4", and XLR. I could swear it said 5 before my change! 3) After selecting one of my old presets, I tried changing the amp model from Litigator to Cartographer and the unit froze. The screen is still showing the list of amps with Cartographer selected. After rebooting, it is going through the preset rebuilding process. Maybe all of this was due to presets not being rebuilt? Loving this update!
  4. FWIW, I made the jump from HD500 to Helix well over a year ago. That was my first approach, trying to translate from HD500 to Helix. I ended up learning fast that they are different animals completely. I had a Jumped Plexi patch that I wanted to reproduce on Helix and I couldn't come close to exactly matching it. Spent lots of time trying. Lots of other patches I had set up for playing at church. I ended up treating Helix as a clean slate instead and I'm glad I did. Yep, took lots of time to recreate the patches for the same songs, but I sure learned lots in the process. I downloaded several from Customtone to see how others did it. Bought a package from Glenn DeLaune to see how he did it. Now I'm at the point where I can hear something and pretty quickly dial in something very close. So I don't know if this is helpful to you, but some food for thought. I totally get where you're coming from, sorry I'm not more help!
  5. Awesome! Thanks Phil, you're knowledge and wisdom never ceases to amaze me! And of course you get extra points for being a Homestar Runner fan!
  6. I think I've run into a firmware bug with v2.00 (I haven't updated to v2.01 yet and I don't see this issue listed as being fixed). At the end of my signal chain in super serial mode, I put a Pan block to sum from stereo to mono. The default setting when added is "Center". Save the patch. Go somewhere else and come back to the patch. Pan block now reads "Right 100%". Adjust back to "Center", save patch, repeat. Always returns to "Right 100%". Anyone else see this behavior? (BTW, I'm trying to sum to mono because I use 1 XLR output to my Alto TS212 and the other XLR to FOH. Anyone know if Helix will sum to mono if I run FOH from an XLR (ie, right) and my Alto from a 1/4" output (ie, also right)???)
  7. Sweetwater has them now. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HelixBP That's where I got mine about 3-4 weeks ago. I love it, but have 2 very minor gripes: a) you have to slide the Helix in from one of the ends and it can be a tight fit getting the cover zipped up over the end of it. I think this will relax over time and use though, we'll see; b) the main front pouch where I put cables, capos, etc has a zipper around 3 of the 4 sides of the covering flap, so when you unzip it enough to get things out of it and forget to zip it back up, then you grab the handle on the end of the backpack to move it somewhere, everything in the pouch falls out. I was used to my old HD500 Gator bag that had the pouch zipper only on the top edge of the flap so it never did this. I've had to remember to zip it back up before picking up the backpack. See what I mean? Very minor!!! What I like about it - super sturdy and rugged, well padded, looks cool, shoulder straps for backpacking (comes in handy!), 2 handles for carrying either in vertical or horizontal orientation, plenty of room for extra stuff.
  8. Hey Scott, Here's my take on Sag, Bias, and Bias X. Power tubes use a large voltage supply (+450ish), called the B+ voltage, to do their work of amplifying the incoming audio signal. Sag is what happens to that voltage when a large, fast change to the input occurs, causing lots of current to be drawn from the power supply in order to amplify the surge in sound. So the main voltage to feeding the tube actually drops for a short period of time under the heavy load as the tube consumes the power to amplify the sound. The end result is that the resulting amplified sound is compressed because the tube is somewhat starving for the voltage it needs to keep up with the big change. An analogy could be the difference between someone jumping as high as they can from a concrete floor (no sag) to someone trying to jump as high as they can from an air mattress (high sag). Their height is "compressed" because as they try to jump, the mattress gives way and absorbs some of the energy. Now Bias. Power tubes, like cars, need to run at least at idle. A tube needs a small bias voltage applied to it in order to get it into a mode where it can reliably amplify the incoming signal (called the "linear region"). This voltage is small, on the order of 10s of volts, compared to the 450V above. The higher the bias setting, the "hotter" the tube is run and to me, the more crispy the distortion sounds. The lower the bias setting, the "colder" it is run and to me, the distortion starts to weaken but there may be more punchiness to the tone. Now, Bias X. Bias X stands for Bias Excursion, and excursion just means how far the bias voltage changes from the base setting. It occurs under heavy power tube loading. A setting of 0 means the bias will not vary, whereas a setting of 10 would allow maximum swing under heavy power tube loading. Here's a blog posting from Sean Halley on these settings and some examples of how they sound: http://blog.line6.com/2013/pod-hd-amplifier-extras%E2%80%94using-the-sag-bias-and-bias-excursion-settings/ Hope this helps! Take care, Randy
  9. Yes, I've seen this also. I haven't had a chance to try to isolate why/when it occurs. It definitely doesn't get stored with the preset; instead, it seems to be a scratchpad buffer of memory that previously contained the name of a preset whose name had more characters. I think one way I see it is if I import a preset from the editor and change the name to something shorter. Then if I make a change and save it from the unit, I see the extra characters. I just ignore them and they don't "stick" with the preset. I'm still on 1.06.0.
  10. Great! The only thing that could make it better would be to add links to reference clips of the originals like in this thread: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/resource-videos-for-all-helix-guitar-amps.1673455/#post-21438036 What do you think?
  11. This may be way off, but my first thought was a RAT. Here's a clip of a RAT with a Les Paul, see if you think it sounds somewhat similar:
  12. Hi DI, I didn't properly quote in the previous post, can you take a listen and let me know what you think?
  13. Thanks @Digital_Igloo. So I've been running the DT50 with no cab modeling and I like it better. However, can you clear something up for me? I'm still puzzled by the huge difference between applying a cab model on the Helix side vs. applying on the DT side. When I enable/disable the DT's Greenback 25's cab, I notice slight EQ difference, nothing major. However, when I enable/disable the Helix Greenback 25's cab, there is a huge degradation in sound quality, akin to running the amp through an AM radio. This is what I think you mean by a cab running into another cab. But why such a difference? To illustrate, I've recorded a comparison. I have guitar->Helix in->Plexi Brt (Amp only)->Greenback 25s->L6 Link->DT50 with no amp, no cab in the first clip below where I toggle the cab on and off via the Bypass button. Helix cab off, on, off, on: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/jtzsFhmtuRxVzobXTQr92wECHqPnJWIiYZ8lMYBLbA1VXFMeetRlEs6rIjkrsOVw/file In this clip, I have guitar->Helix in->Plexi Brt (Amp only, no cab)->L6 Link->DT50 with no amp, but Greenback 25s cab. The cab is enabled/disabled via a footswitch sending MIDI CCs to the DT. DT50 cab off, on, off, on: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/7sS8sXjjx0aiyV0BAk2xTnDux4ruChiJfv0r8QbzPLUwjHkQNjpJXCmqIkIJ9mtN/file The differences aren't as evident in the recordings as much as in person, but you can hear what I mean. Why the difference?
  14. Oh, and I had to share this. We did the song Closer by Bethel, which opens with a violin-like pad followed by a piano-driven lead line. We had no keys, so I created a patch that put a washy, ambient pad setting on the lower path to emulate the violin pad and the main lead tone on the upper path. The patch loads up with the input directed only to the pad path with a 100% feedback on my last delay so that whatever I play repeats forever. I have the volume at the beginning of the chain so I swell in a pad tone and let it ring. I then used a footswitch to switch over to the lead path to start playing the piano lead line over the pad. The pad amp's volume switches to 0 in this mode so the lead line doesn't feed into the pad path. I was worried about how to taper off the pad at the end of the song, so I created a footswitch operating in momentary mode that defeats the delay feedback by setting it to 0%. When I hold this down, the pad gradually and peacefully fades out to 0 in about 3-4 seconds. This worked beautifully for me! So cool, thanks Line 6!
  15. Well I tried going direct last night in our High School ministry room which has a far inferior sound system and I have to say it sounded really great in my IEMs. I got some great tones using my fav Plexi Brt, Essex 30, and the new Matchstick Ch1. I used the XLRs out and had them set to Mic level and didn't hear any hissy noise issues. I think my next step will be to experiment with some IRs. This is exciting - we're doing little 15 minute worship sets at 7pm the next few Wednesdays up there for the high schoolers. Our rehearsals for big church start at 7:30pm downstairs. So I wanted a light load up their so I wouldn't have to lug my amp around. Going direct was perfect for that. I mentioned this to the worship leader and we had the idea of using Helix for both our guitars next week. I'll run my guitar through the top path out the right XLR channel and his guitar through the bottom path out the left XLR channel. We can each have completely different amps, effects, etc. How cool is that? (And I'll make sure I'm louder than him!!!)
×
×
  • Create New...