Line 6 Helix

dindude

Sporky said:

Recently I have been unexpectedly enjoying the TS model into the Plexi model.

All that tech and possibility you end up with a Tubescreamer into a Marshall. You're one of us really

Sporky

I do like a fair few "normal" sounds too y'know.

I did another to see if I could build a sort of "shimmer" reverb from scratch; that ended up a bit silly, with a crossover feeding low and high frequencies to different reverbs, one of which was pure wet and pitch shifted up an octave with a fluttery tremolo on it.

Oh, and one with two wahs in parallel, both operated by the treadle but in opposite directions. That's an interesting sound. Quite usable too.

matt1973

My sounds are all very normal. To me, the Helix represents lower stage levels, less gear to lug, less equipment to go wrong, greater variety of tones, greater control of tones. But the tones themselves are all pretty bog standard rock, funk, pop, acoustic, etc.

Sporky

Nowt wrong with that.

The ease of configuration almost justifies the price on its own. The coloured footswitches and scribble-strips are brilliant. And the sounds are superb.

That you can quite easily create very odd/complex sounds is just an extra bonus.

fretmeister

Sporky said:

Bass emulation - only needs to be good enough for looping. Probably needs some EQ - I've been using the simple pitch block and some compression.

I once had a Marshall Bass 12 amp. It was shit for bass.

Then I got a Boss EQ20 and one of the presets gave me a brilliant if low volume bass tone.

How many EQ bands does the Helix have? What freqs?

I'll see if I can find my notes

Sporky

There's definitely a 10-band and some parametrics.

fretmeister

I'll have a look. (Nerd alert) I have a little book of settings somewhere.

Sporky

Ta - I know it won't actually end up sounding like a Stingray into an Ampeg, but hopefully it'll sound a bit more like a bass.

andyoz

Questions for the Helix users who have come from a simple valve amp and few pedals setup....do you spent alot of your 'playing' time fiddling with the Helix rather than playing since you got it?

That's what I fear would happen if I bought one as I need all the playing time I can get (to improve)

I sometimes wonder if giving a musician THAT many options is productive - can our simple brains handle it?

matt1973

I have not thrown large amounts of time away on this unit. I did so with the Axe Fx that I used to own and it was the primary reason that I eventually sold it. The Helix is much better in this respect. There is a learning curve but not a major one IMO.

Sporky

andyoz said:

Questions for the Helix users who have come from a simple valve amp and few pedals setup....do you spent alot of your 'playing' time fiddling with the Helix rather than playing since you got it?

Nope.

One of the nice things is how quickly you can put a patch together, and how decent the amps and effects sound on their default settings.

I have spent some time playing with more complex patches as well, but for me that was one of the reasons to go for the Helix as opposed to the alternatives.

fretmeister

Order update. Andertons tell me they expect to receive my rack & controller on 7th April.

andyoz

Thanks lads.  It seems like a killer option but I won't jump in just yet...

Sporky

It's hard to answer your question to be fair. Some people will get distracted by all the possibilities, and that may or may not be a bad thing. I like creating sounds as much as I like playing; the Helix makes that very easy.

fretmeister

I like tone crafting too. My old Pod XT has 1 bank with instantly giggable sounds (clean, crunch, filth, filth with mid boost and delay) and another 19 banks of weird shit.

Well, as weird as the venerable XT can manage anyway.

kjdowd

@andyoz. V quick to throw usable sounds together which is all I want. What is has done is got me actually playing a lot more as it's v usable at home with headphones.

andyoz

kjdowd said:

@andyoz. V quick to throw usable sounds together which is all I want. What is has done is got me actually playing a lot more as it's v usable at home with headphones.

It does sound ideal for that really.  Then keep a valve amp or two for the out of house blasts (I guess it makes a mighty FX board too when used with favourite valve amp).

Cabicular

andyoz said:

Questions for the Helix users who have come from a simple valve amp and few pedals setup....do you spent alot of your 'playing' time fiddling with the Helix rather than playing since you got it?

That's what I fear would happen if I bought one as I need all the playing time I can get (to improve)

I sometimes wonder if giving a musician THAT many options is productive - can our simple brains handle it?

Nope I'm a gigging guy

I'm not big on fannying about with kit for hours (one of the reasons I didn't get on with the FX8)

Once you have it set up you'll probably just leave it like that

fretmeister

@sporky

Try this after the octave pedal.

The cut at 400hz might be too severe - this is based on a slap tone - and the highs might be a bit much. Tweak to taste!

Under 30hz cut it completely if you have enough bands.

30hz. + 6db
60 + 9db
120 + 6
200 flat
400 - 9db
800 - 6

1.6khz flat (maybe - 3db)
3.2 + 3db
6.4 + 6db
12.8 + 3

Sporky

Wilco - ta!