Scene Mode LITE - simple way to add scenes - footswitch value assignment. IDEASCALE

[ricksteruk]

Scene Mode Lite - footswitch value assignment.

 

http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Scene-Mode-Lite-footswitch-value-assignment/819032-23508

Having just programmed in Presets for 17 different pop rock cover band songs over the last few days, I have once or twice found a situation where the current system just can't be made to switch between the 3 or 4 sounds in the song easily and I will have to do a tiny tap dance.

 

But I've noticed that I only want to change 3 or 4 things at once - not every setting - and if I could only assign "on" or "off" values to a certain footswitch for a certain function it would all work basically as it does now.

 

So, rather than making a full scene mode where Helix has to remember and recall every single setting for every single block possibly causing switching latency....

 

Make a new mode where we can set a particular Footswitch to “scene modeâ€. When you try to assign a controller, or an effect block to the Footswitch there will be one parameter “value†- a bit like the way we get “min†and “max†when we assign controllers currently. When you press the footswitch it will send out that value. It could be "On" or "Bypass" for an FX block or a number for a parameter like mix. You should be able to assign many parameters to it - but 8 may actaully be enough.

 

I think Helix should still allow us to assign the other footswitches in the normal way - momentary or latching. Yes...It might be possible to make a mess of the bypass state of one fx block within a group by using some footswitches in scene mode and some in momentary or toggle (as can happen whilst you are building a preset and adding and assigning blocks to a multiple footswitch) but that’s ok! We can just then press one of our scene footswitches and it would sort it out.

 

I think this is a relatively easy way to add scene functionality to Helix without ruining the elegant UI we currently have!  - it's actually been rather enjoyable building the presets on Helix because it's just so user friendly  :D

[ricksteruk]

EDIT:  I just posted in another thread about one reason why this might help solve problems for people.

 

....

I am using my Helix mainly with my Hughes & Kettner Switchblade amp.  It has 128 Presets controlled by MIDI.

 

At the moment I am primarily using it in 4cm, so I'm getting the majority of my drive tones directly from the amp.  However, it is not currently possible to set up the Helix to switch channels on the amp in a useable way within a Helix preset. 

 

What I mean is that yes I can send MIDI PC messages to get the amp to change channel, but those buttons then effectively choose a "scene" on the amp.  They are single press buttons... you do not press the same button again to turn off that amp sound and switch back to the first.  You must press another button to send a MIDI PC to recall that amp setting.

 

This is of course at odds with the way Helix works to switch FX blocks off and on.  You cannot assign one button as "ON" and the next as "OFF"..  you must use one button as a toggle.   While this works fine (for the most part) - it really falls flat on it's backside when dealing with amps and MIDI PC.

.....

 

If we could simply set the Footswitches to send things like "ON", "BYPASS", "5kHz" or whatever was needed it would enable the Helix to work with MIDI controlled amps by enabling basic scenes on the Helix

[deadlocked]

Hmm... I just thought about it after reading your post ricksteruk, but... Does anybody know whether we can feed the midi OUT of the Helix back to its midi IN (i.e. with a short midi cable) and then assign any sequence we want to each FS from the command center? that way we have up to 8 commands that we can send from each FS and they can be any midi command that the Helix will accept (effects on/off, change parameters, etc). So we can then turn on/off up to 8 effects at once, switch amps on the fly and even change parameters such as Amp "mid" control for a quick lead boost for instance?

 

If a short midi cable does not work, maybe put a dummy "midi breakout box" of some sort to just forward the output back to the input? Sorry in advance if I am not being clear enough, I have very little knowledge of midi in general, but I think this should be possible with the functionality that we already have.

[ricksteruk]

Hmm... I just thought about it after reading your post ricksteruk, but... Does anybody know whether we can feed the midi OUT of the Helix back to its midi IN (i.e. with a short midi cable) and then assign any sequence we want to each FS from the command center? that way we have up to 8 commands that we can send from each FS and they can be any midi command that the Helix will accept (effects on/off, change parameters, etc). So we can then turn on/off up to 8 effects at once, switch amps on the fly and even change parameters such as Amp "mid" control for a quick lead boost for instance?

 

If a short midi cable does not work, maybe put a dummy "midi breakout box" of some sort to just forward the output back to the input? Sorry in advance if I am not being clear enough, I have very little knowledge of midi in general, but I think this should be possible with the functionality that we already have.

 

That idea might work pretty well - but we can only assign 1 MIDI message to a STOMP footswitch unfortunately.  When recalling a preset Helix can send up to multiple messages.  "Instant" messages they are called - it looks like 6 from my command centre, but I thought it I remembered hearing you could send 8 as well.

 

EDIT - if you had some clever outboard midi box that you could send one message to from Helix and then it would send back a stream of multiple messages that would work - but personally I just want to carry (and program) things in to the Helix.  I got Helix to reduce the number of boxes I have to set up each gig.

 

EDIT EDIT - of course maybe it was worth mentioning right at the beginning - but Preset mode is no use if you are worried about the preset change latency and / or want to be able to do big effect delay/reverb spillover from one sound to the next.  If the lack of splill-over and the latency does not bother you then you could just use preset mode all the time and never stomp mode.