Helix 3.0—"THE ALONG CAME POLY UPDATE"

[datacommando]

2 hours ago, katerlouis said:

Is there a way to pay Line6 for this update? I mean it. I've been on Helix since v1.8 and have gotten free updates over the years with features, amps, effects worth at least 2 new products. I really want to support that.

Flowers are always a nice gesture.

[LBET]

On 11/19/2020 at 12:54 PM, msmithphoto said:

I don't have a Helix yet, planning on picking up a Stomp, is v3.0 of HX Edit compatible with Mac OSX El Capitan? It's not clear from the downloads page.

According to the version 3 release notes it's time for an upgrade to Sierra at least. The Line6 support page has all this information and much much more.

 

 

Compatible OS: Mac OS X, macOS Sierra, macOS High Sierra, macOS Mojave, macOS Catalina

[lou-kash]

18 hours ago, LBET said:

According to the version 3 release notes it's time for an upgrade to Sierra at least.

 

Nope. Everything runs as smooth as only possible on El Capitan. No problems whatsoever, even the broken account login was apparently fixed.

Same for Helix Native 3: runs fine in Logic. (10.3.3, the latest version for El Capitan)

The only incompatible part is the latest Helix Driver. If you want to use sample rates other than 48 kHz, you must install v1.0.7 for El Capitan.

 

18 hours ago, LBET said:

Compatible OS: Mac OS X, macOS Sierra, macOS High Sierra, macOS Mojave, macOS Catalina

 

^ Emphasis mine. "Mac OS X" was the official MacOS description before Sierra. HX Edit 3 might be thus also compatible with Yosemite, possible even Mavericks. I just don't have any partitions with those OSs to try out.

Edited December 7, 2020 by lou-kash

[offrhodes]

Hi,

possible bug report on the 3.01 "12 string" synth (putting this here for discussion first).

It seems to sometimes settle into a state where the sensitivity depends strongly on the direction of the stroke. In other words, upstrokes ring cleanly but  downstrokes above a certain strength get muted. This must sound pretty weird until you've experienced it yourself.

The problem isn't always present but I can recreate it consistently with the open high E string after a D open chord. It's not playing technique: even if I play both up-/downstroke with exaggerated force, it's there (but it disappears at low volume).

The guitar is a strat with Humbuckers (same observation on all three pickups, heavy strings in standard tuning)

 

Might be a missing abs() in an envelope detector, maybe? Just thinking aloud...

 

EDIT since the problem persists even after disabling the 12 string block I now suspect a glitch in my guitar "firmware" :facepalm

pickup height does matter...

[HonestOpinion]

Just now, offrhodes said:

Hi,

possible bug report on the 3.01 "12 string" synth (putting this here for discussion first).

It seems to sometimes settle into a state where the sensitivity depends strongly on the direction of the stroke. In other words, upstrokes ring cleanly but  downstrokes above a certain strength get muted. This must sound pretty weird until you've experienced it yourself.

The problem isn't always present but I can recreate it consistently with the open high E string after a D open chord. It's not playing technique: even if I play both up-/downstroke with exaggerated force, it's there (but it disappears at low volume).

The guitar is a strat with Humbuckers (same observation on all three pickups, heavy strings in standard tuning)

 

Might be a missing abs() in an envelope detector, maybe? Just thinking aloud...

 

Judging by that last line in your post you may already have checked this but any chance something might be gating in your signal path like a compressor or the gate on the input block? Or maybe putting a compressor in front of it might help ensure a more consistent signal? Strange that you are only noticing it on one string.  Does this happen with different amp blocks or a different guitar? Does moving the 12 string block to another position in your signal chain help? 

[offrhodes]

Thanks, I found the problem and it has nothing to do with the effects.

What happened was that the high E string pulls out of the pickup's magnetic field in downstrokes, and especially when playing hard. I moved it a millimeter in on the saddle and it's much better  now.

 

[HonestOpinion]

Just now, offrhodes said:

Thanks, I found the problem and it has nothing to do with the effects.

What happened was that the high E string pulls out of the pickup's magnetic field in downstrokes, and especially when playing hard. I moved it a millimeter in on the saddle and it's much better  now.

 

 

Great to hear you got it resolved and thanks for posting back so other people can benefit from your observation. Sounds like you figured it out anyway but that is why I suggested trying another guitar. So many moving parts with this stuff that swapping out anything you can(guitar, cable, USB port, monitor, etc.) often helps to pinpoint these elusive issues.

[spikey]

Hi, I'm running an 8087 coprocessor with a 30 pound monochrome monitor using Dos 3.0 OS...

 

It'll all be ok, right?

 

 

 

; )

 

 

[HonestOpinion]

16 minutes ago, spikey said:

Hi, I'm running an 8087 coprocessor with a 30 pound monochrome monitor using Dos 3.0 OS...

 

It'll all be ok, right?

 

 

 

; )

 

 

 

Mine uses punch cards and it works just fine.

[jeffsacc]

Am I missing a step? None of the new poly pedals are showing up in my 3.01 update

[phil_m]

22 minutes ago, jeffsacc said:

Am I missing a step? None of the new poly pedals are showing up in my 3.01 update

 

 

[Ieatass64]

On 11/20/2020 at 12:08 AM, Digital_Igloo said:

3.0 for Helix Floor, Helix Rack, Helix LT, Helix Native, HX Effects, HX Stomp, and HX Edit is now available.

 

Why don't I see any new amps,cabs or pedals on my Helix LT, even-though I updated it to 3.01.0? help.

  

[datacommando]

55 minutes ago, Ieatass64 said:

Why don't I see any new amps,cabs or pedals on my Helix LT, even-though I updated it to 3.01.0? help.

  

 

 Same as all the other replies on here - you need to install HX Edit v.3.0.

 

When you've done that - restore the Global settings from the back-up file that you made before updating the Firmware.

 

You did make a back-up, didn't you?

 

[BassBase]

Well done Line6! I use my HX Stomp since one year as a bass player. I'm not an FX-guy or stomping-guy on stage ... but love the routing options. And therefore these 8-block-update in 3.x is a killer!!! Thanks very much.

 

My HX Stomp with 2.x was getting quite warm. And with 3.01 ... it seems to keep more cool. I was somehow "scared" when possibly taking the Stomp on a hot open-air situation. But now it seems to have more "reserve" or maybe warmth relates more to DSP usage...

 

Question to all: Do you think / feel your HX stomp keeps "cooler" with the update? Line6: Have you done any improvements in the software to use less power? Also interesting in terms of power usage...

 

But as I said: Great update, love this small unit - and so happy you are improving it further. Will promote the HX Stomp even more to any "stringed" friends ;-)

[PiFromBRC]

On 12/8/2020 at 10:55 AM, offrhodes said:

 

 

EDIT since the problem persists even after disabling the 12 string block I now suspect a glitch in my guitar "firmware" :facepalm

pickup height does matter...

 

So you're more sensitive when stroking one way than the either.  And size matters.  Yeah....I'm pretty sure this is the wrong forum for that type of 'firmware'.

Thank you...thank you...I'm here through New Years Eve.  Be sure to ask about the specials.

[lou-kash]

10 hours ago, BassBase said:

I was somehow "scared" when possibly taking the Stomp on a hot open-air situation.

 

A week or two after buying the HX Stomp, in August I was already playing it on an open-air stage, 35°C in the shade.

I'm playing bass guitar in that band. My Stomp's line-out went straight to the PA, using Amp+Cab modelling with a few "special effects" blocks in front of it, plus a Send block before the A+C to my bass combo via Send output for the sole purpose of stage monitoring.

So, HX Stomp can stand the heat just fine.

 

Whereas our guitarist's Bogner tube amp head died gracelessly overheated within the very first song. He had to play the rest of the gig on acoustic guitar. It's pop, and every now and then we also play "unplugged", so it wasn't that much of a big deal for the overall sound, but still.

[BassBase]

On 12/25/2020 at 1:12 PM, lou-kash said:

My Stomp's line-out went straight to the PA, using Amp+Cab modelling with a few "special effects" blocks in front of it, plus a Send block before the A+C to my bass combo via Send output for the sole purpose of stage monitoring.

Thanks! And now with 8 blocks you could even do [Amp] -> [Send Monitor] -> [CabSim] to have the amp sound on monitor 8-)

[lou-kash]

Just now, BassBase said:

now with 8 blocks you could even do [Amp] -> [Send Monitor] -> [CabSim] to have the amp sound on monitor 8-)

 

Yeah! Although, for this very group I'd rather use those two spare blocks for refining the aforementioned "special effects":

 

There's a multi-pitch shifter and a tape delay on a parallel path, recreating kinda synth effect which the band was using on the corresponding studio recording. With the new poly stuff I might get better results now. If the DSP can bear it, that is. I may need to rebuild the patch with less DSP hungry effects and amp; Del Sol 300 to the rescue!

 

That said, I haven't used this preset for quite a while now, since we had to stop rehearsing – let alone performing live – many weeks ago, for obvious social distancing and "risk group" reason. Right now I'm getting a "Helix device failed to recall snapshot data properly" warning in HX Edit when changing snapshots, very likely due to the firmware upgrade. I suspect it's the originally saved tempi per snapshot which appear to be reset now.

 

[offtopic]

As for the real bass amp, I have an H&K Quantum QC415 which sounds alright, especially since I've added the Tech 21 Q-Strip box for precise equalizing. It's more the 15" speaker that I don't like much, and no Cab modeling can fix that. But two years ago I needed a loud combo very quickly, and this one was available very cheap right in my home town, so that's what I'm stuck with for the time being. And it's so LIGHT thanks to its neodym speaker so that I can carry it all by myself, my hernia scar notwithstanding. ;) I also have a small SWR Workingman 12 combo, but that's not loud (and thus clean) enough for a rock lineup.

Anyway…

[/offtopic]

[BassBase]

9 hours ago, lou-kash said:

As for the real bass amp, I have an H&K Quantum QC415 which sounds alright

Ah ... AFAIK the Quantums do have their own tubish sound. So Amp-Sim -> Quantum may not be optimal. But for clean-amp (clean return) + normal-speaker, the split is an option.

 

@Line6: What I would love (Feature Request or maybe there is an option I don't know): FS3 is TAP-TEMPO/TUNER or [Something else]. I managed to disable the Tempo-LED (not sure if that option is new or I haven't seen it before) but I need to press "long" on the switch to enable tuner. I don't use Tap-Tempo - so I just want the option for FS3 like "Tuner-only" - step it, tune it, done. No need to hold it longer. That would be great for me!!!! or @all: is there a workaround maybe via Command Center?

 

Thanks

 

Stefan

[lou-kash]

20 minutes ago, BassBase said:

I just want the option for FS3 like "Tuner-only" - step it, tune it, done

 

That's something to be requested at https://line6.ideascale.com

I was just looking for it but haven't found anything like that, so you may want to submit a request.

 

(Speaking of which: Is it just me or does the Ideascale search and filtering – let alone search results sorting, if any – suck?)

 

20 minutes ago, BassBase said:

is there a workaround maybe via Command Center?

 

At the moment only if you patch MIDI Out to MIDI In with a cable, then you can save it per preset, CC# 68

[tdnewson]

Please help.  I need this to gig tomorrow.  I keep getting this error "updating UI MCU firmware, please wait. Do not power off unit' it also has a red '-7' at the top left" on my Helix LT. 

[silverhead]

Try one of the device reset procedures listed here:

Some of these procedures will reset your Global Settings and/or IRs/presets. Since your device is not starting up at the moment you have no opportunity to make a backup. Hopefully you have recently made a system backup (e.g when you updated to v3.01) so once you get it started up again you can restore whatever portions of the backup that you need.

 

Start with the least destructive reset options. As a last resort, start in Update mode and use the Line 6 Updater program to reinstall the firmware.

[flop54]

Whhhhoooooooaaaaahhhh.

I just updated my helix floor and i want to say a big thank because the adds are so hudge!

 

Thank you!

[petes_blues]

Hi all,

I just updated my Helix LT to 3.01 and wonder why the factory2 setlist is empty from 23D up to the end. Importing the posted setlist will not help. Haven't Line 6 filled this bank up with all patches or did I have an error ? In all other aspects the unit is running fine.

 

Thanks for help.

 

[phil_m]

 

4 hours ago, petes_blues said:

Hi all,

I just updated my Helix LT to 3.01 and wonder why the factory2 setlist is empty from 23D up to the end. Importing the posted setlist will not help. Haven't Line 6 filled this bank up with all patches or did I have an error ? In all other aspects the unit is running fine.

 

Thanks for help.

 

 

This is expected.

 

One clarification, though, if you haven't done a factory reset since updating to 3.00 or later, you won't get all the new factory presets. You either need to do a reset to get them (and then restore from backup without selecting Setlists 1,2 and 8 to be restored), or you can download and load them manually from here:

 

 

[Erfa]

On 11/21/2020 at 6:05 PM, phil_m said:

Wow, thanks, I had no idea this was a thing. I assumed HX Edit would update automatically when I updated the firmware. I updated firmware first and HX Edit was totally broken, couldn't copy/paste blocks and a few of my patches were completely off. Might be a good idea to have a warning about this in the software. Or even better, just update HX Edit automatically! :D

[brue58ski]

On 12/30/2020 at 3:58 AM, Erfa said:

Wow, thanks, I had no idea this was a thing. I assumed HX Edit would update automatically when I updated the firmware. I updated firmware first and HX Edit was totally broken, couldn't copy/paste blocks and a few of my patches were completely off. Might be a good idea to have a warning about this in the software. Or even better, just update HX Edit automatically! :D

 

The warning is there in that if you read the installation instructions, it is the first thing it says to do and warns against not doing it.

 

 

[Tarekith]

I downloaded the HX Stomp 3.0 Playlist and it looks like the presets are the same as from 2.92, can anyone confirm?  I know the HX doesn't get the artist presets of the bigger Helix, but want to make sure I'm not missing out on any new presets.  Yes I know a lot of people here don't like the factory presets, but I find them quite useful starting points. Especially the weirder FX driven ones, so I wanted to check that there are no new ones using the latest delay and poly effects.

 

thanks!

[macwulson]

I do believe with the 3.0 update, you have to manually load the new presets into a setlist. 

[Tarekith]

Sorry for not clarifying.  I downloaded the new set list, and opened it in Helix Native just because it's easier to see the full lists of presets that way. I haven't even bothered to send it to the HX Stomp yet, I don't want to overwrite and then rebuild my curated factory preset list if there's no new additions.
 

 I just didn't see any preset names that jumped out at me as being new, it looked like they were all the same.  

[phil_m]

2 minutes ago, Tarekith said:

Sorry for not clarifying.  I downloaded the new set list, and opened it in Helix Native just because it's easier to see the full lists of presets that way. I haven't even bothered to send it to the HX Stomp yet, I don't want to overwrite and then rebuild my curated factory preset list if there's no new additions.
 

 I just didn't see any preset names that jumped out at me as being new, it looked like they were all the same.  

 

The factory presets weren't updated for the Stomp. I uploaded the artists presets that are compatible with the Stomp to Google Drive folder if you'd like them: 

 

[Tarekith]

Thank you so much, just the info I was looking for. 

[robin_gr]

On 12/3/2020 at 10:53 PM, Scarangella said:

This is probably the first time I've posted here, because this is the first issue I've had that I can't find any info on.

 

I updated my Helix LT to 3.0 (and my HX Edit, too) and I set it to the new mode that allows you to sacrifice one dsp chain to have no lag between presets. However, after my LT has been on for a few minutes, all of a sudden the patches are silent when I switch. I have to press the button again to hear anything. I.e. I'm on 23A and I switch to 23d, I won't hear anything unless I press it twice. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of no lags between presets.

 

Anyone know the issue behind this? Is it a bug, or something I did?

 

I have the exact same problem on my Helix after updating it to 3.01.0.

After hearing that the spillover mode will be available I edited all my presets so they only use one path.

It works without any problems, but somehow after a bit of a time the same problem as yours appears.

If I switch the preset -> no sound

pressing the footswitch again -> sound

pressing it a third time -> no sound

and so on.

I absolutely don't have any clue how to solve this problem.

 

EDIT 2021-02-07:

Today the problem appeared after I used the tuner instantly after starting the helix (I didn't play a single note between starting the helix and using the tuner).

Then I restarted the helix and didn't use the tuner and these problems didn't appear at all. 

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by robin_gr
Maybe the tuner is the problem cause?

[acousticglue]

I just want to say I am fairly new to Helix and lately began making barebones patches w amp and RedWirez kind of matching cabs and running that into Reaper w bx_80s console then Izotope R4 reverb and out to a Toneboosters compressor limiter And the sound is phenomenal. I would never be without this device ever. Thanks Line6 and btw yes I've owned older products before.

[craiganderton]

On 12/8/2020 at 1:40 PM, offrhodes said:

Thanks, I found the problem and it has nothing to do with the effects.

What happened was that the high E string pulls out of the pickup's magnetic field in downstrokes, and especially when playing hard. I moved it a millimeter in on the saddle and it's much better  now.

 

 

A little late to the party, sorry, but I did some research into pickup height, and wrote the results up in Optimizing Pickup Height for Sustain. I was shocked at the difference that can happen from moving a pickup just a few millimeters back from the string. Also, this can also make a difference with effects that need to track the string (e.g., pitch changes) due to the higher average signal level, and smoother attack. Hope this helps.

[paolovalladolid]

On 5/5/2021 at 10:58 AM, craiganderton said:

 

A little late to the party, sorry, but I did some research into pickup height, and wrote the results up in Optimizing Pickup Height for Sustain. I was shocked at the difference that can happen from moving a pickup just a few millimeters back from the string. Also, this can also make a difference with effects that need to track the string (e.g., pitch changes) due to the higher average signal level, and smoother attack. Hope this helps.

 

Interesting read!  This has been on my mind as I've been researching whether or not to replace the stock .009 strings on my new American Professional II Jazzmaster with .011s - mainly because the .009s feel a little too slinky, even though I play with a fairly light touch. I came across a comment that the .011s will deliver louder output, but with loss of sustain unless the pickup is lowered.  I didn't think only a few millimeters was needed though.

 

I tried watching Pusheen's video on Jazzmaster pickup height and it all came down to "use your ears".

[uitagreg]

I swear by the Digitech Drop pedal and find it suits my needs well. When I heard that there may be an option on the Helix I thought I'd look into it, tried it and thought meh, no where near as good! Can you imagine my embarrassment to then find when putting it in front of my amp (like my Drop) and not after it changes meh to WOW!?

I now have a very reduced (size and weight) pedal board with just an extra expression, FreqOut and wireless.....nice.