(Couldn't decide whether to put this in a Helix thread or a TONEX one, but since it's ultimately pro-Helix, I decided here was better)
After slowly being able to play guitar again after a serious injury, I've (finally) been extensively testing the Tonex software the last few days, comparing it to what I get out of Helix, and idk. Tonex sounds great, no doubt, but when actually comparing the two I don't really get the hype if you already have a Helix thing (and don't need the DSP freed up), at least for the tube amp sounds I care about (clean Fender + drive pedals, Vox-y / Matchless things, sometimes JCM800 and 5150-esque tones in an 80s way for fun, Orange fuzziness). Again, it sounds great, but I never once was like "wow, I can't match this with Helix".
Tonex has the instant gratification thing where basically every capture I tried immediately sounded good, so maybe it's just that for some people (imo Helix should have the first several presets just be different variations of this idea for different amps, without any added complications, so you immediately get a usable, basic Fender or Marshall or Vox tone on startup). And I know a lot of people are critical of some of the high gain options on Helix, so maybe it's that.
Or maybe my ears aren't that picky (which tbh is fine by me). I've never been in the "Helix needs 3 EQs, 2 compressors, and two high cuts to sound good" camp, and maybe that's to my benefit in this case lol
And maybe the actual hardware is different, but running my interface (Motu M4) at very low latency, I don't really get the "Tonex FEELS better" thing. They also both seemed to take drive pedals basically the same in my setup, but once I got over "yeah you can't just full-on boost into it like a tube amp", I've never had complaints about the HX Stomp with drive pedals.
So anyway, this was all mainly to see if I wanted to grab a Tonex One to put in my HX Stomp's loop as a "set it and forget it" Fender thing, and I don't think it's worth the (tiny bit of) added latency and added steps for me. It is still sorta appealing as a tiny thing to run straight into a power amp though, and I may grab one someday to permanently attach to my Quilter for that use case, but ultimately Helix is fine by me for now, and I'm glad I didn't spend the money on actual Tonex hardware—I feel like I would have ended up kidding myself about the difference to justify it, and complicated my setup for no reason lol. Also, this way I get to spend the money saved on a fuzz pedal
I dooo still want to try a UA Dream or Ruby though, mainly because I still think turning real knobs to tweak amps is just more fun, and "simpler is better" has been bringing more joy out of guitar for me lately, but eh we will see.
The thing is that, while the tempo is synced with the one set in the DAW project, the Helix Native clock goes on its own. At the same tempo, but it doesn't reset when you hit play (and it should).
how would setting the tempo track improve the situation? The tempo is right in Helix Native (it gets the tempo set in the song project). The issue is that the tremolo effect is not starting from 0 when I hit play.
