Helix Talk

[dk_ace]

Something I've been thinking about. There has been a lot of hype and interest in gapless preset switching on Fractal. But on Helix we've had the preference "preset spillover" available for some time now. What it does is allows you to sacrifice the 2nd path altogether, in favour of nice seamless transitions between presets - and it works really really well.

How come it doesn't get the hype it deserves?

I tried it, it wasn’t really gapless, just really good spillover implementation IMO. The trade off to get that was too great, a single dsp path was too limiting for me.

D

 

[ragingplatypi]

Sounds great but the shimmer is making it sound out of tune. Weird.

Thanks. There’s some modulation in the verbs but at one point I also knocked the shimmer pitch shift off a little. I thought I fixed that before I made that video but maybe I didn’t.

 

[burningyen]

GAPLESS SWITCHING: WHEN 427 UNNECESSARILY COMPLEX PRESETS THAT YOU DIDN’T ACTUALLY NEED IF YOU JUST THOUGHT IT OUT CORRECTLY BECOMES 2936 UNNECESSARILY COMPLEX PRESETS THAT YOU DIDN’T ACTUALLY NEED IF YOU JUST THOUGHT IT OUT CORRECTLY

Hey. HEY.

 

[Orvillain]

I actually really care about gapless switching. Here's my reasoning.

With snapshots/scenes, I need to think more. I need to think about how I need to approach my presets in the context of a live show. For live shows I know a few things:

1. I don't want to have to switch my amp channel and my effects individually too much.
2. I don't want to have any gaps of silence in the middle of a song that don't belong there.
3. I want to have my delays and reverbs trailing off nicely from section to section.
4. In between songs, I don't want there to be lots of dead air whilst the band gets their gear queued up for the right patches, tempos, etc.
5. I don't want to have to bank up/down in the middle of a song to find the next sound.
6. I don't want to have to switch between modes in the middle of a song.

Mostly in a song I want to only have to do two things:

1. Choose a "sound" which is a combination of amp channel and effects.
2. Tap my tempo whilst playing along with the drummer, to resync all my delays to his organic drifting tempo.

So.... with these caveats in action, some things clearly become obvious:

1. 8 snapshots is never enough for even 1 song. I've compromised on my live tones and my accuracy to the way the songs should sound, in favour of an easier life. But from memory, I recall most songs requiring 10 and above different sounds. Some of these I can get with an expression pedal. But most of them need to be a dedicated switch.

2. Because I'm not too accurate with my feet, hitting the Helix "mode" switch always feels like a faff to me. I've accidentally muted myself during a few rehearsals before, and I've also accidentally changed my tempo before, because whilst singing, I can't hit that switch accurately enough.

3. Currently I have a preset per-song. But if I suddenly decide I need to change my reverb mix, or add in a noise gate, or tweak a thing, I now need to update 10+ presets. Axe FX addresses this a bit with global blocks, but still...

3. I really struggle to read the scribble strips on Helix because of my shitty eyes. I take my glasses off for live performance because I want to be able to feel the music and headbang. And given that my snapshots are different from preset to preset (they have to be, because slightly different tones) the scribble strips are near useless to me. (The FC12 strips are a LOT easier to read with blurry eyes as it goes!!) - So I can't rely on reading them.

All that is to say that my setup for the live shows, as good as it has been, has always been a compromise. True gapless presets and proper spillover would really help me reduce those compromises as much as possible. Because instead of each song needing 10+ scenes, forcing me to reduce it to 8 and change the type of effects I use and how they're dialled in....


... I could just quite simply have a collection of presets, and switch between them whatever song I happen to be playing. Because quite a lot of the songs use common sounds, with an additional 1 or 2 unique ones for that particular song.

Which is all to say.... this is why I'm considering moving over to Axe III as my effects unit, along with the FC12, so that I can just have 12 presets at my feet at any given time.

So that is my reasoning for wanting gapless preset changes complete with proper spillover. If you only ever use 4 basic tones, then I can totally see why it wouldn't be important to you.


Also, to add... this is why something like the GigRig G3 is so attractive. 14 switches at your feet, so you could have 12 presets at your feet as well as a tap switch, and a tuner switch... or tap and bank up... or bank up and bank down. It is very nice and configurable!

 

[kartikg3]

A very interesting speculation from Cliff! If it is true, I will HAPPY

There will be a successor to the Helix this year. I can virtually guarantee it.

Line 6 has always used Analog Devices SHARC processors. The SC594 is *finally* in production. This is a 1GHz dual-SHARC plus ARM A5 SoC. It's a logical evolution of their product line. One of these chips will have roughly twice the power of a Helix.

Therefore they will be able to offer a considerably more powerful product which will actually cost less to manufacture than a Helix.

 

[kartikg3]

I doubt it will be the same product. It's been, what, 8 years?

This will be a flagship product with all the punch-list features that marketing requests. I predict a touch screen, wireless, maybe an SD card slot, etc.

 

[ispunk]

Helix MkII+ Turbo Tonemaster Pro(filer) Player confirmed

 

[MirrorProfiles]

TMP Killer

 

[BahamaDada]

Ok so just needed a change. But gigging the helix Mandarin 2x12 cab lately. Is it just me or this cab is seriously great? I actually looked at it on a RTA and it doesn’t have that mid spike even with the V30s. It sounds good clean and dirty.

Well, the Orange 2x12 cabs have been a staple here in Europe since... don't know. Quite some time. I guess it was the perfect storm of easy enough to carry for amateurish bands (no roadies), good enough sound, not too expensive and "not being Marshall" (bc in the 2000s at least here Marshall was "uncool" and grandpa-stuff). That and ENGL 4x12. Those I saw everywhere with the more serious bands.

I lately rediscovered the Helix Brit V30 4x12. A while ago I wrote how I think the Marshall V30 4x12 inside the Helix is a dud. And it still is when I use it like I'd use it in real life (single SM57). I paired it with the Sennheiser 609 (906?) and was amazed how much better it sounded. Still a dynamic mic, but not the uberfizziness the SM57 produces in conjunction with the Brit V30. Sometimes a second try is a good idea.

 

[kartikg3]

Calling all HX Stomp brethren for some upvotes on this topic:

Community

I.e. call to provide MIDI CC for Bank up/down.

Use Case: I am on my HX Stomp and my FS4 and FS5 can't be assigned to Bank up/dn because they are busy with other tasks. I have a capable midi switcher that has free switches, so having CCs for Bank up and down would be awesome!

 

[SHwang_Guitars]

The amp with the cover is the Victoria Electro King (modelled as the Voltage Queen).

It also irks me more than it should that Sennheiser has named two very similar mics e609 and e906 models (we chose the e906 cause it sounded better for more applications)

 

[Orvillain]

It also irks me more than it should that Sennheiser has named two very similar mics e609 and e906 models (we chose the e906 cause it sounded better for more applications)

Those are those flat mics that lazy sound engineers throw over a cab using the cab through the head handle trick yeah???

I dun like 'em!!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Gapless switching and HX Preset commands together are such a powerful tool. HX preset commands on the top row with Snapshots on the bottom. I got kinda lost in this idea and made virtual rooms/buildings for the different categories of effects with mostly the same control layout.

 

[CakeEater]

So, I've been wondering, why shouldn't I make my helix presets as loud as possible, by turning up the amp volume and if need be the impulse response decibel value? There are digital meters on the output block, and as long as I'm not clipping those, I feel like I'm optimizing my signal-to-noise ratio.

The only consequences I can see are that whatever I'm plugging my helix into might get clipped, but I think I can manage that with the master volume knob. The other matter I can think of is that the analog output for the headphone volume seems to clip before the meters on the output block clip, and I may need to turn down for that. What's everyone else doing?

 

[BahamaDada]

Those are those flat mics that lazy sound engineers throw over a cab using the cab through the head handle trick yeah???

I dun like 'em!!

Yes. IMO in the Helix they are quite nice. Like I said a bit direct "inyoface" like an SM57 without that last bit of fizz. Hard to describe.

I love those through-the-handles. Nothing worse than thinking "Why does my amp sound like shit? In soundcheck everything was fine?!" only to see some of the other band mates or support bands kicked/bumped the SM57 and now it isn't cap edge anymore but more of a "hello kick drum my old friend".

 

[Sascha Franck]

only to see some of the other band mates or support bands kicked/bumped the SM57 and now it isn't cap edge anymore but more of a "hello kick drum my old friend".

Get one of those mic clamps.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

why shouldn't I make my helix presets as loud as possible

I used to do this. Then I got to a gig with my Stomp rig and FoH needed a much quieter signal so I ended up boosting the volume of my cab to compensate. It wasn't a fun back/forth with guitar in hand fumbling with the back of a wedge. After that I would typically aim for - 12db

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Those are those flat mics that lazy sound engineers throw over a cab using the cab through the head handle trick yeah???

I dun like 'em!!

"why is the signal so low?"

"oh yeah, it's backwards"

 

[Tonefan76]

A very interesting speculation from Cliff! If it is true, I will HAPPY

 

[I S]

So, I've been wondering, why shouldn't I make my helix presets as loud as possible, by turning up the amp volume and if need be the impulse response decibel value? There are digital meters on the output block, and as long as I'm not clipping those, I feel like I'm optimizing my signal-to-noise ratio.

The only consequences I can see are that whatever I'm plugging my helix into might get clipped, but I think I can manage that with the master volume knob. The other matter I can think of is that the analog output for the headphone volume seems to clip before the meters on the output block clip, and I may need to turn down for that. What's everyone else doing?

Here’s why that’s not ideal, from @benadrian himself:

“Generally, I like to match the level of the amp models to unity gain. I'll bypass the amp model, play the guitar and get a good idea of how loud I am. Then I'll engage the amp model and adjust the channel volume to match the bypassed level. I generally find that it makes the whole preset operate in a more pleasant way to me. Of course, this means my presets can be a lot quieter than other people's presets. For me, I just turn the other presets down and save them like that. I've never had a situation where my helix couldn't be loud enough by either turning up a power amp, a channel input gain on a mixer, or the big knob on the front of the Helix.”

The reason he does this is because many of the modeled effects expect instrument level input, and pushing some effects up front can cause strange (like their real world counterparts) behavior.