New User - Any Tips?

[jameskapherr]

Afternoon all!

 

I am a newbie here - but not to Line6 products. I used to own the POD, POD2 and PODXT - years ago. Then I quit playing for 10 years only to re-start my guitar journey last December. 

 

Gear-wise, I own there following:

Guitars:
- Ibanez RG6PCMLTD

- Yamaha Pacifica 311H

 

Pedals:

- TC Electronic Polytune 2 Noir

- Boss NS-2 Noise Surpressor

- TC Electronic MojoMojo Overdrive

- TC Electronic Dark Matter Distortion

- Tone City Comp Engine Compressor

- Joyo JF-316 Future Chorus Ironman Mini

- Tone City Tape Machine Delay

- Boss GE-7 7 Band Graphic Equalizer

 

Amp:

- Peavey ValveKing II 50W Tube Amp

 

 

 

I don't play gigs - just a man-cave player who does a little recording too - but the man-cave backs onto the neighbours baby's room, which as I am nice, I don't like to play loud incase it wakes up their baby... Even setting the amp to 2W mode, I can't really go over 2 on the amps volume without it sounding too loud!

For this reason, I have being delivered tomorrow a Helix LT and a Presonus Eris E4.5 Active Studio Monitor Speakers (PAIR) and I plan to sell the amp.

I am after a few bits of advice...

1. Which pedals should I keep?
2. Are there any tips for newbies like me to the Helix? I tried the Native plugin trial but didn't really like it (to be honest, I don't think I was using it correctly... I had it going back to my amp but think I double amp/cab it).
3. Any good impulses to get? Either cheap or free :P
4. Anything to watch out for?

Thanks guys!

 

James

[ricstudioc]

1. Which pedals should I keep?

Had to go there, huh?  Not gonna be any opinions on this one... :)  So - in my opinion:

 

- TC Electronic Polytune 2 Noir

I would - it's a nice little pedal and Helix doesn't have it's equivalent.

- Boss NS-2 Noise Surpressor

Nah - plenty of gates in Helix, hell you can stack'em as needed

- TC Electronic MojoMojo Overdrive

- TC Electronic Dark Matter Distortion

Don't know these well enough to judge on their merits - but again, Helix has a slew of very well modeled OD's/Dist's.  And keep in mind that by virtue of controller assigns & snapshots you can often take a single amp from clean to effin' insane just by assignment switching. (Can do the same with the drives/od's as well)

- Tone City Comp Engine Compressor

Not unless this does a trick of some sort, plenty of quality comp choices in Helix

- Joyo JF-316 Future Chorus Ironman Mini

Again - plenty of mod choices in Helix, so unless this does some amazing thing....

- Tone City Tape Machine Delay

- Boss GE-7 7 Band Graphic Equalizer

Both of these food groups are more than generously covered in Helix

 

Really the only two reasons I can think of to go outboard with any of the Helixes are 1)  a specific pedal does something that Helix doesn't, or does it better.  Examples - I use an EHX POG2 for poly octaving, and several of their "9" boxes for organ/synth/string sounds, and a lot of folks are hanging onto their Strymon reverbs.  And 2) to save processing power, which realistically is rarely an issue.  Also the LT only has the one loop, so your flexibility is a bit constrained.

 

Welcome to it!  Yer gonna love this thing.... B)

[jameskapherr]

Thanks for the quick reply :) I guess it is a case of "wait and see" as to what I keep, but from what you say the Polytune is probably going to be the only keeper. 

Really looking forward to trying it - all the videos i've watched have put it into high standing. I was confused over this or the Headrush - but decided that I would go with the most established. I've read several reports about units being bricked if not powered down... even latest firmware upgrade on the Headrush has caused bricked units.

[tedulrich]

Outboards can come in handy if you start down the rabbit hole of layering multiple amps and cabs in a single preset, as cab and IR blocks eat up a bit of DSP.  When I got my Helix I ended up selling off all of my pedals, and the only outboards I use bring something to the table I can't already do with the Helix, or produce a particular sound I know I can't duplicate.

[Lotta_Gear]

Also the LT only has the one loop, so your flexibility is a bit constrained.

 

Welcome to it!  Yer gonna love this thing.... B)

Sorry to contradict, but the LT does have TWO FX loops, not one. The full Floor version has 4, but for me, the two on the LT are more than sufficient so far. It's really irritating to constantly see people say "Get the Floor, not the LT, you'll come to regret your decision..." Um, no. Not everyone needs or wants to pay the extra money (in Canada, it amounts to about $800) for options they won't use for years, if ever. I don't miss the scribble strips, the mic input or the extra FX loops. I have a mixer, and my Boss RC-300 has a mic input and FX loops. The LT is every bit as fantastic as the Floor or Rack, and it's exactly what I need.

[jameskapherr]

Over in the UK, the Helix are on offer. I picked up the Helix LT for £715 new - the full fat one is £999, £284 more expensive. I couldn't justify that. My monitors were £125 - so I got everything for less than a Headrush too!

PS - Love Canada! In 20 years of visiting Canada (about 8 times now), I saw my first moose (5 of them) back in May this year :) - heading back there in 2019 ;)

[ricstudioc]

Sorry to contradict, but the LT does have TWO FX loops, not one. The full Floor version has 4, but for me, the two on the LT are more than sufficient so far. It's really irritating to constantly see people say "Get the Floor, not the LT, you'll come to regret your decision..." Um, no. Not everyone needs or wants to pay the extra money (in Canada, it amounts to about $800) for options they won't use for years, if ever. I don't miss the scribble strips, the mic input or the extra FX loops. I have a mixer, and my Boss RC-300 has a mic input and FX loops. The LT is every bit as fantastic as the Floor or Rack, and it's exactly what I need.

Don't be sorry - when yer right, yer right.  My bad :rolleyes:

[jbuhajla]

Just speaking for myself, I sold ALL of my pedals/effects after getting Helix (and recouped all the funds that I spent on Helix Floor). I only kept one amp just in case I want to use it with Helix via 4CM. I am not a pro but play weekly at church, contemporary P&W. 

 

My opinion is keep the Polytune, you won't need the rest. 

[Lachdanan0121]

The Presonus Eris are good entry level studio monitors. Well the Eris 5, and Eris 8 are. The Eris 4.5 have an issue.

 

One speaker gets power from an onboard amp, the other speaker is tethered to the one with the amp.

 

Causes 2 issues.

 

1. Limits speaker placement as the tether cable isn't that long.

 

2. Like most tethered pairs of speakers, the one that has to be tethered is lower in volume. Not just a little, it is noticeable. This creates a broken soundstage.

 

I speak from experience.

[GenoBluzGtr]

Tips...   from another newbie (about 3 months now, but plenty of gigs with the helix so far)...

 

EXPLORE!  You can do so many different things with Helix and it does things in different ways, so don't be afraid to try things... but explore with your EARS, not just what you think SHOULD work.

 

READ! This forum, The Gear Page Forum, etc... TONS of information and questions answered here that will help you avoid getting frustrated or disappointed.  A lot of great advice and ideas.  Try the all out. I've change my basic patch-building approach 2 or 3 times now and the sounds I'm getting just keep getting better and better.  All due to listening and learning from others.  Also, READ THE MANUAL!!  So much of what i ran into in the way of problems and misunderstanding why something happens, could have been avoided if I had read and understood the manual BEFORE i started.  

 

VOLUME MATTERS!  Build a patch at volume A.  Play it at volume A - sounds great.  Pack up the Helix and head to the gig and play at Volume B.  You'll be sad.  It's not the kind of modeler that will allow you to build a preset and play it at whisper volumes, but then just turn up and play at gig volumes.  Things change sonically (even more so than it does with most tube amps).  

 

FIND YOUR APPROACH!  Like I said, mine has changed a couple of times, but each approach had something useful and good in it, but as I learn I'm incorporating new ideas and replacing concepts that don't work the way I thought they would.   Things like... 

 

   - Using a compressor at the end of the signal chain when building clean to dirty snapshot presets.  The LA Studio Comp allows for minute tweaks that keep the super-heavy overdriven snapshot for sounding so much louder or gnarly compared to the cleaner ones... good balance tool.   I would have NEVER thought of putting a compressor AFTER all my amps and effects... but a very knowledgable guy did a video about it and it sounded great.  Plus, he explained it in a way that makes perfect sense... in the studio, the engineer is going to take your tonal output and reprocess it... he will very likely add compression, reverb, delay, etc... to "polish" your sound.  ALL That is happening after you routed your signal through your chain.  So why can't a compressor work at the end???  And you know, what... it DOES for some things.  it Alters your tone so it should be put in at the beginning of the build, but try it.  I was very pleasantly surprised. it solved a major issue I was having with trying to get my gainy sounds to be smooth.

    - Also, where to cut the cab freqs... you can do it different ways, but it has a different impact depending on where and how much. EQs have different  cut slopes than hi/lo cuts inside effects or cab blocks.  

     - Tons of these types of things to suss out for yourself...  modulation effects before an amp block? After an amp block? series or parallel???  no wrong or wright, but certain ways just don't work for me on most of my presets...  you'll find the same thing, but it will take time.

 

EXPECT TO SPEND A TON OF HOURS at first figuring things out.  it's a simple tool to use, but not a simple one to set up and get to know...  give yourself time.  I got VERY discouraged after my first couple of gigs.  Just had too much trouble trying to balance volumes, and having one patch too dark, and others to ragged and loud and nasty sounding...  I gave myself about 10 days to get ready for the first gig... I should have stuck with my normal rig for a few weeks while I learned Helix... luckily I didn't bail on it.  The awesome tones are there, but you have to figure them out. it's kind of addicting once you get into it.  I've missed meals.  it happens. 

 

SHARE!!  Check out the "Customtone" link at the top of this page.  We all upload things for everyone to try out.  Don't expect a downloaded preset to sound great right off the bat.  I build patches using MY guitar, MY FRFR speaker, at MY volumes, and using MY Approach (and favorite blocks, eq settings, cabs, mics, etc.....   )   but check out the ones that sound interesting, load them up, tweak to your taste.  You may want to change a few things around on them, but they are WONDERFUL way to learn about building presets.   Some people LOVE to use compressors in their builds.  others don't Some like them early in the chain, others late in the chain.  Load it up and bypass a block and play.  See what it does to the overall sound. tweak the settings. play some more.  Move to the next item.   Investigate why that SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be used and how it impacts the sound.  The best feature (In my opinion) on Helix is the ability of all of us to share what we know and that collective knowledge helps subsequent newbies figure things out much quicker.  I am amazed at some of the folks who were the 'pioneers' on this thing.  I would have ditched it weeks ago had it not been for the knowledge I gained from this and other forums and youtubes. 

 

Finally..

 

ENJOY IT.