Pedalboard power with Helix Floor

[nbiglin]

I'm looking to build my first pedal board around the helix floor, all one single unit. It'll include a Beatbuddy and an Aeros from Singular Sound, a Sennheiser wireless unit, and a couple of other things, but those three along with the helix are causing me issues in terms of power. Is there a power supply out there that can handle 2x 9v 500ma outlets, 1x 9v 300ma, and includes an outlet plug for the helix? Or if not, what do you all do to power the helix in your boards?

[Verne-Bunsen]

Power distribution is definitely a major part of laying out a modern pedalboard. It deserves at least as much planning as the audio cable routing. I don't know of a "magic bullet" for doing all of those things. Might exist, but I haven't found it. My board has a master power strip that supplies Helix and my Boomerang looper directly, then a Strymon Ojai that powers my Strymon and Meris pedals, and a Voodoo Labs PP+ that runs the smaller pedals. Yeesh.

(forgive the bad lighting, the lighting was bad...)

[DunedinDragon]

I have almost the same situation as what you're describing with a BeatBuddy, L6 wireless and probably eventually an Aeros.  The difference in my setup is I created a secondary "outboard" which contains all that that stuff along with a single powerstrip that provides power to everything on that board as well as the Helix and sits separately from the Helix normally placed behind me off to the side.  In my case I don't need any direct access to any of those units since I operate everything from the Helix via MIDI.

My secondary outboard has two sets of cable groups.  One cable group goes to the Helix providing the power cable, 1/4" guitar cable from the wireless,  XLR cable for the output from the Helix, and MIDI cable.  A second cable group provides the XLR cables that run to the mixer from the BeatBuddy, Aeros (eventually), and from the Helix all marked appropriately for the mixer.  I did this primarily because I don't want all the clutter in front of me especially since I don't really have any direct interaction with any of those units on the outboard and I only need a single power plug for everything I use on stage.  It's probably not as convenient as a single board, but not nearly as much stage clutter, and only takes a few moments to hook up or tear down.  When I tear down I simply loop up each cable group and place them on the secondary outboard into it's own case and it's ready to go for the next gig or to hook up at home.  I got a simple extension cord with a right angle power plug that goes from the outboard to the Helix that's permanently a part of that cable group.

[talonmm]

I am at work, so maybe I will try to send a photo later.

 

I used a custom size Temple audio board (they will make you custom sizes). 

 

The Temple audio works great for a few reasons:

 

1.  some of the line 6 screws on the bottom line up with the holes on the temple board so you can easily screw the existing screws through the board and secure the helix to the board.

 

2.  there is room under the unit to plug the helix into an extension chord and run it out the side.  The extension chord I plug the helix into, had enough extra sockets to power all my other devices and having an extension chord allowed to use the proper power supply to my Vocal harmonizer.

 

3.  If you use temple, it may be a good idea to purchase extra brackets that go on the bottom to keep the until from sagging.  My board does not sag.  The harmonizer is also screwed down.  The temple system has plates that work great and allow you to easily move and take effects on and off the board.

 

I highly recommend it.  To take to gigs, I have a keyboard softcase that fits the unit quite well.

 

 

 

[nbiglin]

15 hours ago, DunedinDragon said:

I have almost the same situation as what you're describing with a BeatBuddy, L6 wireless and probably eventually an Aeros.  The difference in my setup is I created a secondary "outboard" which contains all that that stuff along with a single powerstrip that provides power to everything on that board as well as the Helix and sits separately from the Helix normally placed behind me off to the side.  In my case I don't need any direct access to any of those units since I operate everything from the Helix via MIDI.

My secondary outboard has two sets of cable groups.  One cable group goes to the Helix providing the power cable, 1/4" guitar cable from the wireless,  XLR cable for the output from the Helix, and MIDI cable.  A second cable group provides the XLR cables that run to the mixer from the BeatBuddy, Aeros (eventually), and from the Helix all marked appropriately for the mixer.  I did this primarily because I don't want all the clutter in front of me especially since I don't really have any direct interaction with any of those units on the outboard and I only need a single power plug for everything I use on stage.  It's probably not as convenient as a single board, but not nearly as much stage clutter, and only takes a few moments to hook up or tear down.  When I tear down I simply loop up each cable group and place them on the secondary outboard into it's own case and it's ready to go for the next gig or to hook up at home.  I got a simple extension cord with a right angle power plug that goes from the outboard to the Helix that's permanently a part of that cable group.

 

The outboard is exactly what I was thinking of lately, maybe getting a couple of Morton boards and strapping them together to make the Aeros and beatbuddy line up with the angle of the Helix, and maybe adding an expression pedal and a Jackson Audio Broken Arrow.

 

Question, so you said you run everything through midi via the Helix. Does that include the beatbuddy and eventually the Aeros? How do you logic it: snapshot changes = song part change?

[nbiglin]

12 hours ago, talonmm said:

I am at work, so maybe I will try to send a photo later.

 

I used a custom size Temple audio board (they will make you custom sizes). 

 

The Temple audio works great for a few reasons:

 

1.  some of the line 6 screws on the bottom line up with the holes on the temple board so you can easily screw the existing screws through the board and secure the helix to the board.

 

2.  there is room under the unit to plug the helix into an extension chord and run it out the side.  The extension chord I plug the helix into, had enough extra sockets to power all my other devices and having an extension chord allowed to use the proper power supply to my Vocal harmonizer.

 

3.  If you use temple, it may be a good idea to purchase extra brackets that go on the bottom to keep the until from sagging.  My board does not sag.  The harmonizer is also screwed down.  The temple system has plates that work great and allow you to easily move and take effects on and off the board.

 

I highly recommend it.  To take to gigs, I have a keyboard softcase that fits the unit quite well.

 

 

 

I was looking at the Temple boards for a long time, but couldn't find a size that wasn't too big or small. I didn't know they did custom sizes, might need to look into that.

[DunedinDragon]

2 hours ago, nbiglin said:

 

The outboard is exactly what I was thinking of lately, maybe getting a couple of Morton boards and strapping them together to make the Aeros and beatbuddy line up with the angle of the Helix, and maybe adding an expression pedal and a Jackson Audio Broken Arrow.

 

Question, so you said you run everything through midi via the Helix. Does that include the beatbuddy and eventually the Aeros? How do you logic it: snapshot changes = song part change?

Yes, I exclusively run the BeatBuddy ONLY from the Helix.  It really depends on the song how I approach it.  Sometimes the changes in the drum parts lines up with multiple changes needed in the  signal chain in which case I'll use a Snapshot, but that's not really all that common.  I'd say most of the time it's just easier to use a snapshot to make complex changes to the guitar setup and just use a stomp to transition song parts simply because you need to use a MIDI toggle command with the ON button sending the part change (next, previous, or specific part) and the OFF button sending a zero to make sure the transition doesn't keep repeating.  I've sent a feature request on the BeatBuddy to be able to trigger a part change without repeating the transition as a single MIDI command.  So what I do now is just use a non-latching stomp attached to something like a gain block (set to 0) to send both MIDI values.  I have an entry on IdeaScale proposing incorporating the ability to create a MIDI script assgned to a stomp or snapshot to send multiple, sequential commands...but that's the big limitation right now on the Helix.

Generally I always use an instantaneous MIDI command attached to Snapshot 1 which will load the MIDI drum song that relates to the Preset I'm using, so simply selecting the preset puts the BeatBuddy in sync with the preset.  Since I have a preset per song, it all works great with each song getting it's own drum track.  I almost always have one stomp to Start, one Stomp to End, and one Stomp to Fill, then sometimes one stomp to pause/restart, and sometimes one stomp for part transitions.  Because I use a preset for each song I have plenty of snaps and buttons available and never really run short.

What I'm waiting for is the Aeros to provide a MIDI command to change the active pre-recorded loop which is currently in development.  That way the MIDI I send to the BeatBuddy will trigger the Aeros part I might need as well.  All theoretical at this point, but I'm hoping it will be possible soon.  BeatBuddy Start and End already line up with the Aeros.

[talonmm]

11 hours ago, nbiglin said:

I was looking at the Temple boards for a long time, but couldn't find a size that wasn't too big or small. I didn't know they did custom sizes, might need to look into that.

 

They charge very little money to make it a custom board.  You have to go with one of their width's but they will make the unit any length.  I love my Temple boards!

 

ps - The Helix floor and the new stomp xl can screw directly into the board (luckily some screws and holes line up).  I have mounted the original HX Stomp using Temple's plates.

 

 

[nbiglin]

On 5/4/2021 at 10:46 PM, DunedinDragon said:

Yes, I exclusively run the BeatBuddy ONLY from the Helix.  It really depends on the song how I approach it.  Sometimes the changes in the drum parts lines up with multiple changes needed in the  signal chain in which case I'll use a Snapshot, but that's not really all that common.  I'd say most of the time it's just easier to use a snapshot to make complex changes to the guitar setup and just use a stomp to transition song parts simply because you need to use a MIDI toggle command with the ON button sending the part change (next, previous, or specific part) and the OFF button sending a zero to make sure the transition doesn't keep repeating.  I've sent a feature request on the BeatBuddy to be able to trigger a part change without repeating the transition as a single MIDI command.  So what I do now is just use a non-latching stomp attached to something like a gain block (set to 0) to send both MIDI values.  I have an entry on IdeaScale proposing incorporating the ability to create a MIDI script assgned to a stomp or snapshot to send multiple, sequential commands...but that's the big limitation right now on the Helix.

Generally I always use an instantaneous MIDI command attached to Snapshot 1 which will load the MIDI drum song that relates to the Preset I'm using, so simply selecting the preset puts the BeatBuddy in sync with the preset.  Since I have a preset per song, it all works great with each song getting it's own drum track.  I almost always have one stomp to Start, one Stomp to End, and one Stomp to Fill, then sometimes one stomp to pause/restart, and sometimes one stomp for part transitions.  Because I use a preset for each song I have plenty of snaps and buttons available and never really run short.

What I'm waiting for is the Aeros to provide a MIDI command to change the active pre-recorded loop which is currently in development.  That way the MIDI I send to the BeatBuddy will trigger the Aeros part I might need as well.  All theoretical at this point, but I'm hoping it will be possible soon.  BeatBuddy Start and End already line up with the Aeros.

Looks like you and me have the exact same needs and rig. Love the ingenuity, thanks for all the help!

[nbiglin]

On 5/5/2021 at 8:00 AM, talonmm said:

 

They charge very little money to make it a custom board.  You have to go with one of their width's but they will make the unit any length.  I love my Temple boards!

 

ps - The Helix floor and the new stomp xl can screw directly into the board (luckily some screws and holes line up).  I have mounted the original HX Stomp using Temple's plates.

 

 

Perfect, thanks a ton!

[nbiglin]

On 5/4/2021 at 12:31 AM, Verne-Bunsen said:

Power distribution is definitely a major part of laying out a modern pedalboard. It deserves at least as much planning as the audio cable routing. I don't know of a "magic bullet" for doing all of those things. Might exist, but I haven't found it. My board has a master power strip that supplies Helix and my Boomerang looper directly, then a Strymon Ojai that powers my Strymon and Meris pedals, and a Voodoo Labs PP+ that runs the smaller pedals. Yeesh.

(forgive the bad lighting, the lighting was bad...)

Love the board! Looks like so much overkill in the best possible way. Just curious, I tend to give the helix covers everything I need from an effects perspective, what made you add everything on the right side?

[talonmm]

Here are two of my temple audio boards with Helix units on them.

 

Please note - the helix floor and all my attachments on these boards are within the edge of the pedalboards.  The camera and the angles make it appear that the Helix floor is over the edge.  It reality it's not, and I use both handles on each side to lift the boards.

 

What I love is I use the send/receive on the helix and the harmony voice units, so I just need to plug in an in and out cable for guitar and for singing, and I'm good to go (the harmony untis are independent from the helix and guitar effects, it just is on the board to conserve footspace and make set up and tear down much faster.

 

 

 

 

[Verne-Bunsen]

On 5/6/2021 at 8:46 AM, nbiglin said:

Love the board! Looks like so much overkill in the best possible way. Just curious, I tend to give the helix covers everything I need from an effects perspective, what made you add everything on the right side?

Thanks! Definitely overkill, but I use it all! I've been using Helix since very early on and this arrangement has kind of developed over time. Helix handles amp, cab/IR, dirt, modulation, and tone shaping (eq, compression). Reverb and delay is handled by outboard pedals in the loops. The music I play lately is very reverb-and-delay intensive, and I like being able to plug in exactly what I need or want. The Freq Out is a "toy" that doesn't have a counterpart in Helix, and the Boomerang has functionality that is critical to what I do and that the Helix looper doesn't have. The Helix's ability to seamlessly incorporate outboard gear was a big part of why I chose it when deciding on a modeling platform. 

 

If you are interested, this is the sort of thing I like to do with all that stuff:

 

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/GwvF8oAsy2jvV6fbA

[soundog]

The Boomerang looper is killer. I've tried 'em all, and its the best for live improv performance I've found.