Can the Variax be used to switch Presets?

[deagonx]

Hello everyone.

 

I know that the Helix and the Variax have a good deal of integration, and that Helix presets can be used to dictate certain things for the Variax like the tuning, volume of each string, knob controls, et cetera.

 

However, I was wondering if there is any capability of going in the reverse? For instance, what I'd like to be able to do is switch Variax presets by switching guitar model or moving my pickup switch. However I am not sure if that's possible.

[silverhead]

You said ‘switch Variax presets’. Did you mean ‘switch Helix presets’? If so, the answer is No, that’s not possible.

 

 

[datacommando]

On 10/26/2023 at 10:51 PM, deagonx said:

For instance, what I'd like to be able to do is switch Variax presets by switching guitar model or moving my pickup switch.

Hi,

 

This is all rather confusing.
 

When you move the pickup switch, or change guitar model, then you have already changed the Variax preset.

 

If you actually mean, flick the pup switch (or change model) on your Variax to have it change a preset in the Helix, then the answer is no!

 

Imaging during a gig that you accidentally hit your pickup switch and change your entire sound output to the FOH? Helix has foot switches for changing presets, and even that can be problematic for some - still less chance of everything becoming FUBAR during a gig.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

[brue58ski]

First of all, the Helix is supposed to  be able to control the vol and tone knobs on the Variax but there is a bug. So that ability cannot be used. And the Variax cannot switch to different presets as far as I know. HOWEVER, the tone and volume knobs on the Variax can be set to control various parameters like an expression pedal. The way I use it is to simulate Tom Scholz's Space Echo. I control the delay time with the Expression pedal and the feedback with the Variax tone knob. I haven't practiced with it enough to be good at it but it does what Tom Scholz's pedal does. He has an Echoplex and he built an expression pedal that rocks up and down and also moves right and left. He hooked it up physically to the Echoplex so the one way controls the delay time (or the heads?) and the other the feedback time. There's other things going on but this is a start to this. Anyway the bottom line is it is possible to control parameters from the Helix with the volume and tone knob but not change patches (as far as I know). You could set up two sounds on each path on the Helix and use the volume or tone knob to control the outputs of each of them. Just setup up the expression pedal to control one output in the reverse of the other so as you bring one output up the other goes down. That's the only way I can see to do that.

[silverhead]

On 10/27/2023 at 11:13 AM, brue58ski said:

First of all, the Helix is supposed to  be able to control the vol and tone knobs on the Variax but there is a bug. …..

I wasn’t aware of that. I know Helix can store different values for the Variax Vol and Tone knobs, and can recall different values using Snapshots. But I’m not aware that you can, for instance, assign the Vol or Tone knob to an expression pedal and sweep thru their values. Are you saying you should be able to do that except for a bug? Or is there a bug in what I’ve described?

[brue58ski]

Yes, the tone or volume knob can act like an expression pedal when assigned to a parameter.

 

The bug is basically this. If you set one patch to a certain tone or volume parameter, when you switch to the next patch, it will keep the old tone/vol parameter. If you press the footswitch for the new patch again it will then switch to to the tone parameter on the new patch. I believe it's also supposed to reflect what the tone knob is on the Variax if the Helix is set to "do not control" or what ever it is called but it doesn't do that either unless that's been fixed. I haven't checked that out in a very long time. It, again, maintains what the parameter was set at on the first patch. I haven't checked to see if it will reflect what's on the Variax if you hit the footswitch again. I admit I do not know what will happen when you switch patches if the tone or volume knobs are being used for controlling something on the first patch. It's a good question. I'm prety busy so I have no idea when I would be able to check all of my questions out.

[silverhead]

I've just looked into this. It seems that you are able to assign an EXP pedal to control the Variax Vol and Tone knobs in a sweeping fashion. I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip.

[brue58ski]

On 10/27/2023 at 9:12 AM, silverhead said:

I've just looked into this. It seems that you are able to assign an EXP pedal to control the Variax Vol and Tone knobs in a sweeping fashion. I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip.

 

I hadn't thought of that. That's interesting. I was using them to control the Helix. Not have the Helix control them. That opens up a possibility or two.

[silverhead]

On 10/27/2023 at 12:11 PM, brue58ski said:

.... I believe it's also supposed to reflect what the tone knob is on the Variax if the Helix is set to "do not control" or what ever it is called but it doesn't do that either unless that's been fixed....

I do know how the 'Don't Force' setting works. When you switch to a preset that has the Don't Force setting for the Vol/Tone knobs the Helix device takes no action on the current value of these parameters. It does NOT mean that the position of the physical knob suddenly defines the value. The value remains as it was regardless of physical knob position.

[brue58ski]

On 10/27/2023 at 9:18 AM, silverhead said:

I do know how the 'Don't Force' setting works. When you switch to a preset that has the Don't Force setting for the Vol/Tone knobs the Helix device takes no action on the current value of these parameters. It does NOT mean that the position of the physical knob suddenly defines the value. The value remains as it was regardless of physical knob position.

 

The Helix manual says this

 

Variax Volume Knob

Remotely sets the Variax volume knob setting. When set to “Don’t Force,” Helix respects the current Variax volume knob position.
Variax Tone Knob
Remotely sets the Variax tone knob setting. When set to “Don’t Force,” Helix respects the current Variax tone knob position.
 

I take the statement in bold to mean where the knob is currently set on the Variax itself.  Not what the Helix had set it to before.

 

And that's part of the point. When you switch to another patch, it neither switches to the parameter you may have the new patch set to, nor, as you pointed out, if set to Don't Force, it does does not respect the current Variax volume/tone knob position. I leaves it in the previous patches position.

 

That's how it's supposed to act. That's not how it acts now. It acts the way you stated. Again, that is not how it is supposed to act.

[silverhead]

Aaah. I hadn’t read that part in the manual. I just described how I know it actually acts which as you say is apparently a bug. Thanks.

[brue58ski]

Yeah. i wouldn't really care if the bug was fixed but I would use the tone knob on all of the acoustic models. But I can't. So I don't. I also keep the Helix controlling the tuning. Again the manual says "When set to “Don’t Force,” Helix respects the Variax guitar’s current tuning." It does not. I do use tunings a bit and, unlike the tone/vol knob issue, it will change the Varaix tuning to the current patches tuning and not stay on the previous patches tuning if it is controlling it. So, because of this, all of my patches are never on Don't Force. They are set to control the tuning and the tuning I mostly have it set it on is EADGBE (haha). The Helix doesn't have the respect for the Variax's settings that it claims to have. I suspect it's because if it is on Don't Force, it tells the Variax nothing, where it should tell it to go to it's own setting. Just an uninformed theory. I do wish I did not have to use workarounds to use Line 6's flagship product.