Helix FX Loop with external Looper/FX Loop Switcher

[Godssoulja7]

Hey,

 

I was wondering if anyone has had experience and/or would know the answer to this example I'm going to give or if it would even work? Theoretically it makes sense but I could be wrong.

 

Say you had 6 analog pedals, that you could not live without, that you want to add to the Helix FX loops. The Helix only has 4 spots to use so you would need to use 2 ABY pedals that you can hook 4 of the pedals and route them to two of the Helix FX blocks. But to save some space and more tap dancing you get a 5 channel true-bypass looper to loop 4 of the analog pedals and use one of the loopers fx send and return to and from the helix to split the pedals up. I'm not entirely familiar with loopers to know if they run in series so that you can have loops 1 & 2 be sent from Loop 3 to the helix and back and then run two more pedals to the next helix block or if you need a dedicated in/out jack in the middle of the looper.

 

Here is how I'm picturing it, to hopefully make more sense.

 

You have 2 pedals in Helix FX blocks 1 & 2

You have 4 pedals through a 5 Channel True-Bypass Looper to Helix FX blocks 3 & 4. Here's how that would route

 

Helix FX 3 Send > In to Looper > Loop FX 1 Send > Pedal 1 > Loop FX 1 Rtrn > Loop FX 2 Send > Pedal 2 > Loop FX 2 Rtrn > Loop FX 3 Send > Helix FX 3 Rtrn > Helix FX 4 Send > Loop FX 3 Rtrn > Loop FX 4 Send > Pedal 3 > Loop FX 4 Rtrn > Loop FX 5 Send > Pedal 4 > Loop FX 5 Rtrn > Loop Out > Helix FX 4 Rtrn

 

 

On top of that, if the looper had a midi port so that I could essentially use a preset and snapshots on the helix to turn on/off pedals on the looper that goes into the helix fx blocks.

 

 

I appreciate any thoughts people have on this.

 

 

[rvroberts]

There are midi controlled loopers like the gigrig G2 - so potentially you could run all your pedals through that looper and connect it to one send and return set and run everything using midi - or use 2 send/returns so one group can be placed after your amp say.

But I'd have to ask you have you truely tried and tested the effects included with the Helix?  I personally can't see any use for an external overdrive again in my life.  Maybe if you are really big in Ambient sounds, there are delays and reverbs that might be better in some instances - but when you consider you can combine 2 delays for example, I still question that.  In the studio - maybe, live..........just complicating your rig with little gain - at least for me.

What I'm saying is about practical usability.  While I'm playing, with a pedal board, all my pedals can only have one setting.  In Helix, I can combine 2 different drives at one set of values for my verse, and then change one completely, change all the settings on the other and adjust the gain and tone on my amp all with one footswitch, and get my chorus tone with that huge amount of control.  Overdrives are a particularly good example, because the subtlety of what you get is more about the level going from one unit to the next and combined with the gain on the amp.  You might also find that a preamp makes the best valve overdrive you ever tried if you put that in front of your amp........and you can make big or small adjustments to everything any time you want at the push of a button.  You just can't do that with a pedalboard. (except in the studio). 

Layering effects in almost unlimited ways gives you scope that again you can't get with a pedal board.

After all that, if you still find you can't get you sound from the Helix, and you have to have all those pedals - are you maybe better off staying in the world of conventional amps?

[Godssoulja7]

Definitely a good point. Disclaimer before I continue, I don't have a helix yet so I'm still in the research phase and seeing what I could do. I have the HD500 right now but I run into DSP limit problems cuz I want to do a lot with it that i just can't lol. I'm actually really happy with the amp, drives, delays, and verbs on the POD so they are only going to be better on the Helix and the external pedals won't be those. I really like the sound of the POG and B9 which I have not heard done on the POD or the Helix so I think adding that to the Helix would be great and frees up DSP. I've taken a liking as well to a couple of Chase Bliss Audio modulation pedals that sound pretty cool and not sure if the Helix could do the same. Granted I have not really experimented (on my POD) so I really don't know if that could be done. Another thought was if there some preamp or compressor pedals I like that could compliment the Helix. My first purchase will be the Helix so all this extra stuff will be a couple of years down the road so who knows what will happen then but I also think what if I want to test a couple of pedals to the chain and I have something that I can AB them and have them go through the Helix and see what happens.