The Helix is only one of many similar devices available but I still get great sounds from my POD. The POD is relatively simple to use and while the newer devices ‘do more’, have the sounds they make improved enough to actually consider buying one? I don’t have the floorboard controller for my POD but that doesn’t seem such a drawback considering I tend to set it and forget it. The stereo output is an unexpected bonus, the POD can be connected directly into the PA so simply put - what does a new unit give that the POD doesn’t?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]
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Helix, Kemper, Fractal, Neural, all have professional users for gigging and for recording.
Nobody is using 20 year old PODS for that anymore.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
Personally I think the Helix is overrated. The Kemper sounds better to my ears but all these things are expensive and there are cheap options that are 90% there.
Checkout the Nux mightplug at £55 ... you can set 7 distinct presets with different amps, effects etc. It's got a built in drum machine and you can use it with headphones or plug it straight into a PA. It also works as a recording interface and you can bluetooth backing tracks or songs to it from any BT device.
It has a better Marshall amp model than the Helix to my ears and I also prefer the cab simms. It's an absolute bargain to the point I pulled the guts out of one unit I brought to install into a Marshall Grindmaster modelling amp I'm making
Much is made of Helix sounding ‘better’ than a pod but actually… they do sound good. Surprisingly so - they just need dialing in, like any piece of equipment.
Bad workmen and all that…
The fact that you dont see anyone using them anymore speaks volumes.
Something like a Kemper is Radically better in a recording mix and played solo.
Years later in a larger studio I got into sending things that were recorded direct back into the live room via a PA we had set up in there, then we used stereo room mic's to pick that up and mixed it alongside the dry audio to give that dry stuff the ambience of the large live room.
The Vox / Korg Valvetronix stuff that came in the early noughties was a big step up from the Pod IMHO and is still one of my favourite modellers now .... not the modern stuff, the early Tonelab SE floorboard. I would rather use that than a Helix for amp sounds but the Helix has superior pitch harmony and better delays and reverbs than the Korg.
Everyone hears things different though, I only know what I like.
Although I'd venture that nobody would be able to pick out a Pod vs Kemper vs Fender Deluxe mic'd up accurately... I say that as someone who'd seen similar done recently.
Like I say... much bollocks is spoken, especially on forums about how *this* modelling is 'better' than *that*. But when it all comes down - prejudice and confirmation bias mean that a persons' own experience of using or hearing such modelling is usually swayed by other things.
Im sure I'll still be pondering a purchase when the Helix hits its 3rd iteration, however!
adam
The key part is the pro level recording studio.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
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If I recorded more regularly I’d be happier to invest the time in it.
But I get your point - feel is important.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
https://youtu.be/V_Kb9CZuHL0?si=Bfqw2xtSWcdzY_DP
I always thought the pod ( I had an xt, but re bought a pod a few years ago ) was a great way to get a good tone very quickly. Very little
tweaking, lots of playing. I used the pod xt on lots of recordings, and took out to sessions.
I now have a helix lt, and use it pretty much exclusively at home as a headphone amp/recording interface. I’ve saved a few of my own presets and just use those. I’ll play with the amp models a bit, but just go back to my own. I rarely tweak the setting or make new presets.
Sort of like how I used the original pod.
Then you've got the effects blocks - again, no comparison is realistic, because the POD doesn't even try relative to the Helix. Delays, modulation, even the drives...they all have at least as many controls as the original pedals, and you just don't get anything like that level of control on the POD.
Signal routing...well, there isn't any on the POD. You're stuck with the order of effects that it gives you, and that's it. Sure, you can do wacky stuff on the Helix with the four signal paths and blending between them or running them independently, but the very basic stuff like "put these pedals in the order they'd be on my pedalboard" is kind of important too.
Speaker emulation - the most important aspect of the modeller with respect to realism. Modern modellers aren't there yet, even with IRs, but what's there on the Helix craps all over the POD.
Then you've got the quality of life stuff like snapshots, delay/reverb trails, footswitches split between snapshots and stomp mode, expression control etc - these things are all important for live use.
Hell, even for desktop use there's no comparison, because you can just get the HX Stomp instead - most of the functionality of the full Helix, smaller than a POD.
I can't think of a single use case where the POD is comparable to the Helix, except maybe when you need a modeller and you've only got £50 in your pocket. Even then, the Behringer V-Amp Pro is better in terms of sound, IMO.
I don't agree with making a comparison between helix (or insert any other modeller) and kemper being that useful. They are nothing alike in process or use case due to modelling vs profile capturing. I appreciate you can make a comparison with what you like and how they feel to play but comparing their sounds doesn't make sense to me because they both start at opposite ends of the spectrum to get to the end sound. I can't decide if it is just semantics or not but the thought is that you use the kemper to capture a sound/feel/moment in time/classic piece of gear. The modeller you build blocks together to sculpt a tone that may or may not be based on a real-world equivalent. Perhaps the fact you can duplicate the rig that you captured with the profiler using modelling blocks and then potentially compare all three means I'm in a circular argument with myself...arse.