Line 6 Helix

Teetonetal

I couldnt get the phones out to work for. So use a headphone amp after the main outs.  Sounds great.

Jonathanthomas83

gibsongretschfan said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

The sheer number of people who say the same thing about being “underwhelmed” but spend very little time with a unit does grate with me a little. If only because it sends out a somewhat negative message to those curious.

Truth is, modelling isn’t for you if you want it easy. There’s too much to think about with correct IRs (and other stuff), IMO. You really need to understand the basics of what your physical gear is doing in order to make the modelling equivalent work for you, just my opinion. But if you’re not in that frame of mind, I feel it’s way to easy to dismiss and go public about it and in turn, put people off. And judging by the wisdom given to a few posts, get the odd few jumping on your bandwagon.

No offence intended to anyone in particular.

Aren't you a Fractal guy?

either way truer words have never been posted on this thread.

Thank you, sir. And yes, I an indeed a Fractal guy. My thinking is that if people dismiss one unit, they’ll likely dismiss another based on that experience...because “modelling doesn’t work for me”. Sweeping statement, maybe, but I hear it so often on here.

gibsongretschfan said:

gearaddict said:

Yeah, I dunno...I've been using the helix LT for a couple of months now and it's not really working for me. I'll probably end up moving it on. I had all sorts of ideas about going FRFR and using a much bigger variety of tones but actually my needs are pretty basic and I think for people like me the Helix is just overkill. And having a 750 quid pedal on the floor doesn't make sense. I don't do any recording or use loads of different tones...just a basic rock tone and some delay and chorus. Of course the Helix does this...but not any better than a simple amp and a couple of pedals.

I think also some people like the experience of using modellers and some don't...I just seem to lack the ability to make sounds better by tweaking. If I can't get a sound immediately then the more I work on it, the worse it gets! In that respect my experience of working with the helix is not much different from the HD500X - I end up constantly tweaking and never actually playing.

Not saying anything negative about the Helix - just that modellers aren't for everyone.

I played a function gig last week with the Litigator amp, Minotoaur overdrive pedal, tape delay and 70's chorus. had a celestion v30 IR going straight to FOH a feed going to a valve power amp and V30 cab for monitoring on stage

simple. sounded great.

just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it

I agree, 100%. This too is becoming an increasing complaint of modellers, but they can be as simple or as complex as you want them to be. I would consider an Axe FX lite with just three amp models and a reverb (for example) pretty damn wasteful.

@gearaddict have you ever tried an AX8? Be curious to see if you can get a tone you’re after.

gearaddict

Jonathanthomas83 said:

@gearaddict have you ever tried an AX8? Be curious to see if you can get a tone you’re after.

I haven't. From what I have read and listened to, I think it would probably be more to my taste but I couldn't justify spending so much and I suspect I would find it too time consuming to work with.

gearaddict

gibsongretschfan said:

I played a function gig last week with the Litigator amp, Minotoaur overdrive pedal, tape delay and 70's chorus. had a celestion v30 IR going straight to FOH a feed going to a valve power amp and V30 cab for monitoring on stage

simple. sounded great.

just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it

Yeah, this should be true but for me it just isn't Also, my reasoning is, if that's the only thing I am using it for and I am taking a valve amp anyway to use the power stage then what benefit am I getting from the helix? Running to FoH I guess...

I dunno. The jury is still slightly out as far as I am concerned...

siraxeman

^^The jury is very concerned about you!

 What was your desired reason to buy a Helix in the first place?

gearaddict

siraxeman said:

^^The jury is very concerned about you!

 What was your desired reason to buy a Helix in the first place?

I just wanted to check that it was flat.

siraxeman

you should've just checked the pics and seen it obvious without it costing you a single penny.

gearaddict

siraxeman said:

you should've just checked the pics and seen it obvious without it costing you a single penny.

D'oh! Seems so obvious now you mention it.

siraxeman

ya live n learn...ya big daft ha'p'orth!

gibsongretschfan

gearaddict said:

gibsongretschfan said:

I played a function gig last week with the Litigator amp, Minotoaur overdrive pedal, tape delay and 70's chorus. had a celestion v30 IR going straight to FOH a feed going to a valve power amp and V30 cab for monitoring on stage

simple. sounded great.

just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it

Yeah, this should be true but for me it just isn't Also, my reasoning is, if that's the only thing I am using it for and I am taking a valve amp anyway to use the power stage then what benefit am I getting from the helix? Running to FoH I guess...

I dunno. The jury is still slightly out as far as I am concerned...

Having a direct out to FOH is a big bonus for me, including all the EQ options you can apply in absence of an engineer.

I'll admit that even though I was only using a tape delay and chorus i was able to have some snapshots and a secondary patch (just a copy of the first with some snaps set up for specifically tap dancey songs) so i did get quite a lot of mileage out of those effects

oh and the Throaty wah. I believe it's a model of an RMC. I quite like it

Digital_Igloo

Jonathanthomas83 said:
Thank you, sir. And yes, I an indeed a Fractal guy. My thinking is that if people dismiss one unit, they’ll likely dismiss another based on that experience...because “modelling doesn’t work for me”. Sweeping statement, maybe, but I hear it so often on here.

I'm working on a comprehensive Digital/Modeling blog. The trick is providing enough context to make it helpful to those who blindly dismiss modeling (or dismiss it without the proper context) but short enough that people might actually read it. The goal is to make it largely brand-agnostic so Fractal, Kemper, and Atomic users can link to it as well.

Jonathanthomas83

Digital_Igloo said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:
Thank you, sir. And yes, I an indeed a Fractal guy. My thinking is that if people dismiss one unit, they’ll likely dismiss another based on that experience...because “modelling doesn’t work for me”. Sweeping statement, maybe, but I hear it so often on here.

I'm working on a comprehensive Digital/Modeling blog. The trick is providing enough context to make it helpful to those who blindly dismiss modeling (or dismiss it without the proper context) but short enough that people might actually read it. The goal is to make it largely brand-agnostic so Fractal, Kemper, and Atomic users can link to it as well.

Great news, mate. I look forward to reading it and sharing it :-)

Found Medium to be a good place to get a lot of coverage, see my sig.

Vaiai

So, I can't get the Vol pedal on the Helix to work for me - it's either on or off -  there's a tiny sweep and I can't do nice swells compared to my old EB VP Jr or my Dunlop - but I don't want to add another pedal as the Helix is my all in one!

Tried both logarithmic and erm...the other one - any tips?

Cabicular

Hmmm
i find the sweep on mine to be pretty good but then I’m sweeping from 0db to +7dB for solos
maybe try setting a volume block to 70% at the top end

Vaiai

Cabicular said:

Hmmm
i find the sweep on mine to be pretty good but then I’m sweeping from 0db to +7dB for solos
maybe try setting a volume block to 70% at the top end

Thanks - will try that but Helix FB group also said a gate on it can affect it - will try both options - It just seems to come on really suddenly - gate makes sense - I have it on the input rather than a gate in a block

Cabicular

Vaiai said:

Cabicular said:

Hmmm
i find the sweep on mine to be pretty good but then I’m sweeping from 0db to +7dB for solos
maybe try setting a volume block to 70% at the top end

Thanks - will try that but Helix FB group also said a gate on it can affect it - will try both options - It just seems to come on really suddenly - gate makes sense - I have it on the input rather than a gate in a block

Yeah fuck those guys
what do they know
If I do have a gate I usually put it just before the delay
Im generally trying to hate out amp hiss rather guitar noise

Floof

Yes if you've got a gate on the input there will be times when the volume pedal is letting gradually more of ......nothing..... through.

Turn the gate off and re-test. If all ok then re-enable it and turn it down a lot. Or remove it, because gates suck donkey balls. ;-) 

guitarfishbay

If you set the gate threshold right there should be no issue with it being first in line.

I’ve used a gate first in line for years, in front of a volume pedal, both with real pedals and digital multiFX. Never had any issues, because the gate is set to to kill only the noise that occurs when I’m not playing. Even soft picking will open the gate that way. 

Jonathanthomas83

@guitarfishbay what’s your advice for optimal settings for the gate?

guitarfishbay

So at the basic level what I do is switch on my gain sound, then hold the strings quiet with my fretting hand, then start with the threshold as low as it can go and slowly bring it in until the hum from the Guitar is silenced. There will be a point where this is slightly jittery, so I just add a tiny hair more and then that usually works fine. Couple of chords then mute to see if it’s opening and closing ok then good to go.

It depends how many controls the gate in question has. The pedal gate I have is a Decimator - it has one knob. Some gates have multiple controls for things like attack, release, etc but that’s less common with Guitar. But the way I deal with those is just by ear, the controls that need most attention are usually the ones to do with switching the sound back off again (activating the gate). So if your threshold is set to only open when there’s slightly more noise than the hum from the guitar you’re just looking for a release/decay setting that doesn’t chop off a sustaining note, you can zero in on this by only picking very lightly and seeing how quickly the gate activates. Balanced against how quickly it closes for stop start playing. 

I leave my gates on all the time, if they’re set on the input of the Guitar it doesn’t matter what the amp is doing because the gate is always seeing the same thing. But I’ll onlh set up a gate if I’m primarily using a high gain sound, just because you often don’t really need one for cleans IMO.

I’ve never been bothered by amp hiss, it’s generally a non issue if you silence at the Guitar, and digital units are super quiet compared to valve/pedals anyway. YMMV, but in a typical band there aren’t usually gaps of actual silence where you’d hear amp hiss as an issue, and even then you’d want everyone using the same approach (gates on Guitars/bass) for it to go dead silent. In a typical high gain scenario there usually isn’t enough silence to worry about, unless you play very stop/start stuff with long gaps (like mid 00s hardcore breakdowns).

You have to play cleanly for such gate settings to work, I don’t think trying to gate for bad muting technique is a workable fix anyway as the gates end up being needed to be set too aggressively.