Line 6 Helix

Sporky

Drew_fx said:

It's not really much more of an investment than most of our pedalboards to be fair.

Indeed. Selling my pedalboard, some of the contents and some other pedals I'd had lying around covered the Helix, and I didn't have a particularly lavish setup.

Drew_TNBD

Cabicular said:

I've not tried it yet but I might just wire a dd7 into one of the loops

Why? Don't the Helix delays cover pretty much any sound you would want?

Teetonetal

@sporky is there spill within a patch if you turn the delay or reverb off?

Teetonetal

Sporky;1047412" said:

Drew_fx said:

It's not really much more of an investment than most of our pedalboards to be fair.










Indeed. Selling my pedalboard, some of the contents and some other pedals I'd had lying around covered the Helix, and I didn't have a particularly lavish setup.

Sadly that's my issue. Too expensive to buy without selling up first. Moog and chase bliss stuff would have to go and here would be difficult to buy back... big stumbling block

Sporky

Teetonetal said:

@sporky is there spill within a patch if you turn the delay or reverb off?

Yes - it's configurable for each delay and reverb. So you could (if you wanted) have trails on the reverb but not the delay, or on two delays but not two others, and so on.

hugbot

Teetonetal said:

@sporky is there spill within a patch if you turn the delay or reverb off?

Yes.

Cabicular

Drew_fx;1047415" said:

Cabicular said:

I've not tried it yet but I might just wire a dd7 into one of the loops





Why? Don't the Helix delays cover pretty much any sound you would want?

I know but it will give me a bit of spillover for patch switches I think

Drew_TNBD

Cabicular said:

Drew_fx;1047415" said:

Cabicular said:

I've not tried it yet but I might just wire a dd7 into one of the loops





Why? Don't the Helix delays cover pretty much any sound you would want?

I know but it will give me a bit of spillover for patch switches I think

Oh I see.

fretmeister

The patch switching time lag is definitely based on the models used.

If I have 2 patches using the same amp then the switching is far quicker. If it's a complete 10 blocks out, another 10 in then it takes a while.

However... I really have a song minded mentality and I wouldn't need more than 2 or 3 sounds per song at the most (ignoring turning on fx for small parts) so I can easily set up the sounds I want within a patch and have zero lag switching.

I have a 'classic rock' type general guitar noodling patch I use when watching the telly.

Part A has a phaser, wah, tubescreamer and a JTM45 model on it. that runs into Path B

Path B has a Dual Rectifier, a delay, reverb and a level boost.

Phaser, wah, delay, level are on individual swtiches.

Then I have a channel change switch that turns off the JTM45 and turns on the Tubescreamer and the Dual Rec and turns off the reverb with a single push.

Zero lag in the individual fx or in the channel change multi-change.

If that set up wasn't right for another song, then I'd set up another patch for that song. There are 128 memory locations. that's a damn big set list.

Perhaps "Helix 2" will have an extra DSP (like the Digitech 1101) purely for seamless patch changes but unless a player wants to swap more than about 8 blocks with a single press I don't think it is an issue.

I like having a setlist approach. Means if I change something for a song it doesn't fuck it all up for another song.

Sporky

Also switches don't have to just turn blocks on and off, they can change parameter values too.

Cabicular

I don't want to get into another argument with Digital Igloo about this but surely it doesn't need to shadow ALL the blocks
For example the looper persists across patch changes
At least an option of persisting a couple of blocks OR
Letting the send and returns persist so if you have an external drive pedal you can keep that running

fretmeister

I've only used that on rotaries / Univibes so far but I'm going to play with amp settings that way next.

I love the wah models now I have a pedal! I only got my competition prize Petrucci wah 2 weeks ago and it's in danger of going in the trunk of things.

Digital_Igloo

fretmeister said:

Perhaps "Helix 2" will have an extra DSP (like the Digitech 1101) purely for seamless patch changes but unless a player wants to swap more than about 8 blocks with a single press I don't think it is an issue.

What I could maybe see is the ability for someone to sacrifice half their DSP to achieve spillover. Aside from the delays and reverbs, playing a long chord while switching presets still probably wouldn't be seamless though, unless there was some sort of "fixed setlist" preference, where if enabled, the unit would pre-buffer the queued preset's blocks into the other DSP, not unlike how a DJ queues the next song or sample bank. This would most likely preclude getting to switch to any preset at any time, so it's not the most elegant solution.

The main issue is with how big the models are. If our models were seriously stripped down (worse-sounding), switching would be much faster. Newer and faster DSPs allow for bigger and better modeling, but they don't do much in the way of speeding up the loading and purging of said models. If anything, as you see faster and faster DSPs, you may see even bigger gaps between presets.

Which is why we'd need to go in another direction. We have some ideas.

Can't imagine Line 6 ever doubling DSP just for spillover. We'd always be itching to utilize that extra horsepower for more and better-sounding models.

fretmeister

So about those Darkglass bass drive models then.....?

Sporky

Digital_Igloo said:

Can't imagine Line 6 ever doubling DSP just for spillover. We'd always be itching to utilize that extra horsepower for more and better-sounding models.

And I think a fair proportion of your customers would still want both - more power, more models, more simultaneous effects, spillover, instant patch change and a built-in Pez dispenser.

Hmm. Might put that last one on Ideascale.

The things I want mostest at the moment are internal LFO and envelope generators that can be assigned to any parameter, And MIDI clock output, synchronised with tap tempo.

If it's any reassurance I usually think that if people keep asking for more features and changes it's not because they don't like the thing you've made - it's because they do, and what you've made has inspired them with even more possibilities.

Oh, and gated reverb. Definitely that. As much like the Boss ME-5's gated reverb as possible. And scenes! I'll think of more.

Drew_TNBD

I think a scenes mode within a single preset would be a big help to workaround the preset-to-preset lag. Just depends what you're using the presets for I suppose.

What I'd like to see is a scenes mode where every single parameter is exposed, meaning you could have one scene with a bunch of pedals enabled and their settings at one point, and another scene where you'd have some pedals enabled and some bypassed, and all their parameters are different. So no block or model re-allocation, just automation changes. That should be fairly quick and provide lots of the things you'd want from an entirely different preset.

fretmeister

That would be excellent.

Cabicular

Then you could stencil a fractal logo on it and call it an Ax8ix
TBH I didn't like the X/Y settings and the Scene Settings in the FX8 when I had one of them
It's just not how I work ..
There are a couple of buttons on the Helix I set to Multi function (I.e. They switch off one drive and engage another two) but the rest I prefer just to dip on and off as required

Drew_TNBD

Cabicular said:

Then you could stencil a fractal logo on it and call it an Ax8ix
TBH I didn't like the X/Y settings and the Scene Settings in the FX8 when I had one of them
It's just not how I work ..
There are a couple of buttons on the Helix I set to Multi function (I.e. They switch off one drive and engage another two) but the rest I prefer just to dip on and off as required

Are you preferring the Helix to the FX8?

When I had modellers, I preferred the Kemper to the Axe FX. But the sorts of sounds I'm getting with a reactive loadbox and my Laney amp... I seriously doubt if I'll ever use a modeller again!

I think after getting my DD500 (when Helix's were thin on the ground, and so was my cash!!) that kind of sealed the deal for me. Single pedals for the next year or so at least, and with a kid on the way, I doubt I'll be able to splooge on a Helix any time soon! So gonna work on my pedalboard a bit more and then call it done.

Still interested to see where the Helix goes though.

dindude

Drew_fx said:

Cabicular said:

Then you could stencil a fractal logo on it and call it an Ax8ix
TBH I didn't like the X/Y settings and the Scene Settings in the FX8 when I had one of them
It's just not how I work ..
There are a couple of buttons on the Helix I set to Multi function (I.e. They switch off one drive and engage another two) but the rest I prefer just to dip on and off as required

Are you preferring the Helix to the FX8?

When I had modellers, I preferred the Kemper to the Axe FX. But the sorts of sounds I'm getting with a reactive loadbox and my Laney amp... I seriously doubt if I'll ever use a modeller again!

I think after getting my DD500 (when Helix's were thin on the ground, and so was my cash!!) that kind of sealed the deal for me. Single pedals for the next year or so at least, and with a kid on the way, I doubt I'll be able to splooge on a Helix any time soon! So gonna work on my pedalboard a bit more and then call it done.

What reactive load box are you using Drew?