Hey everyone, I put a post up recently asking for opinions on what the best multi FX pedal is, quite a few people said the helix, I was able to try the Helix LT as well as the GT1000 and GT100 for a couple of hours in my local music shop through my own headphones which are high quality, the gt1000 sounded great, I wouldn't say it sounded like a valve amp but I would have no problems using one on a gig or for practice, the GT100 sounded pretty good too and for the price it seems like a bit of a steal now, the helix however sounded terrible, I made sure that it was set to 96kHz, I didn't really mess with the global EQ, just went through the patches, they sounded really weak and some were quite gritty/fizzy, needless to say I was really disappointed in the performance of the helix as I'd gone in with the intention of buying one and while I like the sound of the GT1000, not being able to switch to manual/stompbox mode on the fly is a real dealbreaker as well as the helix being much easier to use, what was I doing wrong with the helix? I've heard a lot of talk of the Helix Stock IRs being pretty crap and that it's vastly improved by third party IRs but at £750 it should sound pretty damn good from the get go, my other two options are the headrush and the AX8, anyone have any experience with them?
Comments
Did you not try any tweaking at all?
that being said, if you can't get a Helix, ax8, headrush, gt1000, Amplifire to sound good, it's not the fault of the hardware
I’d at least get the shop to set it up with a decent monitor and have a bit of a play creating presets for yourself.
But ideally you need a good few days to know if it actually works for you or not.
As mentioned the presets are bad, I've found that everything benefits from having the hicut rolled right back to 6 or 8k.
I still don't think it's the second coming that it is often billed as on here and really do feel that a good valve amp still sounds better.
But where it excels for me is as a recording device (after a lot of tweaking).
I consistently preferred the sounds of the AX8 and wasn't disappointed when it arrived and still love it after owning it for some time.
Having said that, I have recently purchased the Helix HX Effects to use with my regular amp set up and the user interface is absolutely brilliant. The effects sound good and everything is as easy to tweak on the fly as it would be with a "traditional" pedalboard and the form factor is great. Obviously there are no amp models though. I still prefer the effects in the AX8 and the Fractal has greater deep editing possibilities, although I still have to do most editing via the software, unlike the HX Effects.
If you need a headphone out though, neither the AX8 or HX Effects have one.
I owned a Helix and AX8 at the same time and preferred the Helix (which really surprised me as I adored my FX8) and have now gigged it exclusively for the last year or so.
We did two gigs last Saturday, the first of which was a festival style corporate affair... I got some enviable looks from the band after us as I hopped off stage with just a guitar and Helix, slid the Helix into its backpack and made my way to the next gig as they were loading 100w heads and 4x12’s onto the stage. They all commented how good the guitar sounded out front too.
Edit: also I haven't been able to try the Headrush, AX8 or Atomic Amplifire yet although I've heard good things about all of them, I did manage to get some great sounds out of the GT1000 though and the GT100 so I might just end up going for one of them if the headphones aren't the problem I'm having with the helix, which would be a shame as the interface on the helix is way more user friendly than on either of the boss ones
Maybe it's just because I know Amplitube a bit better but I found I was able to get tones I'm happier with much easier, and without the need for 3rd party IRs. And imo it should just be a case of setting the amp, setting the cab and getting a good core base sound - I don't want to have to work around any quirks and use any tricks with EQ blocks, splitting paths etc to get tones I like.
I didn't get on with any of the presets. But then I have also never downloaded someone elses patch off custom tone that I have either (bar a couple of Jason Sadites, but they still needed a bit of tweaking).