kyragsdale Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 Hi everyone, I've had my Helix for a couple months now - it is amazing piece of gear, but as I've told my bandmates, it's gonna take me years to master this thing. I have 2 main use cases for it, one being the replacement of my pedalboard. For this, I have a whole folder of presets that I only use live that have no amp or cab blocks. I just run it into my Fender Deville input, and it sounds great as an effects processor without the hassle of my old pedalboard. No issues there. The problem I'm having right now is the 2nd use case, running it stereo out via XLR into my interface in the studio. I'm getting "decent" tones, but nothing like my live setup (from above) mic'd up. I know running it through my DeVille is inherently different, but even the factory preset patches don't sound the same (nearly as good) as they do for YouTubers doing reviews of the Helix with those same patches. This leads me to believe that I have some sort of configuration/setting issue perhaps? Maybe gain on the interface? My approach to my direct-in tones is simply to pull in my live preset and add a amp/cab block at the end, but it is not yielding great results. Does anyone have tips on this? I'm also looking for ways to have the tone sound wider and more stereo when I'm plugged in stereo via 2 XLR cables. Which effect blocks best achieve this? Any tips you guys can provide would be great. I've attached one of my live presets for reference. Thanks! Become the Wild.hlx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty42 Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 Just downloaded your patch. If it's studio, stereo sounds you want, the first problem I see right away is your signal chain is almost entirely mono blocks. Keep in mind that stereo width is created by the differences between the left and right channels, so to achieve a stereo sound, you'll want to be using stereo effects after your amp blocks. FWIW, every signal route in the Helix paths is made of stereo channels, but certain blocks like amps will always collapse that to mono. So it's important you pay attention to channel splitting, routing the channels through different effects, etc., and also making sure any blocks after the ones that generate the stereo field are *also* stereo blocks, or else they'll combine both channels back into a mono mix. Let me play with your preset just a bit and I'll upload another one in a minute with an example of how to get a full stereo/studio tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty42 Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 Give these a shot. I changed all the effects blocks after the reverb to stereo. Note that the legacy-category reverbs in Helix are stereo, so to make them sound that way, every block after them in the chain also has to be stereo. That alone gives a wider stereo field by itself. Another trick I added is splitting the signal and adding a delay for a slap-back type of effect, in a separate path from the reverb. If you listen to real amps recorded in rooms instead of isolation boxes, you can often hear reverb as well as a slapback echo. In 'Become the Wild2", I left the delay as a stereo effect, and mixed it back into the signal centered. In 'Become the Wild3,' I made that slapback delay mono, and mixed it back into the main signal panned a bit right and the undelayed signal panned a bit left. The last one, 'Become the Wild4,' I also added a subtle chorus to the right side before the delay, which can give an even more lush sound, depending on what you're going for. Anyway, those should give you some ideas. You can change how dramatic any of these are by adjusting the mix levels, adjusing the delay times (bigger offset between L/R equals wider field, but also be sure to check them with everything collapsed to mono to avoid phasing issues), etc. Think of your chain as the sound would be created in a real-life setup -- once the sound comes out of the amp speaker, a mono source, you get stereo reflections, stereo echoes, etc. Try to set up your paths past that point to mimic what's going on in the real world. Become the Wild3.hlx Become the Wild4.hlx Become the Wild2.hlx 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyragsdale Posted April 12, 2020 Author Share Posted April 12, 2020 Thank you!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone_Poor_Boy Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Hell, this is a great tutorial! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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