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Helix competitor comming at NAMM?


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Poor tuner resolution.  Can't comment on accuracy.  Will not buy.

 

Still waiting for some hard-hitting music journalist to write that article everyone is waiting for... "Modeler Tuner Shoot-Out 2017".

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They don't seem to have a website. The link in the article isn't valid. Not finding any info on Headrush via Google either. 

 

http://www.headrushfx.com/

 

https://www.facebook.com/HeadRush-607114622824667/

 

-20 minute looper

 

-FX processor with gapless preset switching

 

-RECORD AND RE-AMP VIA USB 

Directly record and re-amp to/from your computer via the integrated 24-bit 96kHz audio interface.

 

-"FEATURING A FINELY-TUNED QUAD-CORE PROCESSOR AND POWERED BY ITS EXCLUSIVE ELEVEN® HD EXPANDED™ DSP SOFTWARE, THE HEADRUSH PEDALBOARD™ DELIVERS THE MOST VERSATILE, REALISTIC-SOUNDING AND RESPONSIVE AMPLIFIER, CABINET, MICROPHONE AND FX MODELS EVER FOUND IN A FLOORBOARD GUITAR FX PROCESSOR."

 

anatomy.png

 

pedalboardAngle.png

 

  • 59 TWEED DELUXE
  • 59 TWEED BASS
  • 64 BLACK LUX VIB
  • 64 BLACK LUX NORM
  • 64 BLACK VIB
  • 65 BLACK SR
  • 65 BLACK MINI
  • 65 J45
  • 66 AC Hi BOOST
  • 67 BLACK DUO
  • 67 PLEXIGLAS VARI
  • 68 PLEXIGLAS 50W
  • 69 PLEXIGLAS 100W
  • BLUE LINE BASS
  • 82 LEAD 800 100W
  • M-2 LEAD
  • SL-100 DRIVE
  • SL-100 CRUNCH
  • SL-100 CLEAN
  • 92 TREADPLATE MODERN
  • 92 TREADPLATE VINTAGE
  • 93 MS30
  • RB-01B RED
  • RB-01B BLUE
  • RB-01B GREEN
  • 82 LEAD 800 BASS MOD
  • 89 SL-100 EXT RANGE
  • 82 LEAD 800 BRIGHT
  • 67 BLACK SHIMMER
  • 59 DELUXE GAIN MOD
  • 68 PLEXI EL84 MOD
  • 66 AC HI BOOST MOD
  • 69 BLUE LINE SCOOP
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Just to say it, a colored display and footswitches doth not the Helix UI make!

 

A big part of why Helix is so fluid to get around on the the huge number of actions you can do, with all those rotatable, pushable, clickable, and touchable input devices. Haven't watched the video or otherwise looked into the Headrush thing yet, but I'd be surprised if they built all that. If so, kudos to them.

 

In any case, it is nice to see the impact Helix is having, upleveling the state of the art.

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I think this looks a nice mid range option but I can see from the little demos and lit that at launch at least its not on par with Helix.

 

Queue the comparison videos between this new device and all the regulars. Endless regurgitated fanboy insults ahoy!

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I guess it boils down to modelling quality - "Eleven HD Expanded" could be Eleven rack modelling either newly remodelled (in HD) or just somehow converted/ported (to HD). So it could be a new amazing technology or just a repackaged old stuff (but even then the HD-converted stuff could be good). The price doesn't help here, it's kind of in between...

 

But I have to say that they put in some of the stuff which I cannot understand to not be present on Helix - e.g. a touch display (a joystick in 2015?) and 20min looper with unlayering. The displayreally might be a great selling point even though it doesn't seem all that great display quality wise.

 

Anyway, seems interesting but not at all making me regret getting Helix 13 months ago...

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But I have to say that they put in some of the stuff which I cannot understand to not be present on Helix - e.g. a touch display (a joystick in 2015?) and 20min looper with unlayering. The displayreally might be a great selling point even though it doesn't seem all that great display quality wise.

 

The Line 6 guys did build a Helix prototype with a touchscreen, but found that navigation and tone-building was actually slower using it compared to the rotary knobs and joystick. If you think about it, it makes sense, because fine movement and control is still quite a challenge on a touchscreen. How many times do you have to hit a touchscreen if you're trying to do something relatively simple like moving the location of a cursor in a paragraph to a different place? There are some things touchscreens are great for and others not so much. The main thing I could see it being useful for in something like the Helix is moving blocks around the signal and perhaps selecting the blocks. I've got to say, though, after using the Amplifi, Firehawk and Spider Remote apps, I'm not so sure that would even be that much faster.

 

Personally, I'd rather see someone develop an editor that could be used on an iPad. Even it had to be a tethered connection, that would still be useful. It would be nice to be able to have the editor open on an iPad mounted on a mic stand during rehearsals.

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The Line 6 guys did build a Helix prototype with a touchscreen, but found that navigation and tone-building was actually slower using it compared to the rotary knobs and joystick. If you think about it, it makes sense, because fine movement and control is still quite a challenge on a touchscreen. How many times do you have to hit a touchscreen if you're trying to do something relatively simple like moving the location of a cursor in a paragraph to a different place? There are some things touchscreens are great for and others not so much. The main thing I could see it being useful for in something like the Helix is moving blocks around the signal and perhaps selecting the blocks. I've got to say, though, after using the Amplifi, Firehawk and Spider Remote apps, I'm not so sure that would even be that much faster.

 

Personally, I'd rather see someone develop an editor that could be used on an iPad. Even it had to be a tethered connection, that would still be useful. It would be nice to be able to have the editor open on an iPad mounted on a mic stand during rehearsals.

 

I would probably just use the touch screen for selecting blocks, at least that's the only activity when I always think to myself "now I wish I was editing on my phone". I guess we have the editor for that but to be honest many other actions are better on Helix directly (assigning footswitch bypass, editing some parameters...) that tend to go constantly from Helix to editor and back. The only two things which are definitely better in editor are selecting blocks and typing text. And text input is quite rare so the touch display would possibly make me edit mainly on Helix directly...

 

But thanks for the note about touch-enabled prototype, I'm glad Line 6 didn't just throw it off the table without trying. Thumbs up!

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The Line 6 guys did build a Helix prototype with a touchscreen, but found that navigation and tone-building was actually slower using it compared to the rotary knobs and joystick. If you think about it, it makes sense, because fine movement and control is still quite a challenge on a touchscreen. How many times do you have to hit a touchscreen if you're trying to do something relatively simple like moving the location of a cursor in a paragraph to a different place? There are some things touchscreens are great for and others not so much. The main thing I could see it being useful for in something like the Helix is moving blocks around the signal and perhaps selecting the blocks. I've got to say, though, after using the Amplifi, Firehawk and Spider Remote apps, I'm not so sure that would even be that much faster.

 

Personally, I'd rather see someone develop an editor that could be used on an iPad. Even it had to be a tethered connection, that would still be useful. It would be nice to be able to have the editor open on an iPad mounted on a mic stand during rehearsals.

 

I definitely agree with the first part - I absolutely love the tactile feel of the helix interface.  When you engage or click or select something, you know it through feedback from your fingers.  I noticed several times in the video above where selections were attempted and re-attempted on the touch display before actually working.  And with no tactile feedback, it just slows things down and really is not a great user experience.  And that was my experience with the iPad interface to the Amplifi 150 I had before the Helix.  I didn't like it.

 

And what's also why I'd be ambivalent about an iPad or mobile interface for Helix.  With the Amplifi 150 I had before the Helix and thought the iPad interface was slow and cumbersome, and disconnected (bluetooth) often.  Maybe that'd be better with a wired connection, but you still have the lack of button-feel and frequent adjustment attempts that didn't work the first time through the touch screen.  Just my personal opinion and use-case.  I can see where it'd be handy maybe for live work with an iPad on a stand to tweak something that you didn't already have programmed with the footswitches, expression pedal, snapshots, etc.

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I agree with some of the disadvantages of touch screen stated above. I notice it mostly with the Line 6 M20d Remote app with my iPad. The touch screen is great, both on the device and the Remote app, for selecting items and navigating the display screens. But when it comes to making fine-tuning changes on parameters I much prefer using the physical knobs on the M20d device. Making small parameter value adjustments by touch on the iPad is much less granular - trying to perform a small value adjustment by finger swipe in real-time can sometimes translate to an unexpectedly large (and undesirable) change in the sound.

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But I have to say that they put in some of the stuff which I cannot understand to not be present on Helix - e.g. a touch display (a joystick in 2015?)

 

If Marcus lets me, I might post a couple screenshots from our old touchscreen version.

 

There were two big reasons (and lots of little ones) why we didn't go touchscreen:

  • Everybody HATED our initial UI emulation, which isn't notably different from what appears on Headrush (except for the number of simultaneous blocks and visible parameters). Lots of "that looks like an iOS modeler," "I don't want to reach down," "I hate finger smudges," "will it work in the heat of a gig?" "what if I spill something?" etc. Admittedly, this surprised us—much of the sentiment was more psychological than pragmatic/legitimate—and sent us down a lot of rabbit holes. This was three or four years ago at this point, so opinions regarding touchscreens on floor processors very well may have changed since then. To be honest, we felt the next Helix would probably have a touchscreen anyway, but decided baby steps was the best way to get there (not unlike how Apple added the touchstrip to their highly maligned new MBPs—you know a full touchscreen MBP is coming). The first step would be Helix's large color LCD.
  • Guitarists are used to focusing on pedalboards, not signal flows on LCDs. Cap switches were the big turning point for Helix's UI; the ability to instantly get to the parameters assigned to the things you actually perform with (the switches) was critical. A touchscreen means you're focusing on the preset blocks instead of the performing. At one point we were talking about dimming everything but the preset name and inspector parameters to get them out of the way, but decided it was unnecessary.

Everyone should be navigating with the footswitches anyway. The joystick should only be used when selecting a block that's not already assigned to a switch.

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It looks to be the next eleven product from Avid.  We all thought they gave up on it so we moved on to Helix.  I'm actually selling my 11 today after spending a week with Helix.

 

I love the 11, dont get me wrong.  But the amount of cable mess I cleaned up by going to the all in one paradigm the helix brings is not to be sneezed at.

 

We were all kind of pissed about the lack of support the Eleven had after the expac.  

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It looks to be the next eleven product from Avid. We all thought they gave up on it so we moved on to Helix. I'm actually selling my 11 today after spending a week with Helix.

 

I love the 11, dont get me wrong. But the amount of cable mess I cleaned up by going to the all in one paradigm the helix brings is not to be sneezed at.

 

We were all kind of pissed about the lack of support the Eleven had after the expac.

I don't think Avid has anything to do with this... Avid sold M-Audio (along with its other consumer-facing brands) to InMusic back in 2012, I believe.

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I don't think Avid has anything to do with this... Avid sold M-Audio (along with its other consumer-facing brands) to InMusic back in 2012, I believe.

 

The Eleven terminology is not coincidence.  Also, the Amps are basically the exact ones from the 11r and plugin.

 

Perhaps they're licensing it, but it is in reference or somehow connected to Avid's product.

 

post-957862-0-84481700-1484070372_thumb.jpeg

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If Marcus lets me, I might post a couple screenshots from our old touchscreen version.

 

There were two big reasons (and lots of little ones) why we didn't go touchscreen:

  • Everybody HATED our initial UI emulation, which isn't notably different from what appears on Headrush (except for the number of simultaneous blocks and visible parameters). Lots of "that looks like an iOS modeler," "I don't want to reach down," "I hate finger smudges," "will it work in the heat of a gig?" "what if I spill something?" etc. Admittedly, this surprised us—much of the sentiment was more psychological than pragmatic/legitimate—and sent us down a lot of rabbit holes. This was three or four years ago at this point, so opinions regarding touchscreens on floor processors very well may have changed since then. To be honest, we felt the next Helix would probably have a touchscreen anyway, but decided baby steps was the best way to get there (not unlike how Apple added the touchstrip to their highly maligned new MBPs—you know a full touchscreen MBP is coming). The first step would be Helix's large color LCD.
  • Guitarists are used to focusing on pedalboards, not signal flows on LCDs. Cap switches were the big turning point for Helix's UI; the ability to instantly get to the parameters assigned to the things you actually perform with (the switches) was critical. A touchscreen means you're focusing on the preset blocks instead of the performing. At one point we were talking about dimming everything but the preset name and inspector parameters to get them out of the way, but decided it was unnecessary.

Everyone should be navigating with the footswitches anyway. The joystick should only be used when selecting a block that's not already assigned to a switch.

 

Thanks for the insight, makes sense. I agree there is not that much to do with a touchscreen and I'm not sure how it would influence the price but it would just be handy (to a couple of us) in several scenarios.

 

So you're saying the next Helix will have it... Any details you'd like to share? Kidding... ;)

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All the Helix needs is bluetooth or equivalent to run an app from a smart device as a redundancy to the footswitches or say a sound engineer in the back.  But if you're already running cable an extra long USB can already be ran to a computer.  So it is kind of moot.  But yet, not completely.  

 

A touchscreen windows 10 tablet with usb ports can be had at walmart for ~$100.

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The Eleven terminology is not coincidence. Also, the Amps are basically the exact ones from the 11r and plugin.

 

Perhaps they're licensing it, but it is in reference or somehow connected to Avid's product.

I'm saying 11 doesn't belong to Avid anymore.

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