Really need Synth Strings ala X3 Live....

[glideman]

I know there's an old thread, and there's a few requests on IdeaScale, but I really really really need Line 6 to build a Synth Strings effect like we had on X3 Live.

 

Would be great for when I'm playing on Sundays, and probably even for the bar band...

 

Oh well... Anyone else still Jonesin' for this?

[Joepeggio]

+1

[WickedFinger]

Before I got the Helix I had a EHX Mel9, highly recommended for strings and cello stuff, very, very cool. You have to split it out to get  the best tones. I run dual rigs so not a problem for me. I was running through the theme of Game of Thrones last week as that is a real head turner. Using the Cello and a loop of the faster repeating theme riff, it sounded so amazing my wife came up into the studio room to comment and she almost never gets moved to do that. I plan on splitting off the Mel9 outside the Helix as I like using an ABY on it so I can mute it out completely when I want no signal pass coming from it when off. Marvelous unit really. You do not want to try running this in your chain, if you plumb it right the tones are amazing. But for strings, cello, orchestral stuff and whatnot the Mel9 (Mellotron mimic) is a real winner.

[bsd512]

... for strings, cello, orchestral stuff and whatnot the Mel9 (Mellotron mimic) is a real winner.

 

Made me go look (and listen).  That's going on my WANT list. :)

 

Choir?  From a guitar?  No way ... but there it is.  That thing sounds great.

[PeterHamm]

I got a Mel9 to add to Helix. Awesome. POG 2, too. Only two pedals I'm using currently.

[glideman]

I pilfered an Electro-Harmonix MEL9 off Evilbay... Will be here next week.

If they add synth strings one day, it may or may not go bye bye.  

 

Thanks to everyone that replied!

[WickedFinger]

I had not been a fan of EHX for some time but the newer line of their keyboard mimic pedals are pretty damn awesome.

I like having that ambient background under my main tones and the Mel9 is a very nice compact package for strings, orchestral strings, brass, and my fav Cello or even that Flute Strawberry Fields thing. Really does get that quirky Mellotron coolness from that weird tape machine keyboard maintenance nightmare. You should know these are not pristine flawless tracking range renderings of these instruments but the Mellotron emotive of them, which in its own right it is bloody well cool to the bone. This is not a synth pedal but it is for sure just like the Mellotron without the maintenance nightmare. 

 

I am not sure how others use the Mel9 but for me I had to split it off into a separate rig line away from my main guitar tones. I cannot see how you would run this in a conventional chain as you do not want this going through your drives and what not.

Probably an inventive way to use the Helix to loop isolate it to different outputs but I have not gotten that far along w my programming savvy yet. 

 

Right now I run full wet to my EV rig and full dry to my guitar line. I use an ABY on the Mel9 so I can dead mute the dry/wet signal when I want nothing from it, else you get the clean guitar coming through when it is off which is not desirable for me.

If you plumb it right. it is a very cool pedal. I used to be a full on GR-55 synth player and all that but the rig just got to complicated with extensive programming on that puppy and having to use the Hex pickup thing which I did not like the fit on my new Les Paul's.

The Mel9 gives me back some string and cello tones that add to the ambiance of my tones. I can tell you, learn that main riff sequence of Game of Thrones, it sounds killer and everyone recognizes it. My wife trips when I play that, sounds exactly like the theme w Cellos.