The Helix VS Fractal FX8 Thread

Clarky

guitarfishbay said:

Clarky said:

guitarfishbay said:

the AX8 has a Grid?

Looks to have it. That is a pic of AX8 edit

I've not tried one but from what I can tell it does 

The Grid is all powerful
beyond the modelling and fx quality etc.. the grid is the thing that sets the Axe 'family' of units above all others..

does this mean the FX8 has a grid too?

guitarfishbay

The FX8 does not have the grid

Clarky

from the images I've just looked up, the FX8 appears not to have a Grid..

now I'm thinking... 
Drew - if the AX8 has a Grid, use that for the powerful routing possibilities and top drawer fx, but still have it in 4cm with your real amp..

John_P

John_P said:

Drew_TNBD said:

John_P said:

guitarfishbay said:

Drew_TNBD said:

Ahhh I see. Hmmm... would be interested to try it out... at least compare the noise-floors...

I have no idea if the AX8 can fit as many FX per patch compared to the FX8.

I think @John_P might've owned both, if I've remembered the right John

Indeed I've gigged both.
I couldn't tell them apart in terms of noise - both excellent but I'm told the Fx8 is better - felt like marketing to me though.

The grid makes life a ton easier on the ax and is a lot much the flexible - I'm surprised fractal haven't changed that. I regularly use the ax8 for just fx with real amps, I can use the preamp of an amp block like a drive pedal giving a ton more options and known for direct adjustments. 4cm is fine just add a block where you want it.

The only drawback to the ax8 I can see is the lack of a remote switch for amp channels so your stuck with midi amps or a gizmo.

Hey John, out of interest on the AX8 can you run a TS808, Delay 1 (Mono BBD set to reverse), Delay 2 (Mono BBD), Reverb 1 (Large Hall), and the FX Loop block at the same time?

A quick preset made direct on the ax8 seems to work fine.   I'll hook it up to the editor later on to double check but so far that seems ok. 

Just loaded up the editor to have a proper play  - with those effects and the reverb in high quality it is using less than 70% cpu  Adding an amp and cab it was still under 80% so plenty of room to add more stuff.

Drew_TNBD

Ah cool. Sounds similar to fx8 usage then.

Drew_TNBD

So basically after spending a huge chunk of the weekend comparing each unit, writing up my opinion here and generally exploring the options...

The TLDR version; other than a better tuner and reverbs, the FX8 doesn't really bring anything new to the table, is not as user friendly as the Helix, and isn't head and shoulders above the Helix in order for me to prefer it. I still prefer the Helix by a massive margin.

Still... good to try the FX8 out and to own it side by side for a bit. I don't think it will stick around tbh!

guitarfishbay

Drew_TNBD said:

So basically after spending a huge chunk of the weekend comparing each unit, writing up my opinion here and generally exploring the options...

The TLDR version; other than a better tuner and reverbs, the FX8 doesn't really bring anything new to the table, is not as user friendly as the Helix, and isn't head and shoulders above the Helix in order for me to prefer it. I still prefer the Helix by a massive margin.

Still... good to try the FX8 out and to own it side by side for a bit. I don't think it will stick around tbh!

Pretty much what I expected you'd think - save for the tuner as I've never been able to try the Helix one.

So are you going to get a second Helix now?

Drew_TNBD

guitarfishbay said:

Drew_TNBD said:

So basically after spending a huge chunk of the weekend comparing each unit, writing up my opinion here and generally exploring the options...

The TLDR version; other than a better tuner and reverbs, the FX8 doesn't really bring anything new to the table, is not as user friendly as the Helix, and isn't head and shoulders above the Helix in order for me to prefer it. I still prefer the Helix by a massive margin.

Still... good to try the FX8 out and to own it side by side for a bit. I don't think it will stick around tbh!

Pretty much what I expected you'd think - save for the tuner as I've never been able to try the Helix one.

So are you going to get a second Helix now?

Nah, don't think I need a second one!! lol.

Sporky

But with two you could have an ambisonic rig... it'd add a bit to your gig setup time but it'd be pretty awesome.

octatonic

Clarky said:

from the images I've just looked up, the FX8 appears not to have a Grid..

now I'm thinking... 
Drew - if the AX8 has a Grid, use that for the powerful routing possibilities and top drawer fx, but still have it in 4cm with your real amp..

The FX8 definitely doesn't have a grid.

guitarfishbay

Drew_TNBD said:

guitarfishbay said:

Pretty much what I expected you'd think - save for the tuner as I've never been able to try the Helix one.

So are you going to get a second Helix now?

Nah, don't think I need a second one!! lol.

Well I guess you could sell it and get yourself driving.

You could actually plug a Helix into a car stereo via an aux, so that's kind of like getting an amp that is really portable.... 

Drew_TNBD

Sporky said:

But with two you could have an ambisonic rig... it'd add a bit to your gig setup time but it'd be pretty awesome.

hehehe.

What Max is getting at is that I was whinging about carrying my gear every single week to the practice room. So the idea being that I could have a Helix LT at home and my full Helix at the practice room. But then updating patches across both units becomes a pain and I'd end up having to carry a laptop to the practice room to update the full unit anyway.

Nah. Too much hassle. Just stick to lugging my kit - most exercise I get right now anyway!!

Sporky

I would like to say, as a perfectly happy Helix user, that that grid thing in the AX8 looks excellent.

Jonathanthomas83

Sporky said:

I would like to say, as a perfectly happy Helix user, that that grid thing in the AX8 looks excellent.

It's great, yes. As a perfectly happy Axe user, I'd give my left bollock for the on unit UI that the Helix has. Although that said, it's been nearly 6 months now and I'm pleased to announce that I can successfully initiate the tuner function.

Drew_TNBD

Sporky said:

I would like to say, as a perfectly happy Helix user, that that grid thing in the AX8 looks excellent.

Yeah it's very flexible, and the internal send/return is very useful too. Would love the Helix to have that.

Sporky

Also if I remember correctly the Fractal stuff has things like an internal envelope generator and LFO(s) that you can use to control things?

I'd like those - the Reflex solves the latter, but an envelope generator (and a pattern generator) would be lovely things in the Helix

We live in a glorious age.

TimmyO

Fiftyshadesofjay said:

Drew_TNBD said:

At the gig last night I used the Helix. Fantastic sounds with my Diezel D-Moll and the Helix in tandem.... if I can toot my own horn for a moment, we fucking blew everyone away... !! Loved it!

The Helix was a joy to use. No tweaking was necessary, just jumping around 8 scenes across all 5 songs (our songs are long!) and some additional expression pedal use for oscillation effects, and then using my Dunlop wah wah pedal.

Things I noticed:

- Our other guitarist who also has a helix gets some FANTASTIC wah-wah sounds from his Helix... I need to get a copy of his patch, because he gets this really thick lush synthetic texture from the Helix wah that I don't have... and I fucking want it! He has this soaring overly resonant thing going on, and I love it.

- The Helix tuner is just not very good imo. I am going to have to figure something out, because it takes too long to tune and in a live environment wasting anymore than 30seconds in between songs leads the entire audience to question what the fuck is going on... and when you're crafting deep post-metal up-its-own-arse bullshit, you need to keep everyone on the same page.

- Tuner again.... turning the tuner on just kills reverb and delay trails... ruins the effect of the music.

- The Adriatic delay is EPIC!! Line 6 should release that in it's own pedal at some point.

Don't know if it'll work for you but I used to set up a send right at the start of the chain and link a polytune up to it. That way it's always on when you're playing and you can mute using your volume pedal, keeping the trails etc. 

The Helix tuner is utterly pants for live use.

I mentioned my tuner woes on a post in the Helix FB group and was rounded upon lol 

Apparently it's just "too accurate for some people" - which I take to mean that someone favours harder to use over easier to use. Pfft. 

Sporky

TimmyO said:

I mentioned my tuner woes on a post in the Helix FB group and was rounded upon lol 

Apparently it's just "too accurate for some people" - which I take to mean that someone favours harder to use over easier to use. Pfft. 

Too accurate?

I run my Turbo Tuner on a send precisely because the Helix tuner isn't accurate enough. Well, also because the TT is just better in every respect and means I don't have to hold any buttons down to tune.

The Helix tuner is just about adequate.

Drew_TNBD

"Too accurate" - what a load of tosh!

The accuracy isn't the problem. It's the response time. You *can* tune to a note. You just can't tune to a note as quickly as you can with some other tuners on the market.

handsomerik

Exactly! I've had the same. People get super offended if you say it's rubbish. It's he worst tuner I've had on any unit I've ever owned over the last 15 years. 
It may be super accurate but it's still pretty unusable due to the fact that it skits all over the place and never settles cleanly or smoothly.
Still loving the Helix for everything else though. 

I too would love to see 'modifiers' on Helix like the Fractal stuff. It would be cool to be able to set the tremolo depth and speed to be controllable by dynamics which you can do in the fx8 by setting those parameters to an envelope controller. You can't presently do it on the Helix which is a shame.