Helix - running guitar, bass and 2 vocal channels at one

TimmyO

I was unreasonably excited at how simple this was to achieve so I had to show someone : 

Strat_a_tat_tat

Nice work. What does it sound like... especially with all the extra gain on the second mic?

TimmyO

It sounds good! Only tested it at home but there doesn't seem to be any more noise or lack of clarity on the 2nd mic channel, but obviously this needs checking out at volume. 

That 2nd mic is coming in on an old XLR -> unbalanced jack cable that I have had in my kitbag for about 10 years or more - this is the first use I have found for it.  If in a live setting it picks up noise I'll probably need to add a basic mic pre. Plan is to test it out at a local open mic first to subject it to a noisy, less than ideal environment. 

ThePrettyDamned

Wait, so that + Roland v kit = full band backline? (for some bands at least). 

Amazing. 

TimmyO

... and I just figured out how to add the iPad into it and use it as a touchscreen 4ch mixer for on-the-fly tweaking.

Amazing. :-) 

Teetonetal

ThePrettyDamned said:

Wait, so that + Roland v kit = full band backline? (for some bands at least). 

Amazing. 

This is the drum I keep banging. The fx and amp sim are really only a small chunk of what helix can do. Line 6 have really created something extraordinary in my book.

ThePrettyDamned

Teetonetal said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Wait, so that + Roland v kit = full band backline? (for some bands at least). 

Amazing. 

This is the drum I keep banging. The fx and amp sim are really only a small chunk of what helix can do. Line 6 have really created something extraordinary in my book.

Try an acoustic tom tom, it'll be louder than the v-drums  

Seriously, that potentially make gigging more accessible, and better sounding, for a *lot* of bands. It'd take a bit of coordination in terms of control - perhaps one musician could be "in charge" and hit the switches as rehearsed. 

Although snapshots could be used, with different set ups per song... So that'd make it easier (one click per sound change in a song, no drop outs until next song). 

Blimey. 

Teetonetal

ThePrettyDamned said:

Teetonetal said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Wait, so that + Roland v kit = full band backline? (for some bands at least). 

Amazing. 

This is the drum I keep banging. The fx and amp sim are really only a small chunk of what helix can do. Line 6 have really created something extraordinary in my book.

Try an acoustic tom tom, it'll be louder than the v-drums  

Seriously, that potentially make gigging more accessible, and better sounding, for a *lot* of bands. It'd take a bit of coordination in terms of control - perhaps one musician could be "in charge" and hit the switches as rehearsed. 

Although snapshots could be used, with different set ups per song... So that'd make it easier (one click per sound change in a song, no drop outs until next song). 

Blimey. 

Yup. Say your band went from a clean ambiant section into full on heavy riff. Even thinking small, 1 foot press could alter or remove delay/reverb from 2 mics, add a clean blend fuzz pedal to the bass and alter delay / reverb / gain / amp on the guitar.

Insane. 

guitarfishbay

Cool that it can do all that on the DSP available, how would it cope doing a typical electric setup instead of the acoustic though? 

Many touring bands have all their digital units synced up to MIDI click tracks these days, nobody is pressing anything and all the changes are happening across all instruments when they need to. While it's very cool you can do this manually I don't think it'll be a common setup as any mistimed changes could potentially sound pretty jarring

Teetonetal

guitarfishbay said:

Cool that it can do all that on the DSP available, how would it cope doing a typical electric setup instead of the acoustic though? 

Many touring bands have all their digital units synced up to MIDI click tracks these days, nobody is pressing anything and all the changes are happening across all instruments when they need to. While it's very cool you can do this manually I don't think it'll be a common setup as any mistimed changes could potentially sound pretty jarring

But of those of us in non touring bands... 
I mean, I'd gladly use this for myself and the bass player in my band. Besides you could sync up helix to a midi sync and I'm sure the snapshots can be switched by midi if you want. (never investigated).

TimmyO

guitarfishbay said:

Cool that it can do all that on the DSP available, how would it cope doing a typical electric setup instead of the acoustic though

Yes if you add a guitar amp, cab and drive pedal it's a different story - the pitch shifters need to come off for a start, possibly some eq too

Cabicular

Nice stuff @TimmyO . It's interesting to see people pushing the boundaries of this thing