Helix Talk

[EOengineer]

Let it be a lesson for us all: when asked about his amp settings in Helix, this 40+ years career legend was like "meh, i just pick something that sounds good and forget about it."

What a noob!

 

[Elf]

Here’s a great interview with Peter Gabriel’s guitarist, David Rhodes. They actually get into some nice detail about how he’s using the Helix.

Great post thanks! I guess I’ve been a fan of David for 40 something years

 

[Digital Igloo]

CONVERGE

 

[DieSchmalle]

I LOL'ed when it became a Rig Staredown at some point:

 

[laxu]

Let it be a lesson for us all: when asked about his amp settings in Helix, this 40+ years career legend was like "meh, i just pick something that sounds good and forget about it."

I'm feeling like I should just join this club. It's fun to geek out over all the amp/cab models and stuff, but ultimately there's just so many ways to good tone nowadays.

When I still had real tube amps, they often ended up parked at specific settings and then only tweaked a little bit for different guitars or playing at different volumes.

Just flicking through some options on any modeler it's like "yeah that's good, oh that's good too, I like that one as well" without really messing with the settings all that much.

I own both the extremes: 3 models on the Strymon Iridium, over 300 on the Axe-Fx 3. I'm honestly fine with the options on either. If I want a real mean high gain tone out of the Iridium, I flick on a 4x12 V30 cab on the freakin' Fender Blackface model set for clean (so I guess it's more of a poweramp sim at that point), then hit it with a Strymon Riverside delivering all the gain. It's different from using e.g a modded Marshall, Mesa, Diezel or whatever model on the Axe-Fx, but sounds real good too.

 

[Lysander]

New Line 6 Movies video is up, with Paul Hindmarsh talking about the Helix line.



What has me geeking out bad, however, are a couple behind-the-scenes sneak peeks on how HX modeling works under the hood

 

[the-trooper]

View attachment 8861

Oh. My. God!
They have knobs!
Both on the schematic AND the GUI of, what ever that is that they're using.

 

[laxu]

Oh. My. God!
They have knobs!
Both on the schematic AND the GUI of, what ever that is that they're using.

Those are just rolled up sliders!

 

[paisleywookiee]

So I forgot to mention I tried the HX Effects last weekend, 4CM with a Fillmore 50. I dig it! At first I thought something was funky, but then I remembered the TS808 is not at all what I like, and that’s what this one defaulted to.

Changed it to a couple others, and it was great. Then delved into the mods, reverbs, delays, funky shit, etc, and yup, it’s pretty nice. Thinking it’s going to be one of my next acquisitions.

Thing is, I don’t need it, but for what they go for used, and the amount of unique cool stuff they do (particularly in the delays and reverbs), I certainly have a place for it.

One question; is “analog bypass” true bypass? I assume so, and that the DSP bypass has buffering in there.

 

[Lysander]

One question; is “analog bypass” true bypass? I assume so, and that the DSP bypass has buffering in there.

Yes. That clicking sound you'll hear on power on are actually bypass relays.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Yes. That clicking sound you'll hear on power on are actually bypass relays.

What the hell are people even talking about then, when they claim there’s tone suck? I certainly didn’t hear any.

 

[Lysander]

What the hell are people even talking about then, when they claim there’s tone suck? I certainly didn’t hear any.

Maybe the fixed impedance thing, and how it can affect f.ex. fuzzes? But, yeah, beats me. On analog bypass mode the entire HX line is 100% transparent.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Maybe the fixed impedance thing, and how it can affect f.ex. fuzzes? But, yeah, beats me. On analog bypass mode the entire HX line is 100% transparent.

I hate know-nothing fuckfaces.

 

[James Freeman]

You know why everyone tapes the volume and preset knobs? Because there is no performance/lock mode.
The entire upper portion of the Helix should be lock-able during a performance, except the Home button which you hold for 3 seconds to enter and exit "Lock Mode".
And of course a power cycle will start un-locked in case the Home button goes south.
No charge.

 

[BahamaDada]

You know why everyone tapes the volume and preset knobs? Because there is no performance/lock mode.
The entire upper portion of the Helix should be lock-able during a performance, except the Home button which you hold for 3 seconds to enter and exit "Lock Mode".
And of course a power cycle will start un-locked in case the Home button goes south.
No charge.

Exactly. This. And I jealously stare at my bandmates LT during gigs, bc he can read the damn LT performance screen better than me with those scribbles on the big model. I want scribbles AND LT perfomance mode.

 

[Rewolf]

I "lock" the big volume knob by assigning it to an unused output. It's a really old trick.

I have accidentally changed presents before, but the cable dragging on volume has always been the biggest problem for me

 

[TubeStack]

I loved my HXFX and used it for a few years (even buying a second one after briefly going FM3), but I eventually realized it was sucking a lot of tone in 4cm. It was fine in front the amp or in the loop, but in 4cm it was a pretty bad “blanket over the speaker effect.“ Loss of highs and overall clarity+ a change in feel. This is with the Electra Dyne. Maybe it's better with other amps.

It's too bad because the HXFX is really the perfect everything for me, otherwise. Size, number of switches, etc.

I now use pedals in front of the Dyne and a Stomp in the loop.

 

[laxu]

I loved my HXFX and used it for a few years (even buying a second one after briefly going FM3), but I eventually realized it was sucking a lot of tone in 4cm. It was fine in front the amp or in the loop, but in 4cm it was a pretty bad “blanket over the speaker effect.“ Loss of highs and overall clarity+ a change in feel. This is with the Electra Dyne. Maybe it's better with other amps.

It's too bad because the HXFX is really the perfect everything for me, otherwise. Size, number of switches, etc.

I now use pedals in front of the Dyne and a Stomp in the loop.

I don't know if the HXFX or Stomp is different in this regard, but the only way to get tone suck on my Helix Floor was when the input/output levels didn't match. Without half-decent metering tools for these it requires a decibel meter to figure out if you have a slight volume drop with the HXFX in use which gets perceived as worse sounding just because it's less loud.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I don't know if the HXFX or Stomp is different in this regard, but the only way to get tone suck on my Helix Floor was when the input/output levels didn't match. Without half-decent metering tools for these it requires a decibel meter to figure out if you have a slight volume drop with the HXFX in use which gets perceived as worse sounding just because it's less loud.

That's interesting I hadn't thought of that. I always thought the 4cm tone suck people were talking about was the capacitance from the length of cables they were using to connect it all up.

 

[TubeStack]

I don't know if the HXFX or Stomp is different in this regard, but the only way to get tone suck on my Helix Floor was when the input/output levels didn't match. Without half-decent metering tools for these it requires a decibel meter to figure out if you have a slight volume drop with the HXFX in use which gets perceived as worse sounding just because it's less loud.

I'd like to try the Floor in 4cm. I experimented quite a bit with the HXFX in 4cm, but it always sounded better just in front or in the loop. I don't think it was just volume/levels…