Helix 3.8 when?

[eggpl@nt]

What do you make of the YouTube metoo wisdom that you can't use a gain of zero on plugin or modelled versions of gain pedals? I ask in every comment section of a video that I see it in why they say it but I've never gotten an answer. My own REW tests with these things don;t give me a reason either

When you do the level, are you going to unity gain? Lower or higher? Helix's tube screamer has a drastic level drop. I believe it doesn't even reach unity at full level. I'm trying to get an idea of where to start with these as i don't actually use pedals...Ive been fine with Helix's tube screamer set to gain 1 and level 10, but not sure where to go with pillars

I don’t know that I have any real insight to offer unfortunately. Though I do agree that I tend to feel that the Helix drives don’t quite goose a Helix amp like a real pedal would goose a real amp. I think that’s part of why I gravitate towards the Pillars - it can honk like a goose and hawk tuah on that thang and all that.

I have encountered pedal simulations that don’t work with drive 0, even if the real pedal does. However, I can’t think of any modelers that have behaved this way. I can’t remember which one specifically, but I’ve definitely used pedal plugins that don’t work with drive 0.

With the Pillars, drive 0, gain 7 is usually about where I start. I don’t know where that lands as a signal booster, but it tends to works well, I think.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Tried the obvious, as in using a different USB cable? As I switched from a Mac Pro to a Macbook Air, I'm using plenty of them these days - and the differences are partially huge, defenitely not "it's digital, so if it works, it just works".
Others than that, over here things seem to be as fast as ever (but I never used HX Edit on Windows).

Yeah the cable I was updating with tonight is different from the one I used for 3.71 a few weeks ago. It's not a big problem really, I don't back up very often and we're only really updating once a year. It's just a bit irritating.

 

[EOengineer]

Finally had an hour to update and check out the new stuff. The Bogner Blue might be the best amp model in Helix. It feels great to play and can cover a butt load of tonal ground in the mid and high gain arenas.

The Bogner Red channel did NOT work for me AT ALL. It’s just weird and raspy with the LP I was using to test. Overgained, over compressed, maybe just the way the amp is in RL. I’ll try it later with a vintage spec tele. The big Bogner low mids probably flatter single coils.

The Super really does hit some cool vintage crunch tones when you engage the bright cap and crank up the drive and treble. The low end definitely holds together better than the smaller F amps. Again - this was with a LP which maybe isn’t the most conventional of pairings.

Didn’t make it to the 5150III yet.

 

[GTR37]

Finally had an hour to update and check out the new stuff. The Bogner Blue might be the best amp model in Helix. It feels great to play and can cover a butt load of tonal ground in the mid and high gain arenas.

The Bogner Red channel did NOT work for me AT ALL. It’s just weird and raspy with the LP I was using to test. Overgained, over compressed, maybe just the way the amp is in RL. I’ll try it later with a vintage spec tele. The big Bogner low mids probably flatter single coils.

The Super really does hit some cool vintage crunch tones when you engage the bright cap and crank up the drive and treble. The low end definitely holds together better than the smaller F amps. Again - this was with a LP which maybe isn’t the most conventional of pairings.

Didn’t make it to the 5150III yet.

The Red is basically the blue w another gain stage
Blue is 3 Red is 4 like an SLO
I don’t know what Line6 defaults are but on the Fractal I never use the modern structure I find that is too much gain the low is more like the classic XTC
If I was setting that amp up I would try

Bass 5 mids 6 treble 7
Pres too taste
B1 on , depth Medium
Pentode , Class A/B
Boost low
Structure low
Gain 11 o’clock
Master 11’o clock or lower
Hum 0
Ripple 0

Cab with greenback or the Bogner V30 or a blend of both
Mics 57 / 121

See if that helps the rasp
I think it coming from the modern mode in structure

You could even back the gain off further and hit it w a boost
You should get a fairly thick saturated tone that super articulate and lets you hear every note in a chord ,

This guy gets some good tones

 

[holoholo]

Not sure if you can answer but why does something like Bogner that has so many switches run so low cpu
Vs the Vitriol or EV red ?
I would have figured the opposite would be true

I always thought this interview was really good with Ben and Eric. Relevant part:



Then at 14:00, I think DI says especially the German amps

 

[FuzzyAce]

I was getting some nice tones out of the EV Panama and Ecstasy models. Particular the EV Blue and Ecs. Red. I try to voice them with a 1960A or and/or WhoWatt cabs. YMMV. Need more time with the US Super and I feel it's going to need a nice bit of goosing on the front end to open it up more. Out of the new cabs I like the 4x12 Cartog Guv best. The Eminence Governor is a speaker I'm used to so this was a welcome addition. The 4X10 Super cab is good too, just need to experiment more with mic and placement. Same goes for the others.

A nice update all in all.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, it's very likely that the Xtra Blue will become my main dirt pedal platform channel once things may as well get a little more rock-ish. Has some "knocking" lower mids (in lack of better words) which will likely make it get through a mix easily.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

Fwiw, it's very likely that the Xtra Blue will become my main dirt pedal platform channel once things may as well get a little more rock-ish. Has some "knocking" lower mids (in lack of better words) which will likely make it get through a mix easily.

It sounds like an amp that Keef would have chosen for a “can’t you hear me knocking” type of song

Or as Mick calls it “canyouhearmenothinn”

 

[FuzzyAce]

The Xtra Blue is definitely more of a vintage Marshall voicing. A little tubbier in the low end naturally, easy enough to dial out though. I guess for the moment I prefer the Red because it's closer to the Bogner pedal I used to have.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

That german Extra blue can be played relatively clean, right? with a slide of dirt on it.

Put a pillar at the front with 0 gain and tone and level to liking.

Cool amp. But I can be super off.

Edit:

I skipped all this stuff.

 

[FuzzyAce]

That german Extra blue can be played relatively clean, right? with a slide of dirt on it.

Put a pillar at the front with 0 gain and tone and level to liking.

Cool amp. But I can be super off.

Edit:

I skipped all this stuff.

View attachment 33574

Yeah, it can get really clean. A bit on the stiffer side which isn't necessarily a bad thing. A comp in front would help though.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

Yeah, it can get really clean. A bit on the stiffer side which isn't necessarily a bad thing. A comp in front would help though.

That is true. The stifness.

But so far, I thought this was a "metal" amp (the interwebs made me think it)

 

[FuzzyAce]

That is true. The stifness.

But so far, I thought this was a "metal" amp (the interwebs made me think it)

View attachment 33577

By itself it can get older school metal. Boost and structure on high mode. Crank the gain.

 

[pipelineaudio]

Edit: Update:

I think I am ok, and it is just that settings were not restored with the bundle after the update. Expression 3 was changed to Per Preset not the stored value of per snapshot...Gonna check to see what else may not be saved.

YOUCH! Check your settings to what the main volume knob controls! You may be in for a nasty surprise at your next gig....set it back to where you had it previously. Also check your instrument/line level settings, these also were not restored. Also check Preferences Snapshot Edits or you may overwrite some settings you sure as hell didn't mean to! I think that's it...hopefully didn't forget anything


Barf, just discovered all my presets are corrupted with the wrong values yet again after the reload from bundle after the 3.8 update. Hoping an older backup works ok. Again it only seems to corrupt values that are controlled by snapshots

Update....Nope, values all corrupted even from a previous bundle

I love my Helix, but the constant corruption of preset values is pure pain

 

[paisleywookiee]

Show me the turkey that doesn’t like the Panama red. I wish it ate half the DSP but it’s awesome!

I don’t.

 

[molul]

Barf, just discovered all my presets are corrupted with the wrong values yet again after the reload from bundle after the 3.8 update. Hoping an older backup works ok. Again it only seems to corrupt values that are controlled by snapshots

Ugh... I think I'll wait a few months before updating. I've got a studio recording and don't have time to reprogram all my presets

 

[pipelineaudio]

Ugh... I think I'll wait a few months before updating. I've got a studio recording and don't have time to reprogram all my presets

This happens to me quite often even when its not an update. But I was super happy to have it seem not to have happened for a few months, but its all back again, sadly. And often its stuff buried way down there, like compression thresholds and such

 

[pipelineaudio]

I don’t.

Thanksgiving is coming up!

 

[molul]

This happens to me quite often even when its not an update. But I was super happy to have it seem not to have happened for a few months, but its all back again, sadly. And often its stuff buried way down there, like compression thresholds and such

What happened to me, and it was tough, was that I exported a setlist to Native, made some changes, exported it again to Helix LT, and all the snapshot assignments in command center were lost. It took a few hours to rebuild all that.

It's happened to me twice, and I reported it a few months ago, but it hasn't been fixed yet. Now I just manually copy the changes from Native to the LT.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Thanksgiving is coming up!

I don’t like the real amp, so it stands to reason I wouldn’t like the modeled one.