Line 6 Helix

Cabicular

This is my problem with FRFR on stage
I'm not used to hearing a miced up cab as my core tone
It sounds and behaves in a very unnatural way for me
Fine for FOH but onstage I want it to sound like a valve amp
It would be different if I was using IEMs maybe but even back in the day when I was on big stages I had the sound guy make me a monitor with a couple of celestions in it ... Just for guitar

Digital_Igloo

johnonguitar said:

Maybe you guys are too literal in your modelling sometimes when a little artistic license would make things gel better? I feel that's what Scuffham do. Just a thought, not trying to run Line 6 lol!

Oh, you're absolutely right—it was a decision from the start to be accurate to a fault. And lots of amps have faults!

We would like to add more original Line 6 amps, tho.' It'd give us an opportunity to shave off any warts in the real thing.

fretmeister

Digital_Igloo said:

johnonguitar said:

Maybe you guys are too literal in your modelling sometimes when a little artistic license would make things gel better? I feel that's what Scuffham do. Just a thought, not trying to run Line 6 lol!

Oh, you're absolutely right—it was a decision from the start to be accurate to a fault. And lots of amps have faults!

We would like to add more original Line 6 amps, tho.' It'd give us an opportunity to shave off any warts in the real thing.

Ace.

Do a big arsed bass amp that has a Darkglass preamp flavour then that doesn't get woofy in the low end.

I'm going to bet that would increase your sales by a solid 1% globally But it would make me very happy!

TimmyO

I'm going to assume it sounds a lot better than this demo makes it seem... ?

Cabicular

I dropped my flight case last night
And it sounded better than that ..

Sporky

TimmyO said:

I'm going to assume it sounds a lot better than this demo makes it seem... ?

I think it's a hard unit to demo - there's a huge range of sounds, and it's probably just as easy to make a good one as a bad one. But I doubt my patches sound much like anyone else's.

Demoing a pedal is pretty easy; demoing a unit with what, forty amp models and a hundred effect models?

Cabicular

I had a load of people come up and comment on how good my Orange amps sound (just because I use a pair of ppc112) <br> I must admit as I was standing on the wobbly table playing an extended solo for moonage day dream it was sounding epic and warm

fretmeister

Pete Thorn demo is probably the best one so far.

Drew_TNBD

Our guitarist came round yesterday with his Helix. First time I've ever heard the amp models used in anger without being in a shop. He was using the Recto model and it sounded pretty decent. But when I compared it to my load-boxed Laney VH with Redwirez IR's, I preferred my Laney. Not conclusive at all I suppose, just a small anecdote.

siraxeman

TimmyO said:

I'm going to assume it sounds a lot better than this demo makes it seem... ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ql-_tRFYo4

vs the GT-100.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq1MNqR3CT4

now I'm not suggesting the GT-100 is better or even as good...but in the right hands one does or can sound better than the other just based on the player making the gear sound good. Our fave guitarist playing a lil Peavey practice amp would impress us and likely make us want to get one of the little Peaveys because he made it sound really good. a guitar noob playing through the same amp would sound terrible....same again if we now do a Helix!

TimmyO

I suppose my post was meant more in the vein of "jeepers, look at this good gear being made to sound total dogshit" 

siraxeman

which is true of any piece of gear. That said if all you want to do with a Helix is run it live via 4CM I personally don't see it as worth paying over 4x the price of a GT-100 which will do just as good a job for adding FX to your live amp sound.

Cabicular

I don't know
I use a lot of FX ...

siraxeman

for example ?

Cabicular

My main patch has buttons for
Spring - phaser - clean/crunch - heavy dist - looper
Octave down - whammy up - flanger - delay - chorus
Delay controlled by exp 2
Volume 0 to +7 DB on exp 1
I have an external wah and a crunch pedal
The other 3 patches are variations of that core set up with some buttons re-assigned for harmonies (and key changes) or specific synth type effects
The gt100 wouldn't cut it

Sporky

siraxeman said:

which is true of any piece of gear. That said if all you want to do with a Helix is run it live via 4CM I personally don't see it as worth paying over 4x the price of a GT-100 which will do just as good a job for adding FX to your live amp sound.

Depends what you want to do. The GT-100 is pretty capable, but it has nothing like the flexibility of the Helix - I couldn't build my main guitar patch in a GT-100/

siraxeman

Cabicular said:

My main patch has buttons for
Spring - phaser - clean/crunch - heavy dist - looper
Octave down - whammy up - flanger - delay - chorus
Delay controlled by exp 2
Volume 0 to +7 DB on exp 1
I have an external wah and a crunch pedal
The other 3 patches are variations of that core set up with some buttons re-assigned for harmonies (and key changes) or specific synth type effects
The gt100 wouldn't cut it

Not sure what you have going on there that the GT-100 can't do with the same amount of external pedals ? And even so....if you had to do it over 2 or 3 patches of what consequence would that be ?

 Don't get ne wrong - I'm definitely a Helix fan and likely to get one soon, just having now played on one for about 45 mins and due to them not having stock in of the floor unit at the time I've been able to cool down from the high, dig out my GT-100 that I'd not used in ages plug it into my Alesis M1 Active monitors and get very similar sounds to what the Line 6 Presets were getting me when I tried...hence why I'm holding back on buying one for now, but odds on temptation will get the better of me soon enough.....

siraxeman

that said most of my favourite sounds are usually from simply guitar rigs. The core tone of a good setup is a good valve sound. With a real amp live you have this. The FX I tend to use sparingly as icing on the cake. But the cake itself is always the core tone of the amp + analogue drive pedals...guess I'm old school in my tastes when it comes to toanz.

Before I tried the Helix some guys where on it before me and I was having a good listen they were playing with the metal sounds mostly and it sure did sound good - but definitely like a multi fx processor or a metal pedal rather than a real amp. Then I was hearing someone else a few feet away plugged into a JVM combo with just an SG and even before I saw what was producing the sound I knew it was a real amp. Summit about the real thing that as of yet no modeller does quite so well.... IMHO anyway.

Cabicular

siraxeman;1098550" said:

Cabicular said:

My main patch has buttons for

Spring - phaser - clean/crunch - heavy dist - looper

Octave down - whammy up - flanger - delay - chorus

Delay controlled by exp 2

Volume 0 to +7 DB on exp 1

I have an external wah and a crunch pedal

The other 3 patches are variations of that core set up with some buttons re-assigned for harmonies (and key changes) or specific synth type effects

The gt100 wouldn't cut it





Not sure what you have going on there that the GT-100 can't do with the same amount of external pedals ? And even so....if you had to do it over 2 or 3 patches of what consequence would that be ?

 Don't get ne wrong - I'm definitely a Helix fan and likely to get one soon, just having now played on one for about 45 mins and due to them not having stock in of the floor unit at the time I've been able to cool down from the high, dig out my GT-100 that I'd not used in ages plug it into my Alesis M1 Active monitors and get very similar sounds to what the Line 6 Presets were getting me when I tried...hence why I'm holding back on buying one for now, but odds on temptation will get the better of me soon enough.....

Can you have 10 buttons at a time?
Can you assign one footswitch to do multiple things?
Can you have more than 10 fx running in the background? (I always have the Klon on I have 3 different Eqs and the compressor running)
Can it take XLRs out straight to the desk for FOH?
If it can do even half of that then I'm impressed

siraxeman

well, if spead over a couple of patches then very easily. But even without thinking about it....

manual mode - 6 pedals each with their own FX + expression set as volume then wah when you stomp on it. So there's 8. Then there's an extra FX loop..if you want to chain another external 10 pedals *being silly of course then you can indulge your madness. And you can also add another expression pedal or extra footswitch. But in the real world of real guitar TOANZ who on earth would really want all that on at once and expect a good natural tone ?

Can you have 10 buttons at a time? No it has 6 pedals (not counting the exp and ctrl pedals of which you can add one of each externally.

Can you assign one footswitch to do multiple things? YES...well you can with the expression pedal and accl pedal anyway.

from  http://www.bossus.com/products/gt-100/

"New Tonal Possibilities with the Accel Pedal

A new dimension of expression is available with the Accel pedal, which enables control of multiple parameters simultaneously, as well as time-variant effects such as Feedbacker, S-Bend, Twist, and more. Experiment with creative combinations of parameters and bring dynamic new sounds to your performances by interacting in real time with this cool pedal."

Can you have more than 10 fx running in the background? (I always have the Klon on I have 3 different Eqs and the compressor running)

 looking at the chain in my GT-100 on a single patch there are 14 FX not all are on but that's cos I got taste lol...I could turn everything on if I was mad enough....

Can it take XLRs out straight to the desk for FOH? No I doesn't have XLR outputs. Just a left (mono) and right jack outputs along with USB.

That's well over half so you should be impressed what £309 can buy you these days! And as for sound quality show me any demo of the Helix and i'll find 2 that match or better it! (on youtube). Just for fun n larks.