Troll1337 Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Alright - I got my Helix unit home yesterday. And right off the bat I was amazed. I've been recording with an Avid Eleven Rack for the past 2 years, and I have never ever been really satisfied with my tone; something has always felt "lacking". I'm a big fan of metal music, and have always been striving for a grat tone for metal. However, my Eleven Rack never cut it for me, so I decided it was time for an upgrade. I had downloaded some free Impulse Responses ahead of time while waiting for my delivery. One I had my unit I quickly searched CustomTone for a highly rated metal preset and began experimenting. First off I only used the stock cabs, as I didn't want to be too hasty in writing them off. I thought they sounded really good. However, as I loaded in 2 Impulse Responses (2 * 1024) a whole other world opened before my eyes. WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Currently, my fingers are both itching and aching - I want to play more, but I need to rest my fingers a bit. Thank you Line 6 for this amazing product. I'm sure it's going to stay with me for a long time..... :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Currently, my fingers are both itching and aching - I want to play more, but I need to rest my fingers a bit. We should sue Line 6 for finger abuse, but that might get me more *finger (GOD I HATE SPELL CHECKERS) abuse of another kind... :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pb-272 Posted September 4, 2016 Share Posted September 4, 2016 Have a crack at the Fremen packs heavy tones....I'm loving the dual Engl and rectifier through custom IRs, seriously good heavy sound - crank up the gain, volume, and delay using a snapshot with a Wah, and you've got a patch that replicates more than ten grand of gear..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timster666 Posted September 4, 2016 Share Posted September 4, 2016 Have a crack at the Fremen packs heavy tones....I'm loving the dual Engl and rectifier through custom IRs, seriously good heavy sound - crank up the gain, volume, and delay using a snapshot with a Wah, and you've got a patch that replicates more than ten grand of gear..... I second this, I only use the Fremen pack now, and mostly play metal - so much better than the factory presets or any preset I could make myself. Go get it :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachdanan0121 Posted September 4, 2016 Share Posted September 4, 2016 I too came from an Eleven Rack. I haven't used much of my Metal focused guitars on the Helix Rack yet, due to where I am in recording my album. I have been mostly using my Tagliare (Dean Zelinsky). Its got 3 single coils and is my guitar that covers anything that I would need a Strat for. Bell like tones, some David Gilmour/Pink Floyd tones. I have to say the Helix does a great job with my Tagliare. (I named her Ember) Matter of fact, out of all the modelers I have ever used, or heard... The Helix is by far the best for Single Coil Pickups. As for metal, most of the metal portions of the album were already recorded before I even got the Helix. But I will be recording a new metal only record for my next one and I will definitely be able to tell them. But if the Helix can do what it does for Ember (single coils) for the Humbucker pickup equipped guitars and the heavier tones... then I will be ecstatic! As far as the Eleven Rack. I have gotten some decent metal tones out of it. Id even be willing to share a few of them, most are tweaked patches from some that I have downloaded. However, since you have the Helix, and you have already been directed to the Fremen packs (which I will more than likely invest in at some point as well) I don't think it matters. It would be holding you back from a superior tone, as I did enjoy the 11R, especially for its routing, the Helix is better in just about every way. Except for perhaps the Speaker Breakup parameters that the Eleven Rack got with its expansion pack. The Helix could use something like that, or maybe it has it, and I haven't found it yet.. lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll1337 Posted September 5, 2016 Author Share Posted September 5, 2016 @ Lachdanan0121 Yeah - I also enjoy the routing in the 11R. It's really simple and a breeze to work with. The big downside of the 11R are the cabs in my opinion. None of them really sounded "right" to my ears. Also, the 11R had a weird boxiness in its sound; especially in the high gain amp models. On most of my high gain patches I had to dial out a good amount around 350Hz - both before AND after the amp (Guitar > Para EQ > Boost Pedal > Amp+Cab > Para EQ > Reverb). This boxiness is not present in the Helix. A big downside with this is that I was unable to use a compressor on my patches (because the Parametric EQ took up 2 FX slots...). Frankly, I dialed in a better metal tone on my Helix after about 5 minutes (with stock cabs!) compared to the 2 years I spent on my 11R. Sadly, that unit will probably continue to be turned off in the future.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fremen Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 I second this, I only use the Fremen pack now, and mostly play metal - so much better than the factory presets or any preset I could make myself. Go get it :-) Again, if you have a recording made with my presets, I'm all ears :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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