Helix Stadium wishlist

[Digital Igloo]

One area I hope we see innovation is in the headphone playing experience. I’d love to see outside-the-box novel approaches to representing amps in the same physical space I’m in, be it Spatial Audio, holographic binaural stuff, or <insert-mystery-technology>.

Perhaps that’s a totally unrealistic target, but I remain skeptical that there’s NOTHING we can do to get more creative with headphone jamming.

I spend a whole lot more time playing through cans than I do jumping around on stage these days.

Companies like Trinnov can pull off things like this but to do it any better than a curious novelty, you need to throw enough DSP (not to mention resources) at it that either your other modeling suffers for it or you're paying hundreds more.

Same reason Fractal, Line 6, Kemper, Fender, and Neural don't put cheesy drum machines in our boxes but affordable Chinese boxes do. Even if they're useful, some features tend to undermine the "pro audio" tag unless they're done incredibly well.

Was he is in a galaxy far far away?

I suppose my stint there from 2005 to 2010 could be considered a long time ago but the Roland US office (RIP) in Commerce isn't that far away, even with traffic.

 

[timbuck3]

Companies like Trinnov can pull off things like this but to do it any better than a curious novelty, you need to throw enough DSP (not to mention resources) at it that either your other modeling suffers for it or you're paying hundreds more.

Same reason Fractal, Line 6, Kemper, Fender, and Neural don't put cheesy drum machines in our boxes but affordable Chinese boxes do. Even if they're useful, some features tend to undermine the "pro audio" tag unless they're done incredibly well.

I suppose my stint there from 2005 to 2010 could be considered a long time ago but the Roland US office (RIP) in Commerce isn't that far away, even with traffic.

I use an adrenalinn 3 and I like the drum stuff in there as it sounds good but hey it’s made by Roger Linn.. that’s why

 

[Mooselake]

Marshall 4140 Club and Country. Good enough for Lersxt and SRV, good enough for Stadium.

 

[GTR37]

The JVM without question for me if I could have one Marshall out side the plexi and 2203 it would be the JVM
Orange OD 1 / OD 2

 

[jmcecil]

use the new modeling to improve fuzz pedals and their interactions with the amp/guitar

 

[EOengineer]

use the new modeling to improve fuzz pedals and their interactions with the amp/guitar

While I don’t think the Helix fuzz face sounds great, I’ve always thought L6 did a respectable job getting the cleanup right.

I have about a half dozen fuzz faces and the HX model does at least resemble them, as long as you’re not on the HXFX.

 

[molul]

I would be very pleased if there ever was a "The Fuzz Update" that did to fuzzes the same quality jump that was done with cabs in 3.50. It's the single one area were I can't say "it's just as good as analog".

 

[jmcecil]

While I don’t think the Helix fuzz face sounds great, I’ve always thought L6 did a respectable job getting the cleanup right.

I have about a half dozen fuzz faces and the HX model does at least resemble them, as long as you’re not on the HXFX.

I don't think they sound "bad" .. but I don't think they behave uniquely based on various guitars that I plug in. Fuzz's are kind of the poster child for the use of the Hype knob HAH IMO. They mostly sound atrocious right up until they sound fantastic. Getting all of those weird things that happen with longer cable runs, moving the fuzz further down the chain away from the guitar etc.. Just something to play with. To me this is so far beyond what is "needed" it's almost a joke. But hey, why not enjoy all the cool things we can while we're still kickin.

 

[jmcecil]

I would be very pleased if there ever was a "The Fuzz Update" that did to fuzzes the same quality jump that was done with cabs in 3.50. It's the single one area were I can't say "it's just as good as analog".

Again, I don't want to call any of these things "bad". All of these modelers and profilers sound fantastic now. But I would add reverbs and delays to the list with Fuzz's. Again, the current ones on the Helix sound great. But I have tons of both IR and algorithmic verbs/delays available in the DAW that are (obviously subjective opinion) way better.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I would be very pleased if there ever was a "The Fuzz Update" that did to fuzzes the same quality jump that was done with cabs in 3.50. It's the single one area were I can't say "it's just as good as analog".

I absolutely agree. Even if you can make use of the variable impedance (shouldn't you run any active or buffering circuits in front), they don't feel too great for my taste. I'm by no means an expert on fuzzes, but they simply don't seem to clean up as nicely as I'd expect things.
Fwiw, the fuzzes in Amplitube are pretty decent IMO, even without any input impedance actions, they work well with typical 1MOhm Hi-Z inputs.

 

[molul]

I absolutely agree. Even if you can make use of the variable impedance (shouldn't you run any active or buffering circuits in front), they don't feel too great for my taste. I'm by no means an expert on fuzzes, but they simply don't seem to clean up as nicely as I'd expect things.
Fwiw, the fuzzes in Amplitube are pretty decent IMO, even without any input impedance actions, they work well with typical 1MOhm Hi-Z inputs.

I'm no expert either, but I've had three fuzz pedals and they were instant love on almost any setting, moreso when dialed.

With Helix fuzzes I haven't been able to dial a single one I really love, at least for power chords. For solos I've used BigHorn Fuzz + Brit 2203 and it sounds just good enough, but it's not really noticeable if it's a fuzz or just some distortion.

The good thing is that not finding a great fuzz pushed me to trying amps for hi-gain sounds, but I still miss a beautiful fuzz sometimes.

 

[timbuck3]

I hope you can agoura model the trainwreck you guys have /had access to?

 

[GTR37]

I would love to see some Luke type lexicon Circular delays would be cool if that was one of the focus zones in the multi tap