Line 6 Helix

guitarcookie1

nickp said:

nick79 said:

I'm questioning whether the Helix is for me, at least for amp modelling. I've always struggled a bit getting it sounding right to me, some amps better than others but even then it leaves me not feeling satisfied. 
I've watched youtube vids, such as Jason Sadites but it all seems a bit long winded - High and low cuts, compressors, etc etc.

Yesterday i tried out a demo of Mercuriall's Reaxis (Mesa Triaxis), and i was blown away - Just so easy and quick to get a sound i liked. I also used to us Amplitube and from what i remember i liked that too. 

For playing gigs i always prefer my real amp, and for home i can use software. I'll keep my Stomp as i like the effects. 

Don't get me wrong, i think Helix is awesome and i know people out there can and do make it sound great, i just cant seem to gel with it. 

as a suggestion - a lot of the pros that I know (including the team on Guitar Techniques etc) really like the M Britt patches for a great starting point as they like his ir's.

I did that and to me the strat blues and tex blues sound really good - as does the plexi crunch which I was using as the basis of a gigging rig

These patches revolutionised the helix in one quick go.

I still struggle otherwise - I find Jason Sadites and the other guy - Glenn De Laune to be a bit processed for my taste and a bit boomy (I use a yamaha monitor and it's about not letting the bottom end get too much and lost in the bass frequencies)

I'm trying to get a santana mooonflower esque tone at the moment because (once I finish my SRV fetish) I'm going to learn a few santana tunes and it would be nice to be in the same ballpark and |I'm back to struggling but it's probably becasue there's too much choice as much as anything else

The matchstick also seems to get a lot of love (again with the britt ir)

This is what I found also.

I bought the M Britt pack for my Stomp to see what the unit could do and I really like the AC30 Fawn and Plexi Brt patches - I could use these two for most things I play.

Also got a couple of the Sadites & De Laune patches but find them very 'harsh' sounding (nothing like the video demos), and the volume jumps between snapshots makes them unusable (I could probably tweak this if I was going to use them).

A question for the masses if anyone can help, a lot of these bought patches seem to have db increases to the level in the output block. Why would this be?

Jetfire

Can the LT do amp channel switching? 

FarleyUK

Any suggestions on the best Helix Native presets? I’ma big fan of TopJimi stuff on the Kemper, so anything like that would be great. 

When I had Helix original, I purchased loads of packs - however, none of them sounded like the videos and were pretty crap (Choptones, Glenn DuLuane etc.) so conscious of avoiding the same thing. 

Main tones are classic rock, so Marshall’s, SLO100 etc. 

TTBZ

Rather than buying a preset I'd first download the free Redwirez greenback cab IRs and set up a preset with a Placater into the M160 CapEdge-3in IR. Something just sounds great about that particular one to me. Add a room or plate reverb after for some space and boost with the SD1 for higher gain. For lower gain I also liked to swap the Placater for the P75 Brt and the SD1 for the SP compressor to give mild compression and sustain without over saturating. Add an EQ with a bit of a boost around 2kHz if you want more presence/bite and narrow Q cut around 5kHz to remove any fizz. I pretty much treated mine like I would a normal recorded guitar tone, sweeping the frequency til I found what I wanted to add or subtract from the EQ.

I don't tend to like Greenbacks in real life but I think they help give the Helix Marshall models that upper mid kerrang they're missing. I'm missing having a Stomp right now!

IMC1980

TTBZ said:

Rather than buying a preset I'd first download the free Redwirez greenback cab IRs and set up a preset with a Placater into the M160 CapEdge-3in IR. Something just sounds great about that particular one to me. Add a room or plate reverb after for some space and boost with the SD1 for higher gain. For lower gain I also liked to swap the Placater for the P75 Brt and the SD1 for the SP compressor to give mild compression and sustain without over saturating. Add an EQ with a bit of a boost around 2kHz if you want more presence/bite and narrow Q cut around 5kHz to remove any fizz. I pretty much treated mine like I would a normal recorded guitar tone, sweeping the frequency til I found what I wanted to add or subtract from the EQ.

I don't tend to like Greenbacks in real life but I think they help give the Helix Marshall models that upper mid kerrang they're missing. I'm missing having a Stomp right now!

Definitely try this; my friend tried out my presets with his guitar and my clean was a mid-crunch with his pickups. Can't see how a preset pack would work unless you matched the gear and even then your playing style will be another huge variable.

kennedydream1980

FarleyUK said:

Any suggestions on the best Helix Native presets? I’ma big fan of TopJimi stuff on the Kemper, so anything like that would be great. 

When I had Helix original, I purchased loads of packs - however, none of them sounded like the videos and were pretty crap (Choptones, Glenn DuLuane etc.) so conscious of avoiding the same thing. 

Main tones are classic rock, so Marshall’s, SLO100 etc. 

Have you tried the Fremen stuff? Also Marco Fanton has some great presets. The ChopTones Brown Eyes volume 1 pack is also excellent. That being said I still prefer my own presets to any of the above. I use the Placater dirty amp for most things although I do intend to explore the Revv Gen amps as they do sound great.

chris45

TTBZ said:

Rather than buying a preset I'd first download the free Redwirez greenback cab IRs and set up a preset with a Placater into the M160 CapEdge-3in IR. Something just sounds great about that particular one to me. Add a room or plate reverb after for some space and boost with the SD1 for higher gain. For lower gain I also liked to swap the Placater for the P75 Brt and the SD1 for the SP compressor to give mild compression and sustain without over saturating. Add an EQ with a bit of a boost around 2kHz if you want more presence/bite and narrow Q cut around 5kHz to remove any fizz. I pretty much treated mine like I would a normal recorded guitar tone, sweeping the frequency til I found what I wanted to add or subtract from the EQ.

I don't tend to like Greenbacks in real life but I think they help give the Helix Marshall models that upper mid kerrang they're missing. I'm missing having a Stomp right now!

Also this - I find the 5kHz cut essential for AC/DC like classic rock tones as without EQ chords and riffs are fine with low gain but high notes are weedy, but then upping the gain to get more bite on the high notes makes chords fizzy.

duotone

FarleyUK said:

Any suggestions on the best Helix Native presets? I’ma big fan of TopJimi stuff on the Kemper, so anything like that would be great. 

When I had Helix original, I purchased loads of packs - however, none of them sounded like the videos and were pretty crap (Choptones, Glenn DuLuane etc.) so conscious of avoiding the same thing. 

Main tones are classic rock, so Marshall’s, SLO100 etc. 

I’ll have a look tonight when I practice wit Native @FarleyUK ;

Heartfeltdawn

UnclePsychosis said:

Today has left me really confused as to how the Hx Stomp works at the input/output inpedance level. 

My Caroline Kilobyte was being really noisy in the FX Loop of my Stomp (FX loop configured to be instrument level send and return). The Caroline team suggested putting a buffered pedal after it, and lo-and-behold putting a TU-3 after the Kilobyte removes the noise. Putting both of those in front of the Stomp and not "in the loop" improves the noise further. 

Now, naiively I'd assumed that the Stomp FX loop and the Stomp itself would behave like buffered pedals but they clearly don't. Anyone got an explanation? Is it because of the way the auto-impedance thing works? 

Does that happen with other pedals in the loop or is it restricted to the Kilobyte only? 

duotone

Heartfeltdawn said:

stonevibe said:

Want the real pedal and amp names for your Helix and POD Go? okay...

https://www.gearnews.com/ben-vesco-has-a-mod-that-shows-you-the-real-names-behind-line-6-amp-and-effect-models/

Excellent, it works for Native as well now. 

Anyone tried this on Native yet? I like the idea of it but I’m hesitant after recently getting it back working again. With thanks to Line6 Support & their ticket system.

mudslide73

I've had some success using the MBritt stuff with other IRs. I very much agree his Fawn Vox patch is brilliant but I made a nice blend of Celestion's G12H and Blue to put on it. There's so much flexibility with high and low cuts to tailor everything. A proper rabbit hole if you want it to be.

FarleyUK

duotone said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

stonevibe said:

Want the real pedal and amp names for your Helix and POD Go? okay...

https://www.gearnews.com/ben-vesco-has-a-mod-that-shows-you-the-real-names-behind-line-6-amp-and-effect-models/

Excellent, it works for Native as well now. 

Anyone tried this on Native yet? I like the idea of it but I’m hesitant after recently getting it back working again. With thanks to Line6 Support & their ticket system.

Yep, works well - just follow the instructions. 

Jota

duotone said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

stonevibe said:

Want the real pedal and amp names for your Helix and POD Go? okay...

https://www.gearnews.com/ben-vesco-has-a-mod-that-shows-you-the-real-names-behind-line-6-amp-and-effect-models/

Excellent, it works for Native as well now. 

Anyone tried this on Native yet? I like the idea of it but I’m hesitant after recently getting it back working again. With thanks to Line6 Support & their ticket system.

Just save the original files on a different folder so you can go back anytime.

phil_b

stonevibe said:

Want the real pedal and amp names for your Helix and POD Go? okay...

https://www.gearnews.com/ben-vesco-has-a-mod-that-shows-you-the-real-names-behind-line-6-amp-and-effect-models/

anyone tried this

I now have the real names in editor but my device still displays the Line 6 names. Can this be changed.

it will get confusing the the editor and device display different names?

guitargeek62

@phil_b aye, I spotted the same flaw - bit annoying, but not impossible to work with I guess. Hopefully there’ll be an update of sorts that lets us fix it, otherwise I’ll probably revert to the stock names and icons

Vaiai

guitarmangler said:

EDIT ignore me. I re checked line 6's forum and a few other people had the same issue as me. I'd forgotten to press mode! Doh!

After I persuaded the rhythm guitarist in my band to get a Helix we did many successful gigs - then one night we got there and all his sounds were still there but snapshots were gone - 1st set and we got to work - we quickly created some base patches and got thru the gig - next day he messaged and said the same thing as you - one press of the mode switch and all was well!

Heartfeltdawn

duotone said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

stonevibe said:

Want the real pedal and amp names for your Helix and POD Go? okay...

https://www.gearnews.com/ben-vesco-has-a-mod-that-shows-you-the-real-names-behind-line-6-amp-and-effect-models/

Excellent, it works for Native as well now. 

Anyone tried this on Native yet? I like the idea of it but I’m hesitant after recently getting it back working again. With thanks to Line6 Support & their ticket system.

Yep, had it installed since May 4th and it works perfectly. 

duotone

duotone said:

FarleyUK said:

Any suggestions on the best Helix Native presets? I’ma big fan of TopJimi stuff on the Kemper, so anything like that would be great. 

When I had Helix original, I purchased loads of packs - however, none of them sounded like the videos and were pretty crap (Choptones, Glenn DuLuane etc.) so conscious of avoiding the same thing. 

Main tones are classic rock, so Marshall’s, SLO100 etc. 

I’ll have a look tonight when I practice wit Native @FarleyUK ;

@FarleyUK ;

Had a play through the Helix Presets on Setlist 1.  Best ones I found were:

002 Brit Plexi
003 Cali Rectifire
006 Brit 2204
011 Rev Gen Red
013 Brit P75 Nrm
015 Mandarin 80
019 PV Panama
034 Solo Lead OD
036 Mail Order Twin
038 Brit P75 Brt
050 WhoWatt 100
078 Whole Lotta
100 May...er May Not

menamestom

stonevibe said:

Want the real pedal and amp names for your Helix and POD Go? okay...

https://www.gearnews.com/ben-vesco-has-a-mod-that-shows-you-the-real-names-behind-line-6-amp-and-effect-models/

Is that just in the software or on the unit as well?  

Digital_Igloo

Jetfire said:

Can the LT do amp channel switching? 

Yes, but it's shared with the EXP 2 in jack. You can choose what that jack does; you can't do both at once.