Line 6 Helix

siremoon

digitalscream said:

BRISTOL86 said:

Thanks guys pretty much confirms my own thoughts on the matter!

Hadn't considered the stomp, I don’t know much about them to be honest. I do wonder about whether to just go Helix Native and use my Scarlett interface but then I’d still have to use a looper pedal. There’s something quite nice about a chunky bit of hardware IMO despite native doing everything the LT can sound wise. 

Well, my LT stays in the case all the time now - it's only for rehearsals and gigs. The rest of the time, I'm using my guitars straight into my interface (Komplete Audio 6) and Reaper with Helix Native running. It's actually quicker to fire up Reaper and plug my guitar into the lead that's plumbed in under my desk than it would be to fire up the LT even if it was already set up, and this has the bonus of not taking up any room on my desk other than the interface (which would be there anyway) and a tuner pedal.

That's the only disadvantage of Native...no tuner

As a workaround you can put the Reaper ReaTune plugin before Native in the effects chain and use that as a tuner.

PS.  Or put ReaTune on a separate "Tuner" track if you have multiple Native instances in your project.

John_A

Totally understand the liking for a bit of hardware, plus you’re not dependent on PC performance, and access to all the foot switches makes life a lot more user friendly for a typical guitarist.  I rarely use Native, normally have my Helix (full fat) set up in my music room for practice

BRISTOL86

For those who use the Helix as an audio interface and have their PC/Mac sound coming out of the Helix, how do you balance the volume you need the Helix at for the guitar and the sound coming out of the PC? 

On a Mac the Helix disables the Mac’s inbuilt volume control, so I used the volume trim in the Helix to reduce it as it was much too loud when the Helix was at the right volume for the guitar. 

This works ok if the source volume from the Mac is always a constant, but with YouTube backing tracks etc the volume varies massively, so I have to end up using YouTubes own volume control etc. 

This all seems a bit cumbersome, is there an easier was I’m overlooking? I’m wondering if I’m best off just having a little set of desktop speakers next to my monitor speakers for the Mac’s sound, and control it independently of the Helix. 

guitarmangler

I just turn up and down YouTube in its window and keep my guitar the same volume.
It won’t make a difference if you have separate speakers if the volume is jumping all over the place, somethings got to go up and down to compensate .

BRISTOL86

guitarmangler said:

I just turn up and down YouTube in its window and keep my guitar the same volume.
It won’t make a difference if you have separate speakers if the volume is jumping all over the place, somethings got to go up and down to compensate .

Yeah, but my point is I can easily bring the volume from the source (Mac) in line with the guitar volume by adjusting the volume from the Mac using the global volume control on the Mac itself. 

When the Helix is selected as the audio output device, the Mac’s inbuilt volume control gets disabled. 

This means that if the volume on the source file is too low for the volume I want to play at, I have to change the trim level which is faffy, or I have to roll the volume off the guitar and turn the master volume on the Helix up, which is going to change the tone 

gibsongretschfan

BRISTOL86 said:

guitarmangler said:

I just turn up and down YouTube in its window and keep my guitar the same volume.
It won’t make a difference if you have separate speakers if the volume is jumping all over the place, somethings got to go up and down to compensate .

Yeah, but my point is I can easily bring the volume from the source (Mac) in line with the guitar volume by adjusting the volume from the Mac using the global volume control on the Mac itself. 

When the Helix is selected as the audio output device, the Mac’s inbuilt volume control gets disabled. 

This means that if the volume on the source file is too low for the volume I want to play at, I have to change the trim level which is faffy, or I have to roll the volume off the guitar and turn the master volume on the Helix up, which is going to change the tone 

Yeah its a pain in the arse, especially when you open up a new window and it auto plays before you can turn it down and nearly shatters your windows. My solution is to turn the XLR out for my guitar channel up to match the USB foldback volume instead of trying to turn the computer down

BRISTOL86

gibsongretschfan said:

BRISTOL86 said:

guitarmangler said:

I just turn up and down YouTube in its window and keep my guitar the same volume.
It won’t make a difference if you have separate speakers if the volume is jumping all over the place, somethings got to go up and down to compensate .

Yeah, but my point is I can easily bring the volume from the source (Mac) in line with the guitar volume by adjusting the volume from the Mac using the global volume control on the Mac itself. 

When the Helix is selected as the audio output device, the Mac’s inbuilt volume control gets disabled. 

This means that if the volume on the source file is too low for the volume I want to play at, I have to change the trim level which is faffy, or I have to roll the volume off the guitar and turn the master volume on the Helix up, which is going to change the tone 

Yeah its a pain in the arse, especially when you open up a new window and it auto plays before you can turn it down and nearly shatters your windows. My solution is to turn the XLR out for my guitar channel up to match the USB foldback volume instead of trying to turn the computer down

Yes I did that last night when I first connected it! I had the master on the Helix set to halfway which was just right for bedroom noodling, and then plugged in the Mac, played a song on iTunes and it could have raised the dead. My ears are still ringing now and the cat still hasn’t come out of hiding!! 

Im thinking a separate small pair of laptop speakers for playing backing tracks etc might just be easier for my simple purposes. The downside to this is that when I want to use headphones, I’ll have to send it back through the Helix and that means changing settings in the Mac. 

kennedydream1980

BRISTOL86 said:

gibsongretschfan said:

BRISTOL86 said:

guitarmangler said:

I just turn up and down YouTube in its window and keep my guitar the same volume.
It won’t make a difference if you have separate speakers if the volume is jumping all over the place, somethings got to go up and down to compensate .

Yeah, but my point is I can easily bring the volume from the source (Mac) in line with the guitar volume by adjusting the volume from the Mac using the global volume control on the Mac itself. 

When the Helix is selected as the audio output device, the Mac’s inbuilt volume control gets disabled. 

This means that if the volume on the source file is too low for the volume I want to play at, I have to change the trim level which is faffy, or I have to roll the volume off the guitar and turn the master volume on the Helix up, which is going to change the tone 

Yeah its a pain in the arse, especially when you open up a new window and it auto plays before you can turn it down and nearly shatters your windows. My solution is to turn the XLR out for my guitar channel up to match the USB foldback volume instead of trying to turn the computer down

Yes I did that last night when I first connected it! I had the master on the Helix set to halfway which was just right for bedroom noodling, and then plugged in the Mac, played a song on iTunes and it could have raised the dead. My ears are still ringing now and the cat still hasn’t come out of hiding!! 

Im thinking a separate small pair of laptop speakers for playing backing tracks etc might just be easier for my simple purposes. The downside to this is that when I want to use headphones, I’ll have to send it back through the Helix and that means changing settings in the Mac. 

I use Mackie CR3’s for this. They have an Aux in and a headphone out on the front of the left speaker. 

John_A

To change the level of USB 1/2 independently, Global Settings>INs/Outs>USB 1/2 Trim

BRISTOL86

Thanks guys.

BRISTOL86

Folks

If I want to have the LT set up on a desktop but still use the looper, what’s the best way? Can I add a separate foot switch to control that?

Ta!

John_A

BRISTOL86 said:

Folks

If I want to have the LT set up on a desktop but still use the looper, what’s the best way? Can I add a separate foot switch to control that?

Ta!

Yes, you could use a separate midi footswitch, but seems a bit daft doing that

BRISTOL86

John_A said:

BRISTOL86 said:

Folks

If I want to have the LT set up on a desktop but still use the looper, what’s the best way? Can I add a separate foot switch to control that?

Ta!

Yes, you could use a separate midi footswitch, but seems a bit daft doing that

Yeah I just prefer having the unit at easy fiddling reach when I’m at home, I suppose I should just put it on the floor and use HX Edit 

gearaddict

Not sure if this belongs here but I found this really interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eqiM1PpN9M&t=1771s

shuikit

Stumbled on this video a while ago, ended up turning down the amp channel volumes on my presets and think it's made a difference, anyone else do this?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlPKk26gvsA

digitalscream

gearaddict said:

Not sure if this belongs here but I found this really interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eqiM1PpN9M&t=1771s

The thing that I just don't understand about that video - and a lot of folks' objection to the Helix (and modellers in general) - is the idea that it takes hours to set up a decent sound.

I've literally never encountered that with any modeller, especially the Helix. I went from unboxing the Helix to having the sound I wanted in about half an hour, because I ignored the majority of the deep-edit parameters and just set it up as I would an amp and pedals. It's never taken me more than a few minutes of fiddling with knobs to get the sound I wanted with any of the amps in the Helix, and that's roughly the same as it does with a real amp.

There are two possibilities here - either I'm exceptionally good at setting up sounds in digital gear, or a lot of people are astonishingly bad at it. I'm thinking that the former is relatively unlikely, soooo....are these people just massively overthinking it?

Cirrus

gearaddict said:

Not sure if this belongs here but I found this really interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eqiM1PpN9M&t=1771s

That vid kinda makes me laugh because the premise of comparing a modeller to a real amp kind of puts the real amp up on a platform. And the actual AC30 they're using... is not, IMO, a great example of an AC30. I prefer the sound of the older Chinese models, and THOSE needed modding to sound as rich and have the same transition to overdrive as the UK made amps. Plus, no two AC30s (I've owned 5) have sounded the same, even before you introduce differences in speakers & cabs. So what does the video show?

digitalscream

Cirrus said:

gearaddict said:

Not sure if this belongs here but I found this really interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eqiM1PpN9M&t=1771s

That vid kinda makes me laugh because the premise of comparing a modeller to a real amp kind of puts the real amp up on a platform. And the actual AC30 they're using... is not, IMO, a great example of an AC30. I prefer the sound of the older Chinese models, and THOSE needed modding to sound as rich and have the same transition to overdrive as the UK made amps. Plus, no two AC30s (I've owned 5) have sounded the same, even before you introduce differences in speakers & cabs. So what does the video show?

I think the fact that one of the guys in the test is the owner of the AC30 makes the video worthwhile - he's very familiar with the amp, and it's the one that he compares everything to. Therefore...the fact that the Helix is closer to the sound in his head than the amp itself is significant.

Vaiai

Got to our gig on Saturday - ready to play 1st dance and the other guitarist said he had lost all his snapshots!
My LT was fine and his had been fine at rehearsal - we quickly assigned his main pedals to the bottom row after checking global parameters for Stomp/Snap mode, did the whole gig with only a few sounds (he is mainly rhythm guitar) and made it through the night...

"That's it, I've lost all faith in the Helix, it's going in the morning...can't trust it! Etc, etc...

Next morning I get a msg - pic of the Helix and all snapshots etc back to normal - "So did you reload it?"

Long pause... an hour later - a pic of the Mode button comes through...

gearaddict

digitalscream said:

Cirrus said:

gearaddict said:

Not sure if this belongs here but I found this really interesting:

That vid kinda makes me laugh because the premise of comparing a modeller to a real amp kind of puts the real amp up on a platform. And the actual AC30 they're using... is not, IMO, a great example of an AC30. I prefer the sound of the older Chinese models, and THOSE needed modding to sound as rich and have the same transition to overdrive as the UK made amps. Plus, no two AC30s (I've owned 5) have sounded the same, even before you introduce differences in speakers & cabs. So what does the video show?

I think the fact that one of the guys in the test is the owner of the AC30 makes the video worthwhile - he's very familiar with the amp, and it's the one that he compares everything to. Therefore...the fact that the Helix is closer to the sound in his head than the amp itself is significant.

I thought it was funny that he complained about how long it took to get the sound he wanted out of the Helix but actually it was only a couple of hours...so, not quick but hardly the end of the world. And he chose the Helix as his favourite sound in the end.