spawn2031 Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I'm really surprised no one has asked this one yet as it seemed to be a constant pain for people with the 500(x)s. Is there an audible delay when switching between presets? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hudsoncoutosilva Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Are the MODE and TAP footswitches assignable as well, or are they locked to those functions? I can't see much use for a dedicated MODE switch to toggle between preset and stombox modes mid-song, so could I use that switch for something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_m Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Are the MODE and TAP footswitches assignable as well, or are they locked to those functions? I can't see much use for a dedicated MODE switch to toggle between preset and stombox modes mid-song, so could I use that switch for something else? Right now they aren't assignable, but there's nothing silk-screened on the housing with those labels, so it doesn't mean their functionality is necessarily set in stone. Personally, though, I think you really need to have those switches somewhere. There is a mode where you can have 10 assignable footswitches, though, by changing the bank switches to be assignable in Stomp Footswitch Mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hudsoncoutosilva Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Right now they aren't assignable, but there's nothing silk-screened on the housing with those labels, so it doesn't mean their functionality is necessarily set in stone. Personally, though, I think you really need to have those switches somewhere. There is a mode where you can have 10 assignable footswitches, though, by changing the bank switches to be assignable in Stomp Footswitch Mode. It's good to hear that's possible on the bank up/down switches, I think that should be applied to the MODE and TAP switches as well. Let the out-of-box default be those specific functions, be let the user decide if they really need those to be there at all times. On my HD500x I very rarely use the tap tempo and almost never the looper, so I basically have two "useless" switches at all times. I'm definately glad to see the looper is freely assignable on the Helix, maybe the same principle can be applied to the tuner/MODE/tap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linz Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Is it going to be possible to assign a footswitch to change models/alt tuning on the Variax? I love my Roland gear for that reason - I can flick a switch and have my guitar tuned open/standard without having to leave the patch I'm in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinDorr Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 For what it's worth ... it looks like the Sweetwater demo unit had the following guitar and bass amps: 8 Guitar amps: WhoWatt 100, Soup Pro, Stone Age 185, Tweed Blues Nrm + Brt, US Small Tweed, US Deluxe Nrm + Vib 7 Bass amps: Tuckn' Go, SV Beast Nrm + Brt, Cali Bass, Cali 400 Ch1 + Ch2, G Cougar 800 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJFrench Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Question- In the Sweetwater demo video they mentioned that the USB port on the back of Helix can be used to connect to an IPad using a camera connection kit. Does this mean that there will be an IOS app for editing/updating Helix? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital_Igloo Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 How many factory presets will ship with the unit? Who created these presets? Are the factory presets completely new, or have the presets from the HD series been converted? Will we be able to use/convert our existing HD presets with this unit? The factory presets for the Hd series do not appear to be popular among the community, based on comments that have been posted in the past, has this been taken into consideration and addressed with the Helix? How are the factory presets organized? Genre? Style? or no particular order? 1,024 preset locations (8 setlists, 32 banks of four presets each). We don't know how many stock presets we'll end up with. Maybe 256, plus a bunch of routing templates. The rest we'll leave empty for presets that may showcase post-1.0 features. No HD preset compatibility. Helix is a totally different line of products. Hopefully people won't hate our presets, but then again, if one were to find a stranger's iPod, there's a good chance they'd hate 90% of the songs on it. Presets are really, really subjective. Are the MODE and TAP footswitches assignable as well, or are they locked to those functions? I can't see much use for a dedicated MODE switch to toggle between preset and stombox modes mid-song, so could I use that switch for something else? MODE is on Footswitch 6. In Pedal Edit mode, FS6 is used to view more blocks, and once a block's selected, FS6 highlights the sixth parameter in the display for editing. FS6 is also used to exit looper mode. So it does other stuff, but most of the time, it's MODE. TAP is on Footswitch 12. FS12 is also used to exit Pedal Edit mode; if you hold FS12, you exit Pedal Edit mode and save any changes made to the preset. Sounds weird typed out, but in practice, it's really quick and transparent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealZap Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 No, that primarily means that you can record to the iOS device with your iOS apps. Question- In the Sweetwater demo video they mentioned that the USB port on the back of Helix can be used to connect to an IPad using a camera connection kit. Does this mean that there will be an IOS app for editing/updating Helix? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital_Igloo Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 Is it going to be possible to assign a footswitch to change models/alt tuning on the Variax? I love my Roland gear for that reason - I can flick a switch and have my guitar tuned open/standard without having to leave the patch I'm in. From preset to preset, yes. HD500X does this too. From within a preset, no, not at launch. In fact, I believe the Variax stuff are the only Home screen parameters that can't currently be assigned to a controller. Question- In the Sweetwater demo video they mentioned that the USB port on the back of Helix can be used to connect to an IPad using a camera connection kit. Does this mean that there will be an IOS app for editing/updating Helix? No, but since Helix responds to standard MIDI CCs, any controller app (like Lemur) could conceivably tweak stuff in real time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncann Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 ... No HD preset compatibility. Helix is a totally different line of products. ... Can we take this as meaning something for the future, or maybe just a slip of the keyboard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealZap Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I think you would be okay, taking it that way... he did say "year of the guitarist" at some point. :) I'd be shocked if there was anything more top of the line... but then again... Digital Igloo is a magician and makes stuff happen :D Can we take this as meaning something for the future, or maybe just a slip of the keyboard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital_Igloo Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 no resonance, thump and decay between the cab parameters? Nope. Instead, we've provided mic distance, high cut, and low cut (in addition to mic select, Early Reflections, and Cab Level). They're much harder to screw up. :D Can we take this as meaning something for the future, or maybe just a slip of the keyboard? Well, the Helix product line includes Helix, Helix Rack, and Helix Control. No secrets there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radatats Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 can the looper be time synced to other gear or a DAW? trying to loop to a drum track with the 500 is useless... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agbiggs Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Um, dumb question, but how does it sound?? If you're mostly focused on tone, rather than the complicated MIDI-switched multi-scene polyphonic pitch-shifting stuff (I have no idea what I just wrote), how does the Helix compare to the HD500, which I really like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliverj Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 1) How many FX blocks are there in a Helix preset? It's hard to see in the video, but it looks like 8 per chain x 4 chains for a total of 32. 2) Can the Helix do more than 8 blocks in series in a given preset? Is it limited to 8 per chain in 4 parallel chains, or can one chain internally feed another and another, etc. in series to get up to 32 series blocks (processor permitting) for a given preset and input? Device looks great btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radatats Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 listening to the video again the wahs sound much better. They are all totally new? No more of that harsh top end? How many? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hudsoncoutosilva Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 In the sweetwater demo when he cycles between the amp, a lot of them are greyed out. What does that mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallyg Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Back in my Vetta days, I loved the feature it had that let me save my dialed in models(amp & FX) as my default models. The POD HD's didn't have this ability. I sure hope Helix can do this..... It is a huge time saver. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealZap Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 It doesn't do that, but you can copy the blocks and paste them from one tone to the next. Back in my Vetta days, I loved the feature it had that let me save my dialed in models(amp & FX) as my default models. The POD HD's didn't have this ability. I sure hope Helix can do this..... It is a huge time saver. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallyg Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 It doesn't do that, but you can copy the blocks and paste them from one tone to the next. Thanks for the quick answer. Copy & Paste should work well..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital_Igloo Posted June 13, 2015 Author Share Posted June 13, 2015 In the sweetwater demo when he cycles between the amp, a lot of them are greyed out. What does that mean? For items that can't be accommodated (not enough DSP or some other restriction like limiting you to one looper per preset), instead of a warning box popping up, Helix intelligently grays out and skips over unusable models. Paths 1A and 1B utilize DSP 1 and Path 2A and 2B utilize DSP 2. I'm guessing Sweetwater's version of the firmware didn't have the proper DSP filter code implemented yet and I'm not sure what was actually going on in that particular preset. Amps take up a lot of DSP, and although you can technically run four at once, don't expect to run a ton of effects on top of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hudsoncoutosilva Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 For items that can't be accommodated (not enough DSP or some other restriction like limiting you to one looper per preset), instead of a warning box popping up, Helix intelligently grays out and skips over unusable models. Paths 1A and 1B utilize DSP 1 and Path 2A and 2B utilize DSP 2. I'm guessing Sweetwater's version of the firmware didn't have the proper DSP filter code implemented yet and I'm not sure what was actually going on in that particular preset. Amps take up a lot of DSP, and although you can technically run four at once, don't expect to run a ton of effects on top of them. Thanks I figured it was something about the DSP limit. But it's weird since the patch he's running is only a fender blackface, a compressor and a reverb. Then trying to add a second amp and they're almost all greyed out. So I'm hoping this is just a pre-production firmware issue, right? Also, does this division of DSP 1 and 2 means that if I'm using just one, really long and complex path, I can't assing both DSP chips to that same path? Is there a limit of FXs that can be placed on a single path one after the other? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealZap Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 From D.I. Models: WhoWatt 100 Soup Pro Stone Age 185 Tweed Blues Nrm Tweed Blues Brt US Small Tweed US Deluxe Nrm US Deluxe Vib US Double Nrm US Double Vib Mail Order Twin Divided Duo Interstate Zed Jazz Rivet 120 Essex A-15 Essex A-30 A-30 Fawn Nrm A-30 Fawn Brt Mandarin 80 Brit J-45 Nrm Brit J-45 Brt Brit Plexi Nrm Brit Plexi Brt Brit Plexi Jump Brit P-75 Nrm Brit P-75 Brt Brit J-800 German Mahadeva German Ubersonic Cali Rectifire ANGL Meteor Solo Lead Clean Solo Lead Crunch Solo Lead OD PV Panama Line 6 Elektrik Line 6 Doom Line 6 Epic Tuck n' Go SV Beast Nrm SV Beast Brt Cali Bass Cali 400 Ch1 Cali 400 Ch2 G Cougar 800 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_mink Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 If the Brit J 800 from the recent HD model packs is any indication, we're looking good... BUT OH NO... WHAT ABOUT THE GIBTONE!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triggerhare Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 If the Brit J 800 from the recent HD model packs is any indication, we're looking good... BUT OH NO... WHAT ABOUT THE GIBTONE!!!! The Stone Age 185 is likely a EH-185... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_mink Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 The Stone Age 185 is likely a EH-185... So I can go to bed then?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triggerhare Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 So I can go to bed then?? Did you brush your teeth? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital_Igloo Posted June 13, 2015 Author Share Posted June 13, 2015 Thanks I figured it was something about the DSP limit. But it's weird since the patch he's running is only a fender blackface, a compressor and a reverb. Then trying to add a second amp and they're almost all greyed out. So I'm hoping this is just a pre-production firmware issue, right? Also, does this division of DSP 1 and 2 means that if I'm using just one, really long and complex path, I can't assing both DSP chips to that same path? Is there a limit of FXs that can be placed on a single path one after the other? Probably. I've been able to make pretty huge patches without running into the filter. Routing's very flexible. Each of the two paths can be serial (1 in into 1 out), parallel (1 in split and then merged to 1 out), parallel (2 ins into 1 out), parallel (1 in into 2 outs), true parallel (2 ins into 2 outs) or "super serial" with up to 16 block locations (DSP permitting). Then each of Path 1's outputs can be routed into either (or both) of Path 2's inputs. And, for good measure, Path 1 and 2 can both be "super serial" and routed into each other for up to 32 block locations (again, DSP permitting). Whether or not it sounds confusing, it's really not in practice. Plus, we'll have templates with all of these routings ready to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scias23 Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Does the XLR out have fixed output level option like in X3? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guix Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 1.- Can the helix Produce Midi Clock? I would like to use it in conjunction with other gear that doesn't. 2.- You say it has 4 instead of 2 Channel paths??? 3.- Can you explain what an Impulse responses are? Highly Excited about this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebbeforup Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Can i send my UD-stomp on retirement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottCarlson Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 1. Is there a plan to produce the "Sean Halley" type series of videos to demonstrate what the AMPs and Effects can sound like? The Sweetwater video is a general overview, and for those of us with HD equipment it's 95% review. 2. I know DI said the patches are not convertible from HD500 series, but what about picking the top 50ish rated Customtone patches and providing matching versions? 3. I understand this isn't an AMPLFi, but if we could still have the tone matching abilities to Helix patches, that would be REALLY helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncann Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Probably. I've been able to make pretty huge patches without running into the filter. Routing's very flexible. Each of the two paths can be serial (1 in into 1 out), parallel (1 in split and then merged to 1 out), parallel (2 ins into 1 out), parallel (1 in into 2 outs), true parallel (2 ins into 2 outs) or "super serial" with up to 16 block locations (DSP permitting). Then each of Path 1's outputs can be routed into either (or both) of Path 2's inputs. And, for good measure, Path 1 and 2 can both be "super serial" and routed into each other for up to 32 block locations (again, DSP permitting). Whether or not it sounds confusing, it's really not in practice. Plus, we'll have templates with all of these routings ready to go. Wow. Sounds like you guys really squeezed as much as possible out of this. Awesome. Speaking of templates, I know I've heard you can copy and paste blocks, which is great and will be a big time saver. Does that function extend to entire presets? Will the pc/mac software go further and allow for setting up defaults for fx blocks and amps, naming them, and being able to select them from a favorites list instead of a static list? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drew_tnbd Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 I'm really surprised no one has asked this one yet as it seemed to be a constant pain for people with the 500(x)s. Is there an audible delay when switching between presets? Can we get an answer to this?? Any delay or silence when switching between presets, or does it switch instantly? Will trails come in a future update? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Flak Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Can we get an answer to this?? Any delay or silence when switching between presets, or does it switch instantly? Will trails come in a future update? My biggest concern too. Please consider to insert delay tails or a proper "scene" mode ad launch. To me this is crucial to decide if buy or not the Helix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrealaz Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Hi, how is editing in fx blocks? it's similar to hd 500 or deeper?, I'd really like to tweak overdrive and fuzz clipping to my personal taste ...( and also all the others fx :D ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranio76 Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 My wishlist: Master section / AxeFx-like Scenes It would be awesome for the Helix (maybe in some firmware updates?) to be able to have a sort of "MASTER" section to which I can apply some effects and replicate it in other patches. This would allow me to sculpt a single sound (f. ex a TS + Marshall SIM with that cab, that mike, and that eq) and use it for a variety of patches. Instead of copying and pasting this sound through different patches, as I often do with my HD500, I could control it in one single place, so if that sounds needs tweaking, I need not to change its parameters all over the affected patches. Another cool functionality of the Fractal machines (which is in some way similar/parallel to the above one) is the possibility to define "scenes". So I can assign a whole range of tweaks to each effect within a single footswitch, if I have understood correctly this AxeFX's feature. This would allow me, for instance, to dial in a single "parent" patch and some effects; instead of changing "patches" I could press FS1 for a "scene" and turn on some pedals, turn off others, change the delay level, the modulation rate, and so on. With FS2, I could raise the delay mix, turn of the modulation, augment the delay decay, and so on. A different approach but for the same purpose: having a main "sound" and manage its different variations insted of different and separate patches. This could solve also the problem of the delay spillover cut... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diggerbarnz Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 SOrry if this has been asked already but, will Helix store 500+ tunings like pod & what happens w/model packs I just purchased? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverhead Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Helix will store 1,024 presets (tunings?) organized into 8 sets of 128 presets, further organized into 32 banks of 4. Each of the 8 setlists has presets 1A through 32D.The model packs you just purchased will continue to work with the Pod HD devices. The Helix architecture does not support Pod HD modeling or presets so there will be no ability to load the Pod HD model packs into Helix. However, the set of amp models provided in Helix may well contain some of the amps from the new HD model packs. The initial list of Helix amps is provided in post #150 of this thread. As always, there is the possibility (not promise) that later firmware releases will add more amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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