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Real Overdrives and Distortions vs. Helix OD and Dist.???


taylorbeats
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Has anyone compared the Helix OD and distortions to the real thing?  Buddy of mine has a few of the actual drive pedals that are in the in the helix and a fender deluxe reverb.  thinking about AB ing the real pedal into the real amp, the helix modeled pedal into the real amp, the real and modeled amps AB, and then drive the modeled deluxe with the real overdrive pedal.

 

If its already been done I would like to know so I don't waste too much time. Of course use the same guitar, same cords, same player.

 

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I'm not a fan of modelled overdrives - on the Helix or anything else I have tried. I own a Tim pedal, Butler Tube Driver and a Dunlop Fuzz Face and think the physical pedals are all far superior. Of course some people say there is no difference, so your thoughts could be entirely different to mine after you run the tests.

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I'm not a fan of modelled overdrives - on the Helix or anything else I have tried. I own a Tim pedal, Butler Tube Driver and a Dunlop Fuzz Face and think the physical pedals are all far superior. Of course some people say there is no difference, so your thoughts could be entirely different to mine after you run the tests.

 

The impedance parameter is really key here. We'll place the real drive into the effects loop and assign a footswitch to toggle between our model and the real pedal. We stop tweaking the model when our own golden ears (including those who build boutique drive pedals) can't tell when we switch.

 

In one case, the signal alllllll but disappeared when our polarity flipped model was mixed with the real pedal. If the physical pedals are "far superior", something's amiss.

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The impedance parameter is really key here. We'll place the real drive into the effects loop and assign a footswitch to toggle between our model and the real pedal. We stop tweaking the model when our own golden ears (including those who build boutique drive pedals) can't tell when we switch.

 

In one case, the signal alllllll but disappeared when our polarity flipped model was mixed with the real pedal. If the physical pedals are "far superior", something's amiss.

 

Yep happy to concede that may well be the case. For me, I prefer the pedals and feel I can get a better tone with them and find them to be superior, but it is only my opinion.

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The impedance parameter is really key here. We'll place the real drive into the effects loop and assign a footswitch to toggle between our model and the real pedal. We stop tweaking the model when our own golden ears (including those who build boutique drive pedals) can't tell when we switch.

 

In one case, the signal alllllll but disappeared when our polarity flipped model was mixed with the real pedal. If the physical pedals are "far superior", something's amiss.

Hey DI I'm finding the Vermin dist and Triangle fuzz to not have the deep end and punch that my physical pedals have at all they basically sound like completely different pedals. I really want to kick these out of the effects loops to make room for a synth and preamp so I am really hoping that I am just missing something. I have tried EQs and Compressors before and after the Triangle fuzz to no avail. I'm assuming you want to run the effects loop as instrument correct? also any other pointers would be awesome.

 

For the record the TEEMAH! you can tweak to be dead on here's a video I made a while back. not the best quality but if you watch the whole thing I feel I show the similarites/differences pretty well

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Both Rats and Big Muffs can sound radically different from one another, so it may simply be our Rat and Big Muff sound different from yours. Try placing them in the very first block location on Path 1A and set the Input block's Guitar In-Z parameter to "Auto." That'll ensure Helix is loading your guitar's pickups with the same impedance as the original pedal.

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Alright I've tried the Z-parameter thing and unfortunately that didn't help at all. I am aware that the Rat and Muff pedals have had many variations over the years and some vary even in between the same model. But I have tried a normal, newish, rat and a big box reissue and about 3-7 Muffs depending on if you count clones and most if not all of them have retained that low end punch that I feel is missing.

 

I feel like a lot of models on the helix are most likely based off a single unit that you guys either have or borrowed So I can understand nothing will be the exact same. But I have been told that you base it off every model and that its a sum of all the models. This sounded kind of strange to me, and the person who said this may have been sorely misinformed, but maybe you can enlighten me on that.

But I feel like a single model could not cover the ground between a tweed fender deluxe from the 50s or even brown face deluxe reverb and a modern day fender deluxe reverb. The circuits have changed. Same goes with the muff or rat or almost any other effect though.

 

I know most people probably don't care, but I really wish I knew which versions of things were based off of. I guess at the end of the day it doesn't really matter because not much in the profile will change if I knew.

 

I am not trying to troll at all. I love the Helix rave about it all the time. The midi controlling is worth the price of it alone. I just would like to get my rack as light as possible so I was hoping to get rid of some pedals and that I just was messing something up with the settings.

 

Killer update too! really like the new amps! Great Job

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  • 3 years later...

I'm new to the HX Stomp and was curious about this as well. I A/Bed with a tube screamer (not the classic, but the TS9DX from the late 90s) vs the Screamer 808 model, a DS-2 (on both mode 1 and mode 2) vs both the Deez One models, and the Rat (late 90s/early 2000s, but I don't know about the internals) vs. Vermin. I assumed the TS would be the worst model, but found it to be spot on for the TS9 mode and + mode with increased gain on the HX. I never really liked the other modes on the TS9DX so I didn't bother with them. The Rat sounded similar to the Vermin over the distance of the filter knob, but the real one had a slightly fuller, warmer sound. It's passable, but something -- maybe some mid -- is missing. Finally, the DS-2 was "close enough" to the Deez models, but the trashy distortion on the real model was a bit smoother, warmer/fuller and had much more sustain, making it the worst of these models. I figured the DS2 would be the closest due to its more simple and digital aspects and the TS would be the worst, but I was wrong.

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