glideman

So what year do we see another update for the Helix?  LoL!

This COVID crap keeps ramping, a lot of people better enjoy what they have and hold onto it.  Lots of music stores have tons of items on back order due to supply chain shortages in multiple stages of product production and distribution ...

It kinda sucks that my Helix is sitting inside the church awaiting the Sunday morning service activities.... Dohhhhh!!!  :P

I signed up... probably too late.... but I did it anyway....

Helix Native, Helix Floor, Powercab Plus 1x12

In my room that's my office/studio control room (whole upstairs can be used as studio recording space and use remote control of the digital

console and computer downstairs), I have a Presonus Studiolive 32 Series 3.  I've got everything hooked up where I can play to a JBL 15" plus horn monitor,

and/or Presonus studio monitors with a 10" sub.  I have pretty much multiplexed inputs and outputs where I can do about anything and everything I want

to with headphones, studio monitors, or PA speakers.   Multiple FRFR speakers as well, plus the Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk 3 and a 4x12 cab are in there

for blowing up the neighbors every once in awhile.... LoL!!!

Nothing like a happy ending to a pesky bug problem!!!

There is/was a trial of so many days for Axe.

I guess you probably eat the return shipping, though. Ouch.

On 10/27/2019 at 9:48 PM, hoghat said:

 

Nailed it.   My bandmate bought an Axe FX III and I have a Helix.   Previously,  we both used real Mesa Recto's.    The biggest difference I've seen is the ease of learning / use.  I can dial in patches with the Helix screen pretty easily.   He has to bring a computer if he wants to mess with his Axe FX.   The Axe FX III has a billion tweakable things on every block, practically down to atomic particle interactions on the power supply and built-in compression & EQ and all sorts of junk.  You can blend IR's and move the time alignment between them.  It's pretty cool, but extremely maddening when you're just trying to learn the basics and you don't even know which of the 5000 configurations are the ones causing you trouble.  It's a bit maddening even if you know what you're doing.     It's taken me about 2 years to get to the point of finally starting to understand what's going on with the more obscure settings like bias/bias x.   I'm a little jealous of all his routing options now, but not an extra $1400+ worth of jealous (once you throw in the footswitch).    My recommendation is,  go with Helix first... use it to learn how to make good sounds and figure out the basics of dealing with the world of modelers (which extends significantly beyond just the modeler itself).  After a few years and you're ready to take on the additional brain bandwidth of worrying about what happens when you play with the virtual power voltages on every block, then you can probably get the AXE III super cheap... or you can get whatever the new Axe model is.   

I have Helix, Kemper Stage, and Axe FX III.  You can do well with any of the 3.  I find Helix floor the most purely portable and it's easy to use without a computer (although I prefer major programming with a laptop).  I have no trouble getting highly useable sounds.

Axe FX III I will give the edge since this latest series of firmware builds currently at 10.2.  It is impressive with the tones I've coaxed out of the newer features.

You can't really screw up going with any of the three.  I'm not a fanboy on any of the forums other than "great job on this guys" whenever warranted by the 3 manufacturers.

Biggest thing is get a really good monitor or FRFR amps if you're going to go direct.

Good luck!

I have the following 3 FRFR solutions, although I usually just play through the two JBL sidefill monitors (actually powered mains on a pole for stage monitoring).  I have plenty of volume with these and pretty much hear the whole band just like what the audience hears since one of these is close to my ears.

1. Mission Gemini 2 2x12 with ability to dial the horns out via a control pot.  I personally don't dial the horns out and totally feel like I am getting an amp in the room sound for me.  It can get freaking LOUD to me at close to 4x12 cab levels.  It sounds really good!

2. Xitone convertible open/closed back MBritt 1x12 FRFR. Also pretty darn loud, and has a very pleasing output.  This had no problem keeping up with our former second guitarist before he left the band.

3.  Line 6 Powercab Plus FRFR.  This one is fairlyclose to Xitone volume and us very serviceable.  I don't use the simulations of guitar cabs, just straight FRFR.

4 hours ago, silverhead said:

There's a global setting (as of v2.8 I believe) that allows you to specify that rotating the joystick knob will let you navigate left/right along the signal chain and select the adjacent block rather than changing the model selection of the current block.

Wow!!! Never knew this... I must have missed some of the update notes.  Dohhhh

I've found if you have an FRFR that can push some air that you can get amp in the room sound...  I sure as heck haven't enjoyed my 2 custom tube amps I kept much in a few years now.

I have Helix, Axe FX III, and Kemper Stage.  I love all 3.

Love the new amps and features!!!

Was visiting my wife's brother for 2 weeks, plus toured the PRS Guitars factory on the way back to SC, USA!

Tackled the upgrade this morning and played around all day just about!  Great job, Line 6!

16 hours ago, Verne-Bunsen said:

 

At the crossroads of Milla and music, you’ll find Puscifer. At least for one song. I’ve seen them twice, but never with Milla. I’d imagine it would be memorable.

 

I think I gotta go to the bathroom for a few............... Errrrrrrr

2 hours ago, GeeTah said:

 

Generally any stage larger than 30x20 with room capacity of 1,000 or more. Casinos are a good example. Here's an image of me and my Gemini 2 in action recently. 

Gemini 2 will light your @$$ up, won't it? Hehehe.  I have had the cops called on me when having a mega volume jam at the house!!!

Barely have to get it cooking at a typical gig!

Yep.  Most of my posts with the major players is to share with others what I've had and what I've sold.

The key here is that you and I know that we could live with any of the major players for a solution.  Most of the time, I tend to have one

of one brand and one of the other for a backup/change of pace and one for church and one for my secular rock band.

I usually keep them for beyond the return windows unless I get a dud or absolutely hate the product.  If I couldn't have 2 or 3 at a time, I'd probably

do what some others have done and cycle through them even if it meant a return of one or two.  You pretty much pointed out the massive markup for

retailers on guitars and music products.  It's not my regular practice, but I don't frown on someone else having to do it.

I do enough business with all of them to where they more than make up for the losses for returns anyway.  LoL!

I am a MusiCraKHo...... LoL!!!

On 6/20/2019 at 11:51 AM, Digital_Igloo said:

There are a handful of sketchy and/or downright slimy companies in this business (clinically psychopathic or narcissistic founders, CEOs who've been fired multiple times for sexual harassment, stop paying their licensees or vendors, sue everybody for perceived slights, blatantly copy designs and even hack firmware), but Fractal's one of the good ones. Kemper and Atomic are cool too. Always nice to see people supporting them.

Hard to believe I just saw this!  I have been treated well by Kemper, Line 6 and Fractal.  Very nice words from DI here!   Also, any conflicts in the old parts of the thread

were not intended with the original post.  I just like multiple toys.  Finally got brave enough to sell my backup (Helix LT) to a buddy of mine in another band and

just use Helix floor and Axe 3.  I don't need triple redundancy ... (***Says a little quick prayer***)...   

Good to see the usual kind words for a competitor from the Line 6

guys!  I'd expect nothing less.  Helix value and my attachment to it are why I'll keep one (and use regularly).  I prefer Helix in my church gigs due to the all in one package

and I don't lose any tone quality in doing so.  I've always leaned toward one unit is a rack and external pedal and my other go to digital rig would be an all in one pedal

if both were pretty close in tone and horsepower. 

But kudos again to @Digital_Igloo and all the other Line 6 employees that frequent here and other boards!!!   Great products and excellent service with a smile (even

when a smile is not necessarily deserved by the customer)!!!  You guys rock!!!

JBL EON615's sound great, too.

When I don't use the Gemini 2, I just jack my level up in the sidefill monitors, which are a pair of EON615's on poles.  You can buy a pair of B-stock EON615's from ProAudiostar for just over $540 shipped.

Mission Gemini 2!

It's a very flexible layout... and things can easily be replaced/changed/shuffled.

I'd pop a screenshot, but it's basically a Glenn Delaune 3 amp snapshot that I really liked the layout of.  Probably copyright problems if I did that publicly.

Everything was completely set to my preferences (he used all MkV amp model/channels, I threw an Archon channel in for the heavy/lead 4th snapshot).

I think I may have changed the one kicker dirt pedal from the original, but I'm not 100% sure.

Here's a nice ASCII stick diagram... LoL!!!!!

Snap 1 is CalRyth1 for clean, one of the delays is on and switchable with a stomp.

Snap 2 is CalRhyth2 with lower gain and no TS808.  I keep the Del off unless I need it for a lead.

Snap 3 is CalRhyth2 with higher gain and the TS808.  I keep the Del off unless I need it for a lead or something.

Snap 4 is ArchLead... and it cranks.  Very much!  but warm and toasty!

I think only one snapshot has a change on an EQ block.

4 stomps are CleanBoost (one of the EQ's), Phaser, Chorus, and Delay.

>>>>>>>>>>-----DlxComp------Wah--------DlxPhaser-----------UbiqVibe------------Scrm808-----------CaliRhyth2-----------ArchLead--------->>>>>>>>>>|

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          V

 |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

V

X>>>>>>>>>---CalRyth1----CabRino------SimpEQ--------SimpDelay----|--------|-------TrinChor-----VintDigDelay----ChamberVrb-------Vol---->>>>>>>

                                                                                                                  |         |

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|         |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

|                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SimpEQ-----SimpDelay-------SimpDelay---------------------------------------|

4 snaps, 4 stomps, 3 amp models.

1. Clean

2. Crunch/slight breakup

3. Classic/hard rock/lead

4. Heavy/lead

All I did was run through all the other cab models and ended up saving 3 more versions.  Didn't even change default Mic models.

While I knew this would happen, I've just been in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it..." mode.  Plus, I've been piddling with the Axe FX 3 to get it ready for gigging.

Needless to say, I'm excited to try out my 3 new versions of Old Faithful at this Saturday's gig!

I think it speaks volumes that I've been using the same presets for the most part for around 2 years. LoL!

TheyTerk Err Jerrrrbbbzzz...

Either tilted behind/beside me or on a rack/stand beside me. 

On 2/14/2019 at 1:52 PM, phil_m said:

 

Well, that's good because I have no plans on buying an Axe FX III... :-) I actually think the confirmation bias goes the other way, too, though. The Axe FX III is billed as a premium product, so it has to be better, right? How many could pick out clips from each device if they weren't labeled accordingly?

 

Seriously, I have briefly considered selling some other stuff I have and picking up an Axe FX III, but I simply wouldn't use it enough. I wouldn't gig with it because I don't really want to go down the road of having a rack-based rig, and, well, I'm perfectly fine gigging with my HX Effects board and an amp or my Helix board alone. If I owned a studio, I would probably have an Axe FX III, a Kemper, and a Helix Rack and find uses for them all... Although, I have to say that I think sometimes we suffer from having too many options in front of us. Purposely limiting your options is sometimes a necessary step for being creative.

On 2/16/2019 at 5:52 AM, MLSoundLab said:

I use the Axe-Fx III, Helix LT and also the Kemper pretty much every day for tweaking guitar tones so I would say that I have a good sense of what they are capable of. Here's a comparison of the same exact guitar tones recreated based on a real tube amp on the Helix:

 

 

And the same done one an Axe-Fx III:

 

 

So ultimately in some cases "you can" make them perform in a very similar way. I think you would have a hard time saying which is which in a blindfold situation. The way real tube amps are tweaked is very different to how some of the "older" modelers are tweaked. It's not just about bass, middle, treble and gain. The amount of master, drive and saturation highly affects the overall brightness of all of these things and on certain master settings you'll find that bass, middle and treble don't do anything at all. This is realistic and I think both the Fractal and Helix work this way. Tweaking these modelers is not as simple as a result. So yes, having 5 times more amp models is definitely an advantage but there's a lot of versatility in every single amp model especially with Fractal and all the advanced controls. The advanced controls that I use the most on the Fractal are the graphic equalizers and low and high cuts inside the amp block. You can essentially do this with a Helix and EQ blocks but sure it would look nicer if it was all done inside the amp section. :) In the right hands you should easily pass as a real tube amp using either of these modelers.

 

I've got a Helix floor, Helix LT, and a  Axe FX III.

I have no problem getting great tones out of either brand.  I used to own a Kemper a few years ago as well.

This is far from my first rodeo with modelers.  I will say that two custom built tube amps I kept rarely get fired up for more than 10 minutes before I get tired of them and the pedals and go running back to my magic machines!

I'll give Axe III the sheer power and bells and whistles edge. However, nothing more powerful and better sounding than a Helix that fits in one backpack and is an ultra light rig with a single or dual guitar backpack case!

I really enjoy having all three units... If you can't get great tone out of any of them, you probably need to take up bass, drums, or keyboards... LoL!!!

Get the heck out if those fires get now.......