IR Import Names

[LMychajluk]

I'm still kind of new to the Helix, but was just trying to download a few Presets and IRs and ran into a snag (2, actually).

 

1) It seems that the Preset references the IRs by Slot Number rather than name. So, if you have a Preset and load the IR into a slot that doesn't match the original slot on the creator's Helix, you have to 'fix' it. Is there any  way to change this?

 

2) When importing an IR, the name being imported doesn't always match the FileName. It actually seems to me that it matches the Title property of the file. I'm guessing if someone creates an IR called ABC.wav, it set the Title of the file to ABC. Then, if they edit it and save it as XYZ.wav, it changes the filename, but not the Title of the file, which is still 'ABC' (see attached pic for a real example). At least, that's the only reason I can think of for why this may happen. Any way around this, short of renaming the IRs after they've been imported? I'd like to import ~25-30 IRs that are part of a bundle w/ Presets from Seacow that I'd like to check out, and it's already a PITA to go back and re-link them to the associated Presets (See #1 above). Any easier way to manage this?

 

.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

-Lee

[silverhead]

1) HX Edit includes a full system backup/restore capability. This restores all IRs to their proper locations.

 

2) Not sure I understand this completely but there''s really no way to easily audition new IRs with existing presets that reference IRs without doing 1 of 2 things. Either import all IRs at once into unused IR slots and then edit the preset(s) to reference the new slots, or import the IRs one at a time into the slot currently referenced by the preset.

 

For simplified IR management many people rename the IRs to include a 3-digit prefix that indicates the IR slot number used in the presets.  You can then save them in a folder in your computer - a folder eventually containing up to 128 files named 001-<IR name> to 128-<IR name>.

[HonestOpinion]

On 11/24/2019 at 8:56 PM, LMychajluk said:

I'm still kind of new to the Helix, but was just trying to download a few Presets and IRs and ran into a snag (2, actually).

 

1) It seems that the Preset references the IRs by Slot Number rather than name. So, if you have a Preset and load the IR into a slot that doesn't match the original slot on the creator's Helix, you have to 'fix' it. Is there any  way to change this?

 

2) When importing an IR, the name being imported doesn't always match the FileName. It actually seems to me that it matches the Title property of the file. I'm guessing if someone creates an IR called ABC.wav, it set the Title of the file to ABC. Then, if they edit it and save it as XYZ.wav, it changes the filename, but not the Title of the file, which is still 'ABC' (see attached pic for a real example). At least, that's the only reason I can think of for why this may happen. Any way around this, short of renaming the IRs after they've been imported? I'd like to import ~25-30 IRs that are part of a bundle w/ Presets from Seacow that I'd like to check out, and it's already a PITA to go back and re-link them to the associated Presets (See #1 above). Any easier way to manage this?

 

.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

-Lee

 

The long and short of it is that IMHO Line6 still has a ways to go to improve IR management and handling. Adding the ability to the backup and restore to replace IRs in their original location a while back was a huge step forward but there really hasn't been any improvement I can see since then. I hope they continue to enhance the process. The limited name space for the IRs often truncates the names and forces renaming to keep them meaningful. Also, for me at least, the fact that we are limited to 128 IRs is not ideal. I would like to see this limit doubled or tripled. Subjective I know, some people would find ten slots or even none sufficient :-) Wouldn't mind being able to import larger/longer IR files without truncation to their rather compact format either. In addition to limiting the IRs that can be imported without truncation to a relatively small filesize there is also no capacity to import anything but the left side of a stereo IR. I suspect some of these issues, particularly the UI for IR management can/will be improved on the current hardware and some, e.g. increased filesize, stereo IRs, may(who knows?) have to wait for the next generation of devices.

[SaschaFranck]

20 hours ago, LMychajluk said:

2) When importing an IR, the name being imported doesn't always match the FileName. It actually seems to me that it matches the Title property of the file. I'm guessing if someone creates an IR called ABC.wav, it set the Title of the file to ABC. Then, if they edit it and save it as XYZ.wav, it changes the filename, but not the Title of the file, which is still 'ABC' (see attached pic for a real example). At least, that's the only reason I can think of for why this may happen. Any way around this, short of renaming the IRs after they've been imported? I'd like to import ~25-30 IRs that are part of a bundle w/ Presets from Seacow that I'd like to check out, and it's already a PITA to go back and re-link them to the associated Presets (See #1 above). Any easier way to manage this?

 

Personally, I only ever import IRs after checking them in my sequencer of choice. Yes, that way I'm kinda losing the option of playing through them straight inside the Helix (could still play through them but there might be some additional latency), but pre-sorting works *way* faster that way, at least the way I do it - fwiw, I'm using Logic, all my IRs are Space Designer presets that I can scroll through with the arrow buttons, which IMO is by far the most comfortable way I have come across until today. When done with the pre-sorting business, I save the project and it'll automatically save all used IRs (hence those of interest) within the project folder, so I can then drag them onto the Helix. No idea whether anything like that is possible as easily in other sequencers, but I still think it's easier as within the Helix.

 

7 hours ago, silverhead said:

1) HX Edit includes a full system backup/restore capability. This restores all IRs to their proper locations.

 

In all honesty, that doesn't help at all when you try out some IRs or - even way worse - patches requiring them. It also doesn't help in case you don't want to do full backups all the time (which I rarely ever want). The only way to really keep track of patches and their corresponding IRs is to do it manually and write everything down. Even with the sort of small overall amount of IR slots, this is good to cause much confusion already. Forget to write it down, export a single patch and change something in your IR list = patch will be lost (at least sort of).

As HonestOpinion said, there's much room for improvements.

[LMychajluk]

Thanks, guys... Looks like I'm basically going to have to do it manually. Meaning I need to rename the Titles of files back to the Filenames, de-dupe, then import the IRs, then Import the Presets one by one and figure out which IR(s) are supposed to be assigned to what and fix them manually.

 

Once they're all in, I can take a backup, but that will only work for me. I can't share that backup w/o it overwriting other people's current settings.

[SaschaFranck]

Fwiw, I have set myself a rather arbitrary limit of 30 IRs to stay on the Helix no matter what. For obvious reasons, they will be those in the first 20 slots. These will be the ones I'm using live and as a base for most patches (in case they need IRs). First 20 will be cab IRs, the remaining 10 kinda "special purpose" ones, such as what I may need to enhance acoustic guitars or generate pseudo acoustic guitars from electrics.

I think I'll be fine with that limit - so far, I have only loaded 3 cab IRs that will stay and 1 acoustic IR for my nylon string (to be changed as it'll get a new piezo the next days).

I also only ever drag additional IRs into the Helix up from IR slot 41, should I ever feel I needed to expand my sticky IRs.

 

This allows me to not care about the IRs for my most relevant patches and it's still giving me plenty of slots to mass drop whatever IRs for testing purposes into the unit.

For all other patches using whatever special IRs, I use the manual route (obviously, as there's no other choice) and save the IR(s) and a small text file along with the patch.

 

For recording duties, IRs aren't exactly relevant for me as I only monitor with cabs/IRs and select the final cab in my sequencer.

 

Whatever, none of all of that should be required. It's almost 2020 and computers are insanely great at storing and sorting files. There's no reason why the Helix should be an exception. It's a miraculously great piece of software and shouldn't be limited in terms of useability by something as trivial as this.

 

[lungho]

2 hours ago, SaschaFranck said:

Whatever, none of all of that should be required. It's almost 2020 and computers are insanely great at storing and sorting files. There's no reason why the Helix should be an exception. It's a miraculously great piece of software and shouldn't be limited in terms of useability by something as trivial as this.

 

Sure it could have been done, but no feature comes without a price.  I'm sure Line 6/Yamaha did their research as to how much their customers were willing to pay for a modeler. ~$500 used to be the price for their top tier modeler before Helix.  I'm betting they were very cautious about keeping the price down while trying to deliver a professional grade product.  

 

I am curious as to how more expensive modelers/profilers handle IR management and if they are any better or worse than Helix. 

[SaschaFranck]

3 hours ago, lungho said:

 

Sure it could have been done, but no feature comes without a price.  I'm sure Line 6/Yamaha did their research as to how much their customers were willing to pay for a modeler. ~$500 used to be the price for their top tier modeler before Helix.  I'm betting they were very cautious about keeping the price down while trying to deliver a professional grade product.  

 

I am curious as to how more expensive modelers/profilers handle IR management and if they are any better or worse than Helix. 

 

I don't know much about the others, but with Atomics stuff you can at least bake the IR into the patch file - which would be a massive improvement and possibly sufficient already.

And fwiw, I don't think it's got anything to do with the Helix' price. Each software sampler shows how things can be done, too, so it's not rocket science or anything, either. I love the Helix a lot, I also applaud Line 6 for doing a marvelleous job in improving the unit, hats off and all that - yet, let's face it, the IR management is almost as bad as it gets. In case you'd release a software sampler with sample management like that (and yes, it's absolutely comparable), your sales would be zero.