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First live use of Helix - XLR into FOH - Video Clip


FacemanJoe
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Hi all.

 

After two weeks of programming Helix I was finally able to put it to work at a gig yesterday.  The link is to a short compilation video on YouTube that shows the Helx in action. I ran XLR mono direct into FOH. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q--nO1IWvR8  I'm the player at center stage. 

 

Now, for me, the Helix not only offers killer tones; it also offers the ultimate solutions to a simple, fast setup along with an insane degree of real-world functionality that will make it indispensable to me in live situations. I walked into the gig with the Helix in a Gator case and my two guitars in a Mono gig bag. Prior to this, I would roll into a gig with a Shiva head, 112 cabinet, pedal board, two guitar cases and a bag of cables. Well, the Helix sounds so great that I've sold my analog rig. Yep, the Helix is that good and I can honestly say that I don't miss my old rig. 

 

My main tone was based on Glenn Delaune's "Joe Bonamassa" patch that uses the jumpered Plexi model. I tweaked the patch and added the wonderful "Teemah!" pedal and the results were just awesome. Tonally, the Helix is really amazing. There is not even a tiny hint or giveaway that the Helix is computer-based. After 30+ years of tone chasing and owning most brands of tubes amps at least once, I can honestly say that the tones from the Helix are as good, if not better, than what I was getting from my analog rigs - and I used to get some great tones from my rigs. With Helix, the tones are 100% authentic and will be more consistent from gig to gig. 

 

My fellow guitar player is still lugging his 212 Shiva cab and Shiva head, but his comments about the Helix lead me to believe that he will soon own one.

 

Thanks to all on the forum who shared knowledge as I was working with Helix for the first time. It was a great help and really allowed me to dial in some great tones that resulted in a great live sound. 

 

Joe

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Nice tones. The only difference between you and the other guitarist is there's no amp behind you.

I just got my Helix a few days ago. I'm thinking of getting Glenn Delaune's patches, but I'm not sure how to load them. Is it a simple copy and paste job with the editor?

He seems to have several that I'd like to play with.

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I appreciate all the feedback.

 

As for Glenn's patches, I used the Joe B and his Money For Nothing patches. The others I purchased are great too, but the Joe B patch just hit the spot with me.  The others are a bit different from the tone I prefer, but they are all great starting points for building your own tones, in large part because you get to see how Glenn builds his patches. For instance, his use of dual compressors in front of the Wah pedal in Money for Nothing patch is just amazing. Turn off the compressors and the great tone disappears. The man knows his way around the Helix.  I think I spent about $30 on his patches and the tones plus the knowledge they conveyed made them worth the price for me.

 

Joe

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I appreciate all the feedback.

 

As for Glenn's patches, I used the Joe B and his Money For Nothing patches. The others I purchased are great too, but the Joe B patch just hit the spot with me.  The others are a bit different from the tone I prefer, but they are all great starting points for building your own tones, in large part because you get to see how Glenn builds his patches. For instance, his use of dual compressors in front of the Wah pedal in Money for Nothing patch is just amazing. Turn off the compressors and the great tone disappears. The man knows his way around the Helix.  I think I spent about $30 on his patches and the tones plus the knowledge they conveyed made them worth the price for me.

 

Joe

 

One of the reasons Glen is so amazing is because he's so experienced with creating patches and mixing the sound. He tends to think way more like a sound engineer than a guitarist. And that gives him a huge advantage. Most guitarists don't really think about maximizing EQs in multiple parts of the chain or adding dual compressors before a filter. I love watching his videos of creating tones so that i can adopt some of his methods. And I constantly end up copying blocks from his patches into my own patches. One of the patches I learned the most from was his 3 channel amp patch and his organ patch. Such good use of modulation and controller assignment.

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