Is my Helix working properly?

[jeffsoble]

Hello,

 

I’ve moved over to the Helix from the Pod HD500X a few months ago and from day 1 have had trouble producing good sounding tones. 
 

I had mastered the POD.  All of my tones achieved exactly what I’d hoped they would. Included in those were many Gilmour tones, a lot of which I uploaded to the forum and were apparently well liked by many here. I say this only to illustrate that I’m not a complete novice when it comes to producing good signal chains.

 

Having said all of that, I’ve had nothing but problems with the Helix and at this point am not sure that there isn’t something wrong with the hardware. My tones sound tinny, and in the background, like part of the signal isn’t being processed. Volume isn’t an issue, I can make it loud, but any sense of low or midrange part of the signal isn’t there.

 

I run everything through an interface so I hooked my POD back up to test the Helix side by side with the POD and that all other pieces of producing the sound are equal. 1 of the signal chains is for a song called 5AM. On the POD it always sounded great, full with a lot of depth and midrange, and it’s still did with this test.  The same tone built on the Helix sounds awful. Again, in the background, tinny and light.

 

I’ve tried everything I can think of to fix this. I’ve deliberately manipulated signal chains to over exaggerate the bass and midrange and it still sounds the same.
 

Does anyone have any thoughts on something I may not have done in the initial setup? Something in global settings causing this?

 

Thanks!

[rd2rk]

Attach a sample Helix preset and if possible, a recording of your POD version (exported as mp3 from a DAW) so we can try to see what's wrong.

[waymda]

As someone who migrated for a 500x nearly 10 years ago, with good (for the Pod) presets for every song, I can definatively say the settings do not translate between the two units. Not even close.

 

Unfortunately, you're up for a learning curve.

 

Fortunately, once you get it, the Helix will sound better, you'll create new patches faster, and may be more consistent. I found myself constantly tweaking most of my patches on the 500x, where as now I do minor adjustments when required, or when I think of a new way to do something want to try a new feature in a release.

 

My suggestions to get up to speed:

• Spend a fair amount of time looking at Jason Saddites videos
• [Edit] Check out highly rated patches on custom tone - but be prepared to modify to taste/guitar and playing style
• Grab a small number of commercially available presets and see how they've been put together (I used Jason's, Marco Fanton, and Glenn DeLaune)
• Create your patches from scratch and be prepared to use different amps effects and even order them differently to the 500x
• Save often (not new)
• Backup often (new)
• Save favourite settings of amps and effects for reuse, and then modify as you learn more
• Save template(s) of your approach to smooth workflow

Your next challenge will be patch leveling... but thats for later.

 

[jeffsoble]

On 8/19/2025 at 8:21 PM, waymda said:

As someone who migrated for a 500x nearly 10 years ago, with good (for the Pod) presets for every song, I can definatively say the settings do not translate between the two units. Not even close.

 

Unfortunately, you're up for a learning curve.

 

Fortunately, once you get it, the Helix will sound better, you'll create new patches faster, and may be more consistent. I found myself constantly tweaking most of my patches on the 500x, where as now I do minor adjustments when required, or when I think of a new way to do something want to try a new feature in a release.

 

My suggestions to get up to speed:

• Spend a fair amount of time looking at Jason Saddites videos
• [Edit] Check out highly rated patches on custom tone - but be prepared to modify to taste/guitar and playing style
• Grab a small number of commercially available presets and see how they've been put together (I used Jason's, Marco Fanton, and Glenn DeLaune)
• Create your patches from scratch and be prepared to use different amps effects and even order them differently to the 500x
• Save often (not new)
• Backup often (new)
• Save favourite settings of amps and effects for reuse, and then modify as you learn more
• Save template(s) of your approach to smooth workflow

Your next challenge will be patch leveling... but thats for later.

 

My Gilmour patches are based on his actual signal chains. There are 2 websites that have documented his entire career unbelievably well and accurately…

 

https://www.kitrae.net/music/music.html
https://www.gilmourish.com

 

Obviously since he’s either being professionally recorded or on stage and I’m in a bedroom studio I’ve adjusted the settings to accommodate my surroundings.

Have you recreated any professional signal chains in either the POD or Helix? If so, how did your settings compare?

 

I was messing with things again last night and realized that a good way to describe what I’m experiencing might be to say that the tones from the pod had better tube warmth and were actually cleaner, while the Helix is more naturally distorted and lacks tube warmth.

 

Does that help to give you guys ideas on how I might be able to make adjustments?

[jeffsoble]

On 8/19/2025 at 4:02 PM, rd2rk said:

Attach a sample Helix preset and if possible, a recording of your POD version (exported as mp3 from a DAW) so we can try to see what's wrong.

I’m going to try to record later today if I have the time. Hopefully that’ll help.

[cruisinon2]

On 8/19/2025 at 3:22 PM, jeffsoble said:

Hello,

 

I’ve moved over to the Helix from the Pod HD500X a few months ago and from day 1 have had trouble producing good sounding tones. 
 

I had mastered the POD.  All of my tones achieved exactly what I’d hoped they would. Included in those were many Gilmour tones, a lot of which I uploaded to the forum and were apparently well liked by many here. I say this only to illustrate that I’m not a complete novice when it comes to producing good signal chains.

 

Having said all of that, I’ve had nothing but problems with the Helix and at this point am not sure that there isn’t something wrong with the hardware. My tones sound tinny, and in the background, like part of the signal isn’t being processed. Volume isn’t an issue, I can make it loud, but any sense of low or midrange part of the signal isn’t there.

 

I run everything through an interface so I hooked my POD back up to test the Helix side by side with the POD and that all other pieces of producing the sound are equal. 1 of the signal chains is for a song called 5AM. On the POD it always sounded great, full with a lot of depth and midrange, and it’s still did with this test.  The same tone built on the Helix sounds awful. Again, in the background, tinny and light.

 

I’ve tried everything I can think of to fix this. I’ve deliberately manipulated signal chains to over exaggerate the bass and midrange and it still sounds the same.
 

Does anyone have any thoughts on something I may not have done in the initial setup? Something in global settings causing this?

 

Thanks!

 

Unfortunately copying settings verbatim from the POD just won't work... the modeling engines are completely different. You can start with all the same (or at least similar) models in the signal chain, but just inserting the same values for each parameter will get you nowhere. Since you are already familiar with the process of building a patch, your learning curve will be easier than most, but you still have to start from scratch and figure out how to coax the tones you hear in your head from the Helix.

 

Fiddle with the mic choice and position...I find that can often fix a "tinny" sound quite easily, often without touching anything else.

[jeffsoble]

On 8/20/2025 at 11:42 AM, cruisinon2 said:

 

Unfortunately copying settings verbatim from the POD just won't work... the modeling engines are completely different. You can start with all the same (or at least similar) models in the signal chain, but just inserting the same values for each parameter will get you nowhere. Since you are already familiar with the process of building a patch, your learning curve will be easier than most, but you still have to start from scratch and figure out how to coax the tones you hear in your head from the Helix.

 

Fiddle with the mic choice and position...I find that can often fix a "tinny" sound quite easily, often without touching anything else.

I knew that going in, so I don’t that’s the issue. In fact, I’m leaning heavily towards my unit being defective at this point. In the past 24 hours I’ve been testing things by over exaggerating the settings to various amps/effects…. going max with all low and midrange settings on the 10-band EQ for example, and there’s no change at all to the tone. Even if I’m not using it correctly, there should be some kind of change to the tone, even if it’s a bad change. I’m getting no change at all.

 

I’m almost 100% positive now that it’s bad hardware and needs to be replaced.

[datacommando]

On 8/20/2025 at 9:16 PM, jeffsoble said:

I’m almost 100% positive now that it’s bad hardware and needs to be replaced.

Hi,

 

Of course there is this which maybe part of the issue:-

 

https://blog.line6.com/2023/09/15/eric-klein-at-least-half-of-your-modelers-sound-is-determined-by-your-playback-system/

 

We have no idea of what you are hearing, therefore it would be most helpful if you supplied some sort of reference for users to evaluate.

 

If you would possibly post a couple of examples of the audio (MP3) from both the POD and the Helix, along with an example problematic preset from the Helix (.hlx file), then people here may be able to give you a better idea of how things sound to them, through their monitor system.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense 

[theElevators]

Try factory presets.  Do they sound normal?  If so, it's user error on your part.  I would give this a try, first if you haven't already.  

[jeffsoble]

I appreciate the responses guys, thank you! I have a friend who works at a guitar store and he’s going to bring another Helix unit to my house to hook up and we’ll be able to make a comparison. Having said that, I’ve been doing a lot of research and I’m now getting a funny feeling that there may be nothing wrong with the unit. As a matter of normal preference, I like a lot of midrange and bass in my sound and every comparison review between the Pod and Helix has said that the Pod has a warmer tone. If that’s the case, I’m going to always prefer the Pod.