Helix Talk

[Eagle]

If I'm not mistaken, you can do everything with only tilting and pressing the encoder.
They can add "Joystick" in the "Hold to Edit" mode, so you'll have Up/Down/Left/Right/Press, this should work just fine, just in case the joystick decides to go south after EOL.

That’s still no excuse for such a ridiculous control.

 

[James Freeman]

I agree, applying sideways mechanical force to a flimsy plastic/aluminum encoder is just not a very good design.
The encoder is mounted on a bigger plastic ring assembly, when tilted it presses 4 pcb mounted buttons on the back.
All the side force is applied to the internal aluminum shaft which is 3mm in diameter at most.

 

[Sascha Franck]

As said in the other thread: The joystick has been a most notable design flaw in the first place.

First off, joysticks mainly serve two purposes:
1) Allowing you to move in any direction seamlessly. Up and down, left and right, diagonally and anything in between. The Helix joystick is only allowing for up/down and left/right movements.
2) Allowing you to move seamlessly at pretty much any speed. The Helix joystick is still only allowing for stepwise movements, hence navigating from one end of the screen to the other is still requiring multiple clicks.

In addition, the Helix joystick (or rather: it's mount, whatever that might look like) has to stand movements in 7 (!) directions: Left, right, up, down, turn left, turn right, press. Usually, this is the kind of powers you'd apply when you wanted to, say, losen a rotten screw - so it's almost like maximizing the "let's try to rip it out" thing.
For anything to stand that kind of stress testing for a long period of time, you usually want military grade components. And the Helix joystick absolutely doesn't qualify as military grade. Given my personal experience and what I've been reading over the years, I'd say it's rather located on the cheap-ish side of things, at least the feel gets pretty sloppy after a rather short while, even if you try to not use it too much. And while I haven't been a victim myself, I know of plenty of folks who had to have their joysticks replaced (or at least re-soldered).

And then consider that the joystick could easily be replaced by a simple rotary encoder (with an added press-to-select-switch) and four arrow keys around it. Kinda like Boss (or also Zoom) style. Pretty much standard components that can a) be serviced easily (did that quite often on various devices) or b) be replaced without hassle.

 

[Sascha Franck]

All the side force is applied to the internal aluminum shaft which is 3mm in diameter at most.

I don't think the shaft is going to be the main issue. If I were to guess, I'd say it's rather the "tilt-to-press-PCB-mounted-buttons" affair.
Thanks for the pictures, btw.

 

[James Freeman]

 

[Sascha Franck]

View attachment 7506

View attachment 7507

Know what? That'd likely be almost as fast to operate.

 

[James Freeman]

Can't say it's the first time this generic USB Gamepad idea has crossed my mind, nor MIDI notes as navigation, nor "Joystick" mode in "Hold to Edit".
The latter is probably the most doable.

 

[laxu]

Honestly it amazes me that modeler makers haven't adopted game controller D-pads. Those last practically forever and allow for easy 4 or 8 way cursor movement.

One of the things I was thinking back in the Axe-Fx 2 days was how Axe-Fx 3 should have a D-pad to move the cursor. I still stand by that because the navigation pattern on it sucks as it requires a lot of finger movement in comparison.

I found the Helix joystick far more pleasant as long as you disable that stupid "change models when rotating" default setting.

 

[dk_ace]

 

[James Freeman]

I found the Helix joystick far more pleasant as long as you disable that stupid "change models when rotating" default setting.

First thing I did.
It would be convenient if the focus block scrolled through all 4 rows instead wraping around the current row.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I found the Helix joystick far more pleasant as long as you disable that stupid "change models when rotating" default setting.

Too bad you still can't switch that on the Stomp (first thing I looked for on the Floor, too).
And while I never found operating things via the joystick to be particularly tough at all (I've been through GP-8s and the likes...), a) it felt cheap, b) there's vastly better options for quick navigation.

 

[James Freeman]

I think I just re-discovered the best boost in the Helix, it's called Pillars.
It's a model of the Earthquaker Devices Plumes (link), the real pedal has internal voltage boost to 18v and very useful diode configurations.

Boosting the Softube JMP 2203 rips.

Spoiler

 

[Rocco Crocco]

I agree. The Pillars and the Klon are all I use anymore. I usually set the Pillars mode switch to 2.

 

[James Freeman]

Switch on 2 here too, that's without any clipping diodes/LEDs, basically a very loud tight boost.
I used the Klon but is has some clipping which I prefer not to have.

 

[the swede]

To me, i prefer using the Minotaur with drive between 0.7 and 1.2 there’s a sweet spot there to my ears. Before it starts to push mids noticeably. I dial in a little more tone and level. So it’s more of a clean boost with some added Minotaur flavor and it keeps some of the lows, lets the amp breathe.

 

[the swede]

To me, i prefer using the Minotaur with drive between 0.7 and 1.2 there’s a sweet spot there to my ears. Before it starts to push mids noticeably. I dial in a little more tone and level. So it’s more of a clean boost with some added Minotaur flavor and it keeps some of the lows, let’s the amp breathe.

Currently contemplating just getting a Tumnus mini for this very reason… stuff that I tend to use almost always On might as well be pedals….

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I use the minotaur a lot but have struggled to get anything really usable out of the pillars. It's been a while so I should try it again. it's always seemed overly bright to me, I might just be used to the high end roll off from a Vanilla tube screamer circuit and the pillars doesn't seem to do it to the same extent.

 

[holoholo]

I use the minotaur a lot but have struggled to get anything really usable out of the pillars. It's been a while so I should try it again. it's always seemed overly bright to me, I might just be used to the high end roll off from a Vanilla tube screamer circuit and the pillars doesn't seem to do it to the same extent.

I notice this too. I can put the tone on 0 and it still is pretty bright. I like that it has different modes but I couldn’t use it because of how bright it is.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I use the Shelf EQ, drop off the lows where I feel like and push the level. I just wish the level went up to like 30dB.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Ya know, it's so often I find myself using a PS4 controller to input information to sign into some app or whatever and think "man, this is great! So much easier than a touch screen!!!"