Helix 3.7: The Freeman Update

[holoholo]

Can anyone explain what the boost stuff does in Oblivion? Does it have an HPF?

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Finally, on Hi Gain, the boost just adds a classic overdrive, right before the amp voicing. That’s based on one of the overdrives that’s available in the HX library.

This is all I could find. "Hi Gain" in the catalyst is the Oblivion in HX. Not sure which OD they are referring to.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, even while still inmidst the 3.7 honeymoon (in fact: because), I can't help it but mention just how horrible on-unit-editing is on the HX Stomp, especially when dealing with new amp models and checking out their full gain range. Because if you do that, you need to flip pages *all* the time to access channel volume.
Seriously and pretty please, @Digital Igloo, think about that for a while (and maybe take a look at a Zoom unit - <pssst> I won't tell anyone...). After all, you're the one to constantly blow the "HX units are so easy to operate" horn - which is all fine and absolutely true for the LTs and Floors, but very, very different on the Stomps.

Ask your programmers to offer a second editing mode, call it "idealized" or whatever. In that mode:

- For all amps, the first page would show Drive and Ch Vol (I leave it to you to decide on the third parameter, possibly Master in case the amp has it), the second page would show BMT. In case amps are lacking of any of these parameters, feel free to place something else instead.

- For all drives, the first page would show Drive and Level. Right now that only works as long as the drive has 3 parameters only.

- For all delays, the first page would show Feedback and Mix. Best bet for a third parameter would possibly be Time. In case it's multiple delays, feel free to find a clever layout (or just ask me), but regardless of what you do, keep Mix on the first page at all cost. This is the parameter you want to be able to access as quick as possible.

- For all reverbs, the first page would show Decay and Mix. As far as anything else goes, see delay paragraph, make sure to keep Mix on the first page.

- For modulations, there's possibly different opinions about what's the most relevant parameter, but I'd say that Mix again would be a pretty good bet in the land of parameters often adjusted.

I'd bet that pretty much all Stomp owners would switch to that mode and just stay there for all times.

In general: After these two huge sound updates, don't you think usability could see some love, too? There's still quite some things that could be improved massively, some of them longstanding issues (missing IRs anyone?) which could possibly be adressed without too many progamming hours.

Oh yeah, my utmost, deepest and sincere (ahem...) apologies for being such a contrarian to even spoil the hungover morning of the 3.7 party!

 

[CakeEater]

My system got bricked for a while due to my MacBook going to sleep while the update was happening, so I lost most of the time I had to play guitar to trying to bring it back to life….

Finally got it going and had a few minutes to play with the 2203 and the l6 Voltage. I didn’t know what I would think about the 2203 as I considered myself more of a plexi guy. With the master at 5 on the 2203, I think I changed my mind. The 2203 is awesome. Slight crunch up to quite a lot of gain it’s awesome. May replace the plexi bright for me.

Voltage needs some more time, I thought I got it very close to the 2203 but it also has some extra tricks up its sleeve with that boost circuit.

D

I had a similar experience, master on 5 gets it very close. What I found in the end was I slightly preferred the way the Voltage breaks up and comes back together. One of the more interesting facets was keeping the EQ around 5 added more body than pushing everything up. The presence is very sensitive too, so I kept that at 4. I also set the gain at 10 and just roll the volume knob up and down for gain.

That said... after A/Bing for a while, I ended up trying the Dripman. And wow, that does everything just as well, just with a slightly different in flavor.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, the Feedbacker, while nice, doesn't allow for realistic results in many cases. The reason for that is easy to find, it's Release not going down to 0. So, when you mute a feedbacking note, the feedback keeps ringing. And even if it's "only" for 150ms, that sounds pretty unnatural. It's getting even more noticeable when you, say, bend or slide, because the feedback may then either keep going or follow to the next note with a delay while the old note is still played for those very 150ms.
Great for quite some fun stuff, way less so for any kind of realistic feedback impersonification.
So please allow us to lower release time below 150ms (not sure whether there'd be a technical reason for this not being possible already...).

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

I opened Helix Native expecting the 2203 to be the best part of the update. And yes, the model sounds absolutely fantastic! But the big surprise came when I tried the other amp models... I clicked on the Oblivion and could hardly believe my ears. In the standard settings and with a Tube Screamer in front, it sounds almost identical to the sound I dialed in with my Engl Powerball II and Suhr RL. And to be completely honest, the high end and low mids might even sound a little more balanced than the Engl. This is by far the best high gain sound I've ever had with a plugin.
Oblivion is the real star of the 3.70 update!!!

 

[the-trooper]

when you mute a feedbacking note, the feedback keeps ringing.

Haven't updated yet, does it behave like this when set to momentary, when you lift the switch?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Haven't updated yet, does it behave like this when set to momentary, when you lift the switch?

When you switch Trails to off, it cuts off immediately. But that's not a proper solution for this issue. I just want any feedback to stop once I mute my strings. Having to deal with a switch is nothing you want.

 

[dronerstone]

When you switch Trails to off, it cuts off immediately. But that's not a proper solution for this issue. I just want any feedback to stop once I mute my strings. Having to deal with a switch is nothing you want.

I get what you say, but to simply replace the FreqOut, it seems it'll do fine with trails set to "off".

Not enough time to try now, unfortunately, but I'm not 100% sure if the FreqOut cuts off immediately/cleanly with string mutes either.

Isn't there always a tiny bit of latency, due to how the algorithm works?

This reminds me of the endless (and pointless) "help! my poly pitch pedal has latency!" complaints that are found all over the web. No offense, just saying...

That said, I'll have to try it myself to further evaluate.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Isn't there always a tiny bit of latency, due to how the algorithm works?

Well, I have absolutely no idea - but given anything that is plausible to me, no input = no FX shouldn't be all too tough to realize.
Sure, for the effect to become active, it needs input analysis - and that's fine. With a feedbacking unit, lowest latency on the effected part of the signal isn't really important as id gradually fades in anyway. But to me, that doesn't explain there's output latency as well - ok, maybe the entire thing is based on a delay internally (which would be a pretty plausible idea to me), but in that case, the lack of any input signal could at least mute the FX portion as well (it'd just be a gate). Obviously, that wouldn't help with bends and slides - which is actually when it's becoming most obvious that we're dealing with an effect unit rather than with natural feedback.

 

[dronerstone]

Well, I have absolutely no idea - but given anything that is plausible to me, no input = no FX shouldn't be all too tough to realize.
Sure, for the effect to become active, it needs input analysis - and that's fine. With a feedbacking unit, lowest latency on the effected part of the signal isn't really important as id gradually fades in anyway. But to me, that doesn't explain there's output latency as well - ok, maybe the entire thing is based on a delay internally (which would be a pretty plausible idea to me), but in that case, the lack of any input signal could at least mute the FX portion as well (it'd just be a gate). Obviously, that wouldn't help with bends and slides - which is actually when it's becoming most obvious that we're dealing with an effect unit rather than with natural feedback.

I know what you mean. I'll try as soon as I get to it.

On another note, I wanted to update Native VST3 to 3.70, how is there no Win 8.1 installer - or am I blind?

EDIT: All good I guess, the Win 10/11 one seems to work fine.

 

[Woody99]

Just tried the new cabs from 3.7, and the Deluxe 5c3 and Greenback 30 cabs are so dark and muddy, almost unusable I would say. Anybody experience the same?

 

[the-trooper]

When you switch Trails to off, it cuts off immediately. But that's not a proper solution for this issue.

Sounds to me like it is. When you need it you step on it. You wouldn't want a constantly active feedbacker, would you?

 

[littlemusicbox]

really nice update! 2203 is also very usable with the low input and gain master b/m/t all on 10. presence to taste. very loose, plexi like

 

[James Freeman]

Just tried the new cabs from 3.7, and the Deluxe 5c3 and Greenback 30 cabs are so dark and muddy, almost unusable I would say. Anybody experience the same?

In my experience the Greenback cabs in the Helix are quite balanced and in-line with other popular IRs.

 

[DrewJD82]

I don’t have a Line 6 device to try the Feedbacker but I’m a big Freqout fan. If they work similarly, there’s a little learning curve with how to wrangle it and a small unpredictable aspect at times. It feels a bit like the effect ‘grabs’ the note and that could be what Sascha is experiencing if it’s doing the same thing.

It’s not a 100% perfect recreation of feedback (Freqout), but does some really cool stuff and has it’s own creative merits. One of my all time favorite pedals.

 

[Sascha Franck]

You wouldn't want a constantly active feedbacker, would you?

A) Yes, I sometimes want.
B) That's not relevant as the feedback quality in itself isn't natural by any means.

 

[Sascha Franck]

but does some really cool stuff and has it’s own creative merits.

Yeah well, as soon as you forget about authentic feedback, you can go wild with the HX feedbacker, It's got all sorts of smeary overtone goodness in it, including a little unpredicable aspect (such as in never exactly knowing which note will feed back when playing more than one note at a time), which I like. But to mimic real feedback, you need to step back from some playing styles. Lots of slides and bends will easily unmask the virtual nature.

 

[James Freeman]

Try dry sound on zero and octave for some fun flute sounds, it's not fast though I had no luck with titanic or lotr theme songs.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Try dry sound on zero and octave for some fun flute sounds, it's not fast though I had no luck with titanic or lotr theme songs.



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[EOengineer]

I have a whole weekend trip planned to surprise my wife for her birthday and I’m just now realizing what a terrible mistake I’ve made having married this woman who comes between Helix and I.