Helix Talk

[LCW]

Watching this now. Good interview/discussion.

 

[holoholo]

20:13 about the HX stomp XL snapshots: “we could do six that would be awesome.”

Ohhh please don’t give me hope

 

[I S]

Am I the only one struggling with conversations with AI-enhanced voice audio? I know I know, I’m being ridiculous… I just struggle with the machinery-nature of the voices.

 

[ragingplatypi]

Helix cupholder confirmed at 23:08! You can take that one straight to the bank @Digital Igloo

 

[Whizzinby]

Yeah that was really cool. Nice to see interviews with people from the digital side of the world.

 

[molul]

Slowly watching it during my holidays. I could perfectly watch a weekly podcast conducted by Eric.

 

[GTR37]

Slowly watching it during my holidays. I could perfectly watch a weekly podcast conducted by Eric.

its really cool

 

[GTR37]

Yeah that was really cool. Nice to see interviews with people from the digital side of the world.

its interesting to imagine the "what if "
What if no one at LINE6 complained and they released the touch screen Helix but with cap sensing as Eric said .
That was way back in 2015 , if they had done that, would we have seen NDSP , the Headrush ??? Would the FMseries of Fractal have incorporated a touch screen because it became table stakes back in 2015

 

[dronerstone]

its interesting to imagine the "what if "
What if no one at LINE6 complained and they released the touch screen Helix but with cap sensing as Eric said .
That was way back in 2015 , if they had done that, would we have seen NDSP , the Headrush ??? Would the FMseries of Fractal have incorporated a touch screen because it became table stakes back in 2015

Hmm, good one.

Maybe the QC tho, since the capturing abilities were, and are still, imho, a strong USP (even though it's not 100% unique anymore).

 

[Sascha Franck]

"For selecting and swapping, cap switches are where it's at" (in comparison to touchscreens, roughly at around 31:00). No, they're not. At least not as exclusively as this statement. There's 32 blocks in the Helix and just 10 switches (8 in the LT), which sometimes can't even all be assigned because you need them for other tasks. I was constantly running out of switches in my Floor days (needless to say it's not better with the Stomp), would've been no issue with a touchscreen.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

"For selecting and swapping, cap switches are where it's at" (in comparison to touchscreens, roughly at around 31:00). No, they're not. At least not as exclusively as this statement. There's 32 blocks in the Helix and just 10 switches (8 in the LT), which sometimes can't even all be assigned because you need them for other tasks. I was constantly running out of switches in my Floor days (needless to say it's not better with the Stomp), would've been no issue with a touchscreen.

 

[molul]

I wonder how much more expensive the Helix would have been with a touchscreen.

But it's not the screen extra cost only. Making sure UX is good everywhere with a touchscreen is quite time consuming.

It would be handy for selecting a block of snapshot, but for changing values in those small sliders, I don't know...

I wouldn't say no to a touchscreen in Helix, but I think they would need to come up with some extra usability development.

 

[Digital Igloo]

What if no one at LINE 6 complained and they released the touch screen Helix but with cap sensing as Eric said.

Oh man, you have no idea how much sleep I've lost over that one.

That was way back in 2015, if they had done that, would we have seen NDSP, the Headrush??? Would the FM series of Fractal have incorporated a touch screen because it became table stakes back in 2015

A possibly more interesting question: Where would Positive Grid be had Line 6 not created AMPLIFi? We fumbled the ball HARD there, and PG took it and ran far—did everything we wanted to do with AMPLIFi and more. PG's the 3rd largest amp manufacturer at this point and are poised to surpass BOSS—and even Fender—in the next few years.

 

[pipelineaudio]

Don't worry, PG is still blowing it with the same major flaw that sunk Amplifi for any of the performers around here, the inability to send to the PA without muting the internal speaker

 

[Sascha Franck]

Don't tell me.

 

[0XI0]

We fumbled the ball HARD there, and PG took it and ran far—did everything we wanted to do with AMPLIFi and more

is there like a Line 6 equivalent to the hamburglar involved when a product line like AMPLIFi comes out and then randomly deflates? how does that even happen?

pre catalyst modeling combo, in the package of the stagesource PA speakers (brilliant idea), light af, loud af, and wireless editing. wireless editing was the only "weak" point I remember (regarding connection stability.) seems like all the right ingredients, just like katana.

 

[ian_dissonance]

PG's the 3rd largest amp manufacturer at this point and are poised to surpass BOSS—and even Fender—in the next few years.

is this because everyone buys one to put on their desk? I’ve never actually seen one outside of a music store so I had no idea they were moving that much stuff.

Looking at Amplifi stuff just now and I came across a bunch of Firehawk 1500 amps and they’re pretty affordable used these days. Might give one a go as a stage speaker for the Helix.

 

[ragingplatypi]

is this because everyone buys one to put on their desk? I’ve never actually seen one outside of a music store so I had no idea they were moving that much stuff.

Looking at Amplifi stuff just now and I came across a bunch of Firehawk 1500 amps and they’re pretty affordable used these days. Might give one a go as a stage speaker for the Helix.

I remember being surprised how much I likedthe Amplifi when trying it at the store and even talking to my wife about whether she’d be okay with it in the living room as a Bluetooth speaker. Pretty sure our personal finances got in the way of me making that purchase. But the one thing I also remember most was feeling really suspicious about those sliders on the app. Sliders?! Sliders! Is that what the kids want these days?!

 

[Digital Igloo]

is there like a Line 6 equivalent to the hamburglar involved when a product line like AMPLIFi comes out and then randomly deflates? how does that even happen?

pre catalyst modeling combo, in the package of the stagesource PA speakers (brilliant idea), light af, loud af, and wireless editing. wireless editing was the only "weak" point I remember (regarding connection stability.) seems like all the right ingredients, just like katana.

It's probably been enough time to share a few nuggets. AMPLIFi was supposed to be a very different product—more of a casual living room playing experience with a battery-powered wedge-shaped soundbar-type enclosure, and a wireless transmitter that docked into the speaker, perfectly flush (with a little area underneath for picks we called the "Pick Pocket.") The app was going to grow as the line did with all sorts of value-added tools like timestretching/pitchshifting for jam tracks (a la JM-4), TABs, and other things that Positive Grid have since added to Spark.

Years before Yamaha acquired Line 6, another large MI company was considering acquiring us, in part because of AMPLIFi's ambitious goals. One of their executives went back and said "Holy hell, Line 6 is working on this box that's going to change the world. We need to be a part of this."

But then one day the PM came into my office and told me the cost was creeping up too high so we needed to lose battery power: "Noo!" Then a while later he came in and said we also had to lose wireless audio: "Noooo!!!" Years later, Spider V would be the first amp with a wireless receiver built in. Then a while later he came in and said "With no battery power or wireless it makes more sense to change the form factor to more of a traditional amp thing": "NOOOOO!" Then he came in and said "We need a less expensive DSP so we need to switch to XT amps instead of HD." "GAAAHHHH!!!!" Then Marketing decided to tease it as "The Guitar Amp, Reinvented," which, had AMPLIFi been the original design, might have been appropriate. However, professionals interpreted that tagline as us teasing a new flagship amp like Vetta and clowned us upon announcement. Then it turned out the Bluetooth performance wasn't as good as we thought it would be. It was a perfect storm of bad decisions and bad luck.

But surely we could still figure out a way to eventually get there as parts prices went down, right? Well, the whole sordid thing left a bad taste in a lot of Line 6ers mouths so any time Products would pitch a similar type of box or experience ("No, seriously, if we do this right it'll be a hit"), it'd get shot down fairly quickly. So... Positive Grid did it right instead and are now wildly successful; good for them.

Line 6 has a long history of innovative firsts, and sometimes we realize them to their fruition. But other times we'll show up too early to the party and drop the ball, only for a smart competitor to read between the lines and pick it up. AMPLIFi was the very first guitar product with mobile wireless editing, wireless streaming audio, crowd-sourced content, and more, but I'm the only one left at Line 6 who understood the initial vision of the product—that is, what it was supposed to be and eventually grow into—and yes, the whole thing is sad.

But it made us double our efforts on Helix/HX, so it wasn't all bad.

 

[molul]

It's probably been enough time to share a few nuggets. AMPLIFi was supposed to be a very different product—more of a casual living room playing experience with a battery-powered wedge-shaped soundbar-type enclosure, and a wireless transmitter that docked into the speaker, perfectly flush (with a little area underneath for picks we called the "Pick Pocket.") The app was going to grow as the line did with all sorts of value-added tools like timestretching/pitchshifting for jam tracks (a la JM-4), TABs, and other things that Positive Grid have since added to Spark.

Years before Yamaha acquired Line 6, another large MI company was considering acquiring us, in part because of AMPLIFi's ambitious goals. One of their executives went back and said "Holy hell, Line 6 is working on this box that's going to change the world. We need to be a part of this."

But then one day the PM came into my office and told me the cost was creeping up too high so we needed to lose battery power: "Noo!" Then a while later he came in and said we also had to lose wireless audio: "Noooo!!!" Years later, Spider V would be the first amp with a wireless receiver built in. Then a while later he came in and said "With no battery power or wireless it makes more sense to change the form factor to more of a traditional amp thing": "NOOOOO!" Then he came in and said "We need a less expensive DSP so we need to switch to XT amps instead of HD." "GAAAHHHH!!!!" Then Marketing decided to tease it as "The Guitar Amp, Reinvented," which, had AMPLIFi been the original design, might have been appropriate. However, professionals interpreted that tagline as us teasing a new flagship amp like Vetta and clowned us upon announcement. Then it turned out the Bluetooth performance wasn't as good as we thought it would be. It was a perfect storm of bad decisions and bad luck.

But surely we could still figure out a way to eventually get there as parts prices went down, right? Well, the whole sordid thing left a bad taste in a lot of Line 6ers mouths so any time Products would pitch a similar type of box or experience ("No, seriously, if we do this right it'll be a hit"), it'd get shot down fairly quickly. So... Positive Grid did it right instead and are now wildly successful; good for them.

Line 6 has a long history of innovative firsts, and sometimes we realize them to their fruition. But other times we'll show up too early to the party and drop the ball, only for a smart competitor to read between the lines and pick it up. AMPLIFi was the very first guitar product with mobile wireless editing, wireless streaming audio, crowd-sourced content, and more, but I'm the only one left at Line 6 who understood the initial vision of the product—that is, what it was supposed to be and eventually grow into—and yes, the whole thing is sad.

But it made us double our efforts on Helix/HX, so it wasn't all bad.

And for stories like this, if you ever made a podcast, I'd subscribe on day 1