Line 6 Helix

guitarfishbay

John_A said:

Think I have myself a new core tone.  JTM45 for clean, Badonk for crunch & dirt OH G12M Modern (I think) IR.  In some ways, the Helix is a pain being so flexible, there's a billion great sounds in there and 10 billion rubbish ones, I think they need a 'You dont wanna do that it'll sound like shit' feature

It's such a huge difference from having one real amp/cab I can see wy people give up.  Not me!

Yeah it's true.  In some ways I wonder how I'd feel being a new starter now with no experience with nice gear and getting a high end digital multi FX without having played with a bunch of valve gear first.

Thing is some things just work.  Marshall into Marshall cab with Greenbacks has sounded good for decades, no need to re-invent the wheel.

siraxeman

been playing around with the factory presets by just replacing the stock cabs with the same preamp and a Fremen IR and pretty much every time (so far) they've been consistently betterer. Methinks there's summat in this IR's being better than the stock cabs...but I have to say its early days and I've not really been tweaking the stock cabs, rather just using them at their default settings....but still makes me think IR's are the way to go, or are at least a more instant result.

siraxeman

been playing around with the factory presets by just replacing the stock cabs with the same preamp and a Fremen IR and pretty much every time (so far) they've been consistently betterer. Methinks there's summat in this IR's being better than the stock cabs...but I have to say its early days and I've not really been tweaking the stock cabs, rather just using them at their default settings....but still makes me think IR's are the way to go, or are at least a more instant result.

John_A

guitarfishbay said:

John_A said:

Think I have myself a new core tone.  JTM45 for clean, Badonk for crunch & dirt OH G12M Modern (I think) IR.  In some ways, the Helix is a pain being so flexible, there's a billion great sounds in there and 10 billion rubbish ones, I think they need a 'You dont wanna do that it'll sound like shit' feature

It's such a huge difference from having one real amp/cab I can see wy people give up.  Not me!

Yeah it's true.  In some ways I wonder how I'd feel being a new starter now with no experience with nice gear and getting a high end digital multi FX without having played with a bunch of valve gear first.

Thing is some things just work.  Marshall into Marshall cab with Greenbacks has sounded good for decades, no need to re-invent the wheel.

Even for a seasoned player like myself, I've mostly played marshalls in to greenback loaded cabs for 20 years, dabbled in dual recs, and gave up, probably because they were so different.  Having very little experience with many of the amps and cabs available means the choice is overwhelming, think the tech is now there, but a simpler U.i, like an iTunes browser where you scroll through rigs from your favourite players and it auto sets its self up would be a great place to stat.

anyway, can't ever go back to real amps now, cant see anywhere that sells Badonks

Jonathanthomas83

The idea is great, but the execution for such things would be subjective. Look at Fremen’s stuff as an example, his Floyd patches have Friedmans and all sorts going on. I can’t say I’m over enamoured by them either. So what you think is a good Hendrix tone night not be what I think would be.

John_A

Jonathanthomas83 said:

The idea is great, but the execution for such things would be subjective. Look at Fremen’s stuff as an example, his Floyd patches have Friedmans and all sorts going on. I can’t say I’m over enamoured by them either. So what you think is a good Hendrix tone night not be what I think would be.

There's certainly more ways to get to the same type of sound, with the right EQ you can get most amps to sound like another, but for a 14 year old just starting out it would make life easier, and me too . 

Jonathanthomas83

John_A said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

The idea is great, but the execution for such things would be subjective. Look at Fremen’s stuff as an example, his Floyd patches have Friedmans and all sorts going on. I can’t say I’m over enamoured by them either. So what you think is a good Hendrix tone night not be what I think would be.

There's certainly more ways to get to the same type of sound, with the right EQ you can get most amps to sound like another, but for a 14 year old just starting out it would make life easier, and me too . 

You’re right there, sorry, wasn’t trying to sound arsey...just comes natural to me! Haha.

John_A

Jonathanthomas83 said:

John_A said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

The idea is great, but the execution for such things would be subjective. Look at Fremen’s stuff as an example, his Floyd patches have Friedmans and all sorts going on. I can’t say I’m over enamoured by them either. So what you think is a good Hendrix tone night not be what I think would be.

There's certainly more ways to get to the same type of sound, with the right EQ you can get most amps to sound like another, but for a 14 year old just starting out it would make life easier, and me too . 

You’re right there, sorry, wasn’t trying to sound arsey...just comes natural to me! Haha.

Not at all, I was agreeing with you . 

peteri

Jonathanthomas83 said:

The idea is great, but the execution for such things would be subjective. Look at Fremen’s stuff as an example, his Floyd patches have Friedmans and all sorts going on. I can’t say I’m over enamoured by them either. So what you think is a good Hendrix tone night not be what I think would be.

I agree with this, when I had a Helix I bought a set from Glenn Delane - sounded great, but when I looked at them - he'd achieved the sound in what was (to me) such a strange way it was very hard to tweak.

Getting a Jubilee sound with a JC120 whilst clever, wasn't what I was after 

Jonathanthomas83

If there were factory presets replicating classic setups for the likes of Hendrix etc, as a good starting point, then it’d be a good feature.

sweepy

Well, my Helix Rack is up for sale or trade against a nice Strat, Tele or Jazzmaster advert listed here 

Jonathanthomas83

How come?

sweepy

Jonathanthomas83 said:

How come?

I prefer my Axe-Fx and the Helix just doesn’t get used, so off it goes

Jonathanthomas83

Ah ok, sorry, I forgot you had an Axe FX. You tried the new FW? It's great!

gibsongretschfan

After a recent house move I have had time to rebuild my home studio and midway through hooking up my Focusrite 24 DSP I said screw it and built my setup around Helix. As I gig Helix it needs to be able to quickly detach and get thrown in the gig bag without pulling everything apart but it sits nicely on the floor and pulling out a USB, IEC and 2 XLR's quickly isn't exactly a deal breaker. I'll get around to testing the mic input later today but considering that 90 percent of the signals I record at home are guitar then having use of the Helix input and not having to eff around with input gains on the Focusrite even if I'm using another modeller i.e. S-Gear is worth it in itself. So far it's been rock solid as an interface and I have a cleaner desk. 

sweepy

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Ah ok, sorry, I forgot you had an Axe FX. You tried the new FW? It's great!

It’s fully updated etc, it just doesn’t do it for me, both units going into my Presonus 1602 and APS Aeon Monitors, the Axe-Fx gets switched on and the Helix doesn’t 

Jonathanthomas83

sweepy said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Ah ok, sorry, I forgot you had an Axe FX. You tried the new FW? It's great!

It’s fully updated etc, it just doesn’t do it for me, both units going into my Presonus 1602 and APS Aeon Monitors, the Axe-Fx gets switched on and the Helix doesn’t 

I was talking about the new Fractal FW :-)

sweepy

Lol, waiting for the official 9, the Beta is getting rave reviews but I’ll wait for the full release

John_A

Well.  Had a bit more time playing with IR's, took my core JCM800 patch that used stock cabs and created a new patch with an OH IR in place of the stock cab.  Played with various settings until it sounded just how I wanted and then compared it to the old patch with the Helix cab.

There was no audible difference at all

In summary - The stock cabs seem to work fine with the right settings IMO, no need for IR's

Teetonetal

John_A said:

Well.  Had a bit more time playing with IR's, took my core JCM800 patch that used stock cabs and created a new patch with an OH IR in place of the stock cab.  Played with various settings until it sounded just how I wanted and then compared it to the old patch with the Helix cab.

There was no audible difference at all

In summary - The stock cabs seem to work fine with the right settings IMO, no need for IR's

My conclusion too. The Helix cabs are very good. I think there is a little bit of people feel IR's ought to be better and stock cabs ought to be bad. But even just level matching goes a long way to removing differences.