Helix Floor - Preset with snapshots. Want traditional Wah setup with toe-switch toggle across snapshots. How?!

[stuming]

Hi

 

I'm a long time user of Line 6 Helix yet I can't work this one out!

 

I have a preset. It has a 4 snapshots, let's say Normal, Boost, Normal + Chorus, Boost + Chorus.

 

I want to have a Wah pedal in this preset that reacts like a traditional Cry Baby (for instance) in that no matter what snapshot I'm on within that preset, I can use the toe switch to turn on and off the Wah, and have that state maintained whichever snapshot I move to, until I decide to turn it off, again with the toe switch.

 

So, I have turned off Snapshot Bypass on the Wah, and it's set to react to Exp1 when turned on. All my snapshots are saved with Exp2 active, which does nothing. It's not volume, I've set it to do nothing at all.

 

I'm in Normal snapshot with Exp2 selected (no wah). I press the toe switch: Wah turns on and expression pedal is now Exp1. I can play with wah. I use the toe switch and turn it off again. Nice.

 

But ...

 

I'm in Normal snapshot with Exp2 selected (no wah). I press the toe switch: Wah turns on and expression pedal is now Exp1. I can play with wah. I now select the Boost snapshot. The Wah pedal is still turned on, but the expression pedal is set back to Exp2 as that's how the snapshot is saved. The wah is active but I can't control it because Exp2 is active. I press the toe switch. The wah turns off and now Exp1 is active! Pain!

 

I know I could auto trigger the wah by expression pedal position, but I want to do it all with the toe switch! Can I not tell the preset to maintain the current selected expression pedal selection (Exp1 or Exp2) when changing snapshots, like Snapshot Bypass Off?

 

Thanks

 

Stuart

[theElevators]

I discovered a bug a long time ago, and it will accomplish what you want.  You want the Expression 1/2 selection to persist between your snapshots.  What you do is as follows:

 

1. Plug a regular 1/4" cable into your external expression pedal jack and short-circuit the other end of the cable.  You can accomplish that by plugging the other end of the cable into your free jacks, such as send/return/1/2/, etc.  Or you can wrap the other cable in a piece of aluminum foil.  Or you can plug in an external expression pedal.  All we need is to trick the Helix into thinking we have an external pedal plugged in. 

2. Go through all of your snapshots, and change something in them (enable a block, save... then disable a block, save).  It needs to be flagged as a legitimate change to your snapshot.

3. Congratulations!  You now have a preset where if you engage the toe switch, that selection will remain when you change your snapshots. 

 

EDIT: now unplug the cable explained in #1, and you can switch between EXP 1/2, but when you change your snapshots, the selection remains. 

[Schmalle]

Select the wah block, press Action and disengage Snapshot Bypass. (That's at least how it works on the HX Stomp)

[stuming]

On 9/5/2023 at 10:53 PM, Schmalle said:

Select the wah block, press Action and disengage Snapshot Bypass. (That's at least how it works on the HX Stomp)

... Snapshot Bypass is unticked / not engaged. That's why if I turn the wah on in one snapshot, and move to another, it remains switched on.

 

My problem is with the active expression pedal changing when I change snapshot.

[stuming]

On 9/5/2023 at 10:47 PM, theElevators said:

I discovered a bug a long time ago, and it will accomplish what you want.  You want the Expression 1/2 selection to persist between your snapshots.  What you do is as follows:

 

1. Plug a regular 1/4" cable into your external expression pedal jack and short-circuit the other end of the cable.  You can accomplish that by plugging the other end of the cable into your free jacks, such as send/return/1/2/, etc.  Or you can wrap the other cable in a piece of aluminum foil.  Or you can plug in an external expression pedal.  All we need is to trick the Helix into thinking we have an external pedal plugged in. 

2. Go through all of your snapshots, and change something in them (enable a block, save... then disable a block, save).  It needs to be flagged as a legitimate change to your snapshot.

3. Congratulations!  You now have a preset where if you engage the toe switch, that selection will remain when you change your snapshots. 

... I think this might come under the "things to try as a last resort" category!

[Schmalle]

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, theElevators said:

1. Plug a regular 1/4" cable into your external expression pedal jack and short-circuit the other end of the cable.  You can accomplish that by plugging the other end of the cable into your free jacks, such as send/return/1/2/, etc.  Or you can wrap the other cable in a piece of aluminum foil.  Or you can plug in an external expression pedal.  All we need is to trick the Helix into thinking we have an external pedal plugged in. 

If this works then connecting Exp1 with CV/Expression out with a TS patch cable should work, too.

[theElevators]

On 9/5/2023 at 6:24 PM, stuming said:

... Snapshot Bypass is unticked / not engaged. That's why if I turn the wah on in one snapshot, and move to another, it remains switched on.

 

My problem is with the active expression pedal changing when I change snapshot.

If you want to have the expression pedal position to remain unchanged between snapshots, then go to global settings/expression pedal 1/2 and have them be set per preset rather than snapshot. That's the setting I personally use--my expression pedal 2 remains where I leave it even when I change between snapshots. 

 

But if you want the selection (whether it's expression 1 or expression 2) to remain when you change snapshots, then the bug I explained accomplishes that for me :)... not that I would ever need to do this....

[rd2rk]

On 9/5/2023 at 3:47 PM, theElevators said:

1. Plug a regular 1/4" cable into your external expression pedal jack and short-circuit the other end of the cable.  You can accomplish that by plugging the other end of the cable into your free jacks, such as send/return/1/2/, etc.  Or you can wrap the other cable in a piece of aluminum foil.  Or you can plug in an external expression pedal.  All we need is to trick the Helix into thinking we have an external pedal plugged in. 

 

BRILLIANT! All I had to do was disable Snapshot Bypass on the WAH Block to make that work!

This has to be the best Helix hack I've seen!

 

EDIT: I plugged it into an unused Send.

[stuming]

On 9/5/2023 at 11:59 PM, theElevators said:

If you want to have the expression pedal position to remain unchanged between snapshots, then go to global settings/expression pedal 1/2 and have them be set per preset rather than snapshot. That's the setting I personally use--my expression pedal 2 remains where I leave it even when I change between snapshots. 

 

But if you want the selection (whether it's expression 1 or expression 2) to remain when you change snapshots, then the bug I explained accomplishes that for me :)... not that I would ever need to do this....

I have that setting as per preset. The position may stay when I change snapshot but the expression pedal selected doesn’t! 
 

looks like I’ll have to try your hack!

[stuming]

If anyone is interested, I started a support request with Line 6 over this. I ended up sending presets to them, and making videos of the behaviour etc. In the end, their final response was this:

 

Quote

I think there are some workarounds :

-you create a 2nd wah pedal in the preset which you assign to EXP2 so you will always control a wah, but only switch it on or off via EXP Toe

-or you plug in a cable or headphone adapter or similar in Helix EXP2 input, this would simulate a 2nd pedal connected
EXP Toe would now only switch the bypass status of the assigned pedal (can be EXP1 or EXP2)
Disadvantage : EXP2 cannot be used

-or you use one of Helix footswitches or a snapshot for switching the WAH bypass status and use only the pedal for control but not the EXP TOE switch

 

... so the "hack" outlined in this thread is a Line 6 approved method of fixing this behaviour! Mind you, I might prefer the two wah pedal method in point 1, if that actually works. I'll try tonight.

 

Stuart

 

[theElevators]

mind blown!  ha ha ha!!! It's not a bug, it's a feature.  A very useful feature....  this is even more hysterical. 

[PaulTBaker]

ok, so what if you save your snapshots with exp1 active?

[rd2rk]

On 9/28/2023 at 1:14 PM, PaulTBaker said:

ok, so what if you save your snapshots with exp1 active?

 

Try it and see?