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My helix is used as a convenient recording interface.
It's pretty much a clean amp setting. All effects come from my pedals as I prefer the sound.
It's a good convenient package, I just don't think it sounds as good as most people make out
edit... another thing that put me off was Paul Hindmarsh constantly going on about the vibe modelling a photo-cell (ubiquitous vibe I think it was) which left me thinking that must be the only good thing it does...
With increased capability comes increased complexity- there is no getting away from that.
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probably depends what sounds you are going after.
I don’t even think it was a steap learning curve as the UI is so good.
Its a pleasure to gig now, no heavy back breaking amps to haul into venues. I can lift everything I need for the gig in one trip and I have consistent tone.
Here are my thoughts, amd all imho...
1.) The Helix is a ground breaking device. Stunning. The quality of the build, the amazing routing options (I mean if you can imagine it) the Helix will do it.
2.) Ive learnt more about sound, EQ, routing, stereo, etc from modelling (ie Helix and Kemper) than I have from 30 years of amps and pedals.
3.) Its convenient and practical, with superb customer superb.
4.) Simple and easy to use out of the box - and cheap. My small pedal board now has cost more than a Helix Floor.
However...
5.) For me, the amp sounds are no where near the Kemper. Like, not even close to being as sound, for ‘my’ sound in my head.
6.) Real amps and pedals just sound AND feel better. There, Ive said it. My Carr Mercury V and small board sound better by far. But then again. Its a £2500 amp and a £2000 pedalboard. It should sound better !!!
But, ultimately for me, it became daft trying to learn the ‘new’ language. I had to study Jason Sadites YT vids to know how and where to place my double EQ, crossover, two path chrome shaft thorax nodules.... and I never really got there and understood it.
Guitar -> Thorpyfx Fat General -> Carr = instant heaven and SO simple to use.
Im sorted. Rant over. Hope that helps
I trust his videos more than others as it seems we go for pretty similar tones and have similar riffing styles. After a thoroughly disappointing session playing my real amp yesterday I'm willing to give this thing a shot anyway
So in the helix I add my amp, cab(s) mics, fuck about with all the parameters etc and play.
Harsh artificats on the high end. Back in, global EQ and hi/low cut added.
Now it sounds ok but nothing like a hiwatt. You don't have to cut highs on a mic'd up hiwatt.
You don't get any of the massive frequency range and magical fairy dust you get from the real hiwatt.
Ok, it will probably be ok in the mix and I have soundtoys to sort it out.
Then the effects section...
All my opinion of course but the delays are ok, quite average for the most part, definitely two or three that are better than the rest, so I will generally use my mf104m or h9.
Drives... Hmmm, one or two are ok but I find a driven amp sound generally works better so off to make another patch, fiddle, fiddle etc.
Modulation. Choruses, phasers and flangers that would make the baby Jesus cry. Tremolo is great and the vibe I don't really care for as I am not a massive fan of the effects.
Reverbs, not my thing typically, some are ok but again the h9 offers so much more.
Pitch shifting... I'll leave that alone.
I get the convenience, I get that it's most things to most players in a box at a good price and it's a dead handy recording interface but I feel like I have gone insane at times when I read the praise for it on here. It literally does no wrong walks on water and slices bread, that's just not my experience with it.
After long periods of use it starts to sound normal and I get the appeal, I really do, but I personally feel it's not quite there yet. The good news is that it seems to be forever improving and for the most part is pretty fault free.
However in contrast I do think the Kemper and the axefx sound better. More fiddly and more expensive but better sounding.
Anyway I'm sure that will upset a huge section of the FX membership so I will stick my tongue foil hat on and go play some guitar (through my amp).
For the simple stuff I played it would've been massive overkill.
I can see how it would be very useful, just not for my modest needs.
I can see the appeal, I can see why people like then and I can see they would be Very useful in a lot of circumstances. They are growing all the time as well. They are a tool though I think, rather than a toy. So for us home players who've no requirement to play outside of a small room, they are quite unnecessary in the scheme of things. I've no idea whether that market is bigger than the pro market.
Stuff I didn't like about it:
1. You can't use the HX Effects with HX Edit to create the signal flows, so you break your back kneeling down crouched over the small screen trying to work it out. The "tap touch" thing on the switches also didn't help this because if you slightly catch a switch whilst reaching for the knobs and don't notice you eggs up changing something totally different as can't remember how to put it back.
2. It was really big so no room on a fairly well sized board for effects like the Whammy that the HX can't do well.
3. Further to number two, despite intending to sell everything to use one of these instead, I found I still had to keep my Whammy, Multi Overtone, Octavia, and overdrive which meant I was basically only using the Fuzz Factory, Bit Crusher and the routing on the HX which seems overkill to accommodate the space and power supply just for that.
4. All the overdrives basically sounded the same into the (admittedly digital) preamp I was using. That may have been the fault of the modelling preamp as well to be fair,
5. One of the attractions of something like this seems to be that its cheap because you don't need the separate FX and an amp. But you do - i am fairly cloth eared and still needed about £300 worth of pedals to work with it, plus you do still need an amp of some sort, so a £300 multi FX suddenly means you have to spend a further £600 on the pedals it can't do and an FRFR amp.
Admittedly I've had better results with the Native trial but a further £300 to £400 on that seems a big investment that still requires a powerful laptop to use it and cables everywhere waiting to pull that laptop off the desk. At least with the HX Effects youn can sell it on!
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I also like how compact it is for how much it can do and being to change parameters on the pc in hx edit means I'm not having to bend down to the floor.
I use my single stomps as much as - actually lately it's more than - my Helix. But that's not because I think the Helix is low quality. I just think they have different flavours.
Like the way the delays decay away on the Helix is a bit different to the way the Source Audio Nemesis does it, and the way the Strymon Timeline does it. Sometimes I want the more diffuse 'distant' sounding thing from the Helix, and sometimes I want a really obnoxious digital delay sound from the Timeline.
In terms of amp-simulation, some models on the Helix are the bomb dot com. Like the Placater. But the NeuralDSP Nameless amp-sim is kinda my go-to amp-sim right now. Actually has been since the tail end of last year.
But I have a Diezel VH4 sat in my studio at home. If I just want to play guitar and I'm not bothered about recording any of it, I plug into that and don't bother with software.