Digital Igloo (Eric Klein, YGG)

[Perrymusica]

Helix's firmware has been pretty radically rebuilt and updated over the years, often by necessity because earlier versions weren't capable of supporting newer features or models. To be honest, we initially thought Helix might do okay-ish sales-wise, and we were trepidatious because of its 3x price jump from POD HD500X. The whole thing was supposed to stick around for 3, maybe 4 years and get replaced (by something with my circa-2012 touchscreen-based design, the org assured me), which was Line 6's MO at the time. But because Helix/HX has been so successful, we continue to squeeze an incredible amount of growth out of the family. Sometimes I imagine where we'd be had we designed Helix to support 10+ years of updates, and... <sigh...>

My favorite Tube Screamer is UA's, in part because it was developed by ex-Line 6ers (and <shhh!> I was a beta tester). Ours could still improve.

What does improving something in Helix depend on? If you find something that needs improving and know how to do it, why isn't it done? If it's beneficial for Line6,

 

[Digital Igloo]

What does improving something in Helix depend on? If you find something that needs improving and know how to do it, why isn't it done? If it's beneficial for Line6,

Everything can always be improved. But we only have so many developers/sound designers at our disposal, and so many hours in the day. It's all about prioritization.

 

[ChordInversion]

What I hate about plugins is that physical control is so complicated. Moving virtual knobs with a mouse sucks.

Absolutely agree. They're just an unpleasant experience for me overall. Sucks a lot of the fun out of playing guitar for me.

Even better would be something more like the full Helix Floor UI + 6 knobs in a compact form factor, max Quad Cortex sized.

Omitting the expression pedal would go a decent way toward that goal.

These kind of things can double as desk and floor units without the big hulking rack format. Want to move it around? Throw it in a backpack!

Agreed. If desk unit isn't possible, make a floor unit small enough for a desk but not hamstrung in the interface or power departments.