Helix dropout when switching presets

[One4All77]

Okay, another new Helix owner question: I have presets for different songs and, like I'm sure a lot of you are, I'm using this thing only at church. I want to have different presets for different songs, even though I generally use the same sound (amp, drive pedals, etc) simply so that I can have tempos in place for the delays as I can't be bending down to enter stuff in manually every song and don't want to go back to tapping (I'm coming from a TimeLine after all so I'm kinda spoiled). However, there is a VERY noticeable gap in sound between presets. It's quick, sure, but it's still there and blatantly obvious. Anybody have any ways around this? This could very well be a dealbreaker which would really be a shame as I am otherwise loving the heck out of this thing!

 

Thanks,

Robbie

[phil_m]

Snapshots...

 

 

[codamedia]

14 hours ago, One4All77 said:

However, there is a VERY noticeable gap in sound between presets. It's quick, sure, but it's still there and blatantly obvious. Anybody have any ways around this? This could very well be a dealbreaker which would really be a shame as I am otherwise loving the heck out of this thing!

 

I have played multi-fx for decades (my first was a ROLAND/BOSS GP-8 in the late 80's)... and I have always encountered gaps when changing presets. I always got around this by making changes in appropriate moments (when I'm not playing).

 

Enter the Helix... and Snapshots. Voila, gapless switching as long as I plan my presets accordingly. With 32 blocks and endless routing capabilities, there is no reason you can't keep everything within a preset for a full song or multiple songs. Once you wrap your head around it, it is quite powerful - and easy! It just takes some getting used to a new way of doing things. 

 

This helped me set the workflow straight in my mind but we are all different. Maybe it helps you, maybe it won't :)  

1. Preset: this loads a pedal board, it's default settings and it's routing configuration.
2. Snapshots: These allow you to alter the default settings and block on/off status for each preset. IE: They are "presets" for your "presets". There are 8 snapshots available per preset on a Helix.  (3 on an HX Stomp and 4 on an HX Effects)
3. Stomp Mode: This provides individual stomp access to your favorite effects in the pedal board configuration. Since version 2.8, any or all of these can have their on/off status de-coupled from Snapshots, IF you want to keep them separate.

 

[brue58ski]

Another thumbs up to Snapshots. Especially since you generally use the same things in your presets.

[cruisinon2]

16 hours ago, One4All77 said:

Anybody have any ways around this?

 

Yes and no... as already mentioned above snapshots will solve the gap problem for you, and you can save up to 8 snapshots per patch. If you're keeping the same tone, and all you need to do is change tempos for time- based FX, this is easily accomplished with snapshots... however, theres is no workaround if you're gonna insist on switching patches instead. That will forever be accompanied by an audible gap while the new patch loads.

[emagli]

14 hours ago, brue58ski said:

Another thumbs up to Snapshots. Especially since you generally use the same things in your presets.

 

Ditto. Snapshots may seem difficult to use in the beginning because the way you use knobs to assign parameters to snapshots is different from the way you assign them to footswitches (which is the first thing one naturally learns to do with the Helix). I stayed away from them for a while but now I am a convert... They are easy to learn and once you get the hang of them they are much more flexible. It is easier to edit snaphots on the Helix than using the editor (except for changing name/color).

[SaschaFranck]

Another vote for snapshots.

What hasn't been mentioned yet: Have a look which way of using the global switching options floats your boat. Personally, I have my mode switch set to switch between 10 stomps and Snapshot/Switch mode (resulting in 4 snapshots and 4 switches) and occasionally go into 8 snapshot mode by pressing the up/down keys simultaneously.

In addition, I think it's pretty relevant to select the proper Snapshot Edits mode. I have set it to "Discard" (default would be "Recall"), so my snapshots are always the same as initially programmed, whereas "Recall" would "auto-save" the last status they were in (such as when adding a block via switches).

Yet another thing to look into would be the "Snapshot Bypass" function of each block. In case you turn that off, you can switch blocks globally (well, patchwide) and no snapshot switching will affect the status.

 

A little off topic but still:

I am however right now trying to create a bunch of patches without using any snapshots. Due to the rather easy way to assign multiple things to footswitches (at least as long as you stick with on/off things), this is working quite fine, too. The reason I'm doing this is because I'm trying to use my Android tablet as a MIDI controller, to have some instant control over the most relevant parameters I may have to adjust to suit the gig or that I simply may want to fool around with while playing (like raising delay feedback and such). Unfortunately, all this won't work anymore once you're using snapshots because once a parameter is controlled via MIDI, it'll as well be automatically recalled with snapshots. Quite a drawback for my personal idea of an ideal setup. I really hope this will be adressed in a future update because external MIDI control via some virtual tablet (or even just smartphone) faders is *way* cool, seriously!