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Helix HX - Helix vs Legacy Effects


Bluesman27
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What is the reason that Line 6 separates the newer Helix effects from the so-called Legacy effects such as those in the M9 / M13 pedals?   There are a few Legacy effects that I would use but wonder if the quality of these is not up to par with the Helix choices.   If that is the case, why hasn't Line 6 updated those effects?    There are some older effects that are not available in the Helix section of HX.   

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Time and money is probably what it comes down to. The older legacy effects were done in the earlier days of Line 6 with earlier technology.  Keep in mind though, that in no way means they suck. Lots of time and effort was put into making those the best possible at the time of release.

 

From what I can see, Line 6 continually puts effort into coming out with new effects or updating old ones, and when those are created the Helix gets updated.

 

So, why keep the old effects, especially if they're duplicates in some cases? First, for the effects that ONLY exist in legacy editions, they're still extremely useful and if you try them you'll probably notice they still sound great.  You can ditch the legacy effect if a newer one is ever created.  As for the effects that are sometimes duplicated (at least with the Firehawk it had both HD versions and old legacy version of the SAME effect) that probably is a bit of overkill, but at the same time, if you're a person who fell in love with one of your presets with the old legacy settings and are now stepping out into the new world of updated modeling, who is Line 6 to take that old sound away from you?  It's still a legitimate sound, after all and arguable worth using in its own right.

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Three other likely reasons to add to those above …

 

Line 6 can point out how committed it is in the long term, and simultaneously play the numbers game against the competition by porting all the other effects it has available into the package.

 

However it doesn’t want anyone comparing old code to the competition’s new code, so they are labeled as legacy to counter the ‘Helix is rubbish because its Dimension D lacks detail’ trolls.

 

And why the duplicates?  The old code requires less resources than the ‘headline’ versions of the effects.  So if you’re struggling to get a red MXR compressor into your preset you have a cheaper (in system resources term) alternative that still has the flavour of the real thing.

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