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New gear day: Helix!!!


dotpc
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Woo! Nice to be joining this club. :^)

 

A little background. I have been playing for 30+ years, and used to be a tube snob. Have owned a lot of vintage and modern tube amps (they are great!). I spent 8 years as a professional musician (teaching and gigging). Although that was a ton of fun, it was not the right career choice for me. I am a Software Engineer now, but still play a decent amount of paid gigs.

 

When I started gigging again after 'retiring' I ended up getting into solid state amps. I still have some and love them. But the Helix (and the Ampli-Firebox) are my first serious foray into digital. I think the technology is finally 'there', at least for my needs.

 

I spent months demoing and researching all of the top floor board units. I did not dig the tone of the Headrush. The GT-1000 sounded great but had an awkward interface. I was VERY close to getting the AX8, but I hate using a computer while being creative, so I really wanted an inspiring interface on the device. From what I have read and heard, the AX8 and Helix BOTH sound incredible. So here I am!

 

Initial impressions of the Helix (using it with quality headphones):

 

- The interface is brilliant. There are tons of little touches letting you know this product spent a lot of time in user testing. It is incredible that such a complex device can be so fun to use!
- The tone is inspiring. I was getting lost in just playing clean tones. I have never had a headphone-only session where that happened. Usually headphones (in my experience) are too bright and brittle. The Helix has plenty of options to dial in a warm tone.
- The looper length is too short. I knew this going in and it was swaying me toward the AX8, but the Helix won on too many other counts. I play a lot of solo gigs and looping is an important part of that. I may need to still bring my trusty RC-1.
- Is there a way to move a block from Path 1 to Path 2? I tried copy and paste as well as just moving the block, but nothing seemed to work. I ended up just deleting the block and recreating it on the other path.
- I sure hope the updater or HX Edit work on Linux through Wine. I know AX8-Edit works perfectly through Wine, so I am hoping for the same here, if worse comes to worse I will have to figure something out for firmware updates.
- The hardware is incredibly sleek and sexy. Plus it just feels very solid. I baby my stuff, but this thing looks like it could take a beating.

 

Any other tips besides the things I asked about?

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Just make sure you're up to date. Check this thread out.

 

https://line6.com/support/topic/33744-new-helix-purchase-need-help/?tab=comments#comment-257324

 

- The looper length is too short. I knew this going in and it was swaying me toward the AX8, but the Helix won on too many other counts. I play a lot of solo gigs and looping is an important part of that. I may need to still bring my trusty RC-1.

The looper is VERY basic. I would definitely use your RC-1 in one of the FX loops.

 

- Is there a way to move a block from Path 1 to Path 2? I tried copy and paste as well as just moving the block, but nothing seemed to work. I ended up just deleting the block and recreating it on the other path.

This sounds like you're Helix firmware isn't the latest because you can do that now. It sounds like you did this but right click on the block in Path 1. Select COPY (I can't remember if there is a CUT option). Right click on a block in Path 2 and select PASTE. If those options don't show up, you do need to upgrade your unit. Don't fo9rget to save right after you do that. I kept forgetting to do that for awhile.

 

- The hardware is incredibly sleek and sexy. Plus it just feels very solid. I baby my stuff, but this thing looks like it could take a beating.

Check this Youtube out at about :32 in.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u38HcVMHZ-M&list=RDgQbQtPeD7NQ&index=10

 

After all that, there are oodles of tutorials on Youtube. That first thread has a link to one of the guys that has quite a few good ones. Keeping in mind, of course, there are a million ways to do things, his is one. Otherwise, you sound like you're doing pretty good so far.

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25 minutes ago, brue58ski said:

 

Sweet!

 

25 minutes ago, brue58ski said:

- The looper length is too short. I knew this going in and it was swaying me toward the AX8, but the Helix won on too many other counts. I play a lot of solo gigs and looping is an important part of that. I may need to still bring my trusty RC-1.

The looper is VERY basic. I would definitely use your RC-1 in one of the FX loops.

 

Yeah, more setup time unfortunately, which is not a luxury I always have ... basic is fine for me. I do one loop and play over it. I play mostly Jazz, so feature wise the looper has more than I even need. Just too short. If it could get to 4 minutes (even at a lower fidelity) that would be perfect.

 

23 minutes ago, brue58ski said:

- Is there a way to move a block from Path 1 to Path 2? I tried copy and paste as well as just moving the block, but nothing seemed to work. I ended up just deleting the block and recreating it on the other path.

This sounds like you're Helix firmware isn't the latest because you can do that now. It sounds like you did this but right click on the block in Path 1. Select COPY (I can't remember if there is a CUT option). Right click on a block in Path 2 and select PASTE. If those options don't show up, you do need to upgrade your unit. Don't fo9rget to save right after you do that. I kept forgetting to do that for awhile.

 

I am on firmware 2.54.0, I will try again tonight.

 

23 minutes ago, brue58ski said:

- The hardware is incredibly sleek and sexy. Plus it just feels very solid. I baby my stuff, but this thing looks like it could take a beating.

Check this Youtube out at about :32 in.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u38HcVMHZ-M&list=RDgQbQtPeD7NQ&index=10

 

After all that, there are oodles of tutorials on Youtube. That first thread has a link to one of the guys that has quite a few good ones. Keeping in mind, of course, there are a million ways to do things, his is one. Otherwise, you sound like you're doing pretty good so far.

 

Thank you!

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If you're on 2.54 you can do a copy and paste using the hardware interface.  Select the block you want to copy and press the ACTION button.  At the bottom of the screen you'll see the options for copy or clear.  Push the button below the Copy then move to the location where you want to paste it and push the ACTION button again and you'll see the paste command at the bottom of the screen.  Press the button below it and it's done.  

 

It may not be showing up in the editor if you have a mismatch in the version of the editor and the firmware.  This can happen if the firmware was downloaded separately from the editor.

 

Oh...and I'm a retired software engineer as well, so we can start our own sub group of Helix users!!!

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21 hours ago, dotpc said:

- I sure hope the updater or HX Edit work on Linux through Wine. I know AX8-Edit works perfectly through Wine, so I am hoping for the same here, if worse comes to worse I will have to figure something out for firmware updates.

Nothing Helix works in Linux.  I can't even get it to work as an audio interface.  See

someone got it working with a hack.

 

I tried HX Edit with wine but no luck there either.  I would love to hear how far you get with Linux.  I'm on Ubuntu 18.0.

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1 hour ago, jonandtice said:

Nothing Helix works in Linux.  I can't even get it to work as an audio interface.  See

someone got it working with a hack.

 

I tried HX Edit with wine but no luck there either.  I would love to hear how far you get with Linux.  I'm on Ubuntu 18.0.

 

Thanks for the feedback ... hopefully Line 6 can take a look at that after releasing HX Edit for the HX Effects.

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1 minute ago, dotpc said:

 

Thanks for the feedback ... hopefully Line 6 can take a look at that after releasing HX Edit for the HX Effects.

 

I'm not sure the demand is there for that compared to other priorities.  You can always enter it into IdeaScale and see how much support it gets, but I'd suspect it would pale in comparison to many of the other items being requested.

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40 minutes ago, dotpc said:

 

Thanks for the feedback ... hopefully Line 6 can take a look at that after releasing HX Edit for the HX Effects.

Line 6 will not be doing anything to their firmware to make it USB class compliant even though all that is needed if for the Helix to declare its sample rate.  They think it already is and that Linux is the problem; and shame on us for using Linux and expecting things to comply to standards.  The Line 6 Linux firmware packages available in Ubuntu are really just hacks developed by the community pre-Helix, not Line 6.  Hopefully the hack in the above referenced post makes its way into Linux firmware packages.

I doubt HX Edit will ever work with wine since it would also require the proprietary Line 6 driver.  I could be wrong about that.

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