Amp parameters on footswitch return to haunt me

[YammerUK]

Hi, Helixers. My first post here. How are you doing?

I've had a Helix LT (2.82) for a week, and I've just finished the manual. I think I'm OK with the operational concepts, but I'm still struggling with the controls a bit.

 

I've been using Snapshots to create 2 variations of a preset with different amp gain/volume settings. I found changing snapshots a bit fiddly, because you either have to press Bank Up/Down together, or press Mode, stomp, and press Mode again (with 4 presets/4 snapshots displayed in preset Mode).

 

I discovered that you could assign a footswitch to parameter changes too. So I assigned FS4 to the gain/volume settings of the preset's amp, and labelled it Drive. It works... sort of. I found that, in Stomp Mode, when the Drive footswitch block gets focus for any reason, if I press the footswitch with my hand - even briefly, to engage Drive - the Controller Assign page pops up on the display. It's a bit annoying.

 

Is this expected behaviour? Have I done something wrong? Do I have to switch off Touch Select to stop this? Is there an easy workaround?

 

Thanks for your patience!

 

Keith

[phil_m]

Yes, this is the expected behavior of the capacitive touch feature on the footswitches. You can turn the Touch feature off in Global Settings>Footswitches if you want.

[YammerUK]

27 minutes ago, phil_m said:

Yes, this is the expected behavior of the capacitive touch feature on the footswitches. You can turn the Touch feature off in Global Settings>Footswitches if you want.

Thanks, Phil

 

I understand that nature of the capacitive switches, and I realise that touching a footswitch selects it, but I have not had a problem with the display changing screens until now, when assigning a footswitch to model parameter changes.

 

I’ve been able to stomp other footswitches with my hands without losing the stomp mode display. Sometimes a block is selected if the hand stays on for too long, but nothing to cause any problems. 
 

The only times I normally lose the stomp mode display is if I hold a switch or knob for a while. But the Controller Assign page pops up even if I just very quickly stab at the switch, which is why I asked. 

 

I’ll have to switch off Touch Select, but this seems a shame, as it’s not given me any trouble otherwise. 

[amsdenj]

Snapshots and stomp switches give Helix a lot of flexibility. Snapshots can store values for up to 64 parameters in a patch. stomp switches can control up to 8 parameter min/max values or bypass state. The big difference between the two is that snapshots aren't additive - you can't turn on snapshot 2 and 3. Stomp switches are additive, you can have any combination of up to 10 stomp switches controlling up to 8 parameters/switch on or off at a time - that's a lot of tonal combinations.

 

So should you use snapshots or stomp switches? It depends on the use case. If you're playing guitar in an orchestra pit for a dance performance or play, then you're probably playing a fixed sequence of songs with fixed parts in each song. The critical thing is to play the right sound at the right time, following the conductor. Having a preset per song, and snapshot per song part is very convenient for this situation, and can significantly reduce the chance of getting the wrong sound.

 

Contrast with a jamband in a club where the song order is unpredictable, and solos can start anytime and go on for a while. In cases where there's less structure in the performance, having a palette of stomp switches for overdrive and other effects lets you control the tone for the moment, turning on and off combinations of effects. 

 

I play in a rock cover band. We plan a set list, but don't always follow it depending on how much people are dancing - we really try to keep people in the club dancing. So there's some structure in the song sequence, and we do have arrangements for each song. But I prefer to use stomp mode where I have my typical sound and effects in a patch I use most of the time. I like this because I don't always play the song exactly the same way - I might use a Mutron instead of a Wah for example. I have a few patches for odd things that are unique to the song. For example, we do Love The One Your With and I use a 12string opened tuned acoustic (Variax) through an acoustic patch with a snapshot for the EBEEBE tuning. I also keep an open-G tuning snapshot in my regular preset for Stones songs.

 

[YammerUK]

20 hours ago, amsdenj said:

Snapshots and stomp switches give Helix a lot of flexibility. Snapshots can store values for up to 64 parameters in a patch. stomp switches can control up to 8 parameter min/max values or bypass state. The big difference between the two is that snapshots aren't additive - you can't turn on snapshot 2 and 3. Stomp switches are additive, you can have any combination of up to 10 stomp switches controlling up to 8 parameters/switch on or off at a time - that's a lot of tonal combinations.

 

So should you use snapshots or stomp switches? It depends on the use case. If you're playing guitar in an orchestra pit for a dance performance or play, then you're probably playing a fixed sequence of songs with fixed parts in each song. The critical thing is to play the right sound at the right time, following the conductor. Having a preset per song, and snapshot per song part is very convenient for this situation, and can significantly reduce the chance of getting the wrong sound.

 

Contrast with a jamband in a club where the song order is unpredictable, and solos can start anytime and go on for a while. In cases where there's less structure in the performance, having a palette of stomp switches for overdrive and other effects lets you control the tone for the moment, turning on and off combinations of effects. 

 

I play in a rock cover band. We plan a set list, but don't always follow it depending on how much people are dancing - we really try to keep people in the club dancing. So there's some structure in the song sequence, and we do have arrangements for each song. But I prefer to use stomp mode where I have my typical sound and effects in a patch I use most of the time. I like this because I don't always play the song exactly the same way - I might use a Mutron instead of a Wah for example. I have a few patches for odd things that are unique to the song. For example, we do Love The One Your With and I use a 12string opened tuned acoustic (Variax) through an acoustic patch with a snapshot for the EBEEBE tuning. I also keep an open-G tuning snapshot in my regular preset for Stones songs.

 

 

I'm setting the Helix up to act like a traditional pedal board, right now. So stomp parameter changes works better than snapshots for my general use. I might use snapshots later on, if I need to do several stomps at once.
 

Your info is very useful, thanks, but it's not really what I was asking. I was more interested to know if Controller Assign was supposed to pop up with a quick hand press (as opposed to a longer hold), seeing as it works fine otherwise.