Line 6 Helix

mudslide73

PolarityMan said:

Hows everyone liking the orange? I set it up for practicing some new band tunes last night just orange -> IR (with an ownhammer orange Ir laoded)...sounding pretty decent I thought.

I really like mixing an orange type amp with something more like a SLO for demos so I can see this getting used. 

I'm liking it @PolarityMan - I'm using it with some OH Mesa IRs and it sounds great with a bit of stereo delay. It's gainer than I thought tbh. 

Jota

For expression I'm using the M-Audio one. I only wish the cable was detachable. 

Musicwolf

With my Kemper I was using a Boss FV500 (Hi-Z version I think)

https://www.boss.info/uk/products/fv-500h_500l/ 

I haven't tried it with the Helix as I don't need two expression pedals.  Prior to this I was using an M-Audio model and before that a Fender one (which broke).

With an expression pedal you are basically paying for the housing, the electronics are trivial.  I use mine a lot, mostly to morph between sounds on the Kemper and to bring in a second amp / fx path on the Helix.  The better pedal on the Helix was probably my main reason for going 'full fat' rather than the LT.

Cookiemonster

Musicwolf said:

With my Kemper I was using a Boss FV500 (Hi-Z version I think)

https://www.boss.info/uk/products/fv-500h_500l/ 

I haven't tried it with the Helix as I don't need two expression pedals.  Prior to this I was using an M-Audio model and before that a Fender one (which broke).

With an expression pedal you are basically paying for the housing, the electronics are trivial.  I use mine a lot, mostly to morph between sounds on the Kemper and to bring in a second amp / fx path on the Helix.  The better pedal on the Helix was probably my main reason for going 'full fat' rather than the LT.

For now I went with the one John A suggested. 
Might look at an upgrade if I use it a lot

chrisj1602

Very impressed with the Rockerverb. The new Spring and Hall reverbs are nice too.

John_A

Freebird said:

John_A said:q

Cookiemonster said:

After buying a second hand stomp for £300 I am excited to get stuck into the update.

I want to get an expression pedal any suggestions ? 

If you want something cheap, the Nektar ones on Amazon for £20 work perfectly and are actually pretty good

Or a Moog Moogerfooger EP-3 for a few quid more.

Do the Moog ones definitely work with the Helix?  I thought I'd read somewhere that they don't

Cirrus

IIRC from when I built one, Helix expression pedals use mono jacks & a 10k resistor - it's just a very simple measurement of the resistance between tip and ring, and there's a bit of leeway around the 10k value so I think it uses some software logic to note the actual high and low resistance and map that on the fly to a 0-100% value.

Most expression pedals use TRS/stereo jacks, and those won't work. If you look for forum posts, you'll quite often see people asking why their 3rd party expression pedal goes from 0-50% then back to 0% again at toe down. They're using a TRS equipped expression pedal, is the usual reason.

And while I'm on the subject anyway in case anyone ever finds this post while searching, the toe switch needs to be a momentary normally open, and again it's wired up to a mono jack.

John_A

Cirrus said:

IIRC from when I built one, Helix expression pedals use mono jacks & a 10k resistor - it's just a very simple measurement of the resistance between tip and ring, and there's a bit of leeway around the 10k value so I think it uses some software logic to note the actual high and low resistance and map that on the fly to a 0-100% value.

Most expression pedals use TRS/stereo jacks, and those won't work. If you look for forum posts, you'll quite often see people asking why their 3rd party expression pedal goes from 0-50% then back to 0% again at toe down. They're using a TRS equipped expression pedal, is the usual reason.

And while I'm on the subject anyway in case anyone ever finds this post while searching, the toe switch needs to be a momentary normally open, and again it's wired up to a mono jack.

The cheapo Nektar one I mentioned above has a TRS jack and works perfectly 

Cookiemonster

John_A said:

Cirrus said:

IIRC from when I built one, Helix expression pedals use mono jacks & a 10k resistor - it's just a very simple measurement of the resistance between tip and ring, and there's a bit of leeway around the 10k value so I think it uses some software logic to note the actual high and low resistance and map that on the fly to a 0-100% value.

Most expression pedals use TRS/stereo jacks, and those won't work. If you look for forum posts, you'll quite often see people asking why their 3rd party expression pedal goes from 0-50% then back to 0% again at toe down. They're using a TRS equipped expression pedal, is the usual reason.

And while I'm on the subject anyway in case anyone ever finds this post while searching, the toe switch needs to be a momentary normally open, and again it's wired up to a mono jack.

The cheapo Nektar one I mentioned above has a TRS jack and works perfectly 

Luckily the stomp and the Nektar arrived today within an hour if each other. How do I set it up ? 

bloodandtears

the Nektar is a reverse polarity that needs setting in the Helix iirc

John_A

Cookiemonster said:

John_A said:

Cirrus said:

IIRC from when I built one, Helix expression pedals use mono jacks & a 10k resistor - it's just a very simple measurement of the resistance between tip and ring, and there's a bit of leeway around the 10k value so I think it uses some software logic to note the actual high and low resistance and map that on the fly to a 0-100% value.

Most expression pedals use TRS/stereo jacks, and those won't work. If you look for forum posts, you'll quite often see people asking why their 3rd party expression pedal goes from 0-50% then back to 0% again at toe down. They're using a TRS equipped expression pedal, is the usual reason.

And while I'm on the subject anyway in case anyone ever finds this post while searching, the toe switch needs to be a momentary normally open, and again it's wired up to a mono jack.

The cheapo Nektar one I mentioned above has a TRS jack and works perfectly 

Luckily the stomp and the Nektar arrived today within an hour if each other. How do I set it up ? 

Really can't remember . If you can't figure it out I'l have a look at my settings

Cirrus

John_A said:

The cheapo Nektar one I mentioned above has a TRS jack and works perfectly 

My apologies - it might be a polarity thing that determines whether it works or not when R and S are tied together, but I know the Helix is expecting a mono cable.

kennedydream1980

Cirrus said:

John_A said:

The cheapo Nektar one I mentioned above has a TRS jack and works perfectly 

My apologies - it might be a polarity thing that determines whether it works or not when R and S are tied together, but I know the Helix is expecting a mono cable.

I ran 2 Nektar pedals with a HX effects and it was plug and play. It was just a case of assigning them to an effects block. I had one setup as a volume pedal and one as a wah.

Cookiemonster

Cirrus said:

John_A said:

The cheapo Nektar one I mentioned above has a TRS jack and works perfectly 

My apologies - it might be a polarity thing that determines whether it works or not when R and S are tied together, but I know the Helix is expecting a mono cable.

Thank you. Mine seems to toggle between ex1 and Ex2. So I am doing something wrong

Grumpyrocker

Heads up folks. 

Firmware update to 3.11 - fixes various bugs introduced in 3.1. 

Changelog:

• HX Stomp, HX Stomp XL only—If a custom label is not assigned, tapping a stomp switch with multiple assignments would display "MULTIPLE [X]" instead of displaying its assignments—FIXED

• HX Stomp, HX Stomp XL only—Stomp mode footswitches would not follow the Global Settings > Displays > LED Ring Brightness value—FIXED

• HX Stomp XL only—The colors for Distortion and Reverb boxes on Play view were reversed—FIXED

• Receiving a MIDI CC67 could cause Helix LT to freeze—FIXED

• In some cases, a MIDI snapshot (CC69) message could fail to be recognized if sent immediately after a PC message—FIXED

abw1989

Grumpyrocker said:

• In some cases, a MIDI snapshot (CC69) message could fail to be recognized if sent immediately after a PC message—FIXED

If this is actually fixed, I will be a happy bunny. It's been very frustrating not having this working in anything version 3.x onwards.

paulphoenix

So I updated to 3.11 yesterday on my HX Stomp.

The Stomp says it's on version 3.11 but my HX Edit still says 3.10. Is that right? 

Before updating my Stomp, I downloaded the current HX Edit (twice) from the Line 6 website.

Is 3.11 a fix within 3.10? Why would my Stomp have a firmware release number in excess of my HX Edit software? 

I re-booted and rebuilt as per the release notes before restoring from my backup. I have the Mandarin Rocker on my Stomp so i guess it's all good...but i just wanted to see if anyone else noticed this? 

Jota

paulphoenix said:

So I updated to 3.11 yesterday on my HX Stomp.

The Stomp says it's on version 3.11 but my HX Edit still says 3.10. Is that right? 

Before updating my Stomp, I downloaded the current HX Edit (twice) from the Line 6 website.

Is 3.11 a fix within 3.10? Why would my Stomp have a firmware release number in excess of my HX Edit software? 

I re-booted and rebuilt as per the release notes before restoring from my backup. I have the Mandarin Rocker on my Stomp so i guess it's all good...but i just wanted to see if anyone else noticed this? 

There's no HX Edit 3.11 update.
You're fine.

Cirrus

is 3.10 the latest HX edit version? If so, that's fine I'd have thought. The 3.11 is just a minor firmware bug fix, it probably didn't warrant them putting out a new Edit version.

PolarityMan

I forgot that the update hoses the global settings ..took a few minutes to realise why my patch level were all over the.place until I flipped the mic/line level of the outputs appropriately