Digital Igloo (Eric Klein, YGG)

Digital Igloo said:
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:cuss), 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.
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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,
 
Perrymusica said:
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,
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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.
 
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laxu said:
What I hate about plugins is that physical control is so complicated. Moving virtual knobs with a mouse sucks.
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Absolutely agree. They're just an unpleasant experience for me overall. Sucks a lot of the fun out of playing guitar for me.

laxu said:
Even better would be something more like the full Helix Floor UI + 6 knobs in a compact form factor, max Quad Cortex sized.
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Omitting the expression pedal would go a decent way toward that goal.

laxu said:
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!
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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.
 
How long does it take to emulate an amp? Weeks, months? Are some amps more difficult to emulate than others, or is a Bassman the same as a Mark IV?
 
Perrymusica said:
How long does it take to emulate an amp? Weeks, months? Are some amps more difficult to emulate than others, or is a Bassman the same as a Mark IV?
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It's highly dependent on the amp. Very complex amps—like the MESA MkIV—take the longest (6-8 weeks), but interestingly enough, simple amps take longer than those with medium complexity, because it's common for them to have very odd knob interaction behavior, which we need to nail. Modeling German amps is relatively fast not because they're simple but because they tend to be very consistent and controlled, with less "WTH is going on here?" brow-scrunching.

Line 6 Originals take less time not because they're less sophisticated, but because there aren't any gotchas when focusing purely on great sound/feel vs. hyper accuracy. It takes more time (and more DSP!) to model behaviors that may be considered objectively bad-sounding, yet accurate to the real thing. People should not sleep on the Line 6 Originals, because they can actually sound more pleasing to the ear than many of the models based on real amps. Next time around we'll probably just merge them along with all the other amps instead of hiding them at the end of the list.
 
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Digital Igloo said:
It's highly dependent on the amp. Very complex amps—like the MESA MkIV—take the longest (6-8 weeks), but interestingly enough, simple amps take longer than those with medium complexity, because it's common for them to have very odd knob interaction behavior, which we need to nail. Modeling German amps is relatively fast not because they're simple but because they tend to be very consistent and controlled, with less "WTH is going on here?" brow-scrunching.

Line 6 Originals take less time not because they're less sophisticated, but because there aren't any gotchas when focusing purely on great sound/feel vs. hyper accuracy. It takes more time (and more DSP!) to model behaviors that may be considered objectively bad-sounding, yet accurate to the real thing.
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Thank you so much, Eric! I really appreciate it. Hugs.
 
Digital Igloo said:
It's highly dependent on the amp. Very complex amps—like the MESA MkIV—take the longest (6-8 weeks), but interestingly enough, simple amps take longer than those with medium complexity, because it's common for them to have very odd knob interaction behavior, which we need to nail. Modeling German amps is relatively fast not because they're simple but because they tend to be very consistent and controlled, with less "WTH is going on here?" brow-scrunching.

Line 6 Originals take less time not because they're less sophisticated, but because there aren't any gotchas when focusing purely on great sound/feel vs. hyper accuracy. It takes more time (and more DSP!) to model behaviors that may be considered objectively bad-sounding, yet accurate to the real thing. People should not sleep on the Line 6 Originals, because they can actually sound more pleasing to the ear than many of the models based on real amps. Next time around we'll probably just merge them along with all the other amps instead of hiding them at the end of the list.
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Oblivion and Clarity are my go-to amp models when running my Stomp. Thanks for including them!
 
laxu said:
What I hate about plugins is that physical control is so complicated. Moving virtual knobs with a mouse sucks. While you can map MIDI controllers to various parameters...it's not something that lets you just plug in a controller and it works. It requires a lot of MIDI learn configuration and even then it's usually per preset which complicates things.

I want global mapping, and context based control so e.g MIDI knobs 1-6 sending e.g MIDI CCs 1-16 will control parameters 1-6 in the block I have open on screen, instead of having them mapped to specific parameters in a specific block. Yes, I know I can assign the Knobs in Helix Native, then control those via MIDI CC...but those are per preset so again they need a lot of work.

By comparison the Hotone Ampero 2 Stomp, barely larger than a HX Stomp, has been sitting on my desk comfortably and I use it from its touchscreen UI all the time, rarely opening its editor software because the physical knobs + touchscreen works quite comfortably.

I want to see more units like that. Compact, actually desk-friendly units with enough physical controls. Like take the Hotone, add a bit larger screen and a 4th encoder would go a long way. Even better would be something more like the full Helix Floor UI + 6 knobs in a compact form factor, max Quad Cortex sized.
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I second this! A lot of the appeal of units like the UA amp pedals isn't just that they do one thing without menus, but that you can change (most of) the basic amp things with physical controls just like an amp, but it's also really compact (unlike larger floor units). At least that would be the appeal for me! I'd love to be able to do that on my HX Stomp without adding an external controller and messing with mapping.
 
Digital Igloo said:
People should not sleep on the Line 6 Originals, because they can actually sound more pleasing to the ear than many of the models based on real amps.
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Every bit this. These days, my most used amp out of the HX platform for any kinda rock tones has got to be the Voltage. I just absolutely love how it feels and how it takes pedals.
 
@Digital Igloo Hi DI, can you tell me something about the MIC IN of my Helix Floor? When I use a mic (with pp) and click "Input 8" in Reaper it should give me a direct recording without any altering from the Helix (as interface) itself, right?
 
Digital Igloo said:
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Hey D.I. !

Bit of a tech'y question.

Am making a specific Midi Out Cable to do Amp Channel Switching from my HX Stomp, and so I don't "blow anything up" from my HX Stomp, can you please advise:-

(a) => what is the Voltage Output of the Midi-Out PIN 5 "Tip" on the HX Stomp ?

(b) => what is the milliamp value the Midi-Out PIN 5 "Tip" outputs on the HX Stomp ?

Many thanks,
Ben
 
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