Helix Bug Reports

[prorenzo]

DAW does not recognize my HX stomp as an audio interface after the big windows update recently (about 3 days ago)

 

Please fix quickly! I need to be doing recording with it soon! 

[prorenzo]

I have reinstalled the HX stomp 2.81 drivers and reboot my computer, problem did not go away.

I am a bit puzzled as to how the line 6 helix drivers work. From what it looks like the updates are meant for the Helix unit itself, and not for the computer.

My issue now is currently that the 'HX Stomp Asio' does not appear under the list of of audio devices in both my DAWs. Would like to add that the HX stomp does appear on the windows control panel settings and I am able to use the HX stomp there but only for windows audio playback, not the DAW.

 

The only workaround I have is via Asio4all v2 where I am able to select the HX stomp within the DAW, but is this recommended?

 

Does anyone have the same issue after the major windows 10 update? 

 

Please issue a fix asap!

[flop54]

Hello I recorded this morning but i have to reload and reinstall the driver (I think it's the 1.91). But my helix's firmware is 1.71 (curently too afraid to do the update :) ). I will check my windows but I think it is up to date.

[prorenzo]

Just an update,

 

Problem is solved now. I reinstalled a few times the HX Stomp firmware to no avail, as I did not realize that it was actually the HX edit software that contained the drivers meant for Windows. 

 

Instead of only putting Bug Fixes and Known Issues on their download page for each software, line 6 should also put an overview of WHAT IT IS in the first place. It was misleading for me as they is no mention of drivers on the HX Edit installer, until you actually run the installer.

[amor4jc-2]

On 8/9/2019 at 7:42 AM, michalaase said:

 

Hi

Same thing here.

After updating Helix Floor from 2.71 to 2.81 some of my (user) Snapshots suddenly generates an error code: «The Helix device failed to recall snapshot data properly». Aftrer that, an issue with the switches - they does not change when I press them. Also - after some time trying several switches, snapshots etc. - Helix freezes and I have to shut down/startup to get it going.

Also had the level issue, but setting Global Settings > XLR Outputs to Line helped. - Which tells me that the 2.81 update did NOT load the old General Settings properly (from Backup).

Until they fix this, I'll have to downgrade to 2.71 and load my fresh 2.71 Backup file. Way to many of my Patches contains Snapshots that failed, and I don't want to spend several days regenerating them.

 

Also - saving Patches one-by-one (from 2.71) does NOT fix this problem !!

If Line6 are listening - the attached patch does NOT load properly in 2.81!!.

(Patch courtesy of Frank Perl - some modifications made by me)

Mesa Boogie JP2C.hlx

 

I'm staying on 2.71 until they fix these bugs.

[EchoDeep]

HX STOMP: I have a consistent, repeatable "bug" with my dual aux switch running tap tempo/tuner. It is set at FS4 for me. I'm using a Simple Switch NO dual switch with TRS cable. When you first power on the unit and use the tap tempo, on the second tap, FS3's light turns red and stays on unless you touch FS3 with your finger or push it down. I can repeat it over and over. Always on the second tap when setting the tap tempo when you first turn it on. After that it doesn't seem to ever do it again. I've talked to others who have the exact same thing happen, and it happens even with the DMC Micro running midi, so I know it's something to do with the Stomp software itself.

[bobbypilot1]

Firmware: 2.8.2 (Helix LT)
Global Settings: Bottom row snapshots, top row pedals 
Bug: when returning from the tuner the display always switches to the signal path view instead of what I used before (the -don't know what it's called- 8 blocks representing the actions of the footswitches)

[lgbbq]

Firmware: 2.8.2 (Helix LT)
Global Settings: Bottom row snapshots, top row pedals. Controlling impedance with snapshots
Bug: When switching between snapshots with different impedances, sometimes the helix reverts to auto impedance. It displays auto in brackets as if the snapshot selected it, and the sound matches auto impedance. Changing to a different preset and back usually restores the correct impedance. 

[Pstrat]

Sometimes when I use the heir apparent it has a pop sort of when i engage with a footswitch.  Sorry if this has been posted latest firmware 

[fremen]

Firmware : 2.82 (Helix Floor)

I'm unable to write any preset on memory 8A, 8B or 8C on user bank 3. I can rename them, but as soon as I try to overwrite them/modify them and save them, the screen goes dark. This is either with the editor or directly on the machine. Loading a setlist on that bank doesn't work either

[Fugit]

Try Doing 10-11 boot up (fs C+D) which rebuilds all presets, preserving the set lists, IRs, etc.

If that doesn't do it, try backing up, factory reset (fs 9+10 power up), then restore. Then Try again.

[fremen]

Thanks, that worked !

[Fugit]

On 10/14/2019 at 8:11 PM, fremen said:

Thanks, that worked !

Right on! Glad to hear it!

 

[SaschaFranck]

Elephant Mans note sync is wrong, you get twice as fast delays as what it says. So, instead of quarter notes, you're getting eight notes, etc.

[lrschmid]

On 7/19/2019 at 5:45 PM, lrschmid said:

Helix, hxedit and drivers all updated to 2.80. My laptop is set up for a left-hand mouse. When trying to re-position effects blocks in hxedit, or drag one down to split paths, the primary mouse button (the right one, in this case) is ignored. I can't drag effects blocks at all.

 

When using a right-hand orientation, works as expected.

 

Just bumping this, as it's still an issue in 2.82.

[phil_m]

1 minute ago, lrschmid said:

 

Just bumping this, as it's still an issue in 2.82.

 

Have you opened up a support ticket about this?

[SaschaFranck]

Got this a few minutes ago. HX Edit frozen in, Helix frozen in. Had to restart both.

[datacommando]

14 hours ago, SaschaFranck said:

Elephant Mans note sync is wrong, you get twice as fast delays as what it says. So, instead of quarter notes, you're getting eight notes, etc.

 

Hi Sascha,

 

Have a look at this thread from way back and see if you are experiencing the same “problem”.

 

It maybe just the limitation set by the model.

 

https://line6.com/support/topic/31876-250-elephant-man-delay-time-issue/

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

 

 

[SaschaFranck]

3 minutes ago, datacommando said:

 

Hi Sascha,

 

Have a look at this thread from way back and see if you are experiencing the same “problem”.

 

It maybe just the limitation set by the model.

 

https://line6.com/support/topic/31876-250-elephant-man-delay-time-issue/

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

 

 

 

Oh, ok, thanks! Doesn't make much sense to me to artificially limit a digital delay because of the analog role model, though.

[datacommando]

2 minutes ago, SaschaFranck said:

Helix frozen in. Had to restart both

 

Well, if your Helix freezes, simply restart - that would be normal for anything digital, because sometimes they just get stuck.

 

The “Failed to load preset” message could be due to a badly formatted preset or a simple glitch. Helix is a computer.

[SaschaFranck]

 

5 minutes ago, datacommando said:

 

Well, if your Helix freezes, simply restart - that would be normal for anything digital, because sometimes they just get stuck.

 

The “Failed to load preset” message could be due to a badly formatted preset or a simple glitch. Helix is a computer.

 

I know it is a computer. But none of the MFX units I owned (or still own) ever did that. And they're computers every bit as much.
And what is causing a "badly formatted preset"? I'd really prefer avoiding to create any of these...

[datacommando]

7 minutes ago, SaschaFranck said:

 

 

I know it is a computer. But none of the MFX units I owned (or still own) ever did that. And they're computers every bit as much.
And what is causing a "badly formatted preset"?

 

True, I also have lots of multi FX and digital outboard, but some computers/systems crash more or less often than others and who knows why? It’s the nature of the technology, I would guess. 

 

You have posted that your Helix suffered a random “Freeze” event. That’s not such a big issue and a restart should fix that. The time to worry is if your unit starts to freeze on a regular basis. If that happens it should be reported as a serious bug. You don’t want to have that happen during a gig. If it happens while editing then I would regard that as acceptable because you’re inside the units brain poking around with the zeros and ones.

 

As for what causes a “badly formatted preset”, your guess is as good as mine. There could be millions of reasons why. In the early days of computing there was an acronym “GIGO”.

 

[SaschaFranck]

Fwiw, managed to reload the patch straight on the Helix, resaved it, worked as well. Fired HX Edit back up, worked. Selected the patch - poof! And now I can't select it on the Helix anymore, either. Has been the patch I created for the first serious gig with the Helix tomorrow. Take a guess about how comfortable I feel right now...

[SaschaFranck]

Just now, datacommando said:

 

The time to worry is if your unit starts to freeze on a regular basis. If that happens it should be reported as a serious bug.

 

That would be now. At least when using the patch in question. I've spent quite some work on this very patch. At least I'd like to know what went wrong - but so far it seems I can't even access the patch in any way anymore.

[datacommando]

2 minutes ago, SaschaFranck said:

I can't even access the patch in any way anymore.

 

Another good rule in computing is: “always work on a copy” - you did make a backup, didn’t you?

 

[SaschaFranck]

Guilty as charged (and fwiw,  I'm absolutely a*** about anything related to computer backups) - but seriously, when you work on the unit itself, there's no way to really back up things. And you usually don't copy a patch before you add some stuff to it. That's just not the way you work on hardware units. In case I want to add a block, say, during soundcheck, I just want to do that. And I haven't even once in my life owned a piece of digital music equipment that didn't allow for this.

 

Fwiw, could pretty much be that the patch corruption was caused HX Edit. I have now been able to reload the patch (straight after a reboot, directly on the Helix), copied it to another setlist, then started HX Edit and overwrote the potentially offending patches with an empty one. Apparently I can now load the copied patch in HX Edit fine. Fingers crossed and all that...

[datacommando]

2 minutes ago, SaschaFranck said:

Fingers crossed and all that...

 

Good to know that you have found a work around for this situation and I hope you make safety copy on your computer using HX Edit.

 

Another piece of advice that is always appearing on these forums is “never update to a new software/operating system/firmware before a gig”. If you are taking your Helix out into the big wide world of live performance, then you need to be working with a tried and tested rig. Furthermore, it is advisable to have some sort of “fail safe” backup, like another Helix, or amp, cab and pedals. Remember, if it can go wrong - it will. 

 

Good luck.

[SaschaFranck]

11 minutes ago, datacommando said:

Another piece of advice that is always appearing on these forums is “never update to a new software/operating system/firmware before a gig”. If you are taking your Helix out into the big wide world of live performance, then you need to be working with a tried and tested rig. Furthermore, it is advisable to have some sort of “fail safe” backup, like another Helix, or amp, cab and pedals. Remember, if it can go wrong - it will. 

 

 

See, I'm not exactly new to all this (in fact, I'm with modeling and other digital things for around 3 decades by now), so I am pretty aware about how things can fail. And I always have a backup solution with me anyway (in this case an Amplifirebox and a Zoom G3, quite a nice backup rig, fwiw). But regarding “never update to a new software/operating system/firmware before a gig” - well, there must be a first gig for the Helix (unless I would never use it on any gigs...). And I didn't exactly update it, just used it.

 

Whatever, it seems to me that I may have to strip this very patch down a little. At least in path 1, I can only add a gain block, anything else is greyed out already. And it's close to that in path 2 as well.

[datacommando]

5 minutes ago, SaschaFranck said:

At least in path 1, I can only add a gain block, anything else is greyed out already. And it's close to that in path 2 as well.

 

I didn’t mean to preach and have no doubt that you are experienced using digital equipment. I understand that software and firmware need to be updated, but I wouldn’t want to use it in a live situation without fully testing it first, is what I meant..  

 

As for your problem patch, it look like you have found the issue - you have run out of DSP power! The clue is that greyed out items aren’t available to use. You may be able to free up some processor power if you swap any stereo blocks to the mono versions, that will help.

 

These toys are great, but it’s still possible to try and push them beyond the limits of their specifications.

[SaschaFranck]

2 minutes ago, datacommando said:

As for your problem patch, it look like you have found the issue - you have run out of DSP power! The clue is that greyed out items aren’t available to use. You may be able to free up some processor power if you swap any stereo blocks to the mono versions, that will help.

 

Fwiw #1: The patch is working fine as is (as long as it works). I just can't add anything anymore (at least not to path 1).

Fwiw #2: Everything I use is mono, as long as possible (unfortunately the legacy FX come without mono versions). I will never play stereo again live - at least not in a typical band context (been there, stereo, dual amps, wet/dry/wet, 90s rack stuff, the whole enchillada).

 

Talking about mono: I wish there was a globally valid mono switch on the output. I know there's the left/mono outs, but they don't help when you use headphones to work on your patches. And as soon as you add, say, a legacy verb at the end of the signal chain, well, it's stereo. Which is the reason why I have slapped my IR at the end of the signal chain in this patch. Fortunately I do believe in "one cab only" patches (even if I'm using dual amps), so the global mono thing may not become an issue too often.

[datacommando]

14 minutes ago, SaschaFranck said:

Talking about mono: I wish there was a globally valid mono switch on the output. I know there's the left/mono outs, but they don't help when you use headphones to work on your patches. 

 

Maybe this would work - if you have a spare block you could try this which uses very little DSP:

 

Mono Gain block at the end of the chain to collapse any stereo paths.

 

[SaschaFranck]

Yeah well, that's why I slapped the IR block into the last slot. I need that anyway and I don't mind everything to run through it.

[HonestOpinion]

On 10/17/2019 at 6:03 AM, SaschaFranck said:

Fwiw, managed to reload the patch straight on the Helix, resaved it, worked as well. Fired HX Edit back up, worked. Selected the patch - poof! And now I can't select it on the Helix anymore, either. Has been the patch I created for the first serious gig with the Helix tomorrow. Take a guess about how comfortable I feel right now...

 

Have you done a global reset since updating your Helix? It seems that so many of the instances with specific presets causing problems and sometimes even more generalized issues with the unit locking up can be traced back to users who have not done this "Optional" step. Could be mere coincidence but if it is, that is one frequently occurring coincidence. My first piece of advice to anyone who experiences these issues would be to take backups and do a global reset and then restore your setlists, restart your device afterwards to allow them to rebuild before editing anything. An added bonus for the global reset is that if you uncheck the Factory and Template setlists when you restore your User setlists you will have the latest and greatest factory presets after your restore. Can't say for sure but I know that as of many revisions ago I resolved to do a global reset every time I upgraded the firmware and editor, whether or not Line6 documents it as optional.

[SaschaFranck]

16 minutes ago, HonestOpinion said:

 

Have you done a global reset since updating your Helix? It seems that so many of the instances with specific presets causing problems and sometimes even more generalized issues with the unit locking up can be traced back to users who have not done this "Optional" step. Could be mere coincidence but if it is that is one frequently occurring coincidence. My first piece of advice to anyone who experiences these issues would be to take backups and do a global reset and then restore your setlists, restart your device afterwards to allow them to rebuild before editing anything. An added bonus for the global reset is that if you uncheck the Factory and Template setlists when you restore your User setlists you will have the latest and greatest factory presets after your restore. Can't say for sure but I know that as of many revisions ago I resolved to do a global reset every time I upgraded the firmware and editor, whether or not Line6 documents it as optional.

 

Got my Helix with 2.82 installed and the first thing I did was a total reset, so I got that potential issue covered.

[SaschaFranck]

Fwiw, the patch is now working just fine. You can have a look at it, if you want, it's a tad complexed, I'd say (there's even some informational bits and an IR I "shot" myself in the zip):

http://www.saschafranck.de/Helix/Soulmates.zip

[garycapshaw]

Trying to update top HX Edit 2.82 on Mac with most up-to-date Catalina. I don't load the disk image. run it and get and error "“HX Edit.pkg” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software." If this is a known problem, I can't find it in the forum. In any case, I can't update.

[SaschaFranck]

3 hours ago, garycapshaw said:

Trying to update top HX Edit 2.82 on Mac with most up-to-date Catalina. I don't load the disk image. run it and get and error "“HX Edit.pkg” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software." If this is a known problem, I can't find it in the forum. In any case, I can't update.

 

Pretty much everybody right now is advising not to update to Catalina yet. Go back to Mojave for the time being.

[HonestOpinion]

1 hour ago, SaschaFranck said:

 

Pretty much everybody right now is advising not to update to Catalina yet. Go back to Mojave for the time being.

 

Not an Apple user but here is the Line6 post regarding Catalina compatibility:

 

Scroll down for instructions in this post if you decide you want to override the warning and install anyway:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491

[SaschaFranck]

12 hours ago, HonestOpinion said:

 

Not an Apple user but here is the Line6 post regarding Catalina compatibility:

 

Scroll down for instructions in this post if you decide you want to override the warning and install anyway:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491

 

 

That is all fine, but seriously, right now, I fail to see any reason why anybody would upgrade to Catalina without being forced to. Half of the audio worlds programs are still not tested for reliability while on the other hand there's little (if anything) to gain.

Personally, I will stick with Apple as long as my machine (2010 Mac Pro) will be supported (probably for another 2-3 years) and then switch platforms. I will never use Catalina.

[PeterHamm]

8 minutes ago, SaschaFranck said:

 

 

That is all fine, but seriously, right now, I fail to see any reason why anybody would upgrade to Catalina without being forced to. Half of the audio worlds programs are still not tested for reliability while on the other hand there's little (if anything) to gain.

Personally, I will stick with Apple as long as my machine (2010 Mac Pro) will be supported (probably for another 2-3 years) and then switch platforms. I will never use Catalina.

 

Normally, I am not an "upgrade right away" guy, but I did with Catalina. It is a GREAT update, very stable, and for me, I'm using mostly apple products, including Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, iWork, etc. It is working just peachy. I "had to" upgrade as I was going to a new machine, but honestly, apart from some weird stuff from a few people, it seems like the last 3 MacOS updates have actually been really really solid.

And, fwiw, you will, if you follow your plan, get 11 or 12 YEARS out of that Mac Pro. Try that with a Windows machine. In my experience, that ain't happening.