Line 6 Helix

Cabicular

Yup it's bound to appear on most units of these types
Even if you magically get the unit to instantly switch the difference in tone will be jarring

guitarfishbay

My understanding is unless a unit can load all blocks at once (which is none of them AFAIK) then there will be some gap in switching as stuff gets loaded. On Fraxtal stuff there are scenes and X/Y which can make changes within a patch instant. I'm not aware of what the Helix has but I'd be surprised if it didn't have something similar.

Cabicular

Thing is if you stick to one scene it's fine
The reason I got a bit annoyed at @digital_igloo is that I feel you trivialised my point. Ok so it may be less than a second ...
It's still not doable mid song unless you have a clear stop
I was defending the Helix up to that point but I'm not a cheerleader. 120ms or 1200ms There is a clear and audible gap when switching presets

guitarfishbay

I've not seen the vid BTW

Cabicular

@fretmeister
Here is the reality though
Clean crunch and mental all in one preset

fretmeister

So how much can be changed within a preset to avoid the lag? Is it just stomp box type switching or can you change amp and cab while staying within a patch?

Love that one button whammy thing though! I could abuse that a lot!

Cabicular

You can change amp and cab

Cabicular

And I do
It's getting taken off me apparently

Cabicular

Here's a simple wee patch switching a tweed and a German Ubersonic
As you can see
No lag

ElectroDan

Cabicular said:

And I do
It's getting taken off me apparently

I was wondering how you did the Solo of the Month thing. \m/

Cabicular

Shit I'm giving away my secret sauce !

fretmeister

Cabicular;950951" said:

Here's a simple wee patch switching a tweed and a German Ubersonic
As you can see
No lag

That's nice! Thank you.

kjdowd

I have just lost a couple of hours to the 1.06 firmware update. The new matchless amps are fantastic, and relevant to the point above about lag, I'm switching between 2 channels of matchless amps in the same patch - zero lag and a great variety of tones (with a compressor, teemah drive, 808 drive, couple of modulations, couple of delays, couple of reverbs...) There is just so much you can fit in a patch that I really don't think lag between patches is an issue.

I've also been trying out some Ownhammer IRs, which - through the headphones at least - are a significant improvement on the built in cabs.

Digital_Igloo

Cabicular said: "Thing is if you stick to one scene it's fine. The reason I got a bit annoyed at @digital_igloo is that I feel you trivialised my point. Ok so it may be less than a second... It's still not doable mid song unless you have a clear stop. I was defending the Helix up to that point but I'm not a cheerleader. 120ms or 1200ms There is a clear and audible gap when switching presets."

Sorry—my intent wasn't to trivialize your concern. This is the internet, and if someone says "it takes a second to switch presets in Helix", people will spread that misinformation (you were off by a factor of ten) like wildfire. That particular video illustrates an absolute worst case scenario (tons of blocks and assignments across all four signal paths switching to tons of different blocks with different assignments across all four signal paths). The vast majority of presets people have made in Helix result in 40-60ms gaps, which, especially in the context of a live performance with other band members, is much less egregious than that video implies. Also note there are template presets in Helix that let you switch between two tones with zero gap and spillover delay and reverb. One even lets you seamlessly crossfade between two tones with the expression pedal.

That said, we're always looking to improve things on every front, including perceived tone switching time.

kjdowd

Digital_Igloo;951176" said:

Cabicular said:

"Thing is if you stick to one scene it's fine. The reason I got a bit annoyed at @digital_igloo is that I feel you trivialised my point. Ok so it may be less than a second... It's still not doable mid song unless you have a clear stop. I was defending the Helix up to that point but I'm not a cheerleader. 120ms or 1200ms There is a clear and audible gap when switching presets."









Sorry—my intent wasn't to trivialize your concern. This is the internet, and if someone says "it takes a second to switch presets in Helix", people will spread that misinformation (you were off by a factor of ten) like wildfire. That particular video illustrates an absolute worst case scenario (tons of blocks and assignments across all four signal paths switching to tons of different blocks with different assignments across all four signal paths). The vast majority of presets people have made in Helix result in 40-60ms gaps, which, especially in the context of a live performance with other band members, is much less egregious than that video implies. Also note there are template presets in Helix that let you switch between two tones with zero gap and spillover delay and reverb. One even lets you seamlessly crossfade between two tones with the expression pedal.

That said, we're always looking to improve things on every front, including perceived tone switching time.

To be fair to @cabicular he gave the counter examples (demonstrating switching simple amps within a preset, and getting all you need from a fully featured preset) backed up with similar video evidence. So a fairly balanced view, I'd say.

My tuppence worth - if you can't get through a song with a single preset on the helix, it's a bloody complicated song

handsomerik

Having had the helix for a couple of weeks now I can't possibly imagine any song that I've listened to that you couldn't programme into a single preset.

Having said that I understand the point both parties are making. I have to say I think DI is a great rep for line 6. Comments are always very reasonable and helpful and as a company, (as we've seen in the latest free update) line 6 are listening and always looking to improve the helix.

Cabicular

I appreciate DI coming on here and doing a thankless task but here's my problem with what he is saying
I can only speak from my own use age of the Helix but I stand by the statement you cannot seamless switch a tone mid song without a noticeable dropout. I may have got the number of milliseconds wrong but that's not the point
There are a couple of scenarios that force me to change preset
Fretmeister asked if the lag between patches was bad. In my experience it is. I'm not about to fluff 'well in the vast majority of instances with other band members etc' because I'm out on the boards using this day in day out in live and rehearsal situation and that is not my experience of the device.
If I wanted to follow this into the ground I would post more videos of my preset switching which are much less complicated but just as stuttery.
I'd rather be open and up front about what the device can and can't do. Life is a serious of compromises but when you make one you shouldn't try and say that you haven't and Patch switching is one Line6 made for very good reasons
Just don't come on here and tell me I'm imagining it. I'll react badly

matt1973

I have needed to change preset during a song a few times now. Mainly because I chose the wrong one to begin with. I get around it by hitting the switch a quaver early. It works but is a bit of a ball ache.

Back in the early days of the AxeFX II they had this problem but subsequently fixed it. Which, I must say, came as a great relief. 

andyoz

What's the latest news on UK Helix stock levels?

I was going adopt a 'wait and see' stance on it but reconsidering it after reading/hearing demo's of this little magic box.

siremoon

I think the last deliveries were a couple of weeks ago and I think that was the first time that any of the major UK online stores had a few on general sale.  They went very quickly though.  Just by chance I happened to be looking on Andertons website when there were some there and so I grabbed one.  About 5 minutes later they were all gone.