fukuri Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 In terms of choice I have a good selection of modellers and FX (with the exception of a Kemper which was too geeky even for me) So in my quest over the years to replace my M13 (which was the most flexible useable multifx I'd ever had ) I have a TC G-System with a few drives looped in. Great device and great sounding reverbs delays and mods. Made of a single piece of sheet steel it weighs the same as a delorean I have any number of high end amps and a boutique G2 patched pedal board. I love the sound of it and the tweakability (and the ability to swap pedals out) but I can't deal with the lack of control via expression pedals. I'd need about 5 expression pedals to do what I needed to do with the M13 I have an FX 8 and an atomic amplifire As a two box solution this gets close. The amp modelling in the Atomic is really really nice in places , you can use custom IRs and split the signal to FOH via xlr and onstage via 1/4" The FX8 is a very capable multi-fx. It's also a religion though and Cliff help you if you dare to give any Fractal device anything other than glowing praise but it sounds ok. It's great at some things and average at others. The thing that kills it stone dead for me is the workflow. Without a laptop it's menu in menus in parameter in menu with a tiny screen and a small selection of controls. It's a bit like trying to wallpaper your house through the letterbox The laptop editor gets round that to an extent but I'm not about to start bringing a laptop to rehearsal (or live) just to edit a pedal Also it's not a stereo rig without a lot of faff and 4 cable method into the FX loop of the Atomic (which I can do as I'm using the fx loops for expression pedal (using some of the silliest wiring that is so complex even Atomix haven't got round to making a cable to allow you to use Expression pedals yet)) I discounted the Ax 8 because the single amp Model and dedicating a DSP to it seemed bonkers to me So to the Helix. Does it sound better than all the above devices Emmm No. If you take everything above on their individual strengths and pitch it against the Helix in some cases the reverbs are nicer on the FX8. The mods are nicer on the G-System, the drives are nicer on my pedal board and (some) of the amplifire Amp models are nicer (I'm looking at you 5150) The Atomic Bassman is also excellent Having said that the Helix is close enough that I don't care because the killer feature is the flexibility and simple workflow It's this that knocks everything else out the park. It's "overall" better than any of the above solutions for me. Compact, easy to wire, I can loop my favourite drive pedals in. I can run front of house and backline in any configuration I want. It takes 5 minutes to set up and break down and he amount of stuff I can fit on a scene is boggling I actually run out of footswitches before I run out of DSP So in summary I spend time niggling over things I can't do because I'm now pushing the envelope of what it possible. I've brought the Variax back into my Rig and now can use it live to do a bunch of stuff I stopped doing as I needed 5 guitars to pull it off But what Line 6 have achieved here is nothing short of staggering They took on the rest of the Market in a blind race and managed to get the correct balance between sound and use ability. The big question is always if it got stolen would I buy another one ? Absolutely I would! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glideman Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Good write-up! I got rid of an Axe FX II XL+ and a Kemper rack shortly after I dug into my Helix. I wanted an all in one floor board that was easy to program/edit/tweak. Much simpler live setup for me and I don't really have to sacrifice sound and playability moving to the Helix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 The FX8 is a very capable multi-fx. It's also a religion though and Cliff help you if you dare to give any Fractal device anything other than glowing praise but it sounds ok. Post of The Week! And it's only Wednesday....lmfao! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterHamm Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 The workflow and ease of use are significant reasons to go with Helix.I am lovin' the sounds, too, but the workflow and flexibility are off the chain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myalteregohamish Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Maybe one of the funniest posts I've seen written in the forum, really well written. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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