Line 6 Helix

Sporky · January 2016

On the IR front, can you make up your own IRs that aren't actually derived from an amp at all? And then load them in for temporal EQ effects?

My Helix isn't arriving for a month so this is an opportunity to overthink everything in advance.

Cabicular · January 2016

And yes our PA is all line 6
L3s sub
2 l3ms
4 l2ts (depending on the venue space)
M20 mixer

I sometimes just hijack one of the L2s as an amp for rehearsal

kjdowd · January 2016

Sporky;953693" said:
On the IR front, can you make up your own IRs that aren't actually derived from an amp at all? And then load them in for temporal EQ effects?

My Helix isn't arriving for a month so this is an opportunity to overthink everything in advance.

You can. There are a few acoustic guitar IRs out there that are created by - I believe - hitting the guitar body with a muffled spoon and mic'ing the results. Of course, someone could just have made this up to see just credulous it is possible for people to be on the Internet, but I believed it.

Sporky · January 2016

Interesting. And they are essentially just 48kHz mono WAVs, either 1024 or 2048 samples long from what I've read.

I like the idea of running parallel loops from a crossover too.

Cabicular · January 2016

Sporky;953693" said:
On the IR front, can you make up your own IRs that aren't actually derived from an amp at all? And then load them in for temporal EQ effects?

My Helix isn't arriving for a month so this is an opportunity to overthink everything in advance.

Yes I use a Taylor one (in fact everyone uses it) to give the variax a bit more body
You could use one of your favourite cello for example to plug in an electric cello
On the Amp and cab front I've come to the conclusion they are more hassle than they are worth
The inbuilt Ir s are stereo and there are loads of them
You can dynamically change the mics/distance/reflections
One of my favourite things is the dual cab block
You can select a stereo cab block and combine any two of the cabinets
The best way to do this stuff is to use the hands free controls and play the guitar while stepping through the mic choices
After an hour or so you'll come to the conclusion that it's not productive and choose the first one that sounds decent and then get on with your life

If you use 3rd party Irs every single configuration/ mic/ placement/ EQ is a different IR
So let's say you get the Ownhammer freebie Demo IR bundle of a Mesa cab and find a couple you like
You will have cycled through about 30-40 irs
If you then go and buy the bundle you will be in the hundreds
Some people love that. I'm too busy

Sporky · January 2016

Ye gods. I thought the VG-88 overdid the amp thing. This is a while 'nother series of rabbitholes.

Muhahahahaha!

Cabicular · January 2016

Seriously Discipline is key You have to focus on what you need to do rather than get lost in the wilderness of what you can do That's how you learn the unit After that all bets are off

Sporky · January 2016

Aye - your point is well taken, thank you.

I generally find the most important thing to start off is to learn the interface. Once you've got that down it's all much simpler.

Cabicular · January 2016

You are smarter than me then

I jumped straight in and tried to build the biggest most complicated rig I could then got bogged down in routing ,switches, splits and merges and managed to consume all the DSP by creating something awful ...

Sporky · January 2016

That sounds like a challenge!

I get the impression that the Helix is a good chunk more complex than my previous multiFX (Boss ME-5, ART SGX2000E, Roland VG-88) but I'm used to working with menus and so on which can be a fair bit of the battle. Also I'm not hugely interested in re-enacting 50s and 60s guitar sounds which probably helps.

Cabicular · January 2016

I'll happily punt some of my patches over for you to play with

kjdowd · January 2016

I think it can be as complicated as you want, but it is a very intuitive UI and easy to get some basic sounds together v quickly.

Cabicular · January 2016

Hmmmm got a bit of an issue now Was doing some recording using the mic input phantom powered Unplugged it to move the mic and rep lugged it and all of a sudden it stopped working Mic input completely dead for phantom powered or dynamic mics Leads working and mics working Worrying burning smell coming from the unit Powered off and ticket raised but be careful folks

handsomerik · January 2016

That doesn't sound good. On the positive side I've only read good think about the line 6 folk whenever it comes to sorting hardware problems with the Helix. Good luck getting it sorted.

Cabicular · January 2016

I'm sure they'll look after me

Paul_C · January 2016

Cabicular said:

I'm sure they'll look after me

. . . after a 40ms delay.

johnny9fingers · January 2016

All I know is I have found a new deep love for my guitar since the latest update. The matchless amps are fab, as is the Timmy.

RMJ · January 2016

what is the current wait time on these at the moment? Pre-orders are stating delivery by end of Feb. Is that likely?

kjdowd · January 2016

stickyfiddle;952382" said:
For "normal" gigging usage I'd use Helix in place of pedalboard+amp setup, and occasionally switch patches between songs where I need something synthy or whatever;

How heavily-loaded up can you make a patch before running out of DSP? Can it happily do 2 clean amps, and one crunchy, with a couple of distortions, a whammy and 2 or 3 delays?

The other thing to remember is that you can assign amp channel control changes to foot switches. So you can have a clean amp and the assign a single foot switch to increase the gain, boost the master, boost the mids and whatever else you want.

Cabicular · February 2016

They aren't looking after me

I've to Courier at my own expense to the repair depot in Milton Keynes where they will turn it around in typically 10 days if parts are available. It was a gift so I think it was purchased at Andertons but without getting hold of the giver of that gift I don't know

They are also looking for proof of purchase (which I don't have ) and warned me not to plug a condenser mic in if Phantom power is already on.... (which is buried under Global Settings so remember folks)

@digital_Igloo can you help me out?

I'm not so fussed about the courier cost but the proof of purchase is an issue. All I have is the purchase date from Andertons and the Web order number. but since it wasn't purchased by me I can't print it out and I'd rather not ask the person who gave me it if I can help it

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