Helix Bug Reports

[HonestOpinion]

Please put any software/firmware/hardware bugs you discover in the Helix here. Hopefully they will be addressed in future updates. If the issue turns out to be user error instead of a bug perhaps someone can offer up the correct procedure. Please include your firmware version when you post your bug. Thanks!

This topic is not intended for bad-mouthing the Helix but for providing Line6 with maximum feedback to assist them in fixing issues as early as possible. Please provide as much info as you can on your use case so they can recreate the problem in their "lab".

Important: Please submit a support ticket once you establish you have indeed discovered a bug. Line6 has a process in place for bugs and you have a much better chance of them seeing and responding to your issue here: http://line6.com/support/tickets/

Please come back in to this topic and comment that your bug has been fixed once and if Line6 addresses it. Thanks!


Submit your bug in whatever manner communicates the issue best but here is a suggested format.

 

Hardware: Helix  (e.g. Helix, LT, HX Stomp, Pod Go, etc.)
Firmware/Editor: Firmware 2.82; HX Edit 2.82 (Make sure to include your firmware and editor version, hopefully the latest, don't want to waste Line6's time with bugs that have already been fixed)
OS: Windows 10 (Include your OS if relevant to issue, computer hardware/manufacturer also if pertinent)
Global Settings: Bottom row presets, top row pedals [assigns] (Include any global settings you think could pertain to your bug)

Attach Preset: Attach your preset if you think it will help troubleshoot the issue!
Bug: When saving preset to another list, pedalboard reverts to Factory 1 list song 1 ("WhoWatt 100") after save. (Short description of bug)

(Step by step description of how to reproduce bug)

1. Use Preset knob to select preset from Factory 1 list (I selected 21C "Almost Not Fair")
2. Save "Almost Not Fair" to User 5 list in the first position, 1A.
3. After Save Helix home screen reverts back to the first song in Factory List 1 ("WhoWatt 100").

[oehman]

Helix isn't forcing my Variax models or tunings for the presets that I've created. I have to manually change them on my JTV-59.

I am updated to firmware 1.01.2

[Rewolf48]

ScriptModPhase - Firmware=1.01.2

 

Bug: I am assuming the "Mix" parameter in the ScriptModPhase should increase the depth of the phase. It does not. As a matter of fact, when you turn "Mix" up to 100% the phase sound almost completely disappears. Exactly opposite of what I assumed it would do. Turning the "Mix" to 0% also causes the phase sound to disappear. What is the "Mix" parameter supposed to do? This effect does not seem to properly control phase depth (the amount of phase compared to direct sound).

 

I am guessing here (don't have a Helix yet), but it could be that Mix controls the combination of the phase altered signal with the input signal.  0 Mix would be completely the input signal, 10.0 Mix would be completely the phase altered signal, which funny enough will sound just like the input signal but with some small modulation in the phase. But It is the combined signals where the phased signal interferes with the input signal that is probably what you expect as a phase effect.

 

The MXR Phase 90 doesn't have a mix control, so L6 added it, but I suspect that in order to be able to get a phase effect when run as a parallel effect and combine it later with an unaffected signal that the control goes from nothing to all phase altered.

 

If this is the case, then the maximum effect (and standard setting for an Phase 90) is 50-50 phased and dry signals - that is maximum effect is deliberately found at 5.0

[BigRalphN]

The blank screen issues after a reboot requiring a factory reset . Two of us have had this issue and I submitted a support ticket.

[phil_m]

 

I noticed that with the Script Mod Phase as well. Not sure if it's a bug or if it's what Rewolf48 described. It seems if you leave the mix at 50, that's when the effect is most pronounced, so I suspect he might be right.

[HonestOpinion]

I am guessing here (don't have a Helix yet), but it could be that Mix controls the combination of the phase altered signal with the input signal.  0 Mix would be completely the input signal, 10.0 Mix would be completely the phase altered signal, which funny enough will sound just like the input signal but with some small modulation in the phase. But It is the combined signals where the phased signal interferes with the input signal that is probably what you expect as a phase effect.

 

The MXR Phase 90 doesn't have a mix control, so L6 added it, but I suspect that in order to be able to get a phase effect when run as a parallel effect and combine it later with an unaffected signal that the control goes from nothing to all phase altered.

 

If this is the case, then the maximum effect (and standard setting for an Phase 90) is 50-50 phased and dry signals - that is maximum effect is deliberately found at 5.0

Thanks, this sounds like it might well be an explanation of the intended behavior on this effect. If so, the only issue is this is the only phaser on the Helix so far and it has no mechanism/parameter to increase the phasers dry/wet ratio. I find the "maximum" effect level to be insufficient at the 50% level. I suppose there might be some internal routing options you could use as a workaround but that seems like an overly complicated solution. Looking forward to future updates with more flexible effect parameters and/or another phaser or two to choose from.

[cornerstonetom]

Bug: I have a Windows 10 issue. When I try to open the file, I get a message that Helix has stopped working. I did mention this to L6 Support.

[oehman]

Update to the JTV model/tuning bug--

 

Unplugging the JTV and plugging back in after booting up fixed it, sort of. All my patches responded to the different JTV models and tunings. But my Honky Tonk open G patch was saved in standard tuning, so I used JTV knob to go open G and saved it. When I went to the next preset, it was still open G even though the tuning was set as 'don't force'

[buddym]

Minor glitch with Looper: I'm on the latest firmware - 1.01.2 

 

I've had a couple of glitches while working with the looper. This seems to happen once you've recorded a loop and then after you do an overdub and then go back and hit the undo, which you basically hear crackling then silence. The first time it happened I was able to back out of the patch and then select another preset and then I was back in business and then the last time it happened I had to reboot.

 

Doesn't happen all the time and it probably has more to do with me having to continuously go back an do undo's feverishly :huh: 

[Line6Tony]

Bug: I have a Windows 10 issue. When I try to open the file, I get a message that Helix has stopped working. I did mention this to L6 Support.

 

 

We have a known issue where the Librarian will fail to connect and crashes on many Windows 10 systems.  We are working on the issue and are looking to release a fix shortly.

[Euro5]

any known bugs with JTV Variax models?  (89, specifically)...VDI powers up the Variax, model/tuning switches lighting up, but not functioning (no model switching/tuning variation).  Have tried with multi input and individual Variax input options on the Helix.  Does the instrument need to be flashed, or am I totally missing something?  Please clarify, or do I need to put in a ticket of some sort?    Thank you.  

[phil_m]

any known bugs with JTV Variax models?  (89, specifically)...VDI powers up the Variax, model/tuning switches lighting up, but not functioning (no model switching/tuning variation).  Have tried with multi input and individual Variax input options on the Helix.  Does the instrument need to be flashed, or am I totally missing something?  Please clarify, or do I need to put in a ticket of some sort?    Thank you.  

 

This is a known issue, and it should be taken care of in the next firmware update.

[archisc]

1) Helix randomly freeze when I create patches from scratch.. like adding stomp boxes or amps. Don't know if there is a particular pattern or happens only with certain amp and stomps.

2) Sometimes, even let say I select 57 mic and later on change to 409 and save the preset... sometimes, the preset has 57 mic sound even its using 409.

[HonestOpinion]

My thanks to the Line6 forum moderator for pinning this topic. I hope it provides some helpful feedback.

[Arrow269]

Maybe it's me - but I've been using it live for the past three nights. Tonight, when I clicked the wah, I lost all volume on all my patches. Only way to get sound back is to restart...

[duncann]

I know things like this are hard to track down, especially when not reproducible, but one time after turning Helix on the seltlist changed. When I turned it off, it was on setlist 3, patch 6. When I turned it on, it was on setlist 1, patch 6.

 

Twice now. This time it was on setlist 3, patch 7 when turned off. Turned on this morning and it's on setlist 1, patch 7.

[yzerdude19]

I turned my Helix on today at my studio.  Blank white screen after the initial Line6 Helix DNA loadup screen.  No switches would work.  Restarting didn't help.  I had to do a factory reset.  I lost all the patches I had programmed.  Not very happy about that.  Was only about the fourth or fifth time I had powered this thing on.  I was on the most recent firmware as far as I know.  

[chrisjw5]

The Helix app (running on Mac OSX El Cap) consistently freezes and shows either "Helix device not connected" or "service is not online"

[cbeeper]

I seem to be having a problem with the Helix program on my laptop with Windows 7. I tried twice to download and install the app but when I open it I get a blank (black) window. If I shut it down and try to open it again it tells me the app has stopped working. I've tried it with the bundled driver and also downloading the driver separately.

[jroseberry]

BUG:

First preset in User1 scrambled (altered/completely different) when upgrading to latest firmware and restoring saved bundle of presets.

Rest of the presets are restored fine...

[phil_m]

Bug: Joystick too sensitive to turning  - Firmware version 1.02.2

 

I put this in Ideascale as well because I am not sure whether it qualifies as a bug or a feature request.  I have seen this issue brought up by at least one other forum member, not sure if there are more.

 

The joystick seems to be overly sensitive to turning.  This means that when you are navigating through the amp/effect and routing blocks you are constantly accidentally changing the amp or effect models when you are only trying to navigate up/down or right/left to another block. I keep finding things I did not dial up in my presets because the knob turned slightly while I was navigating the blocks. This is an ongoing source of irritation in an otherwise fairly well conceived navigation model

 

Would it be possible to either implement a short (1 or 2 second) delay before the turning action starts to select another amp/effect or better yet just increase the amount the knob needs to be turned before it starts scrolling through the effects? Thanks!

 

It's not really a bug. It's something I brought up during the beta period, and I still kind of think they might want to look at the behavior. But I've got to say that after using the unit for a few months, it has really become a non-issue. I think you get used to it after using it awhile.

[HonestOpinion]

It's not really a bug. It's something I brought up during the beta period, and I still kind of think they might want to look at the behavior. But I've got to say that after using the unit for a few months, it has really become a non-issue. I think you get used to it after using it awhile.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I thought this might not really be a bug but more of a feature request. I am glad to hear that it is something you get used to although I think implementing more of a turn or a slight delay would still improve user satisfaction. I will remove it from the Helix bugs topic.  Don't want this topic to get cluttered with issues that are not bugs. It is in Ideascale if a significant enough number of other users find it an issue they can make their wishes known there.

[JonnyPM]

Here's an interesting one... I go to edit the Rhythm Sandman patch and when I change the volume of the second amp it changes the pitch of the guitar up? There's no indication of any tuning change within the Guitar input screens and it then keeps that tuning for any other patch I switch to. Upon reboot the guitar is tuned correctly but I can't edit the patch without the tuning issue happening again.  Some of these are just seriously bazaar.

[deadlocked]

It's not really a bug. It's something I brought up during the beta period, and I still kind of think they might want to look at the behavior. But I've got to say that after using the unit for a few months, it has really become a non-issue. I think you get used to it after using it awhile.

I had the same issue as HonestOpinion and I agree with phil_m: It gets easier the more you use the unit.

 

I found out that, in the beginning, I was pushing on the opposite *side* of the knob in the direction that I wanted to move (i.e. I would press on the left side of the knob and push the knob towards the right to make it go right), but that was the reason the joystick turned on me while trying to move the cursor around.

 

I found that if I treated the joystick as the "4-way directional pad" of a video game and pressed gently down and out from the "upper edge" of the knob, at the very  edge in the direction that I want to move (i.e. press down and left at the left edge to move left, press down and right at the right edge to move right, etc) then the joystick rarely turns (if ever, I have not had the joystick turn on me since I swich to this outwards pulling motion). Just make sure that the motion is gentle enough that the joystick does not register a down press as well.

 

 

The principle is similar to this:

 

Try pushing an empty food cart with one hand on the center of the handlebar and try to get it to go in a  straight line. This is what you you experience while pushing the joystick and you will see that it is hard to get the cart to go straight, as the cart will try to pull left or right as you push.

 

Now try moving to the front of the cart and grab the frornt of the cart with one hand and pull it behind you. You will see that it is easier to keep it in a straight line. This is what you would be doing if you press gently down and pull outward at the joystick's edge.

[spawn2031]

OK that's it.. when I get mine I am totally putting a vinyl sticker of a Nintendo "D" pad on the joystick.

[trinitypc]

 firmware update continually fails with my HP Spectre x360 13-4005dx Signature Edition notebook running Windows 10.  Tried it four times, and everytime it gave an error and failed after about 45 seconds or so.   Interestingly enough, the update ran successfully using my Winbook TW100 tablet which was upgraded to Win 10.

[harpel]

don't know if it's a bug, but this seems weird.

 

turn off the volume with the expression pedal or the volume pot on the variax

then switch to another patch

volume is full on

 

there's no way to make a 'silent' patch change

[theKennyG]

don't know if it's a bug, but this seems weird.

 

turn off the volume with the expression pedal or the volume pot on the variax

then switch to another patch

volume is full on

 

there's no way to make a 'silent' patch change

 

I think I've seen this on idea scale already. What happens is that the preset is loaded with the volume pedal set to where ever it was at the time it was saved. For now, to have a "silent" patch change, you'll have to save all you presets with the vol pedal at "heel down".

[JazzInc]

I think I've found sort of a pattern. Helix froze up on me half a dozen times over the past couple of days, and invariably I was in pedal edit mode when it happened. To be fair, building and tweaking my patches, I spent quite a bit of time there, but it seems more than a coincidence.

 

Another bug is that when I change impulse response patches, the toe switch gets assigned as a controller for the IR, so whenever I tweak a patch with a different IR, as soon as I hit the wah pedal, my IR gets bypassed until I fix it and save it and then it goes away until I do a different IR.

[duncann]

Another bug is that when I change impulse response patches, the toe switch gets assigned as a controller for the IR, so whenever I tweak a patch with a different IR, as soon as I hit the wah pedal, my IR gets bypassed until I fix it and save it and then it goes away until I do a different IR.

 

I've noticed this also. Only it's not just an IR block. It does it with an amp block, and any cab blocks. Not sure about amp+cab blocks. To fix it, select the block that's being bypassed and hit the menu button -> footswitch assign -> and turn the encoder to make it say none. Then save the patch.

[Elkinz]

On the 1.0 firmware version helix would freeze/lockup when I held down the "MODE" Hold to edit button. Had to restart to fix. Havent had a chance to update yet so not sure if its been patched.

[veritechc]

My Helix just had the "black screen of death". All the screens except bank up were black. Couldn't recover. Had to do a factory reset.

 

Thank god I had backed up everything since I am a pessimistic computer tech and I didn't loose anything.

 

I have the newest firmware. My Variax was plugged into the VDI port at first. I unplugged it and still no dice. The Helix was hooked to my computer via USB with the Helix software open.

 

Hope they get this fixed. It really could have been painful.

[Roberttheprole]

My helix froze on "boot failure! entered update mode" when updating firmware v1.02.2 now computer (os x) is not recognizing helix. And there is a red face :O at the top left of the display screen and it is frozen... tried to reset, and the same message appears. Help.

[Rudy78414]

I just got my helix today. Plugged it in and no sound (signal) out to my amp. Turned it off and back on then no screens. Called tech service and was walked through a reboot. Everything worked fine until I used the volume pedal then all sound dropped off again. Reboot and worked ok even while using the volume pedal on a few patches. Sound once again dropped off when using the volume pedal. Called tech services again, was told to install new firmware which I cannot do until I download the latest OS on my Mac. That is in progress at this time. Has anyone else had this problem? I honestly expected much more out of this unit and tech support. It has been a very disappointing day! Please respond if you have had this problem and let me know if updating the firmware solved the problem.

[phil_m]

I just got my helix today. Plugged it in and no sound (signal) out to my amp. Turned it off and back on then no screens. Called tech service and was walked through a reboot. Everything worked fine until I used the volume pedal then all sound dropped off again. Reboot and worked ok even while using the volume pedal on a few patches. Sound once again dropped off when using the volume pedal. Called tech services again, was told to install new firmware which I cannot do until I download the latest OS on my Mac. That is in progress at this time. Has anyone else had this problem? I honestly expected much more out of this unit and tech support. It has been a very disappointing day! Please respond if you have had this problem and let me know if updating the firmware solved the problem.

 

When you go to the volume block, do you see the values for the volume change when you move the pedal?

[lasvideo]

I just got my helix today. Plugged it in and no sound (signal) out to my amp. Turned it off and back on then no screens. Called tech service and was walked through a reboot. Everything worked fine until I used the volume pedal then all sound dropped off again. Reboot and worked ok even while using the volume pedal on a few patches. Sound once again dropped off when using the volume pedal. Called tech services again, was told to install new firmware which I cannot do until I download the latest OS on my Mac. That is in progress at this time. Has anyone else had this problem? I honestly expected much more out of this unit and tech support. It has been a very disappointing day! Please respond if you have had this problem and let me know if updating the firmware solved the problem.

You are very patient. If it was me I would return it for a full refund.

[tjontheroad]

is anyone else experiencing Helix randomly re-amping tracks via USB using Logic X and Yosemite? I've had this happen 2x on an audio and a softsynth track during different sessions.

 

Helix reboot fixes issue without further problems.

 

Edited to add: 1.02.2 firmware is being used.

[Rudy78414]

When you go to the volume block, do you see the values for the volume change when you move the pedal?

When you go to the volume block, do you see the values for the volume change when you move the pedal?

Hi Uber Guru

Thanks for the response! The volume levels do work when using the volume pedal and getting a signal to the amp. The pedal worked on four different patches then just quit (on a patch it was working on) once there was no sound the volume values did not change. It showed max volume but no sound. All switching functions still work, all scribble switchs work just no volume until I do a reboot. I have slow internet here but am almost done loading OS el capitan which should work to load the lateset firmware (this has taken 21 hours to do) thanks again for the reply! I really hope this fixes the problem because when the unit works properly I really like it!

[BigRalphN]

Hi Uber Guru

Thanks for the response! The volume levels do work when using the volume pedal and getting a signal to the amp. The pedal worked on four different patches then just quit (on a patch it was working on) once there was no sound the volume values did not change. It showed max volume but no sound. All switching functions still work, all scribble switchs work just no volume until I do a reboot. I have slow internet here but am almost done loading OS el capitan which should work to load the lateset firmware (this has taken 21 hours to do) thanks again for the reply! I really hope this fixes the problem because when the unit works properly I really like it!

I had a similar issue. Lost all volume until a reboot . I also had a total system lock up,today. I had sound but couldn't change or adjust anything. Both times I had been editing. A reboot fixed it and I did not lose and of my edits.

[Rudy78414]

Thanks for the reply BigRalphN,

I lose everything in the reboot process. Now that I have OS10.11 on my Mac I have tried to download the lateset firmware from the line 6 website but I get a decompression failed every time. I can not get the lateset firmware on my helix. Very frustrating but I will keep at it. I have had many line6 products in the past and this is my first negative experience. I'm hoping the updates will fix this problem and that I can actually get the updates downloaded. I tried calling customer support and that option does not work on their phone system today. Guess no one is there on the weekends. Thanks again for the reply and I hope you have better luck than I'm having!