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Helix Bug Reports


HonestOpinion
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Hi
Here are two bugs I saw in the last 48h. My Helix floor was bought new around September, it's under 2.82, I upgraded as soon as I got it.
The main particular common thing is that I let the Helix on the whole day in both cases (about 5-6 hours after using it, I tried to use it again) - before, until few days ago, I always turned it off when not used, on only when used.

Also in all cases, HX Edit was open and the Helix connected to the laptop running it.

 

1. Freeze in the looper: I'm in the looper display, I try to get out but it doesn't respond. None of the switches does. Playing guitar does work. In doubt I turn it off and on and it works again.
Unfortunately I didn't think about checking if the non-switch buttons were working but I did assume so because the unit was still processing sound correctly.

Also note that the laptop have some driver/device issues and sometime bluescreens and that day, it did bluescreen not long before I got locked in the looper display.


2. Suddenly, no more reverb: At lunch time today I recorded a video of me doing a guitar workout with the Helix, then I realized there was some issue with the recorded audio and decided to fix that at night be checking the audio setup. I did just that, started 1h ago. About 20 minutes ago I was using a custom preset and playing when suddenly the reverb went off. I do NOT mean that the reverb block was off, it was ON, but I could hear it suddenly not being there in the audio signal. To fix this one, I just reloaded the same preset and that fixed the issue.
The reverb block in this preset was Ganymede.

Both issues happened while manipulating the same preset but I don't think it's related?

 

I fear that in live situation these issues might appear (I will not be in live before next year so it's not an immediate problem).

Are these problems well known? I couldn't find similar reports so far. Unfortunately these look very hard to reproduce...

Firmware/Editor: Firmware 2.82; HX Edit 2.82
OS: Windows 10
Global Settings: Not sure what to point exactly

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1 hour ago, Klaim said:

2. Suddenly, no more reverb: At lunch time today I recorded a video of me doing a guitar workout with the Helix, then I realized there was some issue with the recorded audio and decided to fix that at night be checking the audio setup. I did just that, started 1h ago. About 20 minutes ago I was using a custom preset and playing when suddenly the reverb went off. I do NOT mean that the reverb block was off, it was ON, but I could hear it suddenly not being there in the audio signal. To fix this one, I just reloaded the same preset and that fixed the issue.
The reverb block in this preset was Ganymede.

 

This is a long-standing bug. If you stay on one preset for a long time, the reverb block(s) will stop working after a few hours. I don't know what the actual time is as I've never tried to measure it, but it seems like it's at least three hours.

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8 hours ago, phil_m said:

 

This is a long-standing bug. If you stay on one preset for a long time, the reverb block(s) will stop working after a few hours. I don't know what the actual time is as I've never tried to measure it, but it seems like it's at least three hours.

 

Thanks, at least knowing that one can easily avoid the issue in live context.

 

Do I understand correctly that this is not announced to be fixed in 2.90?

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12 hours ago, phil_m said:

 

This is a long-standing bug. If you stay on one preset for a long time, the reverb block(s) will stop working after a few hours. I don't know what the actual time is as I've never tried to measure it, but it seems like it's at least three hours.

I haven't noticed this one. I leave my Helix on for days at a time and no issues with reverbs not working. Maybe certain reverbs?

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3 hours ago, Klaim said:

 

Thanks, at least knowing that one can easily avoid the issue in live context.

 

Do I understand correctly that this is not announced to be fixed in 2.90?

 

I’m not sure. I haven’t run into in the beta for 2.9 that I can remember, but I haven’t really been explicitly looking for it.

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10 minutes ago, jbuhajla said:

I haven't noticed this one. I leave my Helix on for days at a time and no issues with reverbs not working. Maybe certain reverbs?

 

It may be. I think it’s a particularly elusive bug, so that may explain why they haven’t killed it yet.

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Excuse me for the OT post, but sorry, leaving any kind of electronic device on for days is possibly as bad as it gets in terms of environmental caretaking. Things such as that really don't go well with me at all. Call me an old hippie (I sort of am), but you don't even have to be an old hippie to understand how bad this is.

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2 hours ago, SaschaFranck said:

Excuse me for the OT post, but sorry, leaving any kind of electronic device on for days is possibly as bad as it gets in terms of environmental caretaking. Things such as that really don't go well with me at all. Call me an old hippie (I sort of am), but you don't even have to be an old hippie to understand how bad this is.

 

That can be challenged:

I've worked on console games and it is indeed difficult to make a software that doesn't crash after 48h (it's even harder when it's not on console and not games). But it is possible as it is a hard requirement on consoles.

However, the requirements are not the same than for a musician's tool which is not running on a laptop. For things that are basically live performance hardware, one would expect to be able to spend a full day with the thing on, or at least a big bunch of hours.
(I have a looper pedal that have some random issues like that too, I can't use it for live because of that)
 

And in my specific case, both issues happened after a few hours (less than 5), not after days.

 

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12 hours ago, Klaim said:

 

That can be challenged:

I've worked on console games and it is indeed difficult to make a software that doesn't crash after 48h (it's even harder when it's not on console and not games). But it is possible as it is a hard requirement on consoles.

 

See, I wasn't talking about a testing environment. In any such environment, longtime stress tests are required. But there's no need for a normal user to keep a device such as the Helix switched on for days. It's just a stupid waste of energy.

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1 hour ago, SaschaFranck said:

 

See, I wasn't talking about a testing environment. In any such environment, longtime stress tests are required. But there's no need for a normal user to keep a device such as the Helix switched on for days. It's just a stupid waste of energy.

In many studios, they leave their gear on 24/7, because they know that most failures occur on power up and power down.

At home, generally, it's a good idea to turn stuff on, but Helix is not sucking down that much electricity.

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2 hours ago, PeterHamm said:

In many studios, they leave their gear on 24/7, because they know that most failures occur on power up and power down.

 

Well, that's knowledge from the past, when dealing with plenty of analog devices. Digital devices (and most modern analog devices, too) don't suffer from turning them on and off.

 

Quote

At home, generally, it's a good idea to turn stuff on, but Helix is not sucking down that much electricity.

 

Ok, when do you start to consider something as being "that much"? As a rough estimation: When all of Germany would turn their TVs off instead of having them on standby, the yearly savings would be around a small towns overall electricity consumption. The Helix should consume much more than a TV on standby.

Apart from that, everything saved is something saved.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi. Just wanted to report that MIDI CLOCK IN on HX Stomp on latest version (2.82) is not working. When MIDI CLOCK Rx set up as MIDI or USB, it doesn't get the clock from USB, and Stomp freezes (it needs to be completely restard after) when MIDI CLOCK comes from MIDI. For usb tests I tried to send MIDI CLOCK from my Ipad Pro, and for usual MIDI I have tried to send from Novation Circuit. MIDI THRU from Circuit to ipad works without any problem.

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22 minutes ago, ildus said:

Hi. Just wanted to report that MIDI CLOCK IN on HX Stomp on latest version (2.82) is not working. When MIDI CLOCK Rx set up as MIDI or USB, it doesn't get the clock from USB, and Stomp freezes (it needs to be completely restard after) when MIDI CLOCK comes from MIDI. For usb tests I tried to send MIDI CLOCK from my Ipad Pro, and for usual MIDI I have tried to send from Novation Circuit. MIDI THRU from Circuit to ipad works without any problem.


Make sure you have MIDI clock TX turned off on the Stomp if you have it set up to receive MIDI clock over USB. It’s easy to get a MIDI feedback loop with MIDI over USB.

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7 hours ago, phil_m said:


Make sure you have MIDI clock TX turned off on the Stomp if you have it set up to receive MIDI clock over USB. It’s easy to get a MIDI feedback loop with MIDI over USB.

 

Yes, of course it was it turned off. Just to make sure I just turned off everything but MIDI Clock Rx. Stomp still freezes.

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Hi,

HELP!!!! - yesterday i use my helix lt and everything was ok. Today when i start helix lt i lost my presets from user 4. When i try restore backup - i see this:

 

ERROR OCCURED DURING THE RESTORE

DEVICE HAS NOT BEEN INITIALIZED PROPERLY, (CODE - 8201)

DO YOU WANT RETRY?

 

Every time when i turn on my helix lt is rebuilding presets. 

 

All presets form user 3 replaced on user 4, when i try to use any presets from user 4 i see this: Failed to get preset names. Device has not been properly. code-8201

 

Please help…..

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Hello, new to the Helix/HX family. Love the tones. But.. My Stomp constantly freezes, sound still comes through but can't change any parameters, use the tuner or anything. Did it prior to upgrading to 2.82 which loaded successfully. Is this a normal thing with bugs or is it a dud that I should send back to Sweetwater for another? Before the freezes, I love the tones I am getting. Just frustrating I can't complete making my patches. Thank you. 

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5 hours ago, pavelo01 said:

Hi,

HELP!!!! - yesterday i use my helix lt and everything was ok. Today when i start helix lt i lost my presets from user 4. When i try restore backup - i see this:

 

ERROR OCCURED DURING THE RESTORE

DEVICE HAS NOT BEEN INITIALIZED PROPERLY, (CODE - 8201)

DO YOU WANT RETRY?

 

Every time when i turn on my helix lt is rebuilding presets. 

 

All presets form user 3 replaced on user 4, when i try to use any presets from user 4 i see this: Failed to get preset names. Device has not been properly. code-8201

 

Please help…..

 

Hi,

 

This has come up on several occasions and if I recall correctly, your CODE - 8201 is a badly formatted preset error.

 

Try this:

Reboot your Helix while holding down footswitches 10 & 11 which should rebuild your presets and update them to the latest firmware spec.

 

Note: if this doesn’t fix it, then you need to supply more info. What you gave here is not much use! You know we need important stuff like: what hardware, what computer, what OS , what firmware, etc. It’s a big help.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense

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1 hour ago, AlaZen said:

Hello, new to the Helix/HX family. Love the tones. But.. My Stomp constantly freezes, sound still comes through but can't change any parameters, use the tuner or anything. Did it prior to upgrading to 2.82 which loaded successfully. Is this a normal thing with bugs or is it a dud that I should send back to Sweetwater for another? Before the freezes, I love the tones I am getting. Just frustrating I can't complete making my patches. Thank you. 

I would back up my stuff if I need it, then I'd re-install the latest firmware, and then do a full reset and then load stuff back in. It very often makes all that go away.

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4 minutes ago, PeterHamm said:

I would back up my stuff if I need it, then I'd re-install the latest firmware, and then do a full reset and then load stuff back in. It very often makes all that go away.

Thanks Peter, I have only had it week. Nothing programmed really as of yet. But I have re-installed the latest firmware twice now and still freezes. Now prior to installing, when I received it, it was freezing straight from the box. So I am kinda thinking it may be just a bad one from the factory. I opened a support ticket a couple days ago, waiting to hear back what they suggest. Now, saying this. For the little time I had dialing in some tones. I am blown away by this sucker in sounds. Thanks again. 

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On 12/8/2019 at 1:29 AM, reginaldStjohn said:

Having corrupted presets here. Using Helix Edit 2.82 and matching firmware form my helix floor. I had some presets be corrupted. Names all weird. I can't do anything with them. So I exported the setlist and tried to re-import it. It seemed to import fine but then bigger blocks of presets are now corrupted.  I am going to try to do  global reset but I am afraid my saved presets might be corrupted as well.  

 

Now when I load a setlist it stops with my Helix and the Helix screen goes blank. I have to restart it and it rebuilds presets.1418198790_HelixCorruptPresets.thumb.png.0f6d91c84aa7872d6f732544793c6569.png

 

I have noticed others in the forum with similar issues. Has Line 6 had a trouble/bug report logged for something like this?

 

 

 

 

Helix Corrupt Presets.png

 

Hi, I hope this post of mine can be helpful to you:

 

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6 hours ago, datacommando said:

 

Hi,

 

This has come up on several occasions and if I recall correctly, your CODE - 8201 is a badly formatted preset error.

 

Try this:

Reboot your Helix while holding down footswitches 10 & 11 which should rebuild your presets and update them to the latest firmware spec.

 

Note: if this doesn’t fix it, then you need to supply more info. What you gave here is not much use! You know we need important stuff like: what hardware, what computer, what OS , what firmware, etc. It’s a big help.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense

Thank You. I reset my helix lt to factory settings, once again upload firmware 2.82 and use presets from my back up. Now I can play

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On 4/15/2020 at 10:46 AM, AlaZen said:

Hello, new to the Helix/HX family. Love the tones. But.. My Stomp constantly freezes, sound still comes through but can't change any parameters, use the tuner or anything. Did it prior to upgrading to 2.82 which loaded successfully. Is this a normal thing with bugs or is it a dud that I should send back to Sweetwater for another? Before the freezes, I love the tones I am getting. Just frustrating I can't complete making my patches. Thank you. 

Update.. Line 6 Customer Support is great. Unfortunately luck of the draw, it happens. It's determined I got a dud. No worries..

 

Sweetwater is overnighting me a replacement. Excellent customer service from both companies. Should be rocking all weekend. Thank you Line 6 and Sweetwater. 

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Hey there  - just installed 2.90 - I tried to change one of the snapshots in a preset. Helix would not select - showing a yellow warning message in HX edit. I had this problem in an earlier version already - the solution was to to save the preset while the error message in HX Edit was shown. This actually worked in this case also - but only after the machine had a total freeze twice! So maybe be a little careful and check all your presets before your next (online)-Gig.

 

Also the copy/paste function by touch-holding the buttons for snapshots  does not work !

 

All the best Alex

 

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This relates to the JTV Variax. There was an issue like this before but seems to be diffferent since the 2.90 update. Here's what it is now. I created 11 new presets, each with the Variax's tone knob at 10, 9, 8, 7, etc. When I go from one patch with the tone knob at one setting to different patch with a different setting, the tone knob's position remains the same as the previous patches tone setting. For example if I go from a patch with the tone knob at 10 to patch with the tone knob at 1, it stays on 10. HOWEVER, if I select the patch with the tone knob at 1 again it then will switch the Variax to the saved tone knob position. If the tone knob is saved as Don't force it goes to whatever position the tone knob on the guitar is. So that does seem to work. This same type of thing appeared to be happening with the Volume knob before as well but seems to be corrected. So, for now, if I have a saved tone knob setting, I have to hit the patch switch TWICE for it to actually switch the tone knob setting on my JTV Variax to the saved setting..

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Hi, im getting a strange error. I update to 2.9 and when i hit in one of my presets it simply stuck on factory presets. The factory presets change all right, and in the stomp i can see my presets with all my block in there, but i can't see them in hx edit. Thanks!

Captura de Pantalla 2020-04-21 a la(s) 18.39.15.png

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1 hour ago, santillorente said:

Hi, im getting a strange error. I update to 2.9 and when i hit in one of my presets it simply stuck on factory presets. The factory presets change all right, and in the stomp i can see my presets with all my block in there, but i can't see them in hx edit. Thanks!

Captura de Pantalla 2020-04-21 a la(s) 18.39.15.png

Did you update HX Edit?

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Hi guys, i have Helix LT, when i use an empty preset all works fine and smooth, but when i use an existing preset all works slowly and with a lot of retard using the tuner, the meters, traveling into the menus... I dont know if its a bug or something, but i dont know how to fix that because its so hard to work like that. Using the tuner is crazy, it needs like 2 or 3 seconds to show the note that you played (applicable to the meters too)

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4 hours ago, SaschaFranck said:

Uhm, it's correct. Tap Tempo is COMPLETELY broken with 2.9, regardless of which delay I try with. That is downright horrible! How could this be overlooked?

 

It seems to be working correctly for me on several different delay blocks on the Helix in both 'Transparent' and 'Authentic' modes. Haven't tested all the delay blocks yet. What is your global settings 'MIDI/Tempo' --> 'Tempo Select' set to? Mine is set to 'Per Preset'.

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3 hours ago, SaschaFranck said:

Uhm, it's correct. Tap Tempo is COMPLETELY broken with 2.9, regardless of which delay I try with. That is downright horrible! How could this be overlooked?

In another topic, someone said it's bugged on authentic/accurate mode, but not on transparent.

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The update appears to have broken something.  The unit is outputting to my Headrush FR 112 at a barely perceptible volume now.  The volume controls do nothing.  I can’t restore a backup to 2.82, getting error code -8212 when I attempt to do so.  I have no idea what to do and have tried disconnecting and reconnecting everything.  The unit seems to be outputting fine via USB.  But I can’t get it to go through the headrush all of a sudden and I can’t even restore my backup from an hour ago to see if that’s the issue...

 

edit: power cycling the unit several times has helped the output issue but it’s still disconcerting I wasn’t able to restore from backup

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I'm seeing the tap tempo issue too, with both authentic and transparent delay times. Seems to affect any delay model and any division. I did a factory reset after upgrading my LT from 2.82 to 2.90. My tempo select setting is "per preset."

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4 hours ago, Alex_Schcs said:

Hi guys, i have Helix LT, when i use an empty preset all works fine and smooth, but when i use an existing preset all works slowly and with a lot of retard using the tuner, the meters, traveling into the menus... I dont know if its a bug or something, but i dont know how to fix that because its so hard to work like that. Using the tuner is crazy, it needs like 2 or 3 seconds to show the note that you played (applicable to the meters too)

 

The slowness you describe is not happening on my Helix. Might want to try reloading the 2.9 firmware.

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26 minutes ago, HonestOpinion said:

 

It seems to be working correctly for me on several delay blocks in both 'Transparent' and 'Authentic' modes. Haven't tested all the delay blocks yet. What is your global settings 'MIDI/Tempo' --> 'Tempo Select' set to? Mine is set to 'Per Preset'.

I confirm this. I have no tap tempo issues and have it "per preset".

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3 hours ago, HonestOpinion said:

 

It seems to be working correctly for me on several different delay blocks on the Helix in both 'Transparent' and 'Authentic' modes. Haven't tested all the delay blocks yet. What is your global settings 'MIDI/Tempo' --> 'Tempo Select' set to? Mine is set to 'Per Preset'.

 

Tried both (actually all three) options, no differences.

 

3 hours ago, molul said:

In another topic, someone said it's bugged on authentic/accurate mode, but not on transparent.

 

That was me. It's better in transparent mode but still fishy. In authentic mode it's defenitely broken (at 1/4 sync, delay tempo is always faster than the tapped tempo), in transparent mode things mostly seem to work but the average tempo calculation from the last for taps (which is what the Helix is doing) is not working properly all the time.

 

No idea why it would be working for some folks, given it's the same hardware we're dealing with. Perhaps it's any kind of random, unrelated setting affecting the tap tempo behaviour.

 

Whatever it might be, this needs an urgent fix.

 

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15 minutes ago, SaschaFranck said:

 

Tried both (actually all three) options, no differences.

 

 

That was me. It's better in transparent mode but still fishy. In authentic mode it's defenitely broken (at 1/4 sync, delay tempo is always faster than the tapped tempo), in transparent mode things mostly seem to work but the average tempo calculation from the last for taps (which is what the Helix is doing) is not working properly all the time.

 

No idea why it would be working for some folks, given it's the same hardware we're dealing with. Perhaps it's any kind of random, unrelated setting affecting the tap tempo behaviour.

 

Whatever it might be, this needs an urgent fix.

 

Try this: 

Global settings 'MIDI/Tempo' --> 'Tempo Select', set to 'Per Preset'.

 

Of course it has to be fixed, but at least it might be a workaround.

 

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