Line 6 Helix

stratman3142

guitarmangler said

Thanks dude ! I’ve just had 5 spare mins to plug in and it works amazingly well. I would have never of thought of the two send and returns trick. You’re a genius ! 

I think obsessive nerdy geek with too much time on my hands might be a better description
I find stuff like this fascinating.

PC_Dave

PC_Dave said:

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.

Fixed it - just incase anyone has the same issue at any point - uninstall Native and delete the Helix folder under the %Appdata% folder in Windows. Worth noting you lose your presets etc, as it’s a full “factory” reset so make sure you do regular backups.

carlos

Took my LT out of the house for the first time (hey, lockdown) and connected it straight to the PA at the studio with an XLR cable. Holy mackerel! What kind of geek would want to carry around an amp and a pedalboard instead? I got all my sound plus all these other sounds I may or may not ever use in a box I can carry on a £33 backpack. Everything sounded fantastic.

Musicwolf

carlos said:

Took my LT out of the house for the first time (hey, lockdown) and connected it straight to the PA at the studio with an XLR cable. Holy mackerel! What kind of geek would want to carry around an amp and a pedalboard instead? I got all my sound plus all these other sounds I may or may not ever use in a box I can carry on a £33 backpack. Everything sounded fantastic.

I plug my Helix direct into the PA - but I'm the dickhead who lugs the PA / Mixer / Monitors to gigs.  At least rehearsal rooms for band #2 now have a set of Yamaha DXR12's set up in the room, so I can leave mine at home.  For band #1 we have a lockup and I keep a single Alto TS210 plus a Thomann 10" wedge there which are fine for rehearsal.

Sometimes I'd love to be the one that strolls in late, guitar in one hand and amp or Helix in the other, and says "where do I plug in?".  Sadly that's never going to happen.  I'll always be the techie one who gets there first and sets everything up then sorts out everyone else's problems.  It's fine practicing scales but I really need to work on my arrogance, narcissism, irresponsibility, selfishness, unreliability and general technical ineptitude if I'm ever going to be a truly great guitarist.

markslade07

Musicwolf said:

carlos said:

Took my LT out of the house for the first time (hey, lockdown) and connected it straight to the PA at the studio with an XLR cable. Holy mackerel! What kind of geek would want to carry around an amp and a pedalboard instead? I got all my sound plus all these other sounds I may or may not ever use in a box I can carry on a £33 backpack. Everything sounded fantastic.

I plug my Helix direct into the PA - but I'm the dickhead who lugs the PA / Mixer / Monitors to gigs.  At least rehearsal rooms for band #2 now have a set of Yamaha DXR12's set up in the room, so I can leave mine at home.  For band #1 we have a lockup and I keep a single Alto TS210 plus a Thomann 10" wedge there which are fine for rehearsal.

Sometimes I'd love to be the one that strolls in late, guitar in one hand and amp or Helix in the other, and says "where do I plug in?".  Sadly that's never going to happen.  I'll always be the techie one who gets there first and sets everything up then sorts out everyone else's problems.  It's fine practicing scales but I really need to work on my arrogance, narcissism, irresponsibility, selfishness, unreliability and general technical ineptitude if I'm ever going to be a truly great guitarist.

I used mine at a gig for the first time on Saturday too. XLRs straight out to the desk with me running a Laney LFR as my monitor/ backline. Was so nice not to have to crank the crap out of an amp so I could hear what was going on and let the audience hear too. No going back for me!

carlos

Musicwolf said:

Sometimes I'd love to be the one that strolls in late, guitar in one hand and amp or Helix in the other, and says "where do I plug in?".  Sadly that's never going to happen.  I'll always be the techie one who gets there first and sets everything up then sorts out everyone else's problems.  It's fine practicing scales but I really need to work on my arrogance, narcissism, irresponsibility, selfishness, unreliability and general technical ineptitude if I'm ever going to be a truly great guitarist.

Errr, did I eat your lunch or something? The studio had been set up already for a thousand other people who got there before me. Everyone appreciated that I got there, set up in 2 minutes, and they could control everyone's volumes through a single desk instead of faffing about with channel volumes on my amp. That's all I was saying. If anything, I think this solution makes the sound guy's job much easier than having to mic an amp onstage.

Musicwolf

carlos said:

Musicwolf said:

Sometimes I'd love to be the one that strolls in late, guitar in one hand and amp or Helix in the other, and says "where do I plug in?".  Sadly that's never going to happen.  I'll always be the techie one who gets there first and sets everything up then sorts out everyone else's problems.  It's fine practicing scales but I really need to work on my arrogance, narcissism, irresponsibility, selfishness, unreliability and general technical ineptitude if I'm ever going to be a truly great guitarist.

Errr, did I eat your lunch or something? The studio had been set up already for a thousand other people who got there before me. Everyone appreciated that I got there, set up in 2 minutes, and they could control everyone's volumes through a single desk instead of faffing about with channel volumes on my amp. That's all I was saying. If anything, I think this solution makes the sound guy's job much easier than having to mic an amp onstage.

@carlos ; Not a dig at you my friend, more a reflection on the fact that I'm the soft touch in my band.  I should really learn to step back and see if others actually step up.

carlos

@Musicwolf ;
no worries, I was trying to remember if we had met before somewhere.

Musicwolf

carlos said:

@Musicwolf ;
no worries, I was trying to remember if we had met before somewhere.

If you don't remember me - you haven't met me

TTBZ

carlos said:

Took my LT out of the house for the first time (hey, lockdown) and connected it straight to the PA at the studio with an XLR cable. Holy mackerel! What kind of geek would want to carry around an amp and a pedalboard instead? I got all my sound plus all these other sounds I may or may not ever use in a box I can carry on a £33 backpack. Everything sounded fantastic.

Ha, funnily enough last week I had a rehearsal with my real amp/pedals after a lockdown of playing through plugins, and for the most part hated it. Was longing for a time when I can get a Helix again, especially whilst lugging all my gear back up the alleyways from the parking spot to my house in the pissing rain! Real amp is great when you're stood in just the right spot and all the other variables line up, but that's about it for me these days. I do feel like a real amp is maybe a bit more forgiving with my playing for some reason, could just be imagining it. I've got used to that consistent modelled sound I guess and would rather have that going through a PA. 

meltedbuzzbox

Musicwolf said:

carlos said:

Musicwolf said:

Sometimes I'd love to be the one that strolls in late, guitar in one hand and amp or Helix in the other, and says "where do I plug in?".  Sadly that's never going to happen.  I'll always be the techie one who gets there first and sets everything up then sorts out everyone else's problems.  It's fine practicing scales but I really need to work on my arrogance, narcissism, irresponsibility, selfishness, unreliability and general technical ineptitude if I'm ever going to be a truly great guitarist.

Errr, did I eat your lunch or something? The studio had been set up already for a thousand other people who got there before me. Everyone appreciated that I got there, set up in 2 minutes, and they could control everyone's volumes through a single desk instead of faffing about with channel volumes on my amp. That's all I was saying. If anything, I think this solution makes the sound guy's job much easier than having to mic an amp onstage.

@carlos ; Not a dig at you my friend, more a reflection on the fact that I'm the soft touch in my band.  I should really learn to step back and see if others actually step up.

There is always one person that generally sorts out the ramble of musicians in every band. 

It's a thankless task but unfortunately you have made a rod for your back fella.
In work and personal life no-one ever rewards or appreciates the diligence of others, instead you are usually rewarded with more work and expectation 

TheBigDipper

meltedbuzzbox said:

<snip>

There is always one person that generally sorts out the ramble of musicians in every band. 

It's a thankless task but unfortunately you have made a rod for your back fella.
In work and personal life no-one ever rewards or appreciates the diligence of others, instead you are usually rewarded with more work and expectation 

And, weirdly, sometimes resentment, too. You do it, you made the effort understand it, and those who don't contribute resent how that makes them feel. Because your efforts make them look bad. 

Not enough to put the effort in to do it themselves, though. 

WiresDreamDisasters

How's everyone feeling about their Helix these days???

I grabbed mine today after not really using it for a good 5 months or so, and set it up with my VH4. In a word - still amazeballs. Okay, that's two words, and one is crass. But yeah, really damn good.

Basically we're at a point with it now where all of the effects are high quality. Some of them are some of my favourite effects ever - the Adriatic Delay should be a standalone pedal. It's amazing - but the real power comes in the flexibility.

I found some love for the Plateaux reverb today. I shot it out against my Meris Mercury7, MXR Reverb, and the Quad Cortex reverbs, and more often than not I found myself preferring the Helix.

Delays... little bit of a different story. The analog delays are all amazing. Right up there with the real things. I shot out the Adriatic Delay against my Boss DM2w, Carbon Copy Deluxe, and Memory Man TT, and it's all just flavour differences.

Digital.... ehhh.... I still think the digital delays in the Helix leave a little to be desired. You can't get as much of a overlapped punchy fade-off-into-the-distance-without-any-smearing-or-thinning-out type of thing on the Helix as you can with say a Strymon DIG or a Boss DD-500. I'd love it if they could improve that.

But that doesn't mean it's bad. It's just that one particular use case. For most things, it's perfectly fine.

Transistor Tape. Another effect that could easily be it's own pedal. It's brilliant.

Still wish the damn thing allowed for 16 snapshots though!!

lysander

I wish they’d redo the Marshalls, most of them sound nothing like a good one should, it’s like they modelled the muddiest bright cap- less Marshalls they could find

WiresDreamDisasters

lysander said:

I wish they’d redo the Marshalls, most of them sound nothing like a good one should, it’s like they modelled the muddiest bright cap- less Marshalls they could find

Won't argue there! I don't like the Marshalls too much.

duotone

WiresDreamDisasters said:

How's everyone feeling about their Helix these days???

Am using Helix Native regularly, tbh I haven’t used my Helix LT in a month.  I still need to update to the latest firmware for both.

sweepy

Selling Mine

Bidley

Still love mine, the only regret I have is getting the LT over the full fat or the rack.

I've been using it with the band, and recently got one of the new DSLs for a bit of variety. Brought the DSL to practice and it didn't feel that much better, and it was a massive pain in the arse dragging all that shit in an out of the car, as opposed to just my Helix, Laney LFR and guitar. Bandmates all said the Marshall sounded better, but whatever, I didn't think there was much in it.

I brought the Helix and DSL to the studio to record our demo the other week, I set up the Helix for guide tracks while the other guys are in the control room. I start riffing away, noodling etc. I go into the control room to chat with the other guys and they instantly say how brilliant the Marshall sounds and all that... The looks on their faces when I tell them it's the Helix priceless!

Musicwolf

I am still very happy with mine and I'm looking forward to gigging with it again in four weeks time.

What I like about the Helix is its flexibility.  Most of my patches have two amp paths and I'm using the expression pedal to either switch from one to the other or bring the second one into play for solos etc (much easier than trying to hit a foot switch).  I have external effects in a couple of the loops and I also use it as a MIDI controller for external effects, mixer scenes and to triggering recording and playback on a laptop.  All easy to set up using the edit software although you can do it from the unit itself.

In the studio I still much prefer the sound of my Kemper, but then the Kemper plus floor controller cost roughly 50% more and is less flexible.  If I was starting again, knowing what I know now, I'd still have both (but possibly a Kemper 'toaster' rather than a rack?)

WiresDreamDisasters

I'm a very confused Kemper owner. Sometimes I love it, and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I want to sell it, and sometimes I think I'm mad.

I'm very glad I didn't sell my Helix when I got the Quad Cortex though. The QC is definitely usable live for most people. But it's missing so much effect-y stuff and quality of life stuff that I can't quite commit to having it on my board.

Originally the argument for getting it - or at least what I told myself, and what I hid my GAS behind - was the ability to have a board I could use with my valve amp that would allow me to use some of my favourite pedals along with some digital midi switching smarts and some effects like EQ which I don't really care about having immediate access to.... all on a board the same size as the Helix, or maybe even a bit more portable.

But in reality.... the Helix sounds every bit as good as the board with QC + pedal lego. So... why bother???

Lot of great gear anyway!!