Helix 3.7: The Freeman Update

Ok, first time on soundcloud, hopefully this works...

This is a short clip of my Synergy IICP in a loop on my Helix Floor, with some Ambient Verb, into my Amped 1 power amp on 6L6 mode. Normally this feeds my Mesa 2x12, so it is dialed in to sound the way I like it to there. However for this clip, I tapped the direct out on the Amped 1 and recorded in Cakewalk. Inside Cakewalk I applied the York Audio 4x12 Mesa JP mix IR, and a very tiny roll off of the very highs...

There is another twist though, I switch back and forth between the IICP and something else that sounds amazingly close to my (not so golden) ears. Now, I did not try to precisely match these, but I was very surprised at how close I got just putzing around with it.

Synergy IICP Versus...



Verdict?

Btw, the playing is not the point, the sound is :)
 
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Haha. first question. How do you guys share those soundcloud media things, rather than just a link?

Nevermind. I blundered through it :D
 
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Playing with the Helix Oblivion really reveals how bad of a match the Catalyst combo is for that amp. I didn't dig it in the Catalyst, but playing it through my own IRs or my own cabinets (even just a closed-back 1x12) brings some clarity (no pun intended) to how the designs wanted it to sound.

I was in the "a Catalyst head would be cool camp" for exactly that reason. I guess now I don't personally see the need for a Catalyst head because I can use amps like Oblivion in a context I can prefer--i.e. not the Catalyst cab.

That's a pretty cool get from L6, and I appreciate it.
 
norminal said:
I had a 60 for a hot minute and just couldn’t get along with the speaker. It sounded great through IR’s though.
Click to expand...
I didn’t get that far with it. Tried it in a store and also wasn't getting along with it. The other models were fine-ish. I was testing the Tele I ultimately bought through a Catalyst 60 and it all sounded good enough for me to at least take the guitar home.
 
eggpl@nt said:
I didn’t get that far with it. Tried it in a store and also wasn't getting along with it. The other models were fine-ish. I was testing the Tele I ultimately bought through a Catalyst 60 and it all sounded good enough for me to at least take the guitar home.
Click to expand...
I’m guessing Line6 had to choose a one-size-fits-all speaker to use with the different preamp models. I’m betting I would have liked a Greenback in it, but I had no intention on replacing the speaker in a brand new amp.
 
I dig the Oblivion on the Cat 60 for what it is, I think it’s more the open back (and less solid cab construction) that makes it less optimal for high gain more than the speaker. It’s actually pretty impressive how well that speaker does considering the variety of base amp tones, but yeah it’s going to be a compromise.
 
Fwiw, this is what I wrote on Nov. 7th, re: authentic 800 for the HX series (before I quoted someone from the L6 forum, that was the only reason for me to enter that thread anyway...)
Sascha Franck said:
Personally, I've got exactly no horse in this race at all, just stumbled over that very thread.
Ok, in fact, the above isn't all that true, simply because I don't mind some great Marshall-alike tones, but as I hardly ever use my Stomp for ampsounds (with not much plans to change that any day soon), I'm getting these tones elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Bah. F*** me!
I already said so earlier, that because of the new amps (and especially the 2203) I may have to rethink degrading the Stomp for just delays/verbs.
So, today I gave things a more detailed spin, basically it turned out to become a little shootout between the Stomp and the Ampliforebox (MkI). Which I was interested in for a few reasons but also because the AFB has an 800 that IMO is pretty decent. And right, it holds up pretty well. Defenitely not as good as the HX one, still absolutely fine for many things.

But ok, I sort of expected that. But there's more - one of the jobs of the amp sim I'll be using for anything dirty, is to take pedals extremely well. The AFB is usually respected as a box doing that pretty nicely. I already disagreed with that @ some places and got dissed here and there (note: anything clean and breaking up takes pedals pretty well, but once there's gainier sounds, it pretty much stinks). Well, now my statements were proven true - namely by the HX Stomp.
Seriously, that thing takes pedals like a f*ckn champ! Absolutely no cigar for the AFB in this comparison, not even on cleaner amp settings.
And yes, I really only noticed that yesterday and today - because when I owned the Floor, I didn't need any external pedals and ever since I downgraded to the Stomp, that was used as a delay/verb only box (ok, I played one Stomp gig with a J Rockett Dude in the loop, but on that gig, driven sounds weren't too important).
Along these lines: I've never been able to find a sort of lightly driven amp that would allow me to shape it's drive characteristics much through pedals on the AFB (which is the way I used to do things in real amp land, also worked well within the Floor). With the Stomp, that's absolutely no issue. A lot of amps seem to take pedals just great, with some of the newer models (obviously the 2203 included) it's just fantastic how well this seems to work.
In other words: While I'm defenitely one of the first L6 customers to complain about several things, they seem to have gotten their input circuitry and amp modeling just friggin' damn right so the boxes take pedals every bit as great as it gets (I still can't get over it that I only discovered that now, at least in such an almost dramatic way).

TL;DR: Unfortunately (well, kinda, at least...), I will now have to eat my words from the quote above and get back to pedalboard re-design. As I will likely stick with the "analog dirt pedals into modeler" idea, I just can not "unlearn" the results of my comparisons.
GRRRRR (well, not really...)!
 
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Updated, spent a couple of hours with new stuff. Even though I don't see myself using it that often, since I'm not a fan of touchy feely amps, pleasantly surprised by Aristocrat, it's nice.

Maybe found a bug in the Feedbacker, or an insurmountable tracking issue? When set to "unison", start doing vibrato, engage feedbacker, when feedback starts to come in it behaves like the signal is cutting in and out, in the rhythm of vibrato.

@James Freeman when can we expect the "I don't give a f*uck about tap tempo" single click tuner? 😁
 
James Freeman said:
Dear Line 6,

I would appreciate an in-depth Feedbacker tutorial.

Grazie,
Jim "The Flute" Freeman
Click to expand...
Numbers Calculating GIF by netflixlat


Me working with the feedbacker
 
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