Line 6 Helix

Sporky

Indeed - and I am not accusing you of repeating said mantra!

guitarfishbay

Also as noted I only just found out why Helix users differentiate IRs from stock cabs.  That explains a lot of my own posting in the past couple of months, because on the Axe FX everything is an IR, and everything is found in the same place.  There's been an amount of misunderstanding there.

The reason I went for 3rd party instead of stock is simply the stock cabs didn't cover what I wanted.  For starters there are no IRs of my favourite cab the Recto 212, and secondly the range of IRs is geared towards a lot of different cabs and speakers when I'd prefer a bunch of SM57, MD421, and Royer 121 positions on the same cab/speaker.  

If it was a real cab I'd rather just move the mic than a) change the cab/speaker/mic (which are my options usually with Fractal stock cabs) or b) start faffing with post EQs right away.  The Helix cab block does work differently to the Fractal cab block (and allows the tweaks within the block) and I only found out when someone posted a YouTube video in another thread.

Cabicular

I've also got a fair bit of experience from a studio background but the difference I find is that a setup that I know and love for recording doesn't necessarily translate to a good live sound. For example I like a lot less early reflections and a lot more midrange live. I find that easier to dial in with a combination of EQ and the inbuilt Helix cabs adjustments (i.e. chasing mic and mic distance on the fly)  than loading up and scrolling through the IR's
Recording is a different thing entirley in my humble opinion 

sgosden

With all the tweaking of cab & Mic selection and in block tweaking of reflection, distanc etc. How important is it to have knowledge of what you're doing?

I know (roughly) what types of cabs and speakers to use for my style of music. But my only experience of micing cabs is moving an SM57 slightly on whatever cab I have at a venue, which often gets knocked mid set, or moved when bands change over.

If I move to helix, Id be creating patches roughly with headphones at home, then tweaking them through PA at practice studio. Is it easy to learn or am I going to be out of my depth with 6,000,000 options?

guitarfishbay

Cabicular said:

I've also got a fair bit of experience from a studio background but the difference I find is that a setup that I know and love for recording doesn't necessarily translate to a good live sound. For example I like a lot less early reflections and a lot more midrange live. I find that easier to dial in with a combination of EQ and the inbuilt Helix cabs adjustments (i.e. chasing mic and mic distance on the fly)  than loading up and scrolling through the IR's
Recording is a different thing entirley in my humble opinion 

Which again is a fair point.  I've been approaching the IR discussion from a recording standpoint.  Personally I still use a real cab with my band.  That's the thing with these digital units... there are so many ways to use them that a discussion on the same feature doesn't necessarily mean the same scenario.

Cabicular

sgosden said:

With all the tweaking of cab & Mic selection and in block tweaking of reflection, distanc etc. How important is it to have knowledge of what you're doing?

I know (roughly) what types of cabs and speakers to use for my style of music. But my only experience of micing cabs is moving an SM57 slightly on whatever cab I have at a venue, which often gets knocked mid set, or moved when bands change over.

If I move to helix, Id be creating patches roughly with headphones at home, then tweaking them through PA at practice studio. Is it easy to learn or am I going to be out of my depth with 6,000,000 options?

not if you stick to the inbuilt cabs
Its worth taking some time just to do a bit of background in the different cabs and pics and their characteristics
Alternatively there is no problem with twiddling knobs until you get a noise you like
My favourite way to set up cabs is to use the foot controls to control the parameters `cab `mic selection and then just adjust while I'm playing
Bear in mind that as volume increases, bass and treble increase more noticeable so I always have less at low volumes

TimmyO

Right then, I have struck a purchase deal. 

I have "gone Helix"

Get my mitts on it next week

Strat_a_tat_tat

What sort of deals can be had on these wee beasties at the shops? I assume there's some wiggle room in the pricing.

fretmeister

Not really.

but if you manage to buy a used Pre-Brexit one every patch sounds a little better value for money 

TimmyO

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

What sort of deals can be had on these wee beasties at the shops? I assume there's some wiggle room in the pricing.

I've gone used.

Hotrox seemed to be the cheapest new (assuming they actually have stock) 

Strat_a_tat_tat

Thanks.

Looks like pricing has moved down a bit at a few shops. £1279 was the going rate... now several are offering £1224... and I've found one shop at £1179.

I'll probably wait to see how the Headrush pedal turns out. I guess it's about a month or so to launch.

sgosden

Cabicular said:

sgosden said:

With all the tweaking of cab & Mic selection and in block tweaking of reflection, distanc etc. How important is it to have knowledge of what you're doing?

I know (roughly) what types of cabs and speakers to use for my style of music. But my only experience of micing cabs is moving an SM57 slightly on whatever cab I have at a venue, which often gets knocked mid set, or moved when bands change over.

If I move to helix, Id be creating patches roughly with headphones at home, then tweaking them through PA at practice studio. Is it easy to learn or am I going to be out of my depth with 6,000,000 options?

not if you stick to the inbuilt cabs
Its worth taking some time just to do a bit of background in the different cabs and pics and their characteristics
Alternatively there is no problem with twiddling knobs until you get a noise you like
My favourite way to set up cabs is to use the foot controls to control the parameters `cab `mic selection and then just adjust while I'm playing
Bear in mind that as volume increases, bass and treble increase more noticeable so I always have less at low volumes

I'm fairly clued up on cab choices for types of sounds. Mics I'd need to research. good call on using foot controls

on another note - how easy would it be to 're-amp' with the helix? would you still need re-amp boxes or could you just route it cleverly through an interface?

TimmyO

sgosden said:

Cabicular said:

sgosden said:

With all the tweaking of cab & Mic selection and in block tweaking of reflection, distanc etc. How important is it to have knowledge of what you're doing?

I know (roughly) what types of cabs and speakers to use for my style of music. But my only experience of micing cabs is moving an SM57 slightly on whatever cab I have at a venue, which often gets knocked mid set, or moved when bands change over.

If I move to helix, Id be creating patches roughly with headphones at home, then tweaking them through PA at practice studio. Is it easy to learn or am I going to be out of my depth with 6,000,000 options?

not if you stick to the inbuilt cabs
Its worth taking some time just to do a bit of background in the different cabs and pics and their characteristics
Alternatively there is no problem with twiddling knobs until you get a noise you like
My favourite way to set up cabs is to use the foot controls to control the parameters `cab `mic selection and then just adjust while I'm playing
Bear in mind that as volume increases, bass and treble increase more noticeable so I always have less at low volumes

I'm fairly clued up on cab choices for types of sounds. Mics I'd need to research. good call on using foot controls

on another note - how easy would it be to 're-amp' with the helix? would you still need re-amp boxes or could you just route it cleverly through an interface?

Logically (not used it yet) you should easily be able to record a dry and amped signal, and use any of the returns to later re-amp the dry recording via an interface. 

Anyone doing it already? 

Cabicular

sgosden said:

Cabicular said:

sgosden said:

With all the tweaking of cab & Mic selection and in block tweaking of reflection, distanc etc. How important is it to have knowledge of what you're doing?

I know (roughly) what types of cabs and speakers to use for my style of music. But my only experience of micing cabs is moving an SM57 slightly on whatever cab I have at a venue, which often gets knocked mid set, or moved when bands change over.

If I move to helix, Id be creating patches roughly with headphones at home, then tweaking them through PA at practice studio. Is it easy to learn or am I going to be out of my depth with 6,000,000 options?

not if you stick to the inbuilt cabs
Its worth taking some time just to do a bit of background in the different cabs and pics and their characteristics
Alternatively there is no problem with twiddling knobs until you get a noise you like
My favourite way to set up cabs is to use the foot controls to control the parameters `cab `mic selection and then just adjust while I'm playing
Bear in mind that as volume increases, bass and treble increase more noticeable so I always have less at low volumes

I'm fairly clued up on cab choices for types of sounds. Mics I'd need to research. good call on using foot controls

on another note - how easy would it be to 're-amp' with the helix? would you still need re-amp boxes or could you just route it cleverly through an interface?

It couldn't be easier if you are using the Helix as your interface.
It outputs a dry signal on ch 8 which you record. You can then route it back in via USB 1 and fiddle about to your hearts content. They have really though that stuff through

Teetonetal

Re-amping using helix models is very, very easy, especially if you are doing it through your DAW.

Cabicular

see good ol Sean Halley (I think he's moved on to Slate now) for a good clear explaination

sgosden

That's awesome.

Theres a good diagram of the 8 in / 8 out arrangement on this thread http://line6.com/support/topic/15625-helix-as-audio-interface/ but I don't really understand it. does it mean you need 16 USB ports on your PC, or some sort of interface inbetween?

Cabicular

sgosden said:

That's awesome.

Theres a good diagram of the 8 in / 8 out arrangement on this thread http://line6.com/support/topic/15625-helix-as-audio-interface/ but I don't really understand it. does it mean you need 16 USB ports on your PC, or some sort of interface inbetween?

No it means that 1 usb connection carries 8 inputs and 8 outputs
It actually is a very capable audio interface

Teetonetal

No 1 USB port is all you need and the 8in and 8 out are communicated over that. 

It means you could set helix up to reamp 4 stereo tracks on 4 seperate audio paths.

Cabicular

Cabicular said:

sgosden said:

That's awesome.

Theres a good diagram of the 8 in / 8 out arrangement on this thread http://line6.com/support/topic/15625-helix-as-audio-interface/ but I don't really understand it. does it mean you need 16 USB ports on your PC, or some sort of interface inbetween?

No it means that 1 usb connection carries 8 inputs and 8 outputs
It actually is a very capable audio interface

so by default you would set up a guitar track in your DAW (Logic in my case) and set the input to Helix USB 1.
That will give you the left channel of the Helix
Or you can set up a stereo track and use Helix USB 1 and 2 as the input 
You would set up another track called Dry Guitar and set the input to Helix USB 8

The other inputs are for other paths or send and return (or pretty much what else you need)