Helix editor?! When?! Now

[pv5150man]

When is the software editor being released?!?

[Elkinz]

No confirmed date, but hopefully soon as it was expected within a couple of months from release date.

 

its so easy to patch things directly on the helix, so we should be able to survive quite comfortably till then :)

 

I just want it so I can click things fast ahaha

 

[duncann]

No confirmed date, but hopefully soon as it was expected within a couple of months from release date.

 

its so easy to patch things directly on the helix, so we should be able to survive quite comfortably till then :)

 

I just want it so I can click things fast ahaha

 

 

 

I think saying comfortably is going too far. The absence of an editor is murdering parts of body!

[ofp2079]

The interface on the Helix unit is very well designed and good looking,

but I can't help thinking we don't know how the joystick will cope in time with frequent manipulations.

So I'll feel much more confident when the Editor is out. 

I hope it will match the price tag, of the Helix, I mean that it should be as well designed and good looking !

For instance I really liked the Avid Eleven Rack Editor with the pics of real pedals, just as Positive Grid and others have been doing for some time now.

Cheers

[phil_m]

The interface on the Helix unit is very well designed and good looking,

but I can't help thinking we don't know how the joystick will cope in time with frequent manipulations.

So I'll feel much more confident when the Editor is out. 

I hope it will match the price tag, of the Helix, I mean that it should be as well designed and good looking !

For instance I really liked the Avid Eleven Rack Editor with the pics of real pedals, just as Positive Grid and others have been doing for some time now.

Cheers

 

The editor will look pretty much exactly like the Helix's screen. It will use the same icons as the screen uses now. Line 6 is trying to make the whole workflow as seamless as possible and stick to a WYSIWYG implementation. The editor isn't going to reveal anything that can't be done on the Helix itself.

[BigRalphN]

The editor will look pretty much exactly like the Helix's screen. It will use the same icons as the screen uses now. Line 6 is trying to make the whole workflow as seamless as possible and stick to a WYSIWYG implementation. The editor isn't going to reveal anything that can't be done on the Helix itself.

Though no one is going to believe you until it actually is released.😀

[ofp2079]

The editor will look pretty much exactly like the Helix's screen. It will use the same icons as the screen uses now. Line 6 is trying to make the whole workflow as seamless as possible and stick to a WYSIWYG implementation. The editor isn't going to reveal anything that can't be done on the Helix itself.

 

Thanks for the info Phil.

By curiosity, and since it is the title of the topic, is the first release something we can expect in 1 month, 3 months, more ? 

Regards

[PeterHamm]

There were 2 or 3 things you could do on the HD 500 with the editor that you couldn't with the unit. at least not easily. I found that annoying.

But... for 90% of what I did with the HD 500, once I knew how to really use the unit's editing (which I didn't for a while... like 3 years... seriously...), it was easier on the unit.

The Helix is easier on screen to use than the HD 500's editor was on computer...

Honestly, all I need is a librarian and IR loader.

That said, yes, being able to use the computer would be fun because the computer can be in my lap.

[pv5150man]

I realize that the software editor will not be any different in many ways than the on board editor. With that said, it will be soooooooooo nice to leave the board on the floor and edit from a desk and chair etc. call me lazy, but I really got acustomed to the HD software editor. Convienience perhaps, but much more practical.

[Franky_beneteau]

There is a need for the editor to me.

 

I don't want to lie on the floor or stoop to edit. Putting the helix on a stand means no foot use age .

 

And the biggy I have sight problems and can zoom away to my hearts content on my large iMac monitor and use my feet to stomp etc.

 

But still ... No helix arrived for my order in the uk so it's all pretty much academic. Might look at the ax8 hmmm

[PeterHamm]

There is a need for the editor to me.

 

I don't want to lie on the floor or stoop to edit. Putting the helix on a stand means no foot use age .

 

And the biggy I have sight problems and can zoom away to my hearts content on my large iMac monitor and use my feet to stomp etc.

 

But still ... No helix arrived for my order in the uk so it's all pretty much academic. Might look at the ax8 hmmm

 

yeah, I hear ya. I edited tones a while yesterday and my back is killin' me...

[Digital_Igloo]

We're hoping to show Helix Edit at NAMM, so if any of you are in SoCal in late January...

[tjontheroad]

We're hoping to show Helix Edit at NAMM, so if any of you are in SoCal in late January...

 

I'd almost be willing to take a drive...

 

:D

[kronda]

We're hoping to show Helix Edit at NAMM, so if any of you are in SoCal in late January...

 

Oh well, it all sounded like it was round the corner... Time to bend my back and go back to tweaking. At least give us some new models to play with  ;)

[Digital_Igloo]

Time to bend my back and go back to tweaking.

Tweak with your feet!  :)

[archisc]

DI,

 

Is beta available?? Having the unit on a stand or table render the expression pedal useless.

[Roberttheprole]

Yea, tweaking with the feet just doesn't cut it! I truly feel the editor should have been ready for release! Among other things to numerous to mention at this point.

[phil_m]

Yea, tweaking with the feet just doesn't cut it! I truly feel the editor should have been ready for release! Among other things to numerous to mention at this point.

 

So given the choice of having the Helix earlier or delaying the release to wait for an editor, you would have voted to delay the release? I would rather have the Helix in hand, myself.

 

Typically, this is how Line 6 releases have been. The product is pretty much always released several months prior to the editor. If the lack of an editor is a dealbreaker for people, than they should hold off on the purchase for now.

 

I don't think Line 6 views editors as being as "mission critical" as other companies might. They tend to make it so it's actually feasible/easy to use the devices without them.

[PeterHamm]

Not to mention that the editor will give you zero improvement in usability or ease of use (other than bending over and stuff) because it's just the exact same as the display on the helix. 

 

Yeah, I'm glad they didn't wait, too.

[Roberttheprole]

Well I guess you guys are right, perhaps all my complaining is based on my lack of experience with this kinda stuff, but am killing my back every time I sit down to edit this monster! All in all I am glad to have the helix, and now that I do will do everything I can to make it work, including the use of my patience reserves.

[amsdenj]

I'm thinking of developing a Helix Web app in JavaScript using the MEAN stack and deployed to the IBM Bluemix Cloud to upload, download, display, clone and edit Helix patches. I'd use AngularJS and Bootstrap so the app would run in a browser and support mobile devices too.

 

Anyone want to work on this/contribute?

[rzumwalt]

I'm thinking of developing a Helix Web app in JavaScript using the MEAN stack and deployed to the IBM Bluemix Cloud to upload, download, display, clone and edit Helix patches. I'd use AngularJS and Bootstrap so the app would run in a browser and support mobile devices too.

 

Anyone want to work on this/contribute?

 

If I had any idea what any of those things were, I would volunteer in a heartbeat. I look forward to hearing what develops.

[klangmaler]

I'm thinking of developing a Helix Web app in JavaScript using the MEAN stack and deployed to the IBM Bluemix Cloud to upload, download, display, clone and edit Helix patches. I'd use AngularJS and Bootstrap so the app would run in a browser and support mobile devices too.

 

Anyone want to work on this/contribute?

Hi, amsdenj - and a very good new year - to everybody!

I really appreciate your work and posts - man, Helix seems to be your thing, right? ;-)

Anyway, I think the Line6 crew should work on this. Your'e looking for a team working on a job THEY have do (that's my opinion!)! The editor belongs to this product - as Uber Guru said.

Furthermore, I'd like to stay offline with my gear as long as possible - and I prefer GUIs without any browser context etc...

Keep in mind - this is my point of view and no criticism at all!

[amsdenj]

Well, I looked into this a bit more, starting with using the iOS MIDI Designer Pro app to create a live, remote, touch based UI for Helix. You could create a similar UI with Apple MainStage. I created a Palm Pilot app for POD2.0 similar to this many years ago.

 

Since Helix is USB Class Compliant, it works fine as a MIDI hardware device for any CoreMIDI app in OS X or iOS, and it worked flawlessly with MIDI Designer Pro. You do have to connect with a USB cable (no Wifi or Bluetooth wireless connection to Helix), and have to use a Camera Connection Kit for iPad, but that's not really much of an issue, and the connection is reliable in any setting. 

 

But I discovered a few issues in creating the MIDI Designer Pro UI for Helix. 

 

There are very few default MIDI controllers setup for Helix patches. There are dedicated MIDI CC messages to emulate the expression pedals and footswitches, and to control the Looper. But unlike the older POD devices, there are no fixed, dedicated MIDI controllers for any blocks or parameters in a patch. 

 

As a result, unless there's some hidden Helix API that Line 6 hasn't yet announced or published, there is no reflective way to discover what's in a patch, and the MIDI controllers have to be created for each patch. This basically means the UI to control Helix live would have to be created for each patch.

 

I'm not sure that's all that practical or useful since it would take a lot of manual editing to setup the MIDI controllers for all the parameters of every block, and the UI would be different for every patch. I can think of a few work arounds that might help.  

1. Setting up the MIDI controllers could be done by manually editing the .hlx JSON files and copying and pasting the controller assignments from a template patch to each of the other patches. Of course the actual blocks and parameters will likely be different so this could require a lot of manual editing. But editing the JSON file is likely faster than doing the edits directly on Helix.
2. Develop a consistent patch template that uses a common pattern for blocks and block positions within a set of related patches. This would allow the same MIDI controllers to work consistently across patches and would let you use the same UI for many similar patches.
3. Export the patch from Helix and do the reflection and editing on the JSON file. Then Import the patch back into Helix - the is how the HD500 editor works. Its essentially batch, not live editing.

 

Another problem I ran into is that there doesn't appear to be any way to control block bypass from Pedal Edit Mode or MIDI CC message. I think this is an oversight and hopefully something Line 6 will address in a future update. But as a result, you can't toggle bypass mode on a block in pedal edit mode, and you can't toggle bypass on a block using a MIDI controller unless the block is assigned to a footswitch (where you use MIDI to emulate the footswitch, not to toggle the block bypass). So this was pretty limiting. I was hoping to use MIDI Designer to control bypass on blocks that don't have footswitch assignments (because I ran out of footswitches).

 

So this leads me to believe Helix is like the POD HD500, you can only create limited, MIDI controlled live editors for parameters, and they are patch specific. To create a rich UI editor, you have to use batch mode, and the editor has to be based on the .hlx JSON file. This is the idea I introduced above. Doing the Helix editor as a Web Service would have some advantages:

1. It would require nothing to be downloaded in order to edit Helix files
2. Should work for any browser or mobile devices
3. Could be used to browse patches of tones in the Cloud
4. Could upload and download through Helix making it easy to submit and audition shared patches.

This is similar to BIAS FX Tone Cloud. Unfortunately I have to go back to work Monday and will have limited time to put into this. But it would be a fun app to write and I think would be very useful. If anyone at Line 6 would like to discuss this in more detail, I'd be happy to contribute.

[klangmaler]

Hi, amsdenj - sorry for the repetition, but you couldn't have read my post above so quickly...

I really appreciate your work and posts - man, Helix seems to be your thing, right? ;-)

Anyway, I think the Line6 crew should work on this. Your'e looking for a team working on a job THEY have do (that's my opinion!)! The editor belongs to this product - as Uber Guru said.

Furthermore, I'd like to stay offline with my gear as long as possible - and I prefer GUIs without any browser context etc...

Keep in mind - this is my point of view and no criticism at all!

[Digital_Igloo]

There are very few default MIDI controllers setup for Helix patches. There are dedicated MIDI CC messages to emulate the expression pedals and footswitches, and to control the Looper. But unlike the older POD devices, there are no fixed, dedicated MIDI controllers for any blocks or parameters in a patch.

Correct, for the same reason that software plugins such as Reaktor or Omnisphere don't respond to dedicated CCs—far too many variables. If Helix had a fixed signal path (one amp, one delay, one reverb, etc.) with no more than 128 parameters total, traditional CC mapping would make perfect sense. Except each preset in Helix may potentially end up with upwards of a 1000 parameters, and they would all change from preset to preset!

 

One could argue that Helix should support some sort of robust System Exclusive architecture, and it certainly could, but that's way beyond the scope of 99.9% of guitarists. Some manufacturers like Roland support robust SysEx for every box they make, so a clever end user could build an editor themselves, but with Helix Edit around the corner, that's all but unnecessary IMO.

Another problem I ran into is that there doesn't appear to be any way to control block bypass from Pedal Edit Mode or MIDI CC message. I think this is an oversight and hopefully something Line 6 will address in a future update.

Currently, you can bypass individual blocks that are assigned to their own footswitch (via Footswitch emulation with CC48-58), but this isn't ideal. Individual block bypass—independent of footswitch assignment—is definitely on the list of things I'd love to see in Helix.

[amsdenj]

Currently, you can bypass individual blocks that are assigned to their own footswitch (via Footswitch emulation with CC48-58), but this isn't ideal. Individual block bypass—independent of footswitch assignment—is definitely on the list of things I'd love to see in Helix.

Yes, but if I had the effect bypass mapped to a footswitch, I wouldn't need MIDI control. This is for patches that have more independent effects functions then available footswitches. Bypass as an available Patch Edit Mode parameter would be another options, but MIDI control for bypass should be provided too.

 

"Helix Edit just around the corner"?!

[GadgetGuitar]

Are we going to get to see the Helix Editor at NAMM?

[PeterHamm]

Are we going to get to see the Helix Editor at NAMM?

 

They have said they are hoping to show it at NAMM. We'll all know for sure real soon.

[fukuri]

Tweak with your feet! :)

Apart from it hangs the unit on some of my patches (bug filed)

[Dshow]

They could at least release a bug fix for the Helix application in the meantime so that we can do backups safely.

[PiFromBRC]

I was at Mission Engineering's HQ yesterday picking up one of my expression pedals.  They have their FRFR display set up with Kemper and Fractal, but...and I actually laughed out loud when they told me this...they haven't received their Helix yet.

 

I absolutely *need* a PC-based editor.  I've been futzing around on the MIDI controlling external pedalboard thing for two days now.  My back is frikkin' tweaked as hell right now.  The POD HD Editor allowed MIDI commands from the PC to be migrated in to the HD.  I expect that the Helix Editor would also have capacity for managing different sends and receives as well.

[gtrman100]

They could at least release a bug fix for the Helix application in the meantime so that we can do backups safely.

I have no problem backing up and restoring with the Helix app. Could it be your computer OS?

[duncann]

I absolutely *need* a PC-based editor.  I've been futzing around on the MIDI controlling external pedalboard thing for two days now.  My back is frikkin' tweaked as hell right now.  The POD HD Editor allowed MIDI commands from the PC to be migrated in to the HD.  I expect that the Helix Editor would also have capacity for managing different sends and receives as well.

 

You're not alone in having a twisted back, and shoulder.

 

Let's hope the editor is a little more than what they've been saying so far. Which is basically, it's the same as the unit itself. There's so much more that could be done with the editor than just duplicating Helix on a computer screen. I believe strongly that they should take advantage of that. Hopefully it remains a priority beyond the initial release.

[PeterHamm]

You're not alone in having a twisted back, and shoulder.

 

Let's hope the editor is a little more than what they've been saying so far. Which is basically, it's the same as the unit itself. There's so much more that could be done with the editor than just duplicating Helix on a computer screen. I believe strongly that they should take advantage of that. Hopefully it remains a priority beyond the initial release.

 

I have heard hints from one of the guys at L6 that what you are hoping for may indeed be the case! In any case, with the rack it's easy to set up a workstation for editing patches, right at seated height with the foot pedals still on the floor, but once the editor comes along, that advantage won't exist for me anymore.

[Dshow]

I have no problem backing up and restoring with the Helix app. Could it be your computer OS?

I have no idea. I'm on Windows 10

[PeterHamm]

I have no idea. I'm on Windows 10

 

Have you banished all USB hubs from your system?

[Dshow]

Have you banished all USB hubs from your system?

I'm on a laptop and have no additional USB hubs attached. There is a thread where other poeple had problems with importing setlists and bundles. I think it is a bug in the software. Never had any problems with USB. Also HD500 always worked without problems.

[archisc]

I can't wait until I can place it on the floor instead on a table.. I can't use the pedal right now...

[blenn72]

Any more updates on when the editor will be available?