Helix 3.7: The Freeman Update

[the swede]

So ”the wait” has officially been started by platypi…

Notice to TGF. Blame platypi at the end of each month!

 

[ragingplatypi]

So ”the wait” has officially been started by platypi…

Notice to TGF. Blame platypi at the end of each month!

It was just that dead time between my birthday and Christmas, and now I depend on Line 6 to be mommy.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

It was just that dead time between my birthday and Christmas, and now I depend on Line 6 to be mommy.

You hear that, Line 6? @ragingplatypi 's Christmas is going to be ruined if he doesn't get 3.7 by then. Preferably like 3 months early, just to be safe.

 

[Digital Igloo]

You hear that, Line 6? @ragingplatypi 's Christmas is going to be ruined if he doesn't get 3.7 by then. Preferably like 3 months early, just to be safe.

It's not exactly imminent, but it better be out this year.

Just finished a remix for a friend's band with way too many instances of one of the new 3.70 effects. I gotta start learning self-control. First Retro Reel, now this.

 

[James Freeman]

Talentifier?
I'd slap that on every track... twice.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

It's not exactly imminent, but it better be out this year.

Just finished a remix for a friend's band with way too many instances of one of the new 3.70 effects. I gotta start learning self-control. First Retro Reel, now this.

I’d be ok with 3.70 having Retro Reel baked into the output on every path with no way to disable it, personally

 

[DieSchmalle]

I just finished a remix for a friend's band with way too many instances of one of the new 3.70 effects. I gotta start learning self-control. First Retro Reel, now this.

Once you have a nice JCM 800 it's hard to resist to throw it on everything, right? RIGHT???

 

[James Freeman]

Dear Line 6,

Can we please have an Input Level control so we don't have to waste a Gain block?
Useful for creating presets for different guitars and compensating for the 'Guitar Pad', etc.
There is exactly one free space for it in the input section.

EDIT:
Thousands of customers rioting, here's but one example:

Helix needs a gain compensated pad, like, yesterday. Dead simple to have as a preference.

 

[James Freeman]

Another thing comes to mind when looking at this input screen;
People have been asking for Noise Gate with controllable side-chain (clean) 'KEY' input like on the iSP Decimator G-String II and Fortin Zuul, why not use the input gate as a clean passive trigger 'key' to control another gate further down the chain?

@pipelineaudio You dig?

 

[Lele]

Dear Line 6,

Can we please have an Input Level control so we don't have to waste a Gain block?
Useful for creating presets for different guitars and compensating for the 'Guitar Pad', etc.
There is exactly one free space for it in the input section.

No!!! I'm waiting for a low cut or attenuation in that input section...

 

[Lele]

I will take a more powerful parametric equalizer, slope dB/Oct contorl on the LPF/HPF, higher maximum boost than +12db on the EQ/Gain blocks, separate poweramps, IIC+ and a JCM800, my usual requests.
I've also seen a lot cool pedal requests everywhere.

and for pedals my usual list: Xotic BB Preamp, Suhr Riot (or MI Audio Crunch Box, Barber Dirty Bomb or Marshall Guv'nor if it's easier to get it), Nobels ODR-1, and I maybe I forgot some...

 

[EOengineer]

and for pedals my usual list: Xotic BB Preamp, Suhr Riot (or MI Audio Crunch Box, Barber Dirty Bomb or Marshall Guv'nor if it's easier to get it), Nobels ODR-1, and I maybe I forgot some...

I’d love to see some Barber stuff in Helix. My Barber Burn Unit gets both killer OD and distortion tones and it works with every guitar and amp I plug in.

 

[DieSchmalle]

Another thing comes to mind when looking at this input screen;
People have been asking for Noise Gate with controllable side-chain (clean) 'KEY' input like on the iSP Decimator G-String II and Fortin Zuul, why not use the input gate as a clean passive trigger 'key' to control another gate further down the chain?

@pipelineaudio You dig?

An option to select any block's output as "KEY" would be nice.
And a feedback block that let's you select any block's output to mix in.

 

[Lele]

I’d love to see some Barber stuff in Helix. My Barber Burn Unit is gets both killer OD and distortion tones and it works with every guitar and amp I plug in.

I suppose that with the Zendrive ("Dhyana Drive") you could cover a little of what Burn Unit can do, but just a little.
Mr Barber makes some of the most refined OD circuits in the market, and their prices are reasonable.
It's even weird that any modeler hasn't included any Barber OD pedal yet.

 

[pipelineaudio]

Another thing comes to mind when looking at this input screen;
People have been asking for Noise Gate with controllable side-chain (clean) 'KEY' input like on the iSP Decimator G-String II and Fortin Zuul, why not use the input gate as a clean passive trigger 'key' to control another gate further down the chain?

@pipelineaudio You dig?

Yup! I tried to make one with the existing stuff and sort of could but you give up a lot lot lot to sort of make it work

 

[James Freeman]

1. A few updates ago they changed the ratio of the knobs to make them more sensitive. They are now a little too sensitive for my tastes and I sometimes find it hard to set them exactly where I want them. I'd like to see a "knob sensitivity" parameter in the global settings that would allow me to adjust this to my liking. It doesn't necessarily have to be infinitely variable. High, medium and low would be fine.

100%
If there is one thing that annoys me when using my Helix is the encoder sensitivity after 3.50.
I avoid tweaking on the hardware as much as possible due to this, it used to be a tad slow but now it's out of control.
Trying to adjust 0.1 steps tests my patience, forget about it if your encoders are not brand new and skip clicks.


From 3.50 release notes:

* Encoder ballistics have been drastically improved. For example, tonestack values can go from 0.0 to 10.0 with one turn.

Going from 0 to 10 in one turn is not a drastic improvement if adjusting 0.1 steps precision has been compromised.
I much prefer comfortable 0.1 step adjustment than 360 in one turn, heck I would even take pre-3.50 ballistics than what we have now.

I advocated for 'one turn' sensitivity because it allows a better sense of what the control is doing but what we got in 3.50 is way too sensitive.
It was a good step in the right direction but the result is not satisfactory in my personal opinion.
We need a happy medium.

 

[DieSchmalle]

* Encoder ballistics have been drastically improved. For example, tonestack values can go from 0.0 to 10.0 with one turn.

The ballistics were drastically changed and an overall improvement IMHO, but NOT drastically improved.
One negative is the newly introduced bug that skips blocks or items when selecting from a bunch.
The other negative is it introduced an annoyingly jumpy behavior i.e. when dialing in the frequency of an eq.

 

[the-trooper]

I avoid tweaking on the hardware as much as possible due to this, it used to be a tad slow but now it's out of control.

"A tad slow!?"
It was fucking glacial!
For me it's the other way around, before I hated editing on the unit because of so. much. spinning. It's so much better now. Encoder behaviour and dual IR block are the best things from 3.5.
Scale factor (or two or three speed setting) would be OK.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

100%
If there is one thing that annoys me when using my Helix is the encoder sensitivity after 3.50.
I avoid tweaking on the hardware as much as possible due to this, it used to be a tad slow but now it's out of control.
Trying to adjust 0.1 steps tests my patience, forget about it if your encoders are not brand new and skip clicks.


From 3.50 release notes:

Going from 0 to 10 in one turn is not a drastic improvement if adjusting 0.1 steps precision has been compromised.
I much prefer comfortable 0.1 step adjustment than 360 in one turn, heck I would even take pre-3.50 ballistics than what we have now.

I advocated for 'one turn' sensitivity because it allows a better sense of what the control is doing but what we got in 3.50 is way too sensitive.
It was a good step in the right direction but the result is not satisfactory in my personal opinion.
We need a happy medium.

Oh man. I think this is the first time I've ever disagreed with something you've posted. For me, the encoder ballistics now are perfect They are SOOOOOooooo much better than they used to be.

Maybe how well it works varies based on age or revision of the hardware...? On my Helix Floor, I have no problem at all moving in 0.1 increments on amp knobs. I would be very sad if they reverted the current ballistics or changed them at all, honestly.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

The ballistics were drastically changed and an overall improvement IMHO, but NOT drastically improved.
One negative is the newly introduced bug that skips blocks or items when selecting from a bunch.
The other negative is it introduced an annoyingly jumpy behavior i.e. when dialing in the frequency of an eq.

Which Helix hardware do you use? I wonder if it behaves differently on Floor vs. LT vs. Stomp...? On my Floor I purchased in 2019, the current ballistics are fantastic. I haven't encountered any jumpiness on EQ settings or block skipping.

I'm not doubting the experience of others. I'm just wondering if it's more to do with hardware differences or aging encoders vs. the software implementation.