Line 6 Helix

Sporky

Yeah, well, so's your face.

TimmyO

digitalscream said:

Spent a couple of hours with my newly-arrived LT...this thing's basically witchcraft, as far as I can tell. I've already set up the patch for all of the stuff I currently do with my band - clean/crunch/lead channels of the SLO, two delays, reverb, phaser, some boosts and a cab, all controlled by 5 snapshots.

Interesting point: mine came with the 2.12.2 firmware, and I can't add a pitch block to the beginning of it (need some rumbly octaves for one song) due to lack of DSP capacity. However, Drew can add it on his Helix, which is on 2.21 firmware. It seems that the later version is more efficient somehow.

Sadly, I don't have time to muck around further today, so the update will have to happen tomorrow.

In any case, I'm absolutely stunned by it. Well played, Line 6. Well played indeed.

Yes istr that 2.2 announcement included mention of optimisations for some effects (reverb certainly) 

gibsongretschfan

digitalscream said:

Spent a couple of hours with my newly-arrived LT...this thing's basically witchcraft, as far as I can tell. I've already set up the patch for all of the stuff I currently do with my band - clean/crunch/lead channels of the SLO, two delays, reverb, phaser, some boosts and a cab, all controlled by 5 snapshots.

Interesting point: mine came with the 2.12.2 firmware, and I can't add a pitch block to the beginning of it (need some rumbly octaves for one song) due to lack of DSP capacity. However, Drew can add it on his Helix, which is on 2.21 firmware. It seems that the later version is more efficient somehow.

Sadly, I don't have time to muck around further today, so the update will have to happen tomorrow.

In any case, I'm absolutely stunned by it. Well played, Line 6. Well played indeed.

Considering you've been watching and waiting for so long on helix I am actually more pleased than a grown man should be about another man on the internet's happy gear purchases but hey, im chuffed it's worked out so well for you

digitalscream

Cheers, @gibsongretschfan - to be honest, I'm kinda wishing I'd paid more attention to this thread so I knew more about what I'm doing. Catching up on 172 pages of it is probably a bit too much of an ask right now

Jonathanthomas83

sweepy said:

I plumped for the Rack version too, a lot more useful for me, one neat touch is that the Brain module has no fan and is totally silent, unlike my Axe Fx2 which is on its 3rd fan and now has a speed controller fitted

Seriously, you've had 2 fans go? How did you get them fixed? Which do you play the most, Helix or Fractal and which do you prefer?

sweepy

The Fans get very noisy, I plumped for a brushless model with a speed controller. I tend to go through phases tbh, as I am more familiar with the Axe-Fx than the Helix, I'm still reserving judgement, but amp wise so far the Fractal is kicking the Helix's arse but it is so much easier to dial in compared to the Axe-Fx. I will keep both because I am a terrible Gear Slut and they are both excellent units in their own right

Jonathanthomas83

sweepy said:

The Fans get very noisy, I plumped for a brushless model with a speed controller. I tend to go through phases tbh, as I am more familiar with the Axe-Fx than the Helix, I'm still reserving judgement, but amp wise so far the Fractal is kicking the Helix's arse but it is so much easier to dial in compared to the Axe-Fx. I will keep both because I am a terrible Gear Slut and they are both excellent units in their own right

I don't notice mine too much, but mine's on the floor. I have a 2 XL, what you got?

Part of me wants a Helix just to be part of the cool kids group. :-( 

sweepy

Axe FX2, fan noise is one of those things that really aggravates me, always has done

guitarfishbay

It doesn't bother me tbh, though silent would be preferable.  Matrix GT1000FX 1U fan noise is a lot worse at home, but I just play through my monitors now.

Drew_TNBD

It bothered me when I had one too

Cabicular

digitalscream said:

Cheers, @gibsongretschfan - to be honest, I'm kinda wishing I'd paid more attention to this thread so I knew more about what I'm doing. Catching up on 172 pages of it is probably a bit too much of an ask right now

Ask and thou shalt receive ..

Drew_TNBD

Holy shit! I'm an idiot. I just realised that when using the Helix as a USB interface, the guitar DI and microphone inputs automatically get routed to USB7 and 8. Which means you don't need to use paths in the preset to capture those signals, which means more DSP available for your actual guitar sounds!

Teetonetal

@digitalscream iirc the last fw update had some dsp optimization. Especially on the reverbs. Which might explain it.

fretmeister

Drew_TNBD said:

Holy shit! I'm an idiot. I just realised that when using the Helix as a USB interface, the guitar DI and microphone inputs automatically get routed to USB7 and 8. Which means you don't need to use paths in the preset to capture those signals, which means more DSP available for your actual guitar sounds!

That sounds interesting.

As a recording noob - what?

Drew_TNBD

fretmeister said:

Drew_TNBD said:

Holy shit! I'm an idiot. I just realised that when using the Helix as a USB interface, the guitar DI and microphone inputs automatically get routed to USB7 and 8. Which means you don't need to use paths in the preset to capture those signals, which means more DSP available for your actual guitar sounds!

That sounds interesting.

As a recording noob - what?

Basically it just means when you select input 7 and 8 in your recording program, you get the raw guitar or your raw microphone. Which means no more using Path 1B or Path 2B to send the raw signals to the daw on a different channel. Teach me not to read the manual I spoze!

fretmeister

Ah - that makes sense.

Thank you.

horse

Drew_TNBD said:

Holy shit! I'm an idiot. I just realised that when using the Helix as a USB interface, the guitar DI and microphone inputs automatically get routed to USB7 and 8. Which means you don't need to use paths in the preset to capture those signals, which means more DSP available for your actual guitar sounds!

This, and the ease of re-amping via usb is what will help me avoid buying Native (not that Native wouldn't have advantages, just that I can work around not buying it for re amping)

sweepy

I just bought Native, sounds awesome with third party plugins added  

robinbowes

horse said:

Drew_TNBD said:

Holy shit! I'm an idiot. I just realised that when using the Helix as a USB interface, the guitar DI and microphone inputs automatically get routed to USB7 and 8. Which means you don't need to use paths in the preset to capture those signals, which means more DSP available for your actual guitar sounds!

This, and the ease of re-amping via usb is what will help me avoid buying Native (not that Native wouldn't have advantages, just that I can work around not buying it for re amping)

Yeah, but $99 is a steal.

R.

horse

robinbowes said:

horse said:

Drew_TNBD said:

Holy shit! I'm an idiot. I just realised that when using the Helix as a USB interface, the guitar DI and microphone inputs automatically get routed to USB7 and 8. Which means you don't need to use paths in the preset to capture those signals, which means more DSP available for your actual guitar sounds!

This, and the ease of re-amping via usb is what will help me avoid buying Native (not that Native wouldn't have advantages, just that I can work around not buying it for re amping)

Yeah, but $99 is a steal.

R.

Agreed, but 3 times that for cheapo LT owners like me!