Line 6 Helix

Drew_TNBD

Well my Helix arrived yesterday. Took it out to the pub and bought it some drinks, brought it home. But it was too drunk to consent, so we just lay next to each other spooning. Today we shall see if it's up for a good old rogering!

(that's code for: I went the pub instead of going straight home, and now I'm slightly hungover)

Drew_TNBD

I'm loving this. With the 5150III 50-watter, this is a perfect match. And snapshots are a doddle to setup and are really helpful for getting around the amps volume jump issue. You can also dial the send of the FX loop back a bit to clean up any of the channels, meaning you could feasible have 8 snapshots at your feet all using one amp channel, but with different levels of gain via the FX send amount.

Midi switching is *instant* by the way.

Drew_TNBD

So I did a bit of comparison between the Helix and the Timeline, in 4-cable method with my EVH.

I'm not massively keen on the Helix's reverse delay. It doesn't sound quite right when compared to the Timeline and my memory of the DD500 and DD7. It's a bit more choppy and less fluid than the others.

I really love the Adriatic delay. Just uber washes that sit underneath everything if you dial it in right, and I'd say it and the other analog/bbd models totally keep up with the Timeline for those vintage sounding washy pedals. The only thing I noticed is that the delay time seems fairly limited on some of the models - a quarter note at 98bpm for example isn't really a quarter note, it's closer to an eighth or sixteenth note.

Suffice to say though - loads of great delay tones in this box. When Shaun Halley says in that one a/b video he did about things being 'flavour differences' rather than 'quality differences' he is dead right.

Gonna compare the Big Sky later, but initial impressions seem to be that I could happily use most of the reverbs in a track. My reverb needs aren't as exotic as other people's can be.

Sporky

Drew_TNBD said:

The only thing I noticed is that the delay time seems fairly limited on some of the models - a quarter note at 98bpm for example isn't really a quarter note, it's closer to an eighth or sixteenth note.

That sounds 'right'. IIRC some of the models include accurate/period-correct delay time limits, so if you try to go past them by bpm division they change the divider to get back inside the delay time limit.

Personally I'd rather have inaccurate delay times.

Drew_TNBD

Sporky said:

Drew_TNBD said:

The only thing I noticed is that the delay time seems fairly limited on some of the models - a quarter note at 98bpm for example isn't really a quarter note, it's closer to an eighth or sixteenth note.

That sounds 'right'. IIRC some of the models include accurate/period-correct delay time limits, so if you try to go past them by bpm division they change the divider to get back inside the delay time limit.

Personally I'd rather have inaccurate delay times.

I'd certainly like a preference.

Another thing I noticed - when tapping the tempo whilst playing, not all delays maintain their feedback path. Some of them fall silent until you stop tapping. Not ideal imho.

hugbot

Well it depends,  if they're a truely accurate analog model then lengthening the delay time should darken the repeats so you'd want to stick to the limit of the original.

Also self oscillation twiddling can sound really dumb on pedals where turning the knob too far right takes it to 10 second repeats.

 The adriatic delay is the 'fuck accuracy lets go nuts ' version of a dm2.

Drew_TNBD

RE: Big Sky versus Helix.

Yep. Can totally live with the reverbs. Tweaking the high and low cuts can get you in the ball-park of any particular tone on the Big Sky. All bets are off as soon as you start adding modulation though, but yeah... totally awesome!

Drew_TNBD

Teetonetal

Totally agree with your reverse delay findings @Drew_TNBD I've really struggled to get that one working for me.

Interested that you find the reverbs compare well to Big Sky

TimmyO

Digital_Igloo said:

welshboyo said: Was trying to work out how I place a Preamp (so say a Deluxe or JTM45 preamp) into the poweramp of my amp and have it switchable  - I "think" I've worked it out....

There's a template for that—8 TEMPLATES > 02A 4-Cable Method (or 02B 7-Cable Method if you're using two amps). Press FS2 (HELIX PREAMP) to swap in Helix's Preamp block.

I occasionally dip in to this thread out of curiosity.

I tend to have one of 2 reactions:

1. Man, I should definitely check one of these out
2. Fucking hell that sounds terrifying - stay away.

Posts like the one quoted result in the second one. 

I'm genuinely torn over this thing. 

welshboyo

TimmyO said:

Digital_Igloo said:

welshboyo said: Was trying to work out how I place a Preamp (so say a Deluxe or JTM45 preamp) into the poweramp of my amp and have it switchable  - I "think" I've worked it out....

There's a template for that—8 TEMPLATES > 02A 4-Cable Method (or 02B 7-Cable Method if you're using two amps). Press FS2 (HELIX PREAMP) to swap in Helix's Preamp block.

I occasionally dip in to this thread out of curiosity.

I tend to have one of 2 reactions:

1. Man, I should definitely check one of these out
2. Fucking hell that sounds terrifying - stay away.

Posts like the one quoted result in the second one. 

I'm genuinely torn over this thing. 

@TimmyO ;

do it, you won't regret it, piece of piss to use, apart from me being clever with swapping modelled preamps etc, I built 4 pretty heavy patches in a few hours and only needed assistance with getting my head around swapping above preamps. It was actually me over thinking things!!!

The modelled preamps are bang on, using the Shiva model into the poweramp of a real Shiva, I can't tell the difference swapping between the 2!!

Drew_TNBD

TimmyO said:

Digital_Igloo said:

welshboyo said: Was trying to work out how I place a Preamp (so say a Deluxe or JTM45 preamp) into the poweramp of my amp and have it switchable  - I "think" I've worked it out....

There's a template for that—8 TEMPLATES > 02A 4-Cable Method (or 02B 7-Cable Method if you're using two amps). Press FS2 (HELIX PREAMP) to swap in Helix's Preamp block.

I occasionally dip in to this thread out of curiosity.

I tend to have one of 2 reactions:

1. Man, I should definitely check one of these out
2. Fucking hell that sounds terrifying - stay away.

Posts like the one quoted result in the second one. 

I'm genuinely torn over this thing. 

It's a doddle.

Plug your guitar into the Helix guitar input.
Plug FX Loop 1's send into the front of your guitar amp.
Plug your amps FX loop send into the Helix FX Loop 1's return.
Plug your Helix's output into the amps FX loop return.

Press footswitch 11 to switch between modelled amp and the real amp.

Sporky

TimmyO said:

I occasionally dip in to this thread out of curiosity.

I tend to have one of 2 reactions:

1. Man, I should definitely check one of these out
2. Fucking hell that sounds terrifying - stay away.

If you did (1) then you'd see that (2) is incorrect. It really does have a very simple and intuitive interface.

TimmyO

I tend to believe you - there have been some impenetrable conversations on it in this thread though.

I suspect I will at some point - high price of entry to find out though - and I'm unemployed, so it certainly won't be soon!

Sporky

The basic to pretty advanced stuff is dead simple - but because it's so capable and flexible people do tend to start seeing how far it can be pushed.

Teetonetal

@TimmyO helix is the most easy to use and intuitive piece of guitar kit I've ever had. Tasks that with a pedal board are awkward to do are handled easily and effortlessly.  Mind blowing.

TimmyO

I think if I ever abandon my "all in on Gigrig G2" approach (which I'm actually planning to re-rig this weekend) then it's the sort of thing I'd look at. 

Sporky

One of us... one of us...

rossyamaha

TimmyO said:

I think if I ever abandon my "all in on Gigrig G2" approach (which I'm actually planning to re-rig this weekend) then it's the sort of thing I'd look at. 

I'm in the same boat. I've been a massive spokesperson for Dan and GigRig just because it's awesome, it works and the quality is just outstanding. Along with how it's made my gigging life so much simpler the G2 is simply fantastic. With that said, since I've had my Helix, I haven't plugged my G2 board in. I'm still early days and not completely where I wan to be with it but Helix does everything I need as well as giving me so many more options than my current board does. I'm getting closer. I probably won't sell my main board or my amp but I don't want to keep lugging around about 100kg of gear most weekends. Regardless of how amazing it sounds. 

Teetonetal

It's the one box versatility that gets me.

Wednesday I had it as recording interface.  Thursday as a board for acoustic gig handling guitar mic and stompbox. Friday as 4cm with my pleximan.