Line 6 Helix

John_A

@gibsongretschfan  Were you happy with your out front sound with the V30?  Real or IR

HPhillipsmusic

I'd sell the G2 Peter, the Helix only works when you sell off large portions of gear. Strymons, KOT's, Strats etc.


H

peteri

Brilliant! Lol awarded!

John_A

@peteri ; No magic settings I'm afraid.  One 'problem' with the Helix is there is so much potentially going on that it can be made to sound bad as well as good.  Persevere, it's worth it. 

peteri

Thanks - @John_A , are you using it as a pedal board? (meaning in front of an amp) - if so what's your high gain sound?

John_A

I'm using it FRFR direct to the PA hot rodded Marshall, the 2204 model with a tubescreamer up front is as high gain as I get.  What amp are you using, And what sound are you after, I'm happy to have a play and make some recommendations 

sgosden

@peteri have you tried running preamp into the fx return?

sw67

I have had the Helix lt for a few weeks now and have done 2 gigs. I have spent a few hours at gig volume getting it to replicate my pedal board and have been getting good results in 4 cable method. I found the compulsive drive gave me the best sound in a band mix. I also have tremolo , delay , chorus and reverb. I also use it in the house into the fx return and use a clean preamp and some fx. I plan on keeping my pedals but i feel the helix can be made to work in most situations if you put in the time at gig levels. 

Bridgehouse

@peteri - 4cm?

Best hi gains are preamp into power amp line in - are you doing that?

peteri

Hi - no I'm not, maybe that's the problem - but it's insurmountable for me if it is.

(I tend to use amps without FX loops!)

4CM would make sense - since you can obviously use the pre-amp models, similarly FRFR

My main amp is a Carr Skylark - bit more old school

Bridgehouse

peteri said:

Hi - no I'm not, maybe that's the problem - but it's insurmountable for me if it is.

(I tend to use amps without FX loops!)

4CM would make sense - since you can obviously use the pre-amp models, similarly FRFR

My main amp is a Carr Skylark - bit more old school

If you are going straight in to the front then getting (what is in effect) another preamp balanced can be problematic. 

It's actually worth playing with the various distortions and stacking them, putting a compressor in front, maybe even a clean boost eq first etc. and playing with the global eq settings. 

It took me a good month before I started getting sounds that were as good as a trad amp/board 

Bridgehouse

@peteri - as an alternative, if you want Helix to deliver a range of different amp sounds for variety, you could get an FRFR and then have an A/B box to split between helix and your normal amp setup.

Or, mix the signal - one path to FRFR, and one out to your amp with just effects...

peteri

@Bridgehouse - thanks, just been playing with Global Eq, and the studio preamp first - along with parametric eq after the Marshall pre-amp, getting there.

Sorry your other suggestion is mad!

Bridgehouse

peteri said:

@Bridgehouse - thanks, just been playing with Global Eq, and the studio preamp first - along with parametric eq after the Marshall pre-amp, getting there.

Sorry your other suggestion is mad!

I like mad. I'm tempted to get 2 FRFRs for some twin amp stereo madness too 

robinbowes

Bridgehouse said:

I like mad. I'm tempted to get 2 FRFRs for some twin amp stereo madness too 

That's what I did

Actually, I go XLR -> FoH (stereo if I can) and 1/4" -> single onstage monitor so I can hear it.

Very pleased with the setup.

R.

gibsongretschfan

John_A said:

@gibsongretschfan  Were you happy with your out front sound with the V30?  Real or IR

Yeah the FOH sound was pretty good. Was just that monitor

menamestom

I've not found a decent high gain stomp in the Helix so far. There may be work arounds but going straight into the front of an amp there's no tight MIAB sound.  The OCD is good(better than an actual OCD IMO) but it's a slightly fuzzy, round drive sound.  Fortunately it's not a sound I require, but if I did I'd probably have a pedal in the loop as a temporary measure, until the firwmware gave a nice tight rock stomp.  I think a model of a Crunch Box or similar would be good.

stratman3142

menamestom said:

I've not found a decent high gain stomp in the Helix so far. There may be work arounds but going straight into the front of an amp there's no tight MIAB sound.  The OCD is good(better than an actual OCD IMO) but it's a slightly fuzzy, round drive sound.  Fortunately it's not a sound I require, but if I did I'd probably have a pedal in the loop as a temporary measure, until the firwmware gave a nice tight rock stomp.  I think a model of a Crunch Box or similar would be good.

I agree. The closest I got to my Angry Charlie was by putting a gain block (to provide more level) in front of a Hedgehog.

TimmyO

menamestom said:

I've not found a decent high gain stomp in the Helix so far. There may be work arounds but going straight into the front of an amp there's no tight MIAB sound.  The OCD is good(better than an actual OCD IMO) but it's a slightly fuzzy, round drive sound.  Fortunately it's not a sound I require, but if I did I'd probably have a pedal in the loop as a temporary measure, until the firwmware gave a nice tight rock stomp.  I think a model of a Crunch Box or similar would be good.

If I may, that's to miss a big point of how the Helix can be used. You can have one button, labelled 'stomp' or whatever, that changes volume, gain, sag, compression, eq etc etc etc, all with one press. Or indeed morph to that new sound with the expression pedal. 

Cabicular

I don't get this tbh 
the modded 2204 I think provides a very modern sounding MIAB since it is pretty much a MIAB with a sweepable midrange ?