Line 6 Helix

Musicman20

Well the Orange Rocker sounds fantastic. 

PolarityMan

Musicman20 said:

Well the Orange Rocker sounds fantastic. 

Aye its a good un

PC_Dave

Anyone else having problems with Native on the latest version? Installed it yesterday and now it just bombs out any DAW I try it with.

menamestom

What are the new effects like?

shuikit

The dynamic hall reverb is really good, it can do nice and subtle as well as bigger more ambient type.  I also like the new Rat, though I can't comment on how close it is to a real rat

markslade07

PolarityMan said:

Musicman20 said:

Well the Orange Rocker sounds fantastic. 

Aye its a good un

I think I must literally be the only person in the world who doesn’t like the Rocker...I just can’t get it to sound good, though that probably says more about me than the amp! Always sounds really thin and brittle to me...

JGC

markslade07 said:

PolarityMan said:

Musicman20 said:

Well the Orange Rocker sounds fantastic. 

Aye its a good un

I think I must literally be the only person in the world who doesn’t like the Rocker...I just can’t get it to sound good, though that probably says more about me than the amp! Always sounds really thin and brittle to me...

I don't like it either :-)

Cirrus

shuikit said:

The dynamic hall reverb is really good, it can do nice and subtle as well as bigger more ambient type.  I also like the new Rat, though I can't comment on how close it is to a real rat

It's close, a little tighter and more focused than my Rat clone but my rat clone is a bit on the loose/ thick side. They're all a bit different, I could easily believe it sounds exactly like the one L6 modelled.

The new spring reverb is a big improvement on the old pair. It was probably the main weak spot in the lineup after they added poly pitch stuff. I've not really tried the hall yet, but from the brief play I had it seemed useful.

markslade07

JGC said:

markslade07 said:

PolarityMan said:

Musicman20 said:

Well the Orange Rocker sounds fantastic. 

Aye its a good un

I think I must literally be the only person in the world who doesn’t like the Rocker...I just can’t get it to sound good, though that probably says more about me than the amp! Always sounds really thin and brittle to me...

I don't like it either :-)

Phew…not just me! 

chrisj1602

I’ve not tried this yet but have they almost put a Strymon Deco in with 3.10...

• Modulation > Retro Reel (Mono, Stereo), Line 6 Original effect that simulates playing a signal back from an analog tape machine. This signal can be distorted, filtered to sound older or more lo-fi, and modulated with wow and flutter. TIP: Helix Native users should definitely try Retro Reel on all sorts of tracks—vocals, drums, keyboards, strings, busses, effects returns, you name it. Anything that needs a bit more punch or vibe.
  • Wow Fluttr—Determines how much warbly tape sound is heard
  • Saturation—Adds analog tape saturation and at high enough settings, distortion. At lower settings, it's great for simply warming up a tone
  • Low Cut—Determines the frequency of the Low Cut (High Pass) filter. At higher settings, can provide a lo-fi effect
  • High Cut—Determines the frequency of the High Cut (Low Pass) filter. At lower settings, can provide the natural high-end roll-off of old tape
  • Tape Speed—Changes both the rate of the modulation applied by the Wow Fluttr control and the filtering response of the analog tape emulation
  • Level—Sets the overall level of the block
  • Texture—Adjusts the amount of the NAB tape EQ in the simulated tape path. When Saturation is set to 0.0, the texture is invisible. When Saturation is turned up, the texture will affect the tightness (or looseness) of the distortion

Jota

chrisj1602 said:

I’ve not tried this yet but have they almost put a Strymon Deco in with 3.10...

• Modulation > Retro Reel (Mono, Stereo), Line 6 Original effect that simulates playing a signal back from an analog tape machine. This signal can be distorted, filtered to sound older or more lo-fi, and modulated with wow and flutter. TIP: Helix Native users should definitely try Retro Reel on all sorts of tracks—vocals, drums, keyboards, strings, busses, effects returns, you name it. Anything that needs a bit more punch or vibe.
  • Wow Fluttr—Determines how much warbly tape sound is heard
  • Saturation—Adds analog tape saturation and at high enough settings, distortion. At lower settings, it's great for simply warming up a tone
  • Low Cut—Determines the frequency of the Low Cut (High Pass) filter. At higher settings, can provide a lo-fi effect
  • High Cut—Determines the frequency of the High Cut (Low Pass) filter. At lower settings, can provide the natural high-end roll-off of old tape
  • Tape Speed—Changes both the rate of the modulation applied by the Wow Fluttr control and the filtering response of the analog tape emulation
  • Level—Sets the overall level of the block
  • Texture—Adjusts the amount of the NAB tape EQ in the simulated tape path. When Saturation is set to 0.0, the texture is invisible. When Saturation is turned up, the texture will affect the tightness (or looseness) of the distortion

I'd love to compare it to a Deco but I've been using the Retro Reel and it's pretty good.
I have it always on before the amp with a little saturation (0.5) and a little Wow fluttr (1.0) than I have a switch set for increase the saturation and low the tape speed. It gets close to my Broadcast!

chrisj1602

I found this comparison of the Retro Reel saturation compared to the Broadcast...

https://youtu.be/9DUSeVCaXQk

stratman3142

I just wondered how people deal with guitars with significantly different output levels live. I had my patches set up for my Strat, my weakest output guitar. In the past, when I used my PRS S2 backup guitar (with a significantly higher output) I just backed off the volume pot on the guitar. 

Even though I could tweak the output gain, the main problem was with the compressors, OD and distortions, which are obviously quieter relative to the clean sound with higher output pickups. Which would also be the case with anything that introduces compression/limiting.

Now I plan to use my AZ2402 as my main live guitar (assuming I'll eventually be gigging again), which has higher output pickups. So I've just been through and matched the levels by including a -12dB gain block at the start of every patch. Otherwise it would be a right faff to adjust all the compressor and OD/distortion settings. Plus I've also set up a duplicate set of patches for my Strat without the gain reduction block. So I can cater for both guitars. It's one way of doing it. I suppose, as an alternative, I could stick a clean boost such as a TC Spark in front of my Helix LT for my Strat (if I didn't want the faff of duplicate patches to cater for two guitars).

Incidentally, while I was doing this I was looking at the new output meters on the Helix and they always stay green, even when I slammed things hard. Can they be used to detect digital clipping? Do they ever go red?

John_A

You are unlikely to clip the input stage it has a lot of headroom 

either just accept different guitars will sound different, just as they would with a real amp, or set up different patches for different guitars 

robinbowes

I fixed this by using a pedal before the Helix input. I think I used a cheap ish Fender boost pedal with a tone control. Worked really well.

stratman3142

John_A said:

You are unlikely to clip the input stage it has a lot of headroom 

either just accept different guitars will sound different, just as they would with a real amp, or set up different patches for different guitars 

robinbowes said:

I fixed this by using a pedal before the Helix input. I think I used a cheap ish Fender boost pedal with a tone control. Worked really well.

Thanks for the replies, which confirm my conclusions.

Regarding the output level meters, which display on the Helix when selecting an output block, they stayed green even when I had loads of clean gain boost within the unit.

Btw. I selected the output block by clicking on it within Helix Edit, with the unit connected to my PC, which caused the output level meters to appear on the Helix LT display.

SteveF

You could try one of those gigrig 123 thingys? 

SteveF

https://www.andertons.co.uk/the-gigrig-three2one-gigrig-321?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=CjwKCAjwkN6EBhBNEiwADVfya32naQgE6K9AxRJae77Y4R32KJx2RqLw9bzYtgg7Ld0NCg2Xch-S1xoC_6YQAvD_BwE

stratman3142

SteveF said:

You could try one of those gigrig 123 thingys? 

That's a neat 3 option solution. Especially now I've found that my Strat is low output, my AZ2402 and Les Paul are medium output, and the JB and Jazz I put in my PRS 2 are higher output.

John_A

Just create copies of your main patch with a boost in front of them and use those with your Strat