Line 6 Helix

Sporky

nickp said:

So for live use in a covers band i'm probably better starting from an amp model and just creating a basic preset (following Jason Sadite's videos to some extent) and going from there?

Yes.

And then moving on fairly quickly to making patches with eight tremolos (turns out that's pretty much silence).

John_A

What I did was build a patch to emulate the setup I was using, a JTM45 and half a dozen pedals, that took 30 minutes to get to the point I was happy with it. From there I’ve just tweaked and added to it over the years in areas I thought needed improving 

gibsongretschfan

Cabicular said:

simonk said:

nickp said:

I am having a bit of spare time so I played with the helix - it came with some presets made by Greg DeLaune.  Only at lowish volumes in home.  going direct into the power amp section of my blackstar.  They sound interesting and are really good but seem to me to be over-processed.  I'm guessing that it's all a bit much for live use and are better for recording?

So for live use in a covers band i'm probably better starting from an amp model and just creating a basic preset (following Jason Sadite's videos to some extent) and going from there?  (that's a question not a statement)  

they do show how versatile the unit can be when you know what you are doing!

Building presets from the ground up whilst taking inspiration from knowledgeable guys like Jason S and Glen D is the way to go IMHO. I find most of the user contributions on CustomTone sound universally terrible (they probably aren’t... well, some are... they’re just not the sound in my head).

I put it (and the presets) down to being built on different speaker setups.
I wonder about people who jump straight in to something like a Helix
Most of us here (including yourself presumably) have a strong pedal/amp background so modelling our own favourite setup is a good start. But what if you didn’t have that... it must be really overwhelming 

I remember getting a kidney bean when I was about 15. I owned a Park practice amp and a Laney solid state amp and a wah. 

Years later I dug out the kidney bean and realised that the two amp models I used on it were the Super Reverb and the Soldano. 

Strange enough I ended up owning and gigging a Super for about 10 years and my other amp was/is a Cornfled MK50 which isn't a million miles away from a Soldano.

Im not sure I really have a point but as daunting as even the bean was back then I still managed to find the sounds I liked on it that then translated to real amps years later even though I had no idea that's what I had been practicing through for years as a teenager

gibsongretschfan

nickp said:

I am having a bit of spare time so I played with the helix - it came with some presets made by Greg DeLaune.  Only at lowish volumes in home.  going direct into the power amp section of my blackstar.  They sound interesting and are really good but seem to me to be over-processed.  I'm guessing that it's all a bit much for live use and are better for recording?

So for live use in a covers band i'm probably better starting from an amp model and just creating a basic preset (following Jason Sadite's videos to some extent) and going from there?  (that's a question not a statement)  

they do show how versatile the unit can be when you know what you are doing!

Did you make sure the cab sims/IR block was disabled?

Cabicular

Just emulate a good setup for the style of music you do and tweak
The problem most people seem to have is chucking everything including the kitchen sink at a preset
You can have a Fender Deluxe a Klon and a spring reverb and that’s maybe all you need

Jetfire

I'll be trying out some GD patches through the FOH on new New year's Eve to see what it sounds like live so I'll report back @nickp. They sound great through my DXR thou.

gibsongretschfan

"Finishing up Helix Core has been a slog. We have models for 2.80 finished (and more to come) but haven't even started on user-facing features, as we'd have to code everything twice (once for Helix Core SKUs, again for those that don't aren't yet fully Core). There'll probably be a preview at NAMM but it won't be ready until later.

My personal pet feature made it in. Finally." D.I.

wtf is Helix core?

Cabicular

gibsongretschfan said:

"Finishing up Helix Core has been a slog. We have models for 2.80 finished (and more to come) but haven't even started on user-facing features, as we'd have to code everything twice (once for Helix Core SKUs, again for those that don't aren't yet fully Core). There'll probably be a preview at NAMM but it won't be ready until later.

My personal pet feature made it in. Finally." D.I.

wtf is Helix core?

Helix Core I would imagine would be the codebase for Helix floor rack and LT (maybe Native)
Not fully core I would guess at stomp and HX FX?

gibsongretschfan

Cabicular said:

gibsongretschfan said:

"Finishing up Helix Core has been a slog. We have models for 2.80 finished (and more to come) but haven't even started on user-facing features, as we'd have to code everything twice (once for Helix Core SKUs, again for those that don't aren't yet fully Core). There'll probably be a preview at NAMM but it won't be ready until later.

My personal pet feature made it in. Finally." D.I.

wtf is Helix core?

Helix Core I would imagine would be the codebase for Helix floor rack and LT (maybe Native)
Not fully core I would guess at stomp and HX FX?

Makes sense. Those Line 6 boys do love an "under the hood" improvement 

Frank says that 2.8 is cool but 2019 is a big year for Helix so I'm guessing we are going to see Helix 3.0 at some point. There better be an open top bus parade and a national holiday for its release 

relic245

gibsongretschfan said:

Frank says that 2.8 is cool but 2019 is a big year for Helix so I'm guessing we are going to see Helix 3.0 at some point. There better be an open top bus parade and a national holiday for its release 

I wonder if Helix 3.0 will be the one that only runs on Helix V2 hardware  

gibsongretschfan

relic245 said:

gibsongretschfan said:

Frank says that 2.8 is cool but 2019 is a big year for Helix so I'm guessing we are going to see Helix 3.0 at some point. There better be an open top bus parade and a national holiday for its release 

I wonder if Helix 3.0 will be the one that only runs on Helix V2 hardware  

Nah it will still need to work across all the platforms so I think we are safe!

shuikit

There was a post on tgp by Frank at L6 earlier this year saying that there was no hardware update planned. It went on to explain why, I can't remember the details and I can't find the post now but the jist of it was that there was no point as there wasn't a 'better' processor available atm and adding more processors would be more trouble than it was worth so the current Helix hardware still has a fair amount of life left. 

My understanding of Helix Core was that they have been working so that all Helix products run off basically the same codebase. The main changes in the recent 2.7 firmware were all internal changes (ie helix core). 

gibsongretschfan

modelling in general is so nearly "there" that Im not sure its going to take much more horsepower, if any, to achieve truly indistinguishable results. And when they do there won't really be anywhere left for them to go other than making the UI better and to be fair Helix already has that pretty much sorted.

fretmeister

There’s a big thread in TGP about Helix Core.

Basically it’s just a total rewrite of the code to make it more efficient.

DI did warn that all presets under the current code won’t work so you’ll need to back up if you don’t like the core update then roll it back.

Apparently we won’t actually notice anything in the GUI though.

siremoon

fretmeister said:

DI did warn that all presets under the current code won’t work so you’ll need to back up if you don’t like the core update then roll it back.

That implies presets from 2.70 or earlier won't work in 2.80 which is not quite what he said.  He said that presets from 2.70 and earlier won’t work if you load them into 2.80 then subsequently roll back to 2.70.  Presets from 2.70 and earlier will work in 2.80 providing you don't go back to 2.70.

neilg

Is it possible to have one row of switches changing between snapshots and the other turning effects on/off?  I'm sure I've heard it mentioned but can't figure it out, I've set the preset mode to snap/stomp in the global settings.

John_A

neilg said:

Is it possible to have one row of switches changing between snapshots and the other turning effects on/off?  I'm sure I've heard it mentioned but can't figure it out, I've set the preset mode to snap/stomp in the global settings.

Yes in the global menu. You can have snaps button stomp top or vice versa

neilg

I've got it set to snap/stomp but can't figure out how to assign the snapshots to the buttons.

Nige458

neilg said:

I've got it set to snap/stomp but can't figure out how to assign the snapshots to the buttons.

Hi, I got the Helix floor literally a week ago.

Using this video had it set up in 10 minutes or so.



He has a load of other videos which are well worth watching.

In fact I got it on the 4th January this year, and was gigging it Friday just gone (all be it through a power amp and cab) and it performed superbly!

neilg

Thanks, I think I probably watched that video when it first came out.  

It didn't help me though as he'd already got the snapshots assigned.  I ended working it out myself, I had to press the mode button.