Helix Talk

ian_dissonance said:
I can only hear it on dark stages. It completely disappears in sunlight.
Click to expand...
Season 9 Nbc GIF by The Office
 
synthpenguin said:
Anyone attempted to get a Benson Chimera / Monarch type sound in the Helix?

. . .
Click to expand...

Following up on this in case anyone comes across this and is looking for a Benson Monarch / Chimera type sound in the Helix without relying on tone match IRs or anything like that ~

I extensively A/Bed my HX Stomp with the Mixwave Benson Chimera plugin (which sounds great, by the way!* ), attempting to match a setting on the Benson of Volume at 3, Treble at 5, Bass at 5, and Bright switch set to Off, and I came up with something that was pretty close.

I mainly focused on the GrammaticoLG Nrm, A30 Fawn Norm, and Brit P75 Nrm (spoiler: the winner).

I expected a lot out of GrammaticoLG, and the low end could get pretty close, but the mids were always off, and it always has that buzz / crackle when driven, which can sound great... but the Benson doesn't really do that. It's a cool amp, but a different thing, despite having a lot of architectural similarities to the Benson Chimera & Monarch.

The A30 Fawn Norm can get in the same territory. It's never "quite right", but I think if you want a quick route to this general sound without any weird settings, go with this + a greenback IR (especially a GR12H30, which are what the Benson speakers are based on). I've seen that a lot of guitarists who use the Benson amps previously used or currently also use AC30s, and I get why. And I went with and prefer the Normal channel block, but definitely try the Bright version too (I'd avoid the Essex A30 for this sound though, as the top boost channel it models is not really right for this imo)

Returning to the Brit P75 Nrm got me closest though. WorshipTutorials were definitely right about that. There are some differences, but you can get into the ballpark pretty quickly. Like I suspected before, I'd suggest starting with a "flat" EQ setting (Bass at 0, Mids at 10, and Treble at 0), a high Master setting, and a low Drive setting, and going from there (focusing mostly on Treble probably).

But tl;dr here were my exact settings for Brit P75 Nrm (again, attempting to match V=3, T=5, B=5, Bright=Off on the Benson):
Drive = 2.0
Bass = 0.6
Mid = 10.0
Treble = 10.0 (this one really surprised me tbh)
Presence = 4.0
Master = 8.0
Sag = 5.0 (default)
Hum= 5.0 (default)
Ripple = 0.0
Bias = 6.6 (default)
Bias X = 5.0 (default)

This alone is pretty close, and depending on how much you care, and probably what IR you are using, you could stop here, but I did think it needed a little more tweaking, and I added two more EQ blocks in the end:

...a Parametric EQ before the amp block:
LoFreq = 250Hz
Low Q = 1.4
LoGain = -1.6dB

MidFreq = 775Hz
Mid Q = 0.7
MidGain = -2.1dB

HiFreq = 10.9kHz
High Q = 0.7
HiGain = +2.4dB

...and a Low and High Cut block after the amp block:
Low Cut = 80Hz
Hi Cut = 14.0kHz

Some explanation of the settings above:
The Parametric EQ is mainly shaping the mid range a little, making things sound a little more open, but without giving a strong "mid scoop" sound (which the Benson doesn't have). The high boost adds some brightness in that the Brit P75 Nrm is missing in comparison to the Benson, and might be surprising since that 10kHz and up area is a problem area for guitar, but keep in mind that it gets shaped by the amp block and then the speaker / IR after, so it's much different from a post EQ.

The low cut of the Low and High Cut is shaping the bass a little (obviously haha). The Benson has a bass falloff starting below 80 or 90Hz, and I found that adding this cut is really essential to getting the right sound. Also, I preferred the low cut after the amp (hence why I didn't just do it in the Parametric EQ block).

Re: the high cut, I noticed the Benson amp model always starts rolling off the highs around there (with no cab or anything, and with oversampling maxed out). This might be an anti-aliasing thing and not something the real amp does, I'm not sure, but it made a difference listening to the amp direct, so I added it in. That said, it is probably unnecessary in real world scenarios since those frequencies will usually be chopped off anyway.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with those settings. Does it sound exactly the same? No, there are some little differences, you don't have the full treble range of the Benson (though maybe try the Brit P75 Brit block for that, or the A30 Fawns if you're not as picky about the rest of the sound and just want the brighter settings), and the bass controls do not behave in the same way. But if you want the basic sound that you can then tweak like any other amp, I think this gets you very, very close. And again, try running it through a G12H30 speaker or IR (if you don't have an IR, the 4x12 Greenback 30 and 2x12 Match H30 cabs both have G12H30s)

* (along with the Benson Chimera model sounding good, so does the Benson Preamp model in here... I may have to check out that actual pedal. I thought it was just good for fuzzy stuff, but it reminds me a lot of the BD-2 where it can do that, but sounds great at lower gain settings too.

Also, the cab section of the Mixwave plugin was nice too. It was pretty hard to make it sound bad (maybe unrealistically). I don't think I'll be buying it, but I'd recommend checking this plugin out if you're interested in this sort of sound in plugin form)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Fretless Instrument Sound with Helix
Replies
1
Views
94
burningyen
burningyen
D
Potential crazy - stomp XL vs FC6 vs HX one
2
Replies
22
Views
674
Alex Kenivel
Alex Kenivel
gearJunkie
Guilty of modeler neglect
2
Replies
20
Views
2K
Mongillo19
M
mercifulfuzziness
QC vs Helix
6 7 8
Replies
158
Views
13K
Orvillain
Orvillain
Mikael Dez
Need advice (if this is even possible - controlling HX Stomp with Tonex via MIDI)
Replies
0
Views
283
Mikael Dez
Mikael Dez
Back
Top