Helix Talk

[JCW308]

What kind of differences did you find? Did amps sound different, or effects?

Between the GT and the GX, the GT sounded fuller and more detailed in every way. Hard to describe but to my ears, the GT always sounded better. It also sounded considerably better in FOH. SO yes, the GX may have a touch screen. But the GT is still king IMO. Between the two, there was really no comparison.

 

[kartikg3]

Im having thoughts about what to do when my one year ”purge” ends, this fall. Currently just playing around with thoughts.

*Affordable yet effective and be able to do what i want with margins over.
*Only for home playing, but size still matters. Want it small and light.
View attachment 24909

If going Stomp then it’ll be the third and final time i do that. I made a promise that i would never sell a stomp again (done that two times).
Thought about XL, but to me it would only make sense if i played in a band. The Jet micro basically turns the Stomp to XL (and more). And the Micro is manageable in a home playing situation. Not even sure I actually need a Micro again. XL would make the rig larger than I’d want anyway. Within the same space i can add substantial DSP stuff like the TC infinite and Ditto (or a TC HOF for my first in chain shoegaze/Postrock needs).

This seems like the most economical/features idea. Not 100% sure I’ll go Helix again though. Playing around with other ideas but that will cost more and become much larger.
View attachment 24908

Also I can’t ignore the Stomp being a good enough interface for my MBA m1. And the best guitar pedal there is….( when viewed as a guitar pedal )

Seems like a dead end for me. I really don’t want or need profiling stuff, QC and FM3 are over my budgets. I loathe… i really really don’t like the china modelers, i try to… but i cant. Headrush is also out of the question. Tried the mx5 and it was alright but the constant up/down on floor and desk thing was tiresome and honestly i don’t like touch screens.

Stomp is life…. Life is Stomp. There’s only one. Damn it.

A Stomp, an expression pedal, a 2-switch and a flexible midi controller has been my rig for a few years now. I have recorded with it, gigged with it, done looping projects with it, gone direct with it, gone into amps with it, gone into powered cabs with it, done acoustic+electric gigs with it, even used vocals with it (mic+electric), done bass gigs with it, used it as an amp-less solution, used it as an effects only solution, used it as an audio interface for my plugins in my DAW for direct monitoring (Tonex, Amplitude, HX Native and others). I really can't think of a more value for money compact do it all rig, that is as expandable or contractable as you need it! For home players and giggers alike.

The Ampero control has been an amazing buddy to the stomp, and I have only used one of its 2 expression pedal inputs.

I have the switches mapped to some key functions on the stomp that really unlocks the stomp for me:

It doesn’t matter in my scenario….

I have heard your music, you make beautiful music. It matters.

 

[molul]

A Stomp, an expression pedal, a 2-switch and a flexible midi controller has been my rig for a few years now. I have recorded with it, gigged with it, done looping projects with it, gone direct with it, gone into amps with it, gone into powered cabs with it, done acoustic+electric gigs with it, even used vocals with it (mic+electric), done bass gigs with it, used it as an amp-less solution, used it as an effects only solution, used it as an audio interface for my plugins in my DAW for direct monitoring (Tonex, Amplitude, HX Native and others). I really can't think of a more value for money compact do it all rig, that is as expandable or contractable as you need it! For home players and giggers alike.

View attachment 25039

That looks like a Helix LT with half DSP power and split into pieces

 

[kartikg3]

That looks like a Helix LT with half DSP power and split into pieces

It does, but I can't break a Helix LT into its core and take it on a flight with my family to India. Also, this setup always has a few open slots for the newest shiny pedals, never stifling

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I'm generally more a fan of the Helix sliders than not, but this is genuinely just bad. Its so easy to accidently bump to a different mic and the position and angle all change. Would love a bit more thought to go into the behaviour of this, a slider to change between drastically different microphones doesn't make any sense.

You lose all the precision that you'd gain at being able to click halfway for 50% (which has no meaning for a list of mics). You just have to scroll through and guess. Scroll wheel sensitivity is unpredictable and too sensitive so you accidently drag somewhere random, and the parts of the screen you do click and pretty small. The list view is infinitely more useful but its comparitively small and annoying to click through.

 

[Orvillain]

I did genuinely prefer the big chunkier sliders. I guess they needed more room though?

 

[MirrorProfiles]

View attachment 25044

I did genuinely prefer the big chunkier sliders. I guess they needed more room though?

They make sense for controls that are spread evenly across a range of values. A list of mics is pretty far removed from that. Imagine if the amp list was on a slider, it would be a ballache to slide to the right one, and you'd accidently bump around to the wrong one. The amp view also has the benefit of (optionally) showing graphics and a grid rather than only a dropdown list of text. Mic's are no different to me, there is no relationship between each mic and more visual feedback would be handy to distinguish when so many have similar names

 

[molul]

I'm generally more a fan of the Helix sliders than not, but this is genuinely just bad. Its so easy to accidently bump to a different mic and the position and angle all change. Would love a bit more thought to go into the behaviour of this, a slider to change between drastically different microphones doesn't make any sense.View attachment 25043

You lose all the precision that you'd gain at being able to click halfway for 50% (which has no meaning for a list of mics). You just have to scroll through and guess. Scroll wheel sensitivity is unpredictable and too sensitive so you accidently drag somewhere random, and the parts of the screen you do click and pretty small. The list view is infinitely more useful but its comparitively small and annoying to click through.

I think mouse wheel shouldn't affect any slider unless it's been previously clicked (highlighted/selected), and leave it for scrolling up and down the list of parameters.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I think mouse wheel shouldn't affect any slider unless it's been previously clicked (highlighted/selected), and leave it for scrolling up and down the list of parameters.

On most plugins that kind of behaviour would probably annoy me as it requires more work to adjust something. But scrolling in Helix always feels wild and jumpy to me, I'd love for it to get smoothed out so you can actually have some precise control over things.

Because the bars take up so much of the available horizontal space, its quite easy to accidentally scroll on something, although I think the sensitivity is just too high (with a Magic Mouse) where it detects a scroll when I'm just holding the mouse. I don't really mind so much when the scroll is adjusting through a range of values, but when its going between mics, the sound changes really drastically. Its one of the rare times where Helix's UI actually works against what it is trying to achieve.

Kind of funny that because knobs are more wasteful with screen space, it actually gives you more room to purposefully decide where your mouse is resting. The scroll bars occupy as much of the screen as they can get away with so its quite likely that your mouse is going to be on top of one.

 

[the swede]

A Stomp, an expression pedal, a 2-switch and a flexible midi controller has been my rig for a few years now. I have recorded with it, gigged with it, done looping projects with it, gone direct with it, gone into amps with it, gone into powered cabs with it, done acoustic+electric gigs with it, even used vocals with it (mic+electric), done bass gigs with it, used it as an amp-less solution, used it as an effects only solution, used it as an audio interface for my plugins in my DAW for direct monitoring (Tonex, Amplitude, HX Native and others). I really can't think of a more value for money compact do it all rig, that is as expandable or contractable as you need it! For home players and giggers alike.

View attachment 25039

The Ampero control has been an amazing buddy to the stomp, and I have only used one of its 2 expression pedal inputs.

I have the switches mapped to some key functions on the stomp that really unlocks the stomp for me:

View attachment 25040


I have heard your music, you make beautiful music. It matters.

Damn I wish I would have kept the Ampero control, had it once and used it just like you are :)

For lil stomp the best possible (size/price/features) solution is either the Ampero control or the JET Micro.

I’m still weighing in the possibility of going with a XL, but I’m just not sure I really really need that for my home playing.

lil Stomp still is the ultimate size wise as i tend to use it as an audio interface when i own it. So it goes on the table and the floor. Doubt I’d throw around the XL as I did with lil Stomp haha.

I’ll wait July/August and if a deal on lil stomp comes by, i will probably grab one. Damn that thing is inevitable for me. It’s always been lil Stomp, since 2018… there’s just no other thing that suits me better.

 

[the-trooper]

You know, there is a solution for all these sliders problems

 

[molul]

Lisa, don't you ruin another slider day.

 

[laxu]

This is IMO how the Helix sliders should be.

1. Grouping of related parameters. In this Amp block they are:
   1. Drive, Master volume, Channel volume. Params that have an effect on the overdrive and volume.
      • Normally Master and Ch. Vol are after the EQ controls, and to me that's the wrong place because if you tweak drive, you might want to tweak master and ch vol.
   2. EQ.
   3. Advanced params.
2. Color coding the separate parameter "groups".
   • Color coding should follow the block color in some manner, so I chose yellow and orange to contrast the red of the Amp block.
   • This does clash with other block colors, but I'm sure Line6 could figure out a better color coding scheme.
3. Mouse scroll wheel = scroll list of parameters if they don't fit on screen.
   • Cmd/Ctrl+scroll wheel could be used to adjust a parameter under the cursor.
   • This removes that terrible "is this on the pixel that makes it scrollable or on the pixel that adjusts the slider" behavior.
4. Limit maximum scale of the sliders.
   • This is about max length it should be possible to make them.
   • Instead HX Edit and Helix Native should scale to be easier to use on high res displays.

 

[dronerstone]

View attachment 25046

This is IMO how the Helix sliders should be.

1. Grouping of related parameters. In this Amp block they are:
   1. Drive, Master volume, Channel volume. Params that have an effect on the overdrive and volume.
      • Normally Master and Ch. Vol are after the EQ controls, and to me that's the wrong place because if you tweak drive, you might want to tweak master and ch vol.
   2. EQ.
   3. Advanced params.
2. Color coding the separate parameter "groups".
   • Color coding should follow the block color in some manner, so I chose yellow and orange to contrast the red of the Amp block.
   • This does clash with other block colors, but I'm sure Line6 could figure out a better color coding scheme.
3. Mouse scroll wheel = scroll list of parameters if they don't fit on screen.
   • Cmd/Ctrl+scroll wheel could be used to adjust a parameter under the cursor.
   • This removes that terrible "is this on the pixel that makes it scrollable or on the pixel that adjusts the slider" behavior.
4. Limit maximum scale of the sliders.
   • This is about max length it should be possible to make them.
   • Instead HX Edit and Helix Native should scale to be easier to use on high res displays.

Valid points there.

 

[the swede]

View attachment 25046

This is IMO how the Helix sliders should be.

1. Grouping of related parameters. In this Amp block they are:
   1. Drive, Master volume, Channel volume. Params that have an effect on the overdrive and volume.
      • Normally Master and Ch. Vol are after the EQ controls, and to me that's the wrong place because if you tweak drive, you might want to tweak master and ch vol.
   2. EQ.
   3. Advanced params.
2. Color coding the separate parameter "groups".
   • Color coding should follow the block color in some manner, so I chose yellow and orange to contrast the red of the Amp block.
   • This does clash with other block colors, but I'm sure Line6 could figure out a better color coding scheme.
3. Mouse scroll wheel = scroll list of parameters if they don't fit on screen.
   • Cmd/Ctrl+scroll wheel could be used to adjust a parameter under the cursor.
   • This removes that terrible "is this on the pixel that makes it scrollable or on the pixel that adjusts the slider" behavior.
4. Limit maximum scale of the sliders.
   • This is about max length it should be possible to make them.
   • Instead HX Edit and Helix Native should scale to be easier to use on high res displays.

On the stomp hardware (having three knobs) this would be ideal for some imo. Drive/master/channel is the first thing I would adjust for a preset then go to BMT. Great idea… I’m all for that approach.

But I also could see why L6 would be reluctant to implement that. They probably have/had reasons for the way it is now. I’ll save the deep explanations for Eric hahaha.

 

[laxu]

On the stomp hardware (having three knobs) this would be ideal for some imo. Drive/master/channel is the first thing I would adjust for a preset then go to BMT. Great idea… I’m all for that approach.

But I also could see why L6 would be reluctant to implement that. They probably have/had reasons for the way it is now. I’ll save the deep explanations for Eric hahaha.

HX One too. The parameter order is a major issue on that IMO.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Why is it that HX Native is occasionally coming up with "IR missing" messages even if that, very clearly, isn't the case? It's also causing Logic to throw out instability messages (macOS 14.5, M3 MBA) for no reason (because I can just kinda click them away).
And as said before, trackpad response is abysmally bad (I'm on vacation and wanted to do some recordings without any outboard stuff and it's anything else but a pleasure to operate HXN).

 

[Sascha Franck]

HX One too. The parameter order is a major issue on that IMO.

It's horrible on all units but the flagships (and even those would possibly profit from a better thought out parameter order).

 

[Sascha Franck]

And fwiw, HXN is also by far the slowest loading plugin of all the ones I regularly use. Even big guns such as Kontakt are loading faster.

 

[dronerstone]

And fwiw, HXN is also by far the slowest loading plugin of all the ones I regularly use. Even big guns such as Kontakt are loading faster.

That's true, and I've also been wondering why, because it's definitely not as much of a resource hog as other "usual suspects" (looking at you, IK).

Once Native is loaded, everything runs smoothly, multiple instances aren't a big issue either. But the startup is waaay slow.