Helix patch backup, HELP!

[steveheroan]

Had Helix a while now, but I purchased it right after 1.06.5 came out. Back then I received the unit, then updated the firmware, THEN started playing. I have the patience of a saint, lol. The problem is that back then I didn't have to worry about backing anything up, UNTIL NOW, and I'm terrified that I'm going to do something wrong and lose all my hard work.

 

Today I did "export bundle" to a folder on my computer, then downloaded and installed all the newest software from Line 6 (1.10 firmware, 1.10 application, 1.78 driver (bug fix for Windows 7), 1.08 updater, and 1.11 application) per the instructions. I then did the "hold down footsitches 5&6 at power-on" thing, which evidently doesn't affect your current patches, setlists, or IR's. What does this procedure (the 5&6 footswitch thing) even do? After that, I (stupidly) proceeded to work on some patches for ergonomic reason (basically just moving some footswitches around and relabeling a few) and also reset my global eq to my liking. I assume at this point that the changes I just made were for nothing if I do the "hold down footswithes 7&8 at power-on" thing, in order to get the new factory presets that I don't have yet. Losing my most recent changes is not a huge deal, since I can easily redo them in a few minutes, but I'm terrified of not importing my bundle correctly. What is the procedure for this? Was export bundle even the right thing to do? How do you backup IR's? I did overwrite an existing bundle from when I first got the unit, cause I hadn't really created anything yet and was just curious as to what would happen, what the file name would be, etc., so I think I'm ok there. I just don't want to lose my patches that I have been tweaking for the past couple of months. Hope this all makes sense, and I'm so sorry to burden you tech-savvy gents with my meatheadedness. HELP!!!!   

[silverhead]

I find it better to export the 8 setlists individually rather than the entire bundle. That way I have more control after updating the firmware.

 

At this point if I were you I would do the following to end up with your previous user setlists/presets as well as the v1.10 factory setlists:

- backup (export) the v1.10 firmware factory setlists individually

- import your saved bundle from v1.06.5. This will restore your user setlists/presets

- individually import the v1.10 factory setlists

- individually export your user setlists.

 

Although the editor supports exporting IRs I don't see the value in this because the export does not include the important location/slot number information about the IR. This is the information you use to select an IR in a preset yet it's not part of the export. Hence the export operation gives you exactly what you already have - the individual wav file that you imported into Helix in the first place. Since Helix firmware contains no IRs the only ones you get are the ones you import. No point in having duplicate copies produce by the Helix export operation.

 

I back up all individual setlists prior to a performing a firmware update. After the update I restore the (potentially new/revised) factory setlists using FS7&8. Then I backup these version-specific factory setlists. Then I import/restore my individual User setlists. As I continue to work on my presets and setlists, I backup any setlist as frequently as I want to avoid potential loss of data.

 

...btw, holding down FS5&6 at startup restores the Global Settings to their factory defaults.

[steveheroan]

Holy info! Thanks a million. One fact that I failed to include was that while I've not listened to the "new" presets, in scanning the list I didn't see anything new. I assume this means that the "new" presets are just upgraded tweaks of the previous versions? My Helix did show "Firmware v 1.10" at startup so I assume it installed correctly. I just thought there would be some presets I hadn't seen before. If not, no biggie, I am not really using them anyway, I start my patches from scratch for the important stuff. I just like to play through the new stuff out of curiosity mostly. Either way, can't thank you enough for the help!