silverhead

Try connecting your X3 to your computer via usb.The X# should become your computer's soundcard by default. That means audio from the computer will be heard through the X3 audio outputs, including headphones. If this is not automatic configure yopur computer to use the X3 as its audio input/output device. You may need to install the POD X3 driver from the Downloads section at the top of this page.

I am unable to open any topics in order to respond. Is it just me? If you are able to reply to this please do. If no response then I think we can all conclude that this is a general but temporary issue. Since tomorrow is July 4 and a U.S. holiday and then the weekend it may persist until early next week. Interestingly I am able to approve posts. To those who may have made their first post in these forums today - they need moderator approval before being publicly visible. Please do not repost; you will see them when this apparent issue gets resolved.

If you’re talking about out the duplicate post, I don’t think it’s spamming in this case. The OP is a new contributor here and this was his first post. As usual it needed moderator approval before being accepted which can sometimes take some time. From his/her perspective it appeared that the initial post was somehow lost, or not posted properly so he tried again. Now both are visible.

You’re right - this is my analysis rather than coming from Line 6. And you’re right that overall product size and physical design landed on 4 preset footswitches. But other options would be 8 or 16, not 5 or 7 or any other non-power-of-2. I still maintain that it was done within the overall hardware design context of a binary computer. Similarly, there’s a good reason midi is limited to 128 program numbers and is power-of-2 in its CCs and numeric value ranges. If ever expanded I expect the program number range will jump to 256 or 512 in its upper limit. It won’t somehow land on some random number like 331, or 759. And the implementation would likely introduce a higher level organizational concept and terminology such as Setlist. In fact, midi is used for setlist, bank, preset, and snapshot selection in Helix. This wouldn’t be practical if Helix used any other preset architecture. The existence of 4 footswitches is a result, not a driver, of its preset architecture. Just for fun, try to imagine a setlist/bank/preset/snapshot arrangement that works as well with 5 or 7 footswitches and is also efficient in terms of computer hardware and memory addressability. Please describe machine and preset architecture and structure for me and evaluate their relative simplicities. In particular, please describe how midi selection would work.

I think you’ve got the cart before the horse. It all boils down to computers and binary structures; powers of 2. The first step was a hardware design decision: how much memory space to allocate for preset storage on the device? For the full Helix devices it was decided that 1,024 (2 to the 10th power) presets would be stored. From there the presets were conceptually organized into 8 setlists of 128 presets; an arbitrary organization for human convenience. Then the presets were conceptually organized into 32 banks of 4, again for human convenience. Note that all the numbers are powers of 2; that’s driven by the nature of computer hardware. The final step was to decide on a convenient and affordable number of hardware footswitches to address and recall individual banks and presets. It was decided to use 2 configurable footswitches (Up/Down) for selecting banks, presets, and snapshots and 2 rows of 4 footswitches that could be configured for selecting individual presets and/or snapshots within a preset. Finally an arbitrary choice of A through D was made to label the 4 presets in a bank. So the A through D footswitch labels were derived from the preset structure and computer memory rather than the reverse.

Have you tried Global Settings to enable the HX FX to send midi over usb? That should avoid the need to use the 5-pin midi jacks.

Depends on what you mean by ‘consistent’. You seem to be talking about tonality, and I agree. A Marshall doesn’t sound like a Vox. That’s why you use different amp models. For some songs you want a Marshall sound and for others you want a Vox sound. But the two presets can be made ‘consistent’ in terms of volume/loudness, as you say. As a player you sometimes want your own consistent sound for the entire show, especially if you’re playing your original songs. Sounds like you may be in that category. But if playing in a cover band you want differences, sometimes dramatic, in your tone. I don’t think the sound guy should be trying to achieve consistent tonality. You have control over your preset EQ and IMHO the sound guy should not be imposing his tonality preferences on your sound. He just be concerned about leveling the volume which he won’t have to do if you’ve already done it. Just my $0.02…..

What Line 6 product are you using?

You can certainly use it as is with a standard guitar cable. The onboard tunings and models are anvailable. Editing using Workbench HD software will require the cable and hardware box. The box seems expensive but it provides the license for the software which can be downloaded for free. They can be bought new, or wait for them to come up in an online marketplace.

Login to your Line 6 account using Helix Native. It is probably recognizing your computer as a new one that needs to be authorized. The yellow picks indicate licensed presets such as those purchased from Helix Marketplace. Your account holds the purchase license so once that link is made the presets should become unlocked, and the yellow picks should disappear.

I suggest you update the firmware to the latest release, v3.80. This may solve the issue. If not, return here for further help. To update the firmware begin by downloading the HX Edit v3.82 installation package. Install all components. Then run the HX Edit program and follow the prompts to update the firmware.

There have been many threads about this over the years here. A search might turn some up. Here are the main points: There is no global adjustment for this. You need to edit presets individually and use your ears for relative loudness reference. Start with your clean presets first and then move on to the crunch and distortion ones. You have several parameters at the preset level that will control Volume without affecting tonality. They are: - amp Channel Volume - Output block Level - a Gain block at the end of the signal chain (same affect as Output block Level) - an EQ block Level with neutral EQ affect (no frequency boosts or cuts; all at 0db). Use the amp Channel Volume first. Set a high level for clean presets and reduce it as presets get progressively dirtier. Use the Output block for fine tuning next. Use Gain/EQ blocks only if necessary.

If you are recording the dry signal it’s normal for this to appear weak. The level is proper for VST processing in your DAW. Also, having googled the description of the pickup system on that guitar, it appears to have a volume control. Have you tried using it?

What’s ’mini’ about dual DSP hardware, 8 footswitches, and an expression pedal? Perhaps it’s physically possible to put the switches and tiny expression pedal so close together that you could activate 4 switches and the pedal with a single foot press, but is it practical? The Stadium floor is significantly smaller than Helix floor.

I’m just guessing here but…. Did you use one or two 1/4” TRS - XLR cables? If two I suspect there may be some stereo imaging or phasing confusion in the mixer. Also, the Output Level is a preset parameter, not a global setting, so there may still be a level mismatch.