Line 6 Helix Megathread - 2.80 update

[Hedon09]

[SC]http://soundcloud.com/hedon09/160220-helix-rec-test[/SC]

Have my Helix for 3 Days now. Immediately updated to the newest Firmware, love the Tones i'm getting. Stock Cabs are better than with the Pod Hd Series. Took a first shot with 3rd-Party-Impulses (Rosen Modern 3) and the Cali Rectifire today. This is what happened

 

[Blasphemer]

EDIT: Nevermind. Found what I was asking tucked away in some fine-ish print. Thinking the Helix in pedal mode instead of preset mode is what I'm looking for.

 

[Dead-Pan]

[SC]http://soundcloud.com/hedon09/160220-helix-rec-test[/SC]

Have my Helix for 3 Days now. Immediately updated to the newest Firmware, love the Tones i'm getting. Stock Cabs are better than with the Pod Hd Series. Took a first shot with 3rd-Party-Impulses (Rosen Modern 3) and the Cali Rectifire today. This is what happened

I found this to be very good sounding and realistic. Curious, where do you have the low pass filter set? In general I have found the Helix clips either very bright or too dull. This is right on the edge, just a tad dull for me but really good. Thanks for posting!

 

[Ps43203]

Why don't any of these companies get the spill over effect??? It boggles my mind that nobody get's that. Digitech did it 25 years ago, not even the axe-fx ii does spillover effects without patch editing. That and gaps between presets, these have been MAJOR complaints forever. Fix it already Line 6!

 

[Hedon09]

the ir low pass itself sit's at 14,5kHz. in reaper i have a low pass set to 11khz but toggling it on/of only made a very subtle difference

 

[mikah912]

Why don't any of these companies get the spill over effect??? It boggles my mind that nobody get's that. Digitech did it 25 years ago, not even the axe-fx ii does spillover effects without patch editing. That and gaps between presets, these have been MAJOR complaints forever. Fix it already Line 6!

With the ability to do parallel paths within a preset, I don't see this being an issue for Fractal or Line 6. You can have spillover right now.

 

[Digital Igloo]

Why don't any of these companies get the spill over effect??? It boggles my mind that nobody get's that. Digitech did it 25 years ago, not even the axe-fx ii does spillover effects without patch editing. That and gaps between presets, these have been MAJOR complaints forever. Fix it already Line 6!

Think about it—to have two presets spill over into one another, both need to be active at the same time. That means each preset can use no more than 50% of available DSP resources. And that means either you get half the number of blocks or half the sound quality. Since one can create multiple tones within a preset and switch between them with spillover and delay (we include template presets that already do this), you're not going to convince many people to give up half their blocks or half their sound quality.

Throwing more DSP at the problem doesn't solve anything either, because people will always prefer that extra DSP be used to make even better-sounding models—and/or more of 'em. Almost no one wants to dedicate HALF their horsepower just for preset spillover.

That said, we have some stuff comin' in the next few months.

 

[MASS DEFECT]

That said, we have some stuff comin' in the next few months.

Like Switchless Wah mode!? Pretty pleeeeeeaaaase!!!????

 

[Rachmaninoff]

"No improvements" is ridiculous.

You can do so much with parallel amps, paths and FX within a single patch that I find this to be a non-issue. You could have a clean/crunch/lead setup with switchable delay in a single patch. No lag. Spillover between every switch.

Yep, you can do all that with the HD500X.

 

[Hedon09]

i own both, helix and hd500x. there is a major improvement in the overall amp modelling tone and also the cabs. i think they sound less processed than they did with the hd500x. though i tend to using my own impulse responses which is another very cool improvement as far as i'm concerned. no more dialing out unwanted frequencies of muffled cabinets. i don't need as much effect blocks to get a realistic sounding patch than i used to with the pod hd500x.

 

[Jugghaid]

Mine is on the truck to be delivered today. I'll run it into my protools rig as well as 4C method through some of my amps that I use live. (Egnater Vengeance and HK Grandmeister 36) I'm really curious how this will sound live with a real tube amp vs. in the studio direct.

I hope to ditch the TC G-system (which I still love btw as an effects unit/midi switcher, just not in 4C) if this works out right.

I'm thinking integrating helix with the Grandmeister (or maybe eventually a Triamp III) could be killer. All the tube tones from that amp + the ability to add models/stompboxes could be staggering.

 

[PBGas]

Seems the rack pre-order that was supposed to ship today got pushed back to 4/7 Might be a while before we get to join in the fun. I'd rather have a solid unit then than a rushed one now, but damn, been looking forward to finally trying the helix out.

Wow...I know they have been really good with letting folks know about orders, etc but I am really glad I abandoned this one. I had a rack on order back in Oct and had made some solid $$$ on the gear I sold. I would have still been waiting until now? No thanks. Glad I went with what I currently have.

I may look into one of these next fall when hopefully there will be some actual supply on them. Probably still won't have much luck getting one up here. Oh well....no worries, not hurting for tones right now at all. Looking forward to what they add to the unit in the future.

 

[Vrollin]

Like Switchless Wah mode!? Pretty pleeeeeeaaaase!!!????

Listen to this man! Bad Horsie 2 wah please!

 

[Beron]

I picked one today and made a quick reamping with the mesa and stock cabs.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/dark-neutron/substance-mix[/SC]

 

[jsmalleus]

Wow...I know they have been really good with letting folks know about orders, etc but I am really glad I abandoned this one. I had a rack on order back in Oct and had made some solid $$$ on the gear I sold. I would have still been waiting until now? No thanks. Glad I went with what I currently have.

I may look into one of these next fall when hopefully there will be some actual supply on them. Probably still won't have much luck getting one up here. Oh well....no worries, not hurting for tones right now at all. Looking forward to what they add to the unit in the future.

Yeah, I was pretty sad when they pushed it back to 4/7, but then like a day later the expected ship date changed again to sometime in March, then I got a shipping notice for the helix the other day and it arrived yesterday The foot controller I pre-ordered a little more recently and that is still m.i.a., so I suspect they're just filling the orders depending on what they have and the order date.

I only spent a couple hours with it last night, but I'm getting used to it and already getting some pretty nice tones out of it. Being able to utilize third party IRs is tremendously helpful in that.

 

[Hedon09]

i took some time and shot IRs of my two 212 cabinets and it was really worth the work. the recto model into my IRs sounds pretty much the same as my mini recto clone into the real cabs. actually tis was easy to do and got me better results than i had expected

 

[GunpointMetal]

Yep, you can do all that with the HD500X.

No, you can't.
At least not with the options still available to have a drive or a few gates. I have the X. I push it to DSP with nothing but two full amp models and maybe a gate and overdrive. If you split your amps and front end effects and cabs/loop effects between the DSP paths on HELIX, you can literally run almost two complete signal paths that either of which would probably tank the 500X's DSP.

OTOH, I completely disagree with the assertion that EVERYONE will assume you're wasting DSP if some of it is reserved for things like patch pre-loading to avoid lag or cross-patch delay trails. Obviously, I don't think I'm going to get exactly what I want from this generation, but ALL manufacturers should consider some way to A) Get Rid of Patch Lag and B) have delays trails as something that just happens automatically....
I have some sick patches with a couple of high-gain amp models running into each other for rhythm patches, but I can't, DSP-wise fit all my clean channel stuff on the same patch for seamless switching, and the patch change-over latency is a real show-killer for me. Anything longer than a 32nd note and its too long.

 

[PBGas]

Yeah, I was pretty sad when they pushed it back to 4/7, but then like a day later the expected ship date changed again to sometime in March, then I got a shipping notice for the helix the other day and it arrived yesterday The foot controller I pre-ordered a little more recently and that is still m.i.a., so I suspect they're just filling the orders depending on what they have and the order date.

I only spent a couple hours with it last night, but I'm getting used to it and already getting some pretty nice tones out of it. Being able to utilize third party IRs is tremendously helpful in that.

This is great news and great to hear! Well done and congrats! Hope it works out well for you! I've had a few Kemper units and have had not the greatest success with them and have absolutely no interest in anything Fractal due to their constant supply issues. This is the unit I am very interested in at some point this year. I'll wait it out and hopefully hear more from it.

And if you gents at Line 6 do a proper Bogner XTC red and blue channel profile for a future update and perhaps throw in a Diezel Herbert for good measure, you'll have my $$$!

Good luck!

 

[Ps43203]

I get that you can solve these issues, (spillover/patch delay), within a preset or parallel path etc... I just thought it would be as easy as the Digitech days by now. I trust there will be many updates to the Helix to come. I am getting interested in the Helix rack as an alternative to the axe. I did expect a few more amps, but they are coming right? Well, I guess I should not have said easy, because I remember now, they were a PITA to program, lol. It's all good, I have not had chance to try one, so I am waiting until the stampede settles and then I will jump on one.

 

[Jugghaid]

No, you can't.
At least not with the options still available to have a drive or a few gates. I have the X. I push it to DSP with nothing but two full amp models and maybe a gate and overdrive. If you split your amps and front end effects and cabs/loop effects between the DSP paths on HELIX, you can literally run almost two complete signal paths that either of which would probably tank the 500X's DSP.

OTOH, I completely disagree with the assertion that EVERYONE will assume you're wasting DSP if some of it is reserved for things like patch pre-loading to avoid lag or cross-patch delay trails. Obviously, I don't think I'm going to get exactly what I want from this generation, but ALL manufacturers should consider some way to A) Get Rid of Patch Lag and B) have delays trails as something that just happens automatically....
I have some sick patches with a couple of high-gain amp models running into each other for rhythm patches, but I can't, DSP-wise fit all my clean channel stuff on the same patch for seamless switching, and the patch change-over latency is a real show-killer for me. Anything longer than a 32nd note and its too long.

I found a bit of a workaround for this as it was bugging me as well.

A loaded up the 2 tone A-B template and worked it to have one amp as my high gain amp, one amp as my clean amp, and put the minotaur in front of the clean amp. clean, crunch, and high gain all on one patch. then I added the neccesary effects. Added a clean boost and delay to a footswitch for solos.

I ran out of DSP to cover all of the options I have and I only use all 3 amps clean, dirty, and high gain on one song. The rest I use 2 tones or only the high gain.

so I created the one specifically with the 3 tones and effects I use for that song (courtesean flanger comes on with crunch, then with clean it's reverb and delay, and high gain just a little verb.

for most of our stuff ( I play all originals) I created dual tone patches where it's solo/high gain or crunch/high gain) I can just ride this patch for 90% of our material. And I am running two amps in stereo as well. One is a Mesa/Engl setup and the other is a 5150/Bogner setup. they sound fricking amazing. you can really distinctly hear the two seperate amp sin stereo. Can't wait for a gig to hear FOH with this setup.

I put in the effects I use like flange, Hard Tremelo, etc and it worked perfectly.

I just recorded some tracks for the last tune on our new CD and now I want to go back and rerecord all of my guitar parts to get these same tones.

Overall very impressed. Ran the rig through my Eganter Vengeance and HK Grandmeister in stereo and found I had to reset the global EQ for teh live rig. I really think I'm just gonna pick up the Firehawk 1500 for a Wet.Dry.Wet FRFR Speaker system and go FOH from now on though. Just disable all of the modeling on that unit and use the helix through it.