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Helix Update..


Jagman13
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I know this is not the right forum but spare a thought for us Native users who are still having to do with 1.5 while you lot get all the love.....

 

Come on Line 6 give us all an update soon with lots of new amps and toys to play with.... pretty please! :)

 

 

 

 

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I was being a little tongue and cheek... Peace... :) 

 

What I am really getting at is... is it not time for an update for all of us? 

 

What is the usual sort of time frames for L6 to provide updates?

Its been rather a long time since the last one and there are a few important known bug fixes outstanding..

 

Lets hope its soon.. :) 

 

 

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48 minutes ago, Jagman13 said:

I was being a little tongue and cheek... Peace... :) 

 

What I am really getting at is... is it not time for an update for all of us? 

 

What is the usual sort of time frames for L6 to provide updates?

Its been rather a long time since the last one and there are a few important known bug fixes outstanding..

 

Lets hope its soon.. :) 

 

 

 

A long time? Just four months since 2.5 with all of the new effects, reverbs and amps. Bug fix updates have happened since then too. 

 

Do people expect new models every 60 days or something? 

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1 hour ago, Jagman13 said:

...

 

What is the usual sort of time frames for L6 to provide updates?

...

 

You can see this for yourself in the Downloads section of this website. All firmware/software releases for all products show the release date. Fill your boots on analysis if you wish.

 

I'd be interested in seeing a comparison of Helix firmware release frequency in the first two years compared to the POD HD and Pod X3 product series (ignoring primarily bug fix releases - just the 'more goodies' releases).

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Mikah912...

Given the completion that line 6 are up against Kemper/AXE and however else is making an amp sim this week... I would have thought the rate of development and updates would have been a lot quicker... if you don't move quickly you will get left behind..even looking on this forum there are a number of buyers who for whatever reason, are not happy and moving on..

Also a lot of new happy users such as myself..

Not too sure about the hardware version but there are a number of outstanding bug fixes in Native that need to be addressed soonest too.... 

So no I don't think its too much to expect or at least be told by line6 when an update is due. 

 

SIlverhead, 

Thanks, will dig into it... :) 

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56 minutes ago, Jagman13 said:

even looking on this forum there are a number of buyers who for whatever reason, are not happy and moving on..

 

 

See a lot of people talking about the next update, so business as usual; but nothing as you have described....

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Kemper/AXE had a headstart, but Helix has caught up quickly, and surpassed both of them, IMO. For example, none of the others have anything close to Native, which is super impressive if you've used to dial in a tone right there in the mix in your DAW. I've don't that a few times, and the resulting in-the-mix tone deviated quite a bit from what I started with. I'm very happy to have it - it saves potentially hours and hours of guesswork.

 

And ... Helix is pretty mature now, too. I expect the integration to only get tighter between Native and Helix, and HX FX also. The product future looks very bright to me.

 

I own a Kemper, and folks have been requesting an editor for like 5 years. Still nada. Jokes on the Kemper forum about the next major update being a new T-shirt with the Kemper logo. Not sure about AXE. Both are obviously nice equipment, but I don't think they offer the versatility of the Helix.

 

If Line 6 would offer a "Kemper Block" to process Kemper profiles, that'd be super cool. And even better, with the mic input, and all the returns, even offer an "amp profiling capability" - likely doable with the existing hardware with only software updates - that would likely offer the best of both worths. Really great quality Helix models, and if you want your specific amp with maybe a stomp box in front, profile it and get that, too - all with just a Helix. I'm probably dreaming, but that'd be really cool.

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Bsd512,

I wasn't aware that Kemper was so far behind on the editor, only heard it was rather good at the tones..

Your right the ability to dial a tone into a mix in double quick time is very impressive indeed and with some of the user patches from customtones, almost anything is possible.. very quickly.

Just hope L6 really do put some time and effort into and make it even better.. Hopefully some time this year ;)

 

How about a Kemper/Axe import convertor...? then it really would blow them all away! 

 

 

 

 

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MORE! MORE!...I'm still not satisfied! Give it here, and give it now!... lol

 

If we started getting daily firmware updates, I'd bet it wouldn't be a month before there was weeping and gnashing of teeth over that, too..."Why can't we have a separate evening update?"

 

Kemper, Fractal, keep up or get out of the way, compete or get left behind, nobody's gonna buy L6 products anymore...blah, blah, blah. 

 

Same refrains again and again. This was a boring movie the first time I saw it, and the reruns suck even worse.

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4 hours ago, Jagman13 said:

Mikah912...

Given the completion that line 6 are up against Kemper/AXE and however else is making an amp sim this week... I would have thought the rate of development and updates would have been a lot quicker... if you don't move quickly you will get left behind..even looking on this forum there are a number of buyers who for whatever reason, are not happy and moving on..

Also a lot of new happy users such as myself..

Not too sure about the hardware version but there are a number of outstanding bug fixes in Native that need to be addressed soonest too.... 

So no I don't think its too much to expect or at least be told by line6 when an update is due. 

 

SIlverhead, 

Thanks, will dig into it... :) 

 

Yeah, none of what you typed makes a lick of sense. 

 

First, Fractal is moving slower at adding new content than Line 6 and have been for quite awhile. The Axe-FX III has had one new model (yet another Plexi) added since its release in March. A few weeks prior, Line 6 added two amps, five reverbs and 77 legacy effects to Helix hardware and VST. Now, I will say Fractal does more frequent bug fixes, but these are part of an onslaught of public beta releases that also create other bugs that - then - have to be fixed by yet another public beta. If that's what you want, Line 6 aint your cup of tea. 

 

Kemper rarely even implements user-requested features and updates, so....LOL. BOSS, Headrush and Amplifire? LMAO.

 

Second, I see no "number of buyers" who are moving on. Line 6 clearly gave a window in which the next update will arrive ("end of Spring"). That's 10 days away. If they miss it due to discovered bugs, they will come here and elsewhere and update us on when they think it'll be fixed. Otherwise, they've been open and straightforward. No one in software development can say that an update will be released on X day unless they haven't tested it. It's released when they kill the bugs in the update, not before.

 

No one is developing across more platforms (I don't believe anyone else is maintaining a synchronous VST/multi-form hardware ecosystem) at a faster rate than Line 6. Jumping ship because that's not enough for you is fine, but you better be jumping to real tube amps. There's literally no one in the modeling space working harder and putting out more when it comes to firmware updates.

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2 hours ago, cruisinon2 said:

MORE! MORE!...I'm still not satisfied! Give it here, and give it now!... lol

[...]

Same refrains again and again. This was a boring movie the first time I saw it, and the reruns suck even worse.

 

Right.

 

giphy.gif

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From DI post on the gearpage:

 

 

benifin said: 
Its now roughly "T -11 Days"... other than the Lonestar Clean and BE Clean... how about some hints / clues about whatever else is in FW 2.6...

From a model/feature perspective, it's pretty minor—the clean channels are probably the biggest deal. Lots of bug fixes tho'.

 

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Quote

I own a Kemper, and folks have been requesting an editor for like 5 years. Still nada. 

 

 

Not true. There is an outstanding 3rd party editor out and has been for a while here .

 

Quote

I wasn't aware that Kemper was so far behind on the editor, only heard it was rather good at the tones..

 

Kemper may be, but the users now have a nice 3rd party one (see above). And yes, the KPA is/does "very" good with guitar amp tones.

I own both and love both boxes. I would offhandedly say that Helix does best with Fender, while its very hard beat the KPA with any decade of Marshall tones.

But both are good.

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18 hours ago, mikah912 said:

Jumping ship because that's not enough for you is fine, but you better be jumping to real tube amps.

I dunno about that. I’ve got a couple of tube amps that I have had for a very long time, and I can’t remember the last time the manufacturer released a free update for them. Like hey Fender, when is my Blues Deluxe going to get true polyphonic pitch tracking? And, hello, I’m still waiting for my SuperSonic22 to get an onboard tremolo circuit! If you can imagine, I’ve actually had to pay OUT OF POCKET to perform some modifications! 

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13 hours ago, spikey said:

 

 

Not true. There is an outstanding 3rd party editor out and has been for a while here .

 

 

Kemper may be, but the users now have a nice 3rd party one (see above). And yes, the KPA is/does "very" good with guitar amp tones.

I own both and love both boxes. I would offhandedly say that Helix does best with Fender, while its very hard beat the KPA with any decade of Marshall tones.

But both are good.

First, I'm not poo-pooing the Kemper. I love mine, and my Kemper and Helix are like best friends. My Kemper is patched into a pair of send/return blocks right where a Helix amp model would be. I get really nice results from that, it's really the best of both worlds - extreme flexibility of the Helix with world class effects and amazing routing capability and all the amazing things the Helix can do that everyone here knows about, and on top of that, any amp you can profile at your fingertips.

 

The quality of many of the thousands of profiles on Rig Manager are touch and go at best, though. Some really great ones up there to be sure. But some are - good lord, what they heck is that, surely someone didn't think that was a great profile. I guess it's the same with CustomTone.

 

We can agree to disagree, but I don't think an incomplete editor implementation that's a bit dodgy in some areas and not exactly complete from a random developer in Poland is any substitute for a vendor supplied editor. Can you imagine how happy we'd all be over here in Helix world if that was our editor?

 

I'll look at it more closely, maybe it's a stop-gap, but I don't think its a replacement. Kemper is a company that has made a whole whole lot of money from their very nice profiler. Put at least a portion of those profits from its users back into the #1 thing people have asked for. That request has been ignored for many many years, and finally, a developer got tired of it and made their own. The reason I haven't used it is, based on what I've gathered, is it requires additional hardware that I don't have - a USB -> midi translator. I don't think the standard USB connection from your computer to the Kemper will work - at least that's what it seems from the tutorials I've seen - it requires a separate midi interface. I'm not 100% sure if that's right or wrong. The the fact of my point remains - Kemper has not been responsive to user requests for an editor, and they (the users) get poo-pooed for asking for one.

 

I do agree Kemper is pretty amazing tech. Which is why I bought it. I was surprised to find there wasn't an editor for it. And having a Helix enables making high quality Kemper profiles a snap - especially if you don't own a bunch of high-end mics and a sound-proof box or room for the amp. I us a Suhr reactive load box on the amps I've profiled, feed the raw amp line-level out into a Helix return, then load an IR for the cabinet sim and feed the output back into the Kemper direct-in to close the loop. [Just another testament to the flexibility of the Helix.] That replaces mic'ing your cab and turning your amp up to the volume needed to get the tone you want. With the Suhr, you can crank the amp all you want, silently, and feed the signal into the Helix, process it through and IR, and even pre-apply some hi-cut if you like to remove some the nasty frequencies - I have gotten excellent results that way. Some of them are on Rig Manager and have received 5-star ratings from other users. And I'm able to profile amps that Line 6 would never consider or even ever have access to - one a completely unique and custom SovTek Blues Boy modified by Carr Amplification (local to me) and is owned by my guitar teacher. That's a super cool amp with a unique tone. He calls it the VodkaSonic. I wouldn't expect that to show up in Line 6's amp list any time soon, but I have it with my Kemper and it's especially cool patched into my Helix like above and then you have all the Helix routing and effects, etc.

 

BTW, when I showed the VodaSonic amp owner my profile - through an L2t, cranked up pretty good - he was amazed. He said - "Whaaat? That's crazy! That's my amp!". 

 

So yes, my Helix and Kemper go great together. I love them both.

 

Also, read a little farther down in that thread from TGP you posted. The author of the editor does not appear happy with Kemper forum folks, with folks giving him good suggestions being banned and similar.

 

Anyway - sorry if I pushed a button for you. Was not intended. Only wanted to let the OP know that Kemper is not out there releasing frequent firmware updates with user requests in mind. At Winter NAMM, I think their big announcement was a "Chris Kemper" guitar that nobody wants. Line 6 is lightyears ahead on the overall platform front.

 

Love my Kemper, though.

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Dude...so far you've asked for an update and love for a parallel product, then played it off as a joke, then you asked for a cross-platform conversion, then you asked for an R&D deadline.  You want to know what I want?  I want an espresso machine linked to Siri, connected by Bluetooth so all I have to do is strike a suspended second and, depending on the pedal tone, it does my taxes or turns on my AC...all from the Helix.

Get crackin', boys. Oh...and let me know when I can expect it.

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34 minutes ago, cruisinon2 said:

If the next modeler doesn't come with a pony, I don't want it....

[Amp Modeler Manufacturer]: “In response to interest from our customer base, we are proud to announce that our new modeler comes with a pony!”

 

[Customers](Looking at gift horse’s teeth): “When will this pony get an update?”

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5 hours ago, Verne-Bunsen said:

[Amp Modeler Manufacturer]: “In response to interest from our customer base, we are proud to announce that our new modeler comes with a pony!”

 

[Customers](Looking at gift horse’s teeth): “When will this pony get an update?”

I'm so gonna remember that one.  Thanks for the larf.

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