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

Helix FAQ


Digital_Igloo
 Share

Recommended Posts

Sorry if this has been answered before, but I do not have the time to go through 29 pages... 

1. The high and low cut in the cab block, do they cut before or after the cab? 

2. Why do the high and low cut in the cab/IR block affect the tone differently compared to a dedicated EQ block? 

3. Is there any plans of expanding the amp/cab-collection, and do we have to pay to get them eventually?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, Can someone help with how to make a simple midi program change on the Helix? I have an HD 500x that works perfectly with this method. I send a program change from track 14 on my sequencer using CC#32 to call the bank and a program change message to select the location in the bank for example ( 000 ) for program #1. With the Helix no matter what I put in CC#32 or the progam number I use it goes to Bank #1 and program #33? Am I doing something wrong here? Thanks, Chief

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guys 3 very important questions , and please quote me for the answer. ( i don't know if you answer already before, I am missing onboard (seaman is my job) ) 

1) Is still the amp and cab dep parameters available? 

2) Is the bogner presence work as the normal bogner now? (like a wide eq?)

3) Is the treadplate any close to the sound of the true treadplate?

 

Thanks anybody who will reply in advance.

 

I can answer 1, but not 2 or 3 as I've no idea about the real amps. Sorry about that.

 

Anyway, the amp dep parameters are still there, but they are not really classified as anything other than more amp parameters. You just have to page+ to get to them. And these parameters really do have a significant effect, depending on the amp, much more so as compared to HD modeling.

 

The cab dep parameters are no longer there. They dumped the whole resonator scheme from the HD. Instead you have more mics for each cab and 12 mic distances - 1 to 12 inches, low and high-cut filters, and a very convenient level control. In fact, the level control is present on all blocks I've come across so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, Can someone help with how to make a simple midi program change on the Helix? I have an HD 500x that works perfectly with this method. I send a program change from track 14 on my sequencer using CC#32 to call the bank and a program change message to select the location in the bank for example ( 000 ) for program #1. With the Helix no matter what I put in CC#32 or the progam number I use it goes to Bank #1 and program #33? Am I doing something wrong here? Thanks, Chief

 

Hmm... I tried this with Reaper and am having expected results. CC32 LSB selects the setlist (0-7), and the PC message (0-127) selects the preset. One thing I've come across that will prevent it from working is the global setting under MIDI/Tempo -> MIDI PC Send/Receive. This has to be on for this to work, which is the default I believe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, Thanks for your help, Yes I've tried the Tempo/PC setting. You're correct if that is off it does nothing. I was really trying to find out if anyone else was having this issue. I'd put in a support ticket about 5 weeks ago asking about this and the reply I got was it was a known issue they were working on it. So last week I asked if any progress had been made on the issue and I got no response. I resubmitted my question then decided to ask here to see if someone else had this problem thinking maybe I was just missing a setting or something?  I'm a solo musician and have been using midi this way for several years. Im using a Korg X3 for messages. If I unplug the Helix and plug the midi cable into my HD 500x it works fine. Maybe I just got a bad unit? Guess I'll try to call support see what they say. Anyway... Thanks again for your help, Chief

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1) Is still the amp and cab dep parameters available? 

2) Is the bogner presence work as the normal bogner now? (like a wide eq?)

3) Is the treadplate any close to the sound of the true treadplate?

 

Thanks anybody who will reply in advance.

1) Yes, but they're different. The Helix Owner's Manual describes them on pages 26 and 28, respectively.

2) Each amp's tonestack behaves like the original amp.

3) It's virtually identical to the Treadplate we have at Line 6, but all Rectifiers sound slightly different, so...

 

With the Helix no matter what I put in CC#32 or the progam number I use it goes to Bank #1 and program #33? Am I doing something wrong here? Thanks, Chief

 

This was a bug that was fixed in 1.03. Update, and the setlists should recall correctly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry if this has been answered before, but I do not have the time to go through 29 pages... 

1. The high and low cut in the cab block, do they cut before or after the cab? 

2. Why do the high and low cut in the cab/IR block affect the tone differently compared to a dedicated EQ block? 

3. Is there any plans of expanding the amp/cab-collection, and do we have to pay to get them eventually?

 

1. DI can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the high and low cut parameters in the cab block would be the equivalent of using a high and low cut for the mic that is capturing the cab. In other words, they would occur after the cab.

 

2. Not sure, but I would guess the rise and fall of the curves for the high and low cut and the EQ are different enough for it cause an audible difference.

 

3. This question has been asked about a bazillion times, and the answer is always they're not able to announce all of their future plans at this time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, Thanks for you're help. I downloaded that update a couple weeks ago and it shows that firmware version on my unit. It basicaly had no effect on my issue? Thanks, Chief

Did you reset your globals? If you don't, a lot of the behind-the-scenes fixes may not take hold. Back up your presets, reset all presets and globals (hold 9 and 10 on boot), restore your presets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, Thanks for response. I tried the hold 9&10 but it didn't help, This thing is everywhere. Now its working sometimes then goes to programs that aren't called i.e. ( I  program CC#32-002 Program 000 ) ( It goes to Set list #3 program 000 then program #26???) reset try same sequence ( goes to set list #0 program #26 then program #127???) Then had it just lock up once...Hate to do it but gonna have to return this... Thanks again guys for your suggestions. By the way i held 8&9 once and it took me to some sort of system menu that had something related to midi among other things on it. I wasn't able to get to a second level menu on the midi menu to do anything though. Just FYI's. Chief 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, Thanks for response. I tried the hold 9&10 but it didn't help, This thing is everywhere. Now its working sometimes then goes to programs that aren't called i.e. ( I  program CC#32-002 Program 000 ) ( It goes to Set list #3 program 000 then program #26???) reset try same sequence ( goes to set list #0 program #26 then program #127???)

Very odd. Just one MIDI cable from your X3's out to Helix's MIDI in? Anything else in the chain? Is Helix connected to your computer via USB at the same time?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am having problems setting up a simple volume control if I set it up with exp-2 and change patches I have to

Move the controller for it to recognize the position the pedal ,the same with my variax volume used as a controller

This has always worked perfectly on my HD500 I really don,t want to have to patch a volume pedal in to my

Helix to accomplish this simple task .will this be addressed in future updates????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very odd. Just one MIDI cable from your X3's out to Helix's MIDI in? Anything else in the chain? Is Helix connected to your computer via USB at the same time?

Hello, Yes straight from X3 to the Helix. Something I found even odder. Helix is set to midi channel 14 to get messages from the X3. I put in a new midi with nothing on track 14, hit reset Helix goes to program 000 which is fine, then it goes to program 28? How is this possible? I'm sure channel 14 has no information on it and is turned off (muted). Thanks for response, Chief

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, Yes straight from X3 to the Helix. Something I found even odder. Helix is set to midi channel 14 to get messages from the X3. I put in a new midi with nothing on track 14, hit reset Helix goes to program 000 which is fine, then it goes to program 28? How is this possible? I'm sure channel 14 has no information on it and is turned off (muted). Thanks for response, Chief

Something's weird. You're right—MIDI is MIDI. Any way you could take a look at exactly what the X3 is spitting out in something like MIDI OX?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Something's weird. You're right—MIDI is MIDI. Any way you could take a look at exactly what the X3 is spitting out in something like MIDI OX?

Hello, Yes I suppose I could but the fact is I've got an HD 500x that works perfectly when I plug the same cable from the same system into it. It's a problem with the Helix. Thanks for your help, Chief 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Within a preset, can I assign footswitches to turn on different effect states and amp channels? For example, with Preset 1A:


 


FS1 - Clean, no effects


FS2 - Clean with chorus


FS3 - Crunch with reverb


FS4 - Lead with delay and boost


 


Etc


 


So when I switch from 2 to 4, the channel will change, the chorus will turn off and the delay and boost will turn on. Is that possible at all? Or would I have to use presets to do this?


 


(FYI - the clean/crunch/lead sounds would be on an amp, changed via MIDI.)


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

Is it possible to auto-save changes made to you effects in a preset? I have worked with the M13 in the past and really enjoyed it and its easy to use-ness. I have had the Helix for 1 week now and am very pleased with it. Say, you are working in a preset (for example, an clean signal path with a reverb, chorus and delay effect) and you fiddle around a bit with the settings of, e.g., the chorus. Then you change to a different present because you want a crunchy-sound. After rocking, you want to change back to the first preset, but with the changes to the setting you just made (but forgot to save?).

 

Also, it would be great if the Helix would 'remember' which effect in the signal path you had turned on, and which ones you've bypassed.

 

You would still use the save button when changing an effect type, or the place they're in in the signal path.

 

thank you!

 

best regards

Tomas

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When i use helix as soundcard connected with USB The output from The computer is extremly loud compared to The guitar out (when practise with iTunes, youtube etc) - is there a Way to balance The levels (Can do on computer but it is on almost minimum 3-5%)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does the Helix "know" whether to output in mono or stereo? If I use the 1/4 output jacks to feed stereo FRFR monitors but only one XLR output for a mono signal to FOH, will the FOH signal actually combine both sides of the stereo image that my monitors are giving me?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can M-Audio EXP pedal be used with Helix? I tried using it as exp3 to control the gain of the Minotaur, and both pedal up and pedal down set the value to zero, and movig up or down makes the value to change erratically. It works fine with midi keyboards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Within a preset, can I assign footswitches to turn on different effect states and amp channels? For example, with Preset 1A:

 

FS1 - Clean, no effects

FS2 - Clean with chorus

FS3 - Crunch with reverb

FS4 - Lead with delay and boost

 

Etc

 

So when I switch from 2 to 4, the channel will change, the chorus will turn off and the delay and boost will turn on. Is that possible at all? Or would I have to use presets to do this?

 

(FYI - the clean/crunch/lead sounds would be on an amp, changed via MIDI.)

 

Basically, you're wanting what is refered to as "scenes". Saddly the Helix does not support scenes. You can kind of fake it by assigning multiple items to a footswitch, but you can't assign an item (fx block, parameter, etc) to multiple footswitches. So, if FS2 turns your chorus on/off, that's the only switch you can push to turn it on/off. And if FS4 kicks in a drive block and a boost, same deal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't think it will matter. The power switch on the Helix was in response to the outrage of customers (me included) to not having power switches on the HD500(X) pedals, after having them on the XTLive, and the X3Live units.

 

One difference between the Helix & the earlier POD pedals, though is the XTL, X3L, and HD's had external power modules (wall warts), where the Helix does not, it is house power into the unit, so the power conversion is moved inside the Helix. On the earlier units, even though they had a switch, the power module was always on if plugged in to power. On the Helix, the power switch actually turns off the power to the unit's internal PSU. The switch is a switch, no magic there...

 

If your other devices have any inrush or transients that makes your Helix act up when you hit the master power on the power strip, you may want to consider starting up your power strip, then your Helix, as all the stuff on your power strip will be powering up at the same time. The only way to know will be to try it. I doubt that solid state effects on your pedal board will have much inrush or transients, BUT if you also serve your power amp from the same strip, you may have some issues, as those may cause some effects when they power up, usually more of an inductive "bump" from those....

 

Not "official" information, so caveat emptor.....

 

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  1. Can I have 4 signal paths separately assigned to the 4 outputs? (L&R XLR to F.O.H., L&R 1/4 to amps)

  2. Can I drop 3 amp blocks, 3 pitch-shifters, 3 fuzzes and 3 vocal effects spread across the 4 effect paths?

Can I assign footswitches to be toggle, momentary and inverted polarity?

Can the looper be assigned to a specific signal path (unlike the aggravating HD500X)?

Can the looper FS be removed, reprogrammed as a free FS or used as a patch change?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

  1. Can I have 4 signal paths separately assigned to the 4 outputs? (L&R XLR to F.O.H., L&R 1/4 to amps)
  2. Can I drop 3 amp blocks, 3 pitch-shifters, 3 fuzzes and 3 vocal effects spread across the 4 effect paths?
  3. Can I assign footswitches to be toggle, momentary and inverted polarity?
  4. Can the looper be assigned to a specific signal path (unlike the aggravating HD500X)?
  5. Can the looper FS be removed, reprogrammed as a free FS or used as a patch change?

 

 

1. Sure

2. Helix allows this, but it won't work, not enough DSP. I tried two amp+cab blocks allocated to one dsp, added a fuzz, and there's room maybe one more thing (dynamic - not all, eq, modulation - not all, ducked delay, filter, wah, or volume/pan).

3. Toggle and momentary, yes, but not inverted polarity. But you can invert the polarity of a parallel path (path 1B or 2B), which could be assigned to a switch.

4. You can put the looper block wherever you want it.

5. Sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why can't you just stop loop recording instead off press play and then again to make it stop...... I play as a solo guitar player so I need to record maybe a pice of a song and the later play solo over it ......... But I don't seem to can do that....

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why can't you just stop loop recording instead off press play and then again to make it stop...... I play as a solo guitar player so I need to record maybe a pice of a song and the later play solo over it ......... But I don't seem to can do that....

 

Greetings!

 

Unfortunately there isn't a specific stop/mute loop switch on the Helix. I would recommend checking out our ideacale page and up-voting this specific thread. I believe it covers what you are asking about. The more votes it gets, the more attention it will receive from the Line 6 team. 

 

http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Simplified-Looper-activation-and-exit/786526-23508

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2. Helix allows this, but it won't work, not enough DSP. I tried two amp+cab blocks allocated to one dsp, added a fuzz, and there's room maybe one more thing (dynamic - not all, eq, modulation - not all, ducked delay, filter, wah, or volume/pan).

 

Are there really two DSP chips on the Helix? Because if it's twice as powerful as an HD500X, it could very much suffice, couldn't it? The POD barely offers 10 blocks (across two chains) and I can still drop 2 amps, 2 pitch glides, 2 fuzzes, 1 synth and 3 simple effects; that's a very loaded patch for a two year old POD. I mean, sounds very similar to what you did with one DSP alone!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

...

2. Helix allows this, but it won't work, not enough DSP. I tried two amp+cab blocks allocated to one dsp, added a fuzz, and there's room maybe one more thing (dynamic - not all, eq, modulation - not all, ducked delay, filter, wah, or volume/pan).

...

Are there really two DSP chips on the Helix? Because if it's twice as powerful as an HD500X, it could very much suffice, couldn't it? The POD barely offers 10 blocks (across two chains) and I can still drop 2 amps, 2 pitch glides, 2 fuzzes, 1 synth and 3 simple effects; that's a very loaded patch for a two year old POD. I mean, sounds very similar to what you did with one DSP alone!

 

Duncann is correct, you will be limited by the DSP as to how much you can put on any one path. Each set of two paths (1A & 1B, 2A & 2B) have one DSP processor dedicated to them. The way you get around this is by "connecting" your paths into a larger route like "Super Serial X2" but you give up some of the flexibility to have separate paths/instruments when you do this. It is a balancing act that hopefully goes away in the next generation of the Helix. Depending on how you set up your routes, and which effects/amps/cabs/IRs you select, this can leave you with available blocks but without enough DSP to populate them. Line6 opted to provide maximum choice to the user instead of limiting the number of blocks or  routing scenarios which was a good decision, but the hardware has yet to catch up to what the software offers. Other manufacturers have similar DSP limitations but less flexibility in which effects or routing scenarios are available. Other devices deal with DSP limitations by for example only allowing a maximum of one amp, distortion, or chorus pedal in the chain. The Helix allows you to mix and match until you run out of DSP. The Helix will allow you to put for instance four different distortion or chorus pedals in a single preset.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are there really two DSP chips on the Helix? Because if it's twice as powerful as an HD500X, it could very much suffice, couldn't it? The POD barely offers 10 blocks (across two chains) and I can still drop 2 amps, 2 pitch glides, 2 fuzzes, 1 synth and 3 simple effects; that's a very loaded patch for a two year old POD. I mean, sounds very similar to what you did with one DSP alone!

 

I could get quite a lot as well with my HD500X in addition to dual amps. The thing that makes it seem less powerful than a 500X, is the quality of the amps, cabs, and effects. So one amp in Helix might be the same as using two amps in the 500X. A Helix ping-pong delay might be 1.5X the processing power needed as compared to an HD ping-pong delay. The cab IRs in Helix surely take more processing power than an HD cab IR. Note that I'm completely guessing about what the actual processing differences would be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are there really two DSP chips on the Helix? Because if it's twice as powerful as an HD500X, it could very much suffice, couldn't it?

 

Yep, there are 2 DSP's; one for paths 1A & 1B and the other for paths 2A & 2B.  

 

And, to quote Digital Igloo (I believe it was him):

 

Helix has 2.45x the DSP horsepower of HD500X (2.75x that of HD500), but because the models are so much more DSP-intensive, you don't automatically get 2.45x the number of blocks. In practice, I'd say you'll get 40-50% more blocks than HD500X (50-60% more than HD500), but it's still not that simple: All input blocks have noise gates, cabs and many effects have high and low-cut filters, it typically takes much fewer blocks to get the right sound, and footswitches-as-controllers can often approximate changes that would otherwise require duplicate blocks.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dear DI, I hope you can help me.

OK, I just encountered this very strange problem. I have been enjoying my helix for weeks and weeks, playing through the line 6 link to the L2t.

 

Now, I finally got my atomic CLR and all my patches are clipping someway or another. I checked this through the analog input on the L2T and it is clipping as well, same goes for the headphone output.

 

How is this possible? And more importantly what is the best way to fix all my patches so they don't clip on the analog outputs? Help!

0

 

 

 

1) Yes, but they're different. The Helix Owner's Manual describes them on pages 26 and 28, respectively.

2) Each amp's tonestack behaves like the original amp.

3) It's virtually identical to the Treadplate we have at Line 6, but all Rectifiers sound slightly different, so...

 

 

 

This was a bug that was fixed in 1.03. Update, and the setlists should recall correctly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why can't you just stop loop recording instead off press play and then again to make it stop...... I play as a solo guitar player so I need to record maybe a pice of a song and the later play solo over it ......... But I don't seem to can do that....

I have the same issue. I think the reason is so that pressing Record while recording immediately sets the loop and starts overdub. But that's not really practical because its hard to end one phrase and start another at the same time.

 

Another issue is that the Looper Exit switch is too far away from the other looper switches making it hard to turn the looper mode off and on in order to get to the other block footswitches. One possible solution is to allow the blank footswitches to be mapped to blocks while in Looper mode so that a few key effects could be controlled while in Looper mode without having to switch back and forth.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I am trying to create a MIDI remote controller for Helix using the iOS MIDI Designer Pro app. I Can get Helix connected, and can send CC messages just fine.

 

My issue is that like the Pedal Edit Mode, there doesn't appear to be any way to control a Block's bypass state. The only parameters that are selectable to map to a MIDI controller are the block parameters, bypass is not available.

 

Is there some trick to map a MIDI CC to a block bypass?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was lucky to find a helix in my favorite local music store a few days ago and couldn't resist ;-)

I'm very impressed so far and enjoying it.

 

I was using the HD500 until now and there are a few options that I miss in helix:

  1. Where are the parameters for Thumb and Resonance in the cab adjustments?
  2. In HD500 we could adjust the Impedance globally and per patch. Why can't the input impedance set per patch in Helix? I found this very usefull in HD500 and always chose different values for clean and distorted sounds.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They did away with the whole resonance thing (res, thump, decay) in Helix. I was one to usually jack up those parameters, but I don't miss them at all in Helix.

 

Never noticed before now, but you're right that you can't set input impedance per preset. Guess I don't miss that either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Line6Tony unpinned and locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...