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It also means I can carry my entire rig in one trip from the car, with a free hand - guitar and Helix on shoulder straps, TS210 in one hand. I think the total is about 24kg.
Also, there's nowt wrong with just using a Helix for effects only.
Its the ability to route anyway you can think of, is where the Helix scores
A point that is not lost on me I assure you @horse!
Anyhow, dammit, this morning I noticed Dawsons doing them for £649 delivered, help...
All of us have GAS, and move ontological the next, 'better' thing, only to find that we yearn for a sound from the past...
Just go and try a Helix and see if it suits 'you'.
£649 is an awesfully tempting price though
1. ease of patch creation/editing/tweaking tones on the fly - it's not great, I kind of knew that and didn't think it would be a big deal, I'd still be able to get my tones programmed in and things would be fine. But they aren't - I guess I'm just not that much of a tech head, and I find I'm not really making the best use of the unit as a result. Some people can/do, but not working out for me.
2. the limitations - the loops are all in a block and have to stay together, loops can't do stereo, you can't have 6 delays of whatever type you like on at the same time, for example. Also you can only have 4 presets per bank - yes there are people doing great things with the assigns function, but again we are back to the techy stuff there - watching the vids and Helix seems just a different ball game with it's user-friendly aspect.
...and let's be honest, they're both digital units, but the Helix has way more processing power - it is at least a league higher up. Do I sound like I've already made my mind up?
I bought one to be an all in one pedal board (wasn't fussed about the amp stuff). I didn't really like anything on it compared to my pedal board.
I still use the pedal board but now I use a fly rig 5 for band practice for the lazy amp solution.
Can I ask what the pedals on your board are that you prefer to the Helix equivalent? - just interested.
My eventide h9 does things the helix can't so that was a huge stumbling block.
I couldn't fairly compare it's delays to my mf104m but the other digital delays I was a little disappointed with, I personally preferred the m series if I'm honest.
The drives were ok but again not as good as my pedals, I always felt there was a harsh top end treble thing going on with all the drives.
The lack of synth/filters was disappointing for me too but this may have been addressed.
I really wanted it to work as I was tired of the pedal merry go round and the whole package sounds great on paper. It just didn't work for me personally.
I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying one though. You have to know what works for you at the end of the day.
Helix is really easy to get going but having owned one for nearly two years now I still feel like I’m only learning it every time I turn it on
Pitch shifting is shoddy and not as good as a pitchfork or whammy.
Everything else is perfectly serviceable and you can do a lot with the routing.
Just get one online, try for a week and send back if it's not for you. It has to be played through your own setup to see if it will work. Also, put the newest firmware on it. Each release is an improvement in some way.
That's were I was most let down. Everything I have ever put through my hiwatt absolutely sparkles and sounds great but I found the helix to be quite flat, even with 7 days of tweaking.
The amp Sims were great, I did like them for recording
I just don't like having gear sat there not earning it's keep and I wonder if I would do better with a bunch of vst files
I was a bit concerned regarding comments where it didn't work out going straight into an amp, but there are plenty of comments on the web to the effect that it can sound very good like this in place of an effects board, as long as you have a good clean amp with plenty of headroom (which I do). But I think ultimately the direction of travel for me is FRFR powered speaker(s) and/or through the PA. I'll be keeping my pedal board setup for a while anyhow, and not burning bridges too soon.