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Helix clips and samples


phil_m
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Post 'em if you got 'em... :)

 

I'll start with a few of mine. I'll add this disclaimer even though it's probably not necessary, but these are simply some of my tones, and should not be seen as official Line 6 samples or anything like that. I hope to add more in the next weeks and months.

I know these are just a small offering, but I figured we'd get the party started.

 

Here's a playlist:

https://soundcloud.com/phil-miller-20/sets/helix-clips

 

Here's the descriptions:

 

1. Twin Normal Samples - Just some noodling using a simple Fender Twin preset. It's just the Twin Normal channel with the '63 Spring Reverb and the Klon model in front of it. I also turn on a rotary at one point - pretty obvious when that is. I bypass the cab when the rotary is on. The guitar is my Eastman T486, which is basically a Gibson ES-335 clone.

 

2. Fly Me To The Moon - I made this track using an acoustic IR I downloaded over on TGP. Only thing in the preset is the Studio Compressor model, the IR, a 10-band EQ to lower some of the boominess and the Chamber Reverb. The acoustic is my Breedlove Oregon Concert. This is recorded direct, no mic.

 

3. Mandarin Gaze - A clip from a Helix preset I made that made it on to be one of the factory preset, also called Mandarin Gaze. This is using the Orange OR80 model with dual cabs and multiple delays and reverbs. I was trying to go for an 80s Dream Pop sort of thing. Guitar is a Fender Strat Plus with Gold Lace Sensors.

4. Cry Me A River - Using the same Twin Normal preset above, without the Klon turned on. My take on a jazz standard my band does. Eastman T486 used for this as well.

5. Acoustic Strat - Someone asked me to record a clip of an electric going through an acoustic IR. This was a quick attempt. Some of the woodiness is there, especially on the strumming. If I wanted to seriously pursue this, I would work some more with the EQ to sculpt it some more. To me this is getting pretty close to the sound of piezo pickup in an acoustic.

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Here's a couple more I did using my Egnater Renegade with the Helix connected with 4 cable method.

 

The first is through the clean channel, and the second through the overdrive channel (although, I'm not using a ton of gain). Clean is with my Strat Plus again, and the overdrive is with my AVRI Jazzmaster. Miced with a Sennheiser e609 dynamic and an MXL R40 ribbon into a Tascam US-1800 interface and into Reaper. No post-processing.

Each clip starts off completely dry, and I add effects in throughout the clip. All reverb is from the Helix, and I have the Egnater's reverb completely turned off.

I'm basically just making this stuff up on the fly, so please excuse my sloppiness.

 

https://soundcloud.com/phil-miller-20/renegade-helix-4cm-1

 

https://soundcloud.com/phil-miller-20/renegade-helix-4cm-2

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Oh thanks - I think I change my mind. I just posted on chad's video post that I don't like the sound. These examples do sound much better.

Why do you use the external soundcard to record? Does it sound better or was it just easier for you?

 

I'm mostly interested in the direct recording via USB.

 

Thanks

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....

Why do you use the external soundcard to record? Does it sound better or was it just easier for you?

 

...

He's using the 4-cable method which means the external amp is involved in the full sound. The signal leaving the Helix via USB does not include the final piece of the desired sound- the Egnator power amp and cab. Hence the need to mic the Egnator cab and use an external interface.

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He's using the 4-cable method which means the external amp is involved in the full sound. The signal leaving the Helix via USB does not include the final piece of the desired sound- the Egnator power amp and cab. Hence the need to mic the Egnator cab and use an external interface.

 

Yep, that's correct. The clips non-4CM were all recorded direct over the Helix's USB connection. Actually, I could have still used the Helix's connection if I wanted to for micing my amp even while it was connected to the amp. Even while dual micing it, I could have gotten it to work by using an external mic preamp (the Helix only has one).

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  • 4 weeks later...

here are a couple that I've done.  Forgot my notes at home as to the amp/effects chain.  Will post that later when I get home.  There are a few sour notes so be gentle, and they ended up being a little longer than I had intended.  

 

https://soundcloud.com/michael-j-ott/blinki

 

https://soundcloud.com/michael-j-ott/bluesy-1

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Here's a song from the album I'm working on: Aphotic X

 

I started writing this using an HD500X and then got Helix in the midst of writing, so had to make it all Helix, of course. But there is a track that uses the growler filter from the HD500X in the first minute. I couldn't duplicate this on Helix. If anyone's interested in the patches I made for this, I'd be happy to attach them to this post.

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2. Fly Me To The Moon - I made this track using an acoustic IR I downloaded over on TGP. Only thing in the preset is the Studio Compressor model, the IR, a 10-band EQ to lower some of the boominess and the Chamber Reverb. The acoustic is my Breedlove Oregon Concert. This is recorded direct, no mic.

 

This sounds veeeery nice!

 

So, this is an acoustic guitar with a piezo..?

Did I get the chain right: Guitar -> Comp -> IR -> EQ -> Reverb?

 

Is that IR a free download somewhere? I've got a Martin with a K&K mic in it (very "unpiezo" for a piezo... :D ) and would love to use it for recording. I think it still sounds too "piezo" for my taste to use for else than live situations.

And currently I don't have a nice room for acoustic micing available. Would love to use helix for recording acoustic :3

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This sounds veeeery nice!

 

So, this is an acoustic guitar with a piezo..?

Did I get the chain right: Guitar -> Comp -> IR -> EQ -> Reverb?

 

Is that IR a free download somewhere? I've got a Martin with a K&K mic in it (very "unpiezo" for a piezo... :D ) and would love to use it for recording. I think it still sounds too "piezo" for my taste to use for else than live situations.

And currently I don't have a nice room for acoustic micing available. Would love to use helix for recording acoustic :3

 

Yes, that was recorded direct from my Breedlove Oregon. It has a piezo pickup with an LR Baggs preamp. On it's own plugged in, it's passable or even good, but the IR file really opened it up.

 

The IR is from a Taylor 314, and I got the file from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1XgNa5vH3j1ZkVoTFJLQ241WTg/view

 

That link was posted by someone over at The Gear Page a while ago. There's a bunch of different mics there. I used the Neumann U87 one.

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I have a Helix on order from Musicians Friend. I'm getting it pretty much solely on the recommendation of a friend who already has an Axe unit, and still wanted the Helix for it's ease of use. I've heard him live with both, but there are too many variables for me to be sure if the Helix equals the Axe sound quality. My first impression is that it doesn't sound quite as good.

 

I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks now, and I admit I'm somewhat concerned about all the difficulties and bugs I keep hearing about. I guess I'm naive, but I would have thought that the thing would be bulletproof and operate perfectly in all aspects before it was put up for sale for $1500 bucks. I once bought a Line 6 modeling amp, and loved the sound of it. I brought it out on a gig, and no sound would come out. Total disaster. I returned it and bought a Mesa tube amp and never looked back.

 

So my purchase is a little bit of a leap of faith - I hope Line 6 doesn't let me down here...

 

Anyway, to bring the post somewhat back on topic. I found it somewhat interesting that when I took the "Line 6 challenge," I got nearly every answer wrong. So much for my vaunted ears LOL. I took it twice more, and the results were completely opposite, these times I was only wrong twice.

 

Anyone know what to make of that? I don't.

 

My other comment re the challenge is that I would have liked to hear more straight power chords and single notes sustaining, maybe with some feedback. Most of the challenge stuff seems pretty busy.

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Here's a clip of a song I've been working on that's about half done: Aphotic X

 

I started writing this using an HD500X and then got Helix in the midst of writing, so had to make it all Helix, of course. But there is a track that uses the growler filter from the HD500X in the first minute. I couldn't duplicate this on Helix. If anyone's interested in the patches I made for this, I'd be happy to attach them to this post.

Duncan don't get me wrong, but I can not hear any difference from pod or helix to your recordings. Both sound awesome on your hands.

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I have a Helix on order from Musicians Friend. I'm getting it pretty much solely on the recommendation of a friend who already has an Axe unit, and still wanted the Helix for it's ease of use. I've heard him live with both, but there are too many variables for me to be sure if the Helix equals the Axe sound quality. My first impression is that it doesn't sound quite as good.

 

I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks now, and I admit I'm somewhat concerned about all the difficulties and bugs I keep hearing about. I guess I'm naive, but I would have thought that the thing would be bulletproof and operate perfectly in all aspects before it was put up for sale for $1500 bucks. I once bought a Line 6 modeling amp, and loved the sound of it. I brought it out on a gig, and no sound would come out. Total disaster. I returned it and bought a Mesa tube amp and never looked back.

 

So my purchase is a little bit of a leap of faith - I hope Line 6 doesn't let me down here...

 

Anyway, to bring the post somewhat back on topic. I found it somewhat interesting that when I took the "Line 6 challenge," I got nearly every answer wrong. So much for my vaunted ears LOL. I took it twice more, and the results were completely opposite, these times I was only wrong twice.

 

Anyone know what to make of that? I don't.

 

My other comment re the challenge is that I would have liked to hear more straight power chords and single notes sustaining, maybe with some feedback. Most of the challenge stuff seems pretty busy.

I have heard a few side by sides with Axe and Kemper now. I do not want to say one sounds better than the other. In the right hands all three sound great. I went with Helix based on ease of use and not having to have a unit and a controller. And price wise it was the best. If it were solely studio use I would have probably went Kemper just because it will take a snapshot of anything and the user libraries are huge. Brit Floyd sold me on the whole technology. After seeing them use Axefx live I was amazed. But to my ear if I had to pick a winner from the tone it would be very hard. I think Kemper may be the very slight winner, but let's not forget Helix is a baby and continued improvement will naturally follow.

 

As for the issues there have been a few but I think it is no more than one would expect to occur with a brand new product and technology. No matter how many testers you have there will be issues on release as there are so many different ways people use the products. Also, with no disrespect intended to anyone, an awful lot of the so called bugs are not really bugs but either improper settings or using the device unexpected manners. Again, it is impossible to test every set up idea in the static testing environment. Another issue has been comparability with other Line 6 devices . Despite the fact that Line 6 stated that the support was not there people,expected it to work perfect. I don't know if Line 6 didn't expect that to be a big issue or if it was something they intended to work on later. From following those threads it seems like Line 6 has worked on providing some support there and people,with the devices have started finding ways to make it work.

 

I think you will be pleasantly surprised and will like the unit. I would say order for Sweetwater instead of Musicians Friiend but that is a personal issue I have with MF.

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Thanks arislaf!

 

That gave me an idea about posting an HD500X version also. You can find that here: Aphotic X (HD500X version). If you want to flip between the two sort of quickly, open each link in a different tab or browser window and play, pause, play, pause, etc. For convenience: Aphotic X (HELIX version).

That confused me now.. I can say that helix sounds more like a true amp and more close to the virtuoso tones u go for, but pod is standing more good to my ears ( although it lacks the full tone of helix). Great job duncann, thanks a hell man!!

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That confused me now.. I can say that helix sounds more like a true amp and more close to the virtuoso tones u go for, but pod is standing more good to my ears ( although it lacks the full tone of helix). Great job duncann, thanks a hell man!!

 

I'm always confused when trying to decide on a lead tone. :) I still haven't decided whether I should use the Helix version lead tone or one that's closer to the pod's version. Helix overall definitely has a fuller, clearer production, and better stereo separation, versus the pod. Some reasons for that: the pod version uses a couple of dimension choruses for one backing track, whereas the Helix version uses the trinity chorus and the 70s chorus. The dirty backing track for sure has better separation and energy out of each speaker on Helix without double tracking or anything like that; I used a ping-pong delay in a parallel path for this. One other thing that might dull the differences between pod and Helix is the type of music. A production on Helix might be more apparent with less going on as opposed to something that's busy.

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Yes, that was recorded direct from my Breedlove Oregon. It has a piezo pickup with an LR Baggs preamp. On it's own plugged in, it's passable or even good, but the IR file really opened it up.

 

The IR is from a Taylor 314, and I got the file from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1XgNa5vH3j1ZkVoTFJLQ241WTg/view

 

That link was posted by someone over at The Gear Page a while ago. There's a bunch of different mics there. I used the Neumann U87 one.

Thanks a ton for the link!! Can't wait to get my hands on my Martin through Helix with those :P

Too bad this might lead to me being bound to take helix to my acoustic gigs - My plan was to stick with the tc-helicon I've got and leave helix at home... 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I'm cleaning my dropbox and found this one:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cqrhqlwui3iyymk/helix%20test%20drive.mp3?dl=0

 

The first test using helix for me. Both guitars and the bass is recorded with helix. Ofcourse there is loads of tired-ears-post-processing, but still... Even if the guitar doesn't have the dynamics of my real all-analogue-tube-stack the end result is better than tossing a 57 somewhere the in front of the first cone... 

I remember this was quite fast and straight-forward tweak for the tones on helix and then just "go" :)

 

p.s. the link will work until I delete the file, so, if you were late I'm sorry

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  • 3 months later...

Here's a couple more I made last night.

 

AC15 amp model with tape delay and hall reverb:

 

https://soundcloud.com/phil-miller-20/ac15-tele-tape-delay

 

JTV-69 acoustic clip using the Martin Parlor O-18 acoustic model

 

https://soundcloud.com/phil-miller-20/fall-foliage-jtv-o-18

 

@phil_m love the tone of the AC15. Anywhere I can download the preset? Would love to see how you set up the amp and can for this. Thx

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