Line 6 Helix

mudslide73

sgosden said:

rossyamaha said:

HX Stomp 8 blocks won't be in 2.9. Soz. 

Boooooo!  your lucky we're on lock down or if be starting a riot in my tiny village.... 

Arf! It's cool. What's in 2.9 then, generally? @rossyamaha ;

Bezzer

I’m really hoping we finally get a model of the Gorilla Tube Cruncher!! *crosses everything*

PolarityMan

I'm watching the catchup now @rossyamaha ;

rossyamaha

PolarityMan said:

I'm watching the catchup now @rossyamaha ;

Watch for the moment when I realise I don’t know who I am anymore and start waffling aimlessly. 

PolarityMan

Ok so my live style commentary while im watching, in case your interested. 

20:00ish - Interestingly I've used the 3 channel trick before but the opposite way to get a decent clean out of a JCA50h to cover a gig after I set my main amp on fire. 

ahh and I see you also suggested that  a few mins later

21:16 - I've thought about using this approach to provide an amp backup too for going straight to PA int he event of amp failure. Evidently from your vid that can totally work.


Ha and once again you cover that use case a few mins later too   Comprehensive.

30:48 - great question from Aaron. Ive struggled to get total transparency with 4CM, my understanding was that the main volume on full was unity for example so left that there. I'm hoping the metering in 2.9 is going to help with this to a certain extent to help with gain staging. Particularly I would also like my channel volumes and EQ's useful for quickly adjusting to a different venue but without either clipping inside the helix or driving it too lightly.  I dont think its all the amp loop either as Ive had the same struggle with both my JVM and my VH4 that my core tone which has no fx sounded fine in 4CM but then after several weeks if I went straight in to the front with FX only it definitely sounded like the "blanket lifting" effect if you know what I mean. I actually wondered if it could be due to the 2nd run through the AD/DA conversion. 

Great video though, covered the routing options really well I thought, you also referenced 7 cable method, is that 4CM with other pedals in a separate loop?

rossyamaha

PolarityMan said:

Ok so my live style commentary while im watching, in case your interested. 

20:00ish - Interestingly I've used the 3 channel trick before but the opposite way to get a decent clean out of a JCA50h to cover a gig after I set my main amp on fire. 

ahh and I see you also suggested that  a few mins later

21:16 - I've thought about using this approach to provide an amp backup too for going straight to PA int he event of amp failure. Evidently from your vid that can totally work.


Ha and once again you cover that use case a few mins later too   Comprehensive.

30:48 - great question from Aaron. Ive struggled to get total transparency with 4CM, my understanding was that the main volume on full was unity for example so left that there. I'm hoping the metering in 2.9 is going to help with this to a certain extent to help with gain staging. Particularly I would also like my channel volumes and EQ's useful for quickly adjusting to a different venue but without either clipping inside the helix or driving it too lightly.  I dont think its all the amp loop either as Ive had the same struggle with both my JVM and my VH4 that my core tone which has no fx sounded fine in 4CM but then after several weeks if I went straight in to the front with FX only it definitely sounded like the "blanket lifting" effect if you know what I mean. I actually wondered if it could be due to the 2nd run through the AD/DA conversion. 

Great video though, covered the routing options really well I thought, you also referenced 7 cable method, is that 4CM with other pedals in a separate loop?

Thanks so much for watching. 

The 4CM method thing is not an exact art. Like I said in the video, when I run my G2 4CM which is about as transparent as it gets, there is still a change in tone but the change is something I actually like. If I put a buffer at the front of everything it does go back to like being in front of the amp but the difference is fairly minor. 

7CM is for running 2 amps. So basically you can have a dual amp rig with different amps and different or even the same effects in each. It starts getting complicated then but the theory is the same. 

WiresDreamDisasters

Heartfeltdawn said:

Tuner seems fine to me. Tested it against ReaTune in Reaper, no issues for me. 

Liking the look of that pedalboard and it makes me think about maybe building one again in the future. 

I still hate the tuner - soz L6 boys!

rossyamaha

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

Tuner seems fine to me. Tested it against ReaTune in Reaper, no issues for me. 

Liking the look of that pedalboard and it makes me think about maybe building one again in the future. 

I still hate the tuner - soz L6 boys!

https://imgur.com/a/fnNFMae

WiresDreamDisasters

I don't notice too much change in tone when I'm in 4-cable-method. But physics-wise you're probably never going to get 100% unity when going through several stages of analog to digital and then digital to analog conversion, and the slight latencies introduced are maybe enough to convince the brain that you're hearing a tonal shift. That would be my guess anyway.

For me the big question is - does it sound good? And yes.

I had a GT-100 - didn't sound good in 4cm.
I had a Fractal FX8 - with some amps it sounded good. With my Diezel D-Moll it added a ton of noise. Never figured out why but I tried everything to get rid of it.
The M-Series units never sounded good to me in 4cm.

The Helix sounds perfectly acceptable.

Jetfire

Is there a link to the video please?

rossyamaha

Jetfire said:

Is there a link to the video please?

Maybe try this? Not sure if it will work. 

https://www.facebook.com/ross.bailey.756/videos/10221255417270973/?fref=nf

WiresDreamDisasters

Works here Ross guv.

PolarityMan

WiresDreamDisasters said:

I don't notice too much change in tone when I'm in 4-cable-method. But physics-wise you're probably never going to get 100% unity when going through several stages of analog to digital and then digital to analog conversion, and the slight latencies introduced are maybe enough to convince the brain that you're hearing a tonal shift. That would be my guess anyway.

For me the big question is - does it sound good? And yes.

I had a GT-100 - didn't sound good in 4cm.
I had a Fractal FX8 - with some amps it sounded good. With my Diezel D-Moll it added a ton of noise. Never figured out why but I tried everything to get rid of it.
The M-Series units never sounded good to me in 4cm.

The Helix sounds perfectly acceptable.

I wouldnt say it sounds bad exactly and it isnt even that easy to put a finger on exactly the difference, although i guess I could record it and find out but its more like I'll invest time setting up a bunch of 4CM patches including inevitably finding out one of the leads in my loom is buggered but I'll get through it all and then be ahppy for a while until I randomly either plug right in with no effects or go back to my 2CM patches for whatever reason and it just sounds bigger and more present somehow.

I did go through the same roundabout with my GT-10 too so it definitely isn't specific to the helix either it could just be the effect of the extra cable for all I know. With the GT-10 though the metering did make it easier to be confident that I wasnt introducing clipping on transients though. As i said anticipating 2.9 to help with that at which point I'll prob have another go with 4CM.

In my head I kinda want to create mega patches that have 4CM but also contain a path with amp / IR for direct to desk fallback and maybe to drive our in ears. 

Musicman20

The tuner on the Stomp is ace! I prefer it to the Helix Floor (but the version I played was a few years old now).

Looking forward to 8 blocks when I'm not using the amp models so much!

Jetfire

There is..
FUCK ALL..  
...wrong with the tuner. 

jellybelly

I think the tuner is great also. I use strobe mode. No idea what people have issues with?

PolarityMan

Jetfire said:

There is..
FUCK ALL..  
...wrong with the tuner. 

I dont get the accuracy complaints but I do have a TU-2 on my board with the helix because just doesnt feel as fast / responsive. 

Vaiai

guitargeek62 said:

At the moment I’ve just been playing it into the FX return on my Katana 100 and even through that it’s sounding a lot more amp-in-the-room-like than I remember it being with my HS7s from before! It’s hardly an ideal rig to be playing it through, but it seems to be working well enough currently and gives me hope for this approach!

I gig the Helix this way - in the FX return of a 100w Katana - the reason? I tried many FRFR (DXR, Alto TS210 and Laney LFR) solutions and hated them all - I decided I should use a cab that's for guitar (so you don't have to mess with cutting frequencies in the patches/IRs etc) - plus it's a backup amp if the Helix fails - sometimes I use it as is and other times I go in the PA and use the Katana to monitor. The Katana speaker is not great but does the job for my function band.

Also tried a Seymour Duncan Powerstage and a deep Mesa Boogie 1x12 - that worked well too.

WiresDreamDisasters

PolarityMan said:

Jetfire said:

There is..
FUCK ALL..  
...wrong with the tuner. 

I dont get the accuracy complaints but I do have a TU-2 on my board with the helix because just doesnt feel as fast / responsive. 

Agreed. The Helix one just does not feel as responsive as my Polytune which is why I still use it.

Cirrus

I found I prefer strobe mode because in ocd terms at a quick glance just seeing it's not moving much one way or the other satisfies me whereas seeing a needle not quite pointing directly at "in tune" winds me up.