silverhead

Many thanks for the update Craig. I look forward to each of your updates after a new firmware release. Always exceptional. Full disclosure…. I am not in any way affiliated with Craig or compensated for the following in any manner. This is purely at my own initiative in the spirit of helping Line 6 users…… I purchased this book shortly after it was first released. It has become an invaluable resource for me and certainly a great purchase at a very reasonable price, especially considering the updates. It contains detailed and comprehensive information, as well as many presets, that benefit Helix users at all levels of experience. It would be valuable for POD Go users also since many of the amp, cab, and FX of Helix are also in the POD Go. There’s also plenty of transferable information regarding preset construction and methods. Do yourself a favour and get this book. I truly believe you will learn a great deal from it regardless of your current knowledge and skill with Helix.

Did you also update HX Edit to v3.70?

An afterthought….. If you did indeed originally record both the DI and processed tracks first, as described in the manual, make sure you use the DI track for reamping and Mute the processed track.

It seems to me that your ‘base’ POD Go preset includes POD Go amp, cab/IR, and FX blocks. Then you want to reamp that recorded track to fine tune it. That’s a bit different from the ‘normal’ reamping procedure. Normally one records the dry (DI, no processing) track first and then reamps it to apply full processing. You quote from the manual, and that quote is a follow on from the previous section that describes how to record a Dry DI track. Note that the dry rack uses the mono USB channel 3 as its record input; not the processed stereo channel 1/2. If the track you are reamping is a partially processed track as described in my first paragraph, then you need to consider that your pod Go ‘base’ preset processing is already baked into that track. When you reamp you need to account for that fact and use a preset that applies only the additional processing you want. For instance, if you used an amp and Cab/IR in the original recording you need to remove those blocks from your reamping preset. You can’t just start tweaking, say, the Drive parameter on the amp when reamping. If the amp remains in the preset you are effectively double-amping your original guitar signal; once with the Drive setting in your ‘DI’ recording (it’s not DI) and again in the reamping with a different Drive setting. Long story short, make sure your original recording is in fact a DI recording as described in the manual.

Yes, considering product support expectations before you purchase is important. and there are at least two considerations. One type of support is what we’re talking about here: how long can the manufacturer be expected to keep the product alive in the sense that it will still work as the supporting technology progresses (e.g. computer OS upgrades). Line 6 and other manufacturers of audio equipment have established a history of providing another type of product support. They regularly release product updates that do far more than just keep the product alive. They keep adding functions and features that can dramatically improve product capabilities. And the updates are free!! That gives users a whole other dimension of support to consider. Expectations in this dimension are more difficult to assess, but of course we do it anyway. And personal opinions on this matter vary much more widely, in my experience, than the end-of-life (EOL) decisions. We often see astonished cries here of ‘What?? No more feature additions and improvements? It’s only been X years since I bought this!’ The Helix product line is a great example of this. The Helix Floor hardware platform hasn’t changed since it was introduced in early 2016, and there have been nearly 30 firmware updates since that time. A few were no more than bug fixes but most were enhancements. It’s now way more powerful and capable than it was nearly 8 years ago, and there’s no reason (yet) to believe that it’s EOL is approaching. But certainly it will someday reach that point. I can’t imagine that anyone then will complain that they’ve been shortchanged (he says, with tongue firmly in cheek). But Helix has remained an improving product for far longer than any of its predecessors, most recently the POD HD series. So what sort of support expectations should a buyer have when deciding whether or not to purchase the successor to Helix whenever it is eventually introduced? I have always said (and still do) that anyone should purchase a product based on the value/cost equation at the time of purchase. In other words don’t buy a product based on personal expectations of what one thinks it might be able to do in the future. Buy it because you think it’s worth the price today, and consider yourself fortunate if there are ever any free upgrades. But Line 6 has certainly raised the bar with Helix and it will be hard for me to imagine that its successor will be ‘one and done’. Time to stop rambling…..

I've bolded what I think are the key words in your post. All electronic product manufacturers make these decisions based on factors other than user's opinions. I, too, would like to see updated drivers for many of my old products, from printers to Roland/Boss audio/midi interfaces. The hardware is still fine but the products no longer work. Of course, how you want to respond to that reality (e.g. no future purchases of Line 6 products that require drivers) is up to you. But your opinion won't change anything, and the 'problem' is not specific to Line 6. Be careful you're not jumping from the frying pan into the fire, as they say.

Check the manual section n Global Settings -> Footswitches. There are numerous options regarding how footswitch functions and displays work. You can choose the option that works best for you. It may or may not give you exactly what you want as described by your question but you will find a good fit - perhaps better than what you currently think you want.

The Helix Floor unit has Send/Return pairs that will accommodate external pedals in an FX Loop. So even if you’re not satisfied with whatever similar FX Helix offers you can just continue to use your current pedals. And, as you note, this will conserve Helix DSP.

I notice a tuning fork icon on the bottom row of the controls. What’s the display for each under that panel?

The manual suggests that the answer is No. It mentions only TS (mono) output for each jack. You need to use both L and R jacks to get stereo. Experiment with TRS abut I expect it won’t work. Use unbalanced 1/4" TS cables to connect to your guitar amp or other pedals. When connecting to a mono pedal or single amp, connect only the L/MONO 1/4" jack.

You should be able to update your JTV using Line 6 Monkey and the adapter with a fully charged battery. Make sure you have a 1/4” cable connected to the Variax. That’s the ‘on’ switch for the battery.

Updates are cumulative; no need to proceed sequentially. Just update to the latest version, following all instructions carefully. Be sure to back up anything you want to continue to use after updating.

Are you sure the controls are identical? I don’t have a Catalyst, nor either of the original Line 6 models, but in general a Harmonizer has a concept of key/scale while a simple Shifter does not. Perhaps the Catalyst Harmonizer has a Key parameter that the Shifter does not? For instance, the difference between a major and minor key is the flatted 3rd note in the scale. A Harmonizer set to the Amin key up a 3rd will give a C note rather than a C# note when you play an A note. A simple Shifter up a 3rd will give a C# note every time you play an A note; it has no concept of key.

There’s nothing to ‘fix’ because it’s not a bug. The second post in this thread links you to the official Line 6 feature request mechanism where users suggest and vote on new features. It appears that six years later there have not been enough users voting up this idea to implement it. Perhaps your vote will tip the scale!

You can restore your presets from your backups, assuming you perform regular backups. I f you have never manually made any backups of your presets using HD500X Edit then all your custom presets are lost. You will only be able to restore the factory presets, and you can do that by reinstalling the device firmware.

Every FX block has Factory settings and optional User settings which are the settings applied when you select that block from the models list to add to a preset. In order to specify User settings you need to consciously do so, and that’s typically done in situations where you want to replace the factory default settings with your own custom default settings. After doing so your custom settings will be used when you select the block from the standard models list. Helix also offers you the option to separately save your own custom Favourites settings for each block. Once you define a block as a Favourite you have the option to recall those settings, rather than the Factory/User settings when you add the block to a preset. The Favourites settings are stored at the very top of the model list to keep them separate from the Factory/User settings that appear in the standard model list. These settings are global. Your Favourites are available at all times during preset construction. The Factory or User settings for each model are also always available, and unless you have specifically defined a User model to replace the factory settings for that model the Factory settings are used. In addition you can change settings for any block in any preset, and when you Save the preset these changes are saved with those settings for that block in that preset only. The preset-specific changes are not stored in the Factory/User or Favourites settings for that block. In order to always have the factory settings use the standard list of blocks (not Favourites) during preset construction and do not specify any User settings.

@scottsteers as described above, the issue is likely the timing of your footswitch presses. You need to be very precise. Only YOU know the tempo; the looper does not. You need to be playing, in tempo, continuously through the Start and Stop switch presses. Don't try to start playing the instant you press the Start switch, nor Stop playing the instant you hit the Stop switch. Hit those switches while repeatedly playing the looped section.

No, that’s not the problem. It’s perfectly fine to skip some versions when updating. Each update is complete and comprehensive. I suggest you open a support ticket.

Make sure your Output setting is appropriate for your setup. See manual pg 26 Setting Proper Levels.

How are your speakers/monitors connected? They should be connected to the Helix audio outputs. No Global Setting should need to be adjusted; just make sure the Output block in the Helix preset includes the physical outputs that your speakers are connected to (1/4”, XLR, …).

Your presets are organized into groups of 4 identified by the letters A, B, C, and D. These four presets appear in each of sixteen numbered BANKs, 1-16. A unique preset is identified by its Bank number and preset letter, e.g. 14A which represents the first (A) preset in Bank 14. The Up/Down footswitches navigate you incrementally through Presets or Banks with each press, depending on the “Global Settings> Footswitches” > Up/Down Switches setting. Pressing the Up and Down footswitches behave differently based on this setting. Experiment a bit and you’ll quickly understand. Also see manual pg12.

Does the 'rebuilding presets' activity complete eventually, leaving you able to operate your Helix Floor? Did your Helix Floor update to v3.70 successfully? Does it communicate properly with HX Edit so that you are able to confirm that both the device and the HX Edit program are running v3.70 (check the Help -> About menu item)? Rebuilding preset is normal at startup every time it starts after loading new (pre-v3.70) presets in the previous session. However, if it continues to repeatedly rebuild presets at startup even after you have not loaded any new presets. that indicates a problem. It means that one or more of your presets is corrupt and cannot be properly rebuilt. After answering the above questions we will be able to give you better guidance.

No, and not to my knowledge.

No, there's no way to turn off the display. There are plenty of Tuner apps for your computer. It's unlikely that POD Go Edit will be updated to provide a Tuner because that would involve audio processing. The edit program provides only command and control functions, communicating with the POD Go device via MIDI over USB. No audio is processed.

Uninstall/reinstall should work. Details will be different on Mac vs. Windows but I expect you know how to proceed. I suggest you temporarily relocate any of your custom Helix Native preset files on your computer. A complete uninstall may delete the default folders; I'm not sure about that.