silverhead

The Variax alternate tuning operates by adjusting the pitch of the current physical tuning of the string, whether standard tuning or not and whether actually in tune or not. If you tell the Variax to increase the pitch of any string by, say, +2 semitones that’s what it will do, regardless of the actual pitch of the physical tuning.

Have you opened a support ticket? See Support link at top of this page.

Yes that looks like it would be OK to use.

The symptoms suggest it’s just a faulty switch rather than a fault with the Variax electronics because both mags and piezos are affected. That’s a good thing. You can probably just have the switch replaced by any guitar tech, although there may be some special Variax considerations in doing so. I would open a support ticket for clarification and advice. Edit: It might even be as simple as a bit of dust/dirt in the switch. Try using some contact cleaner. Use the proper stuff - not a household product like WD-40.

I’m not persuaded but don’t want to debate it. There may be others who share your opinion on this. Why not post the suggestion on Ideascale?

I believe this was resolved by Apple in a not-too-distant iOS update, 14.something I believe it was. Apple broke it - not Line 6 - by releasing an update that apparently was non-compliant to their specs in some specific detail used by the StageScape Remote app. I haven’t checked it since to see if iOS 15 works.

Interesting suggestion, and I can see how the concept could seem to simplify snapshot editing. But the devil is in the details as far as implementation is concerned. The changes would have to make sense within the current device architecture so let’s talk about this in the context of the architecture. Each preset holds sufficient memory space for 4 versions of the preset with up to 64 variable parameters. Anything that would require a change to that simply ain’t gonna fly. So first off, your base/global preset would have to (presumably) be Snapshot 1, leaving 3 editable snapshots. No problem so far. Anytime you want to make a change to the base preset you simply need to make sure you are in Snapshot 1. But that requires the user to be aware of how things work, and be intentional about it. Right there, you have to deal with the other side of the ‘practical’ coin you mentioned where you mistakenly made a change to all snapshots when you only wanted to change one but forgot to do something first (assign the parameter to the Snapshot controller). Now you could mistakenly make a change to a parameter in only one snapshot when you intended to change it for all presets but forgot to do something first (activate Snapshot 1). So what’s the gain in practicality? Problematic to justify when people are already used to how things work now. Would cause a lot of confusion for dubious gain. Secondly, how would you deal with the 64 parameter limitation? Currently the Snapshot Controller assignment provides an indicator of the parameters assigned. I think you’re suggesting to do away with that. Conceivably, your parameter edits in Snapshots 2-4 could exceed the limit - and you would have no indicator to show you which 64 are being used. What to do? Personally I’m not sure it would be any more practical or intuitive. Either way you need to understand how things work and act accordingly. Edit: re:64 parameters. I guess Line 6 could leave the indicator in place and just make the indication automatically each time a parameter in Snapshot 2-4 is changed.

Try following the update instructions. You don’t start with Line 6 Updater. Begin by downloading and installing the HX Edit v3.15 package. Install all components. Then run the HX Edit program and follow the instructions.

Don’t do that. I believe both drivers are necessary. One provides the ASIO apiece for your DAW and the other serves general audio output from your PC (no DAW involved). You’re right, of course, that HX Edit is the online editor. However, Line 6 has chosen to bundle several components in the HX Edit download. It’s an installer package, not just the HX Edit program. It includes the HX Edit program, the Line 6 Updater program, and all required drivers for the Helix device. They bundle these components together to make it simple for the user. It ensures that the user always installs a compatible set and doesn’t need to know the details of which components are required and compatible. Not all of these components are updated with every Helix update, but sometimes one or more of them are updated. You don’t need to know that. If you start deselecting them you invite a situation where you have incompatible components installed. Why do that?

The right side of the screen does not display the IRs themselves. It displays the names of the presets that contain IRs, as stated in the green text of the image you show. There are no actual IRs in a setlist file; just references to them. Is it possible that the setlist you uploaded contains no references to IRs?

It depends on the placement of the mono vs. stereo FX blocks in your signal chain. A Mono FX block takes a signal input, whether mono or stereo, and sends a mono signal output. A Stereo block takes a signal input, again whether mono or stereo, and sends a stereo signal output. If the input to a Stereo FX block is mono, the signal is routed through the block using a dual-mono input. If the input is stereo, the stereo is preserved as it passes through the block. In both cases the output is stereo. Important to note that an amp is a mono block; it sends a mono output even if the input signal is stereo. In your signal chain you are using FX Loops near the end of the chain. If the equipment in the loop has a mono block at its end then the return signal to the HX Stomp is mono. If all processing done in the FX Loop is stereo then the loop will return a stereo signal.

They're still listed as active products so I presume that means they're still being manufactured. Usually when a product is no longer being manufactured it is removed from the Products page.

Note that Line 6 is now a subsidiary brand of Yamaha, and is part of the Yamaha Guitar Group. Your question is really for Yamaha to answer. Prior to the Line 6 purchase Yamaha has been manufacturing guitars, mixers and speakers for decades. Their primary interest in Line 6 appears to have been the range of complementary products such as guitar multi-FX devices that do not directly compete with Yamaha products. Since the acquisition we have seen no further development on competing products including guitars (Variax), mixers (M20d) and speakers (StageSource). In these product areas Yamaha has acquired the IP and may or may not incorporate that into future Yamaha products. This began to happen with Variax when the physical design of the Variax Standard guitar was based on a Yamaha Pacifica. If and when we see a new generation of Variax-like technology it may well be released as a Yamaha, not Line 6, product.

Connect your Helix to your PC via USB and connect your speakers to the Helix outputs, either 1/4” or XLR. Your Helix becomes your computer’s soundcard, and all PC-generated audio is routed to the Helix (e.g. YouTube, Spotify, backing tracks, …). The speakers need to be powered, and a good choice for home use would be studio monitors. I would go with minimum 6” speakers. There are lots of good options in your local audio stores, and plenty of threads here that discuss the options.

Sorry. I’m not really in any position to pass this on. Personally, I don’t use 4CM so haven’t experienced these issues and haven’t really paid attention to any associated discussions. Also, I don’t have any influence on website content here. I’m just a user like everyone else with some moderator capabilities. I’m not going to start lobbying for focused content on behalf of a subset of users that doesn’t include me. Threads get pinned by Line 6 either because they have important info they want to push out, or because a user-initiated thread gets overwhelming response and activity. If I wanted a separate thread about a specific topic I would just start it, and invite interested users to participate and ‘follow’ the thread. If there’s sufficient interest it will be lively enough to receive lots of commentary and become a good resource for helpful info. In that case Line 6 may determine it worthy of a sticky. If it fizzles out due to lack of uptake and interest then it should not receive a sticky. For an example of the above, there’s this thread started by a user that was pinned early on.because it received a lot of contributions. It’s still active 7 years later. It has over 1,100 replies. Not sure anyone would read the whole thing at this stage. I wonder what’s on page 17, for instance? Is there something there that would help me? Don’t know, and not about to look. Kind of a victim of its own success I think. … also this one with nearly 2,500 replies ….

Yes. An update is coming 'soon'. Apply your own definition of 'soon' to either be disappointed or elated when it's released.

Go to the Downloads area of this website (see tab at top of this page). Select HX Edit in the Software (middle) field. Download the latest version v3.15. Run the downloaded file and install all components. Then run the HX Edit program with your HX Stomp connected. Follow the instructions.

Amp and cab profiles are not wav files. Can’t be, because you can edit them. A wav file can’t be edited in real time. IRs are wav files and can’t be edited. All the variations of the physical mic/cab an IR is based on are baked into separate individual wav files. That’s why there are thousands of them. You choose one IR at a time and load it - that’s it. If you want a different mic or mic placement you load a different IR. If you want the Line 6 amp and cab models you will need a device that provides them - not the HX FX.

Perhaps an external tuner would be handy for you? As for using a tuner while recording, I prefer to tune up between takes rather than during a take. You find it acceptable to begin recording while out of tune? If your instrument can’t hold its tune for the duration of the take you need to examine your instrument.

The tuner operates on the direct, unprocessed input signal. That provides the most accurate tuning capability. A processed signal that includes distortion, delay, chorus, reverb, etc. cannot be used to tune very well. How would you tune a pitch shifted signal? That’s why the only two options are DI and Mute. Technically I suppose it would be possible to continue routing the processed signal to the outputs while the tuner is active and still operating on the DI. Hard to imagine that this would be useful because, well, as stated earlier who wants to hear you tune? And what are the circumstances where the tuner display is useful while playing normally? If you want to pursue this you could post the suggestion on Ideascale. It would be interesting to see if anyone else wants this feature.

http://line6.ideascale.com/

That’s not currently possible. It would require a firmware change and update. You could request this feature using Ideascale.

Great. Just to clarify, each time you Save you aren’t saving a snapshot. You are saving the preset. So, yes, if the last Save of the preset happens to have Snapshot 1 active then Snapshot 1 will be active when the preset is recalled. Alternatively, in Global Settings -> Preferences you could set the Snapshot Edits parameter to Recall. That way you would not have to Save the preset after each Snapshot change. You could make desired changes to all Snapshots and simply make sure that Snapshot 1 is active when you finally Save the preset.

Your understanding is correct. If you can, please post links to the videos that you reference so that others here can view and interpret.

There is a hex wrench that comes with a new Helix for that purpose. Look for the socket on the side of the pedal.