Sorry more line Helix! - 8 Questions

dean111music

Hi

 Sorry if these questions have been asked before on here!

I'm a function band player and teacher. I was wondering if the Helix can do this.....

1) Plug my iPhone into the Helix and play along to backing tracks, transcribe songs etc?

2) Does it sound good plugging a bass into it?

3) Are there multiple inputs so i can plug a guitar, bass and vocal all into the helix and here them all at the same time?

4) My go to sounds are Clean, OD, Distortion - i'm guessing these are good, All the delays i have heard sound fantastic too. My main concern is.... 

Can i get a great Leslie Sound, Tremelo, Flanger/phaser (This Dakota - Stereophonics) Uni Vibe and Envelope filter (Guthrie Govan). All these i have been using the Strymon Modius which i love! 

5) Which power cab works best with it? 

6) Rack with controller or Floor Helix?

7) Those who have brought the Helix, is it easy to use? I always find although we do have a setlist playing live, we may suddenly alternate depending on the crowd so is this easy to do on the fly?

8) If the helix stops working at a gig are you complete screwed and need a backup amp? I'm guess they are reliable enough?

Many thanks in advance!

Although i sent a fortune one my pedal board which i love and works like a dream, part of me is thinking i would like to try the modelling route as something different. I'm getting IEMs, and seems like a natural progression to try 

simonk

I hope this doesn’t come across as flippant but I think you really need to try one for yourself to see if it covers all your bases (my gut feeling is it will). Pick somewhere with a decent returns policy and dive in. To broadly answer some of your questions, I think Helix is piss easy to use, sounds great and is a dream to gig with. I’d get a Floor or LT... I have both and they’ve both been perfectly reliable. Although I still keep a Tech21 FlyRig in the car just in case, just as I did when I was gigging amps.

rossyamaha

Yes to all your questions. Just got home from a gig and need my bed but will go into more detail for you tomorrow. Well, today.

Wazmeister

1,2,3.     Yes

4.             Yes - the quality is subjective though. Keep your mobius and integrate it into the Helix
                 or create your own presets and compare

5.             Subjective

6.             Floor everytime - unless you use racks

7.              Super easy to use

8.              Very reliable, superb customer support. Youre screwed at ANY gig if what you play      through fails !!


Now, you just need to go and try one

dean111music

Nice one guys. I would definitely want to try one out, I was just seeing if you could do all those things.

Seems like you can have the whole package with one unit! 

I may be converted.

im more going down the line 6 helix route v kemper 

TeleMaster

In my opinion:

Kemper sounds more organic. Helix has a more digital sound to it. It would be very difficult to hear a big difference in the mix. This is more noticeable in isolation of course. 

In my opinion: The Helix has a better UI than the Kemper by far, and some of the effects sound better. The Helix has a computer editor, the Kemper does not (although it will come as confirmed by the company director). The Rig Exchange on the Kemper is amazing. Amazing Dumble tones whenever you want them.

In my opinion: The routing is much better in the Helix too. 

But, at the end of day for me, the sound is more important. In my opinion the Kemper just sounds incredible so everything else can be worked around. The effects are being improved very regularly and the delays and the new Spring Reverb are excellent. 

If if you want ease of use and great tones all in one package I’d say Helix. 

If if you want the best recorded/miked amp tones you can get, I’d say go for the Kemper. 

All just my humble opinion. 

Hope this helps. 

John_A

TeleMaster said:

Kemper sounds more organic. Helix has a more digital sound to it. 

The Helix has a better UI than the Kemper by far, and some of the effects sound better. The Helix has a computer editor, the Kemper does not (although it will come as confirmed by the company director). The Rig Exchange on the Kemper is amazing. Amazing Dumble tones whenever you want them.

The routing is much better in the Helix too. 

But, at the end of day for me, the sound is more important. The Kemper just sounds incredible so everything else can be worked around. The effects are being improved very regularly and the delays and the new Spring Reverb are excellent. 

If if you want ease of use and great tones I’d say Helix. 

If if you want the best recorded/miked amp tones you can get, I’d say go for the Kemper. 

Hope this helps. 

All very subjective, you state these things like they are facts

dean111music

I’ll need to try them. I feel with these units you need to own them for a few months before making a decision? There is so much to learn and playing situations that need to be tested. 

Just walking in a shop to try one might not give me the answer.

I also notice there is only one Guitar in on the helix... how would I and say my bass player plug in at the same time?

ipod connection?

can kemper do all the same things above? 

simonk

Here, have a look at this...

https://youtu.be/dYMOXIn7Wz8

Grangousier

dean111music said:

I also notice there is only one Guitar in on the helix... how would I and say my bass player plug in at the same time?

That would be the Helix LT, which I have and only has one input. The full-fat Helix has more ins and outs (though I've paid less attention to it). The LT definitely does one thing at a time, so guitar sound or bass sound, though both are fine by me. 

simonk

dean111music said:

...

ipod connection?

You could use the Aux In on the Floor ( mono, I think). USB from a ‘puter or iOS device (not sure about Android).

can kemper do all the same things above? 

Nope

Teetonetal

1) Yes, but you'd need a 1/4 inch adapter to convert from the mini jack

2) Bass sounds awesome on helix. 

3) Yes. I have gigged with backing track into AUX, Vocal and Electric Guitar

4)No one can answer this but you. Some people like the sounds, others need IRs, others need a differt product entirely. Just spend time with the thing. It took me a month to get sounds I liked. 

You can get all those sounds. Greatness is subjective. But if the bar is Dakota, then the bar is low.

5) No idea. I do direct into PA, when I use it, or into monitors at home.

6) What to do prefer? I have the floor. I edit mainly from the computer.

7) In my opinion, the helix interface is best in class. If you can work with it, well, it would say a lot about you.

8) I think i am 3 years in - no issues touch wood, but it's a complex electronic product. Some will be or develop faults. IMO gigging with a helix carries the same risk as gigging with amps and pedals. I always carry something to a gig to get me through, whatever rig I am using.

i love my Helix. I mainly used it at home as a teaching tool, with occasional live use (I like to leave it all setup at home, so still had a Amp/pedal rig for live setup at a rehearsal studio). For teaching it is aweosme, you can have it setup with dual path, with completely independent rigs for student and teacher. I use it as a sound card for my mac, so stream the backing audio from there as opposed to from an ipad/pod.

The other godsend, with 2 small kids in the house is being able to work with headphones at all hours of the day, all tied into the mac. I can run my VSTs from logic, through helix fx and treat it like a massive choice of outboard gear, recording and playin until the early hours without disturbing the monsters upstairs.

It's been the best bit of gear I've ever purchased. I've used it every day since I bought it.

digitalscream

Grangousier said:

dean111music said:

I also notice there is only one Guitar in on the helix... how would I and say my bass player plug in at the same time?

That would be the Helix LT, which I have and only has one input. The full-fat Helix has more ins and outs (though I've paid less attention to it). The LT definitely does one thing at a time, so guitar sound or bass sound, though both are fine by me. 

You can easily use the loop returns as inputs.

TeleMaster

John_A said:

TeleMaster said:

Kemper sounds more organic. Helix has a more digital sound to it. 

The Helix has a better UI than the Kemper by far, and some of the effects sound better. The Helix has a computer editor, the Kemper does not (although it will come as confirmed by the company director). The Rig Exchange on the Kemper is amazing. Amazing Dumble tones whenever you want them.

The routing is much better in the Helix too. 

But, at the end of day for me, the sound is more important. The Kemper just sounds incredible so everything else can be worked around. The effects are being improved very regularly and the delays and the new Spring Reverb are excellent. 

If if you want ease of use and great tones I’d say Helix. 

If if you want the best recorded/miked amp tones you can get, I’d say go for the Kemper. 

Hope this helps. 

All very subjective, you state these things like they are facts

Obviously my opinion.

rossyamaha

So it's basically all been said already but here's my opinion. 

1) Plug my iPhone into the Helix and play along to backing tracks, transcribe songs etc?

Yes. Out of your phone into FX loop returns and set up a separate path just for that. Easy. 

2) Does it sound good plugging a bass into it?

Absolutely. Plenty of bass amps and FX in there to play with. 

3) Are there multiple inputs so i can plug a guitar, bass and vocal all into the helix and here them all at the same time?

Yes. Plenty of in's and outs so you can have multiple people using the same unit with their own chain of amps, fx, preamps etc. Really easy to set up up. 

4) My go to sounds are Clean, OD, Distortion - i'm guessing these are good, All the delays i have heard sound fantastic too. My main concern is.... 

Can i get a great Leslie Sound, Tremelo, Flanger/phaser (This Dakota - Stereophonics) Uni Vibe and Envelope filter (Guthrie Govan). All these i have been using the Strymon Modius which i love! 

All of the above with no problem. The FX are stellar and constantly being added to and in some cases improved. The Univibe is (IMHO) the best out there. This is largely thanks to the HX modelling and the fact they went as far as modelling the behaviour of a light bulb which is crucial the Univibe sound.

5) Which power cab works best with it? 

Either will be great. It really comes down to what feature set you need. 

6) Rack with controller or Floor Helix?

I love both for different applications. You get a little more I/O on the rack but Floor, Rack and LT all have the same models etc so it really does come down to the format you prefer. 

7) Those who have brought the Helix, is it easy to use? I always find although we do have a setlist playing live, we may suddenly alternate depending on the crowd so is this easy to do on the fly?

After the 5 minute learning curve you'll find it's possibly the easiest unit to use out there. Visually you can see everything thats going on and as far as setlists go, you can save presets into a setlist or save some generic go to sounds that you can just go to as a get out of jail card so to speak. Each preset can be super powerful though. I play with a few different people and tend to have a preset for each artist that covers basically everything I need apart from maybe some special fx when needed. 

8) If the helix stops working at a gig are you complete screwed and need a backup amp? I'm guess they are reliable enough?

I've toured with Helix for nearly 2 years now and never had a problem. It's rock solid. That said, it's not infallible and if you're being paid to do a gig, you should always have a backup plan.