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Setting up foot switch use in my presets


daacrusher2001
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Hey guys, sorry for a boring question but I'm brand new to helix and still figuring things out.

 

I have a couple of nice presets created and want to be able to toggle some FX on and off. I'm using the Helix software for all of this....

 

When I assign an effect to a foot switch it doesn't seem to light up unless I lightly touch the switch and click the dial to accept the assignment. Is that the normal behavior or am I doing something wrong?

 

I was expecting to just select it the software and have it light up by the switch. It isn't happening that way.

 

I suspect I'm missing something...?

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Lightly touching the FS will select the assigned block on the screen.  If you touch the FS for 2 seconds it will let you assign that FS to whichever block is currently selected on the screen.  To assign additional blocks to the same FS, just use the joystick to select the block and touch the FS for 2 seconds again.

 

If you'd like to have one effect on and the other off and then have the FS toggle between the two, just assign the first one to the FS, use the joystick to select the second one, press BYPASS to turn that block off and then assign it to the FS as well.

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Lightly touching the FS will select the assigned block on the screen.  If you touch the FS for 2 seconds it will let you assign that FS to whichever block is currently selected on the screen.  To assign additional blocks to the same FS, just use the joystick to select the block and touch the FS for 2 seconds again.

 

If you'd like to have one effect on and the other off and then have the FS toggle between the two, just assign the first one to the FS, use the joystick to select the second one, press BYPASS to turn that block off and then assign it to the FS as well.

Thanks... so I always have to touch the FS to do the assignment? The software doesn't do it simply by selecting the FS? I'm ok with it, I thought I might be missing something

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Assigning a footswitch to control the on/off state of the FX is a separate action from actually using the footswitch to turn it on/off. If you assign the footswitch while the FX is in the off state (no light) it remains in the off state. A subsequent tap of the footswitch, or a click in the software on the power button of the FX (above and to the left of the icon) will turn theFX on.

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Assigning a footswitch to control the on/off state of the FX is a separate action from actually using the footswitch to turn it on/off. If you assign the footswitch while the FX is in the off state (no light) it remains in the off state. A subsequent tap of the footswitch, or a click in the software on the power button of the FX (above and to the left of the icon) will turn theFX on.

 

I may not be asking the right question...still getting used to the Helix, here's my scenario:

 

I set up a preset for a clean amp, then added in three pedals for dirt - two 808s and a Timmy. I assigned each pedal to FS 1,2,3 respectively. I did this using the Helix software. I was following a video on how to do this.

 

Once I set up and saved the configuration in the software, I selected the patch on the Helix with the footswitch. When I clicked FS 6 I thought it would put me in stomp mode where I'd see the three FS assignments and be able to turn them on and off as required.

 

I could not do that until I selected each block, touched the FS for 2 seconds, and clicked ok to assign it. Is that the normal behavior? It seems like the software should configure the Helix without me having to touch the FS.

 

The video I was watching, which was very good, btw - didn't mention touching the FS - it looked like it was all configured in the SW. He was building the preset from scratch and never once mentioned touching the FS.

 

Thanks for your patience - this is a new world to me.

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.... When I clicked FS 6 I thought it would put me in stomp mode where I'd see the three FS assignments and be able to turn them on and off as required.

 

....

OK - now I understand.

 

Did FS 6 not put you in stomp mode? What exactly do you see when you hit FS6?

 

In general, you are right that this is not normal. You should be able to assign footswitches to FX blocks using either the editor or the device. You should not need to do both.

 

Are there any other anomalies in the behaviour of the editor on your system?

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OK - now I understand.

 

Did FS 6 not put you in stomp mode? What exactly do you see when you hit FS6?

 

In general, you are right that this is not normal. You should be able to assign footswitches to FX blocks using either the editor or the device. You should not need to do both.

 

Are there any other anomalies in the behaviour of the editor on your system?

 

If I configure a preset and select it, it works fine, but if I then hit FS6 all of the FS's are turned off - that is, nothing in the display by the footswitch at all and they are not lit up. If I select the block on the screen of the Helix, or even with the software, I can touch a swtich and assign it.

 

​I didn't think it was working correctly as it didn't make sense to me that I'd have to do both.

 

The software appears to be working fine - I'm using a Mac, and running the latest version of the Helix software. I'm actually quite pleased overall with the usability, but this one thing is driving me crazy 8^)

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That seems weird to me. You could try reinstalling the editor and then the device firmware if necessary. That will sometimes resolve strange issues like this. If that doesn't work and if it continues to bug you you could open a support ticket. But they'd probably just tell you to reinstall as described.

 

But perhaps it's something in the Mac environment that nobody else has noticed or reported yet. I'm on Windows so can't check it out.

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Unfortunately, I can't play around with it again until Friday - Traveling for work all week. I have a Surface also. I'll install the SW on this PC and see if that changes the behavior and report back on Friday or Saturday.

 

At least I am able to make it work with the extra step of touching the button. The guy that did the video didn't seem to be doing that, that's what prompted me to ask - well, that and intuitively I would have expected it to work differently.

 

Thanks, I'll drop back in later in the week with some additional info, maybe even some pictures.

 

One last question - when I click FS6 is there any indicator that I should see that says it's in stomp mode, or just the fact that the FS's light up ?

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There's no indicator that you're in Stomp mode other than the fact that the display shows what your Global Settings -> Footswitches - Stomp Mode setting is.

 

That's another thing that you have to consider here. There are different options for this setting. To test your issue make sure that this setting is set to '10 Stomps'. It's possible that your setting is something like '4Presets/4Stomps' with presets displayed in the top row of switches. In that case your assignment of FS 1 through 3 for your FX will not be visible even though it was made successfully in the editor - it is overwritten by the Preset display on FS2-5 and the Up/Down switch assignment on FS1 and 7.

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Doesn't matter where you assign stomps to footswitches—the hardware or the editor—as long as you save the preset, they'll be there. The only thing that would cause weird behavior like this is if you failed to reset Helix after updating to 2.0. Holding FS9 and 10 while booting MUST be done as part of the update process. If you don't remember performing this step, please update again and follow the instructions exactly.

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Doesn't matter where you assign stomps to footswitches—the hardware or the editor—as long as you save the preset, they'll be there. The only thing that would cause weird behavior like this is if you failed to reset Helix after updating to 2.0. Holding FS9 and 10 while booting MUST be done as part of the update process. If you don't remember performing this step, please update again and follow the instructions exactly.

OH, I definitely did not do this

 

I'll redo the update and comment back...thanks

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