Line 6 Helix

robinbowes

nickp said:

stage 1 - get me to the gig on time:   Will the Helix happily, capably and easily (sonically) replace all of those pedals (my delays and reverbs settings aren't complex).  Will it take long to set up and use.  4cm probably as this will make me feel at home.

Yes, for sure.

nickp said:

stage 2 - will i acheive sonic happiness by going straight into the power amp section of the blackstar thusly reducing it to one cable.  I appreciate this will take some fiddling time to get a nice amp/cab setup or whatever in the Helix.

Only you can say whether or not this will work for you. One point - you won't need a cab in your patch if you're going through a physical guitar cab.

nickp said:

stage 3 - will dumping the (stupidly heavy) amp and cab allow me to buy a flat wotsit speaker and acheive sonic happiness but with a lighter rig?  (my back is fucked).  This is the golden egg (or was it chicken) 

Again, only you can say whether or not this works for you. Personally, I go direct to PA and rely on a monitor wedge to hear myself. Admittedly, we generally use my own PA so it's a known quantity and I know it's going to sound good. If we use a 3rd-party PA, I take along one of my own wedges just in case the provided monitoring is not up to scratch.

nickp said:

stage 4 - will the helix plus the flat wotsit speaker do a good job of powering an acoustic rig of guitar (me) and vocal mike (sue) 

I wouldn't say you need a FRFR speaker for acoustic guitar and vocal, assuming you're going into a PA.

Do you know anyone near you who already has a Helix? Sounds to me like you need to try one to see how it works for you.

R.

shuikit

Native is now available to LT owners for $100
https://shop.line6.com/software/plug-ins/helix-native.html

meltedbuzzbox

shuikit said:

Native is now available to LT owners for $100
https://shop.line6.com/software/plug-ins/helix-native.html

I bought it about 6 months ago at that price

guitarmangler

shuikit said:

Native is now available to LT owners for $100
https://shop.line6.com/software/plug-ins/helix-native.html

Wow. That’s cheap. Thanks for the heads up.

duotone

Anyone else finding doing the updates a bit of a pain?  

siremoon

duotone said:

Anyone else finding doing the updates a bit of a pain?  

No.  But then I remember the process when Helix first came out, that really was a pain and compared to that what we have to do now is easy.

digitalscream

duotone said:

Anyone else finding doing the updates a bit of a pain?  

Nope. I did it in five minutes with the wife's laptop right before a rehearsal...

Cirrus

All good for me too, did it Friday eve. Took 5 mins.

The new tuner is really smooth, but does anyone else think the updated graphics are going to be harder to see in problematic lighting? (sunlight, particular stage-lighting, from the other side of the stage etc)

Of course, you don't *have* to update it at all if you're happy with it as is...

timmysoft

Cirrus said:

All good for me too, did it Friday eve. Took 5 mins.

The new tuner is really smooth, but does anyone else think the updated graphics are going to be harder to see in problematic lighting? (sunlight, particular stage-lighting, from the other side of the stage etc)

Of course, you don't *have* to update it at all if you're happy with it as is...

As I’m using the rack I tend to use the floor read out, but I do agree that the yellow isn’t really the best choice. 

Cirrus

I, also, am using the rack. And you're right, the control is the same. I just like having the fine-tuning bar, so I tend to look at the rack screen anyway.

srato

I tried FRFR and 4CM and the power amp of my Friedman Runt.  The latter is the best sounding as far as I am concerned and the most simple to implement.

TimmyO

I followed the link to this from the big Facebook Helix group earlier today - I reserve judgment on how useful it'll be but the sheer amount of effort this guy has gone to is phenomenal!

https://l6helix.wixsite.com/helixsoas/about

I think what it is, in very summarised summary, is a big collection of patches which are kind of averaged settings from all of CustomTone and some commercial patches. Each one has multiple Snapshots which are different settings based on averages/defaults and whatnot (read the page - he explains it at greater length) - but it gets interesting when you see it's organised in such a way as to present you a bunch of starting points to create your own based off of them.

Also, they are all volume matched, making comparisons neater. 

I'll take some time over the next few days to see what I make of it all but thought it worth flagging if anyone wants to dive in 

TimmyO

To further kick the death out of the stock cabs versus IRs debate:

I found this video really interesting - in the first couple of comparisons where it is simple SM57 close mic versions being compared, gotta say my preference in that example was for the Celestion IR

But when it switched to multi-mic (inc room) IR versus stock "dual cab, 57+121, pus 60% early reflections" I much preferred the stock cab.

I'll be testing out more early reflections settings I think 

Teetonetal

2 Stock cabs with multi mics works for me.

meltedbuzzbox

Teetonetal said:

2 Stock cabs with multi mics works for me.

That's generally what I do too

hubobulous

Do people tend to pick the amps+cabs or separate them out?

kennedydream1980

Has anyone tried using a full pedalboard into the front end of a Helix. 

The reason I ask is the lead singer in my band has expressed an interest in picking up the guitar again for a few songs in the set. He doesn't want to cart an amp to gigs for just a couple of songs.

So my initial thought was to set up a 2 independent rig preset in helix. However due to DSP limitations i'm finding I'm having to compromise on certain things, plus the fact I would have to change sounds for 2 people.

So my thinking is to setup a signal path for him with just a clean amp (Probably the Mesa Lonestar Clean amp) and IR, and suggest he runs his pedalboard through the Helix. I think he would much prefer that as he is familiar with his pedals and knows how he likes them to sound. 

So I'm looking for real world experience with pedals into the front end of a Helix using a clean Amp. Does the Helix amps react as you would expect a real amp would to drive pedals etc.

meltedbuzzbox

kennedydream1980 said:

Has anyone tried using a full pedalboard into the front end of a Helix. 

The reason I ask is the lead singer in my band has expressed an interest in picking up the guitar again for a few songs in the set. He doesn't want to cart an amp to gigs for just a couple of songs.

So my initial thought was to set up a 2 independent rig preset in helix. However due to DSP limitations i'm finding I'm having to compromise on certain things, plus the fact I would have to change sounds for 2 people.

So my thinking is to setup a signal path for him with just a clean amp (Probably the Mesa Lonestar Clean amp) and IR, and suggest he runs his pedalboard through the Helix. I think he would much prefer that as he is familiar with his pedals and knows how he likes them to sound. 

So I'm looking for real world experience with pedals into the front end of a Helix using a clean Amp. Does the Helix amps react as you would expect a real amp would to drive pedals etc.

I have and found it unpleasant. Apparently the best way is going in via a dedicated loop

rossyamaha

@kennedydream1980 I actually did this the other night. I replace my amp with Helix and even did 4CM. Worked great. So much so the the whole band complemented me on how massive my guitar sounded. Which was nice. 

One thing I did have to do though is lower the gain on the clean amp model. Easy to drive them when you don't the actual volume of the amp to contend with. 

duotone

TimmyO said:

I followed the link to this from the big Facebook Helix group earlier today - I reserve judgment on how useful it'll be but the sheer amount of effort this guy has gone to is phenomenal!

https://l6helix.wixsite.com/helixsoas/about

I think what it is, in very summarised summary, is a big collection of patches which are kind of averaged settings from all of CustomTone and some commercial patches. Each one has multiple Snapshots which are different settings based on averages/defaults and whatnot (read the page - he explains it at greater length) - but it gets interesting when you see it's organised in such a way as to present you a bunch of starting points to create your own based off of them.

Also, they are all volume matched, making comparisons neater. 

I'll take some time over the next few days to see what I make of it all but thought it worth flagging if anyone wants to dive in 

Cheers @TimmyO ;