Line 6 Helix Stadium Pre-Launch Discussion

[JiveTurkey]

Intransigence?

 

[mbenigni]

Here’s how I see it for me and maybe for some others. 10 years ago I bought the helix when it first came out. I think I got it for 1399 or something with a coupon and I think it was after a month or a month and a half I did return it because I was not impressed with the tones I was getting.
And as I said also, of course it’s been 10 years in development and it’s improved very much for what I’ve read, but I never re-bought it and tried it again. So my point is that getting the stadium? What kind of be like having those 10 years of development in the unit plus whatever their new stuff is going forwardso I feel like if within 30 days it does not rock my world then the helix is just not for me in general. I think that would be a fair assumption.

I was onboard with Helix (in various formats, for various applications) on and off until a couple of months ago. UI, features, etc. etc. etc. were always fantastic. Effects (most of them) were great. I never quite gelled with the amp and cab tones. A handful were fine, but in general HX took some work and I found it distracting. (Totally willing to entertain the idea that this was user error, or all in my head LOL.)

Anyway, I'm confident that Agoura will be a big step forward in comparison with even the latest HX stuff.

 

[mbenigni]

Intransigence?

Googled. Who TF is Matilda, by the way?

I'm Dolores.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Googled. Who TF is Matilda, by the way?

She likes her naan!

 

[dws2384]

You can look at FracPad for what you get if you take Axe-Edit, and turn it into a touchscreen software. It kinda works, but doesn't really improve the experience a ton

Ya, Axe edit works well because you can see the whole signal chain, click directly on a block and instantly get all of the parameters to edit below. I dont find it cumbersome and I dont think many users do.

What always cracks me up is when you suggest a revamped UI like this on device itself (which admittedly is what helix has and QC ripped off) so many of the users get their backs up and start telling everyone its not pro "I can get around just fine clicking arrow and enter keys 10 times to adjust a simple parameter, just map what you want to the performance page" (that still requires multiple clicks and arrows to get to)

So you enjoy using Axe edit but making the on-device UI more similar to it is bad? Okay...

 

[timbuck3]

I was onboard with Helix (in various formats, for various applications) on and off until a couple of months ago. UI, features, etc. etc. etc. were always fantastic. Effects (most of them) were great. I never quite gelled with the amp and cab tones. A handful were fine, but in general HX took some work and I found it distracting. (Totally willing to entertain the idea that this was user error, or all in my head LOL.)

Anyway, I'm confident that Agoura will be a big step forward in comparison with even the latest HX stuff.

Until a couple of months ago? What happened?

 

[mbenigni]

Until a couple of months ago? What happened?

Nothing in particular. I finally got around to selling my HX Stomp (having acquired a 2nd QC a couple of months prior.)

 

[timbuck3]

Ya, Axe edit works well because you can see the whole signal chain, click directly on a block and instantly get all of the parameters to edit below. I dont find it cumbersome and I dont think many users do.

What always cracks me up is when you suggest a revamped UI like this on device itself (which admittedly is what helix has and QC ripped off) so many of the users get their backs up and start telling everyone its not pro "I can get around just fine clicking arrow and enter keys 10 times to adjust a simple parameter, just map what you want to the performance page" (that still requires multiple clicks and arrows to get to)

So you enjoy using Axe edit but making the on-device UI more similar to it is bad? Okay...

This 110% . Why not make the onboard gui way better if you like how great the axe edit is to use on your pc????

 

[mbenigni]

 

[mikah912]

I was onboard with Helix (in various formats, for various applications) on and off until a couple of months ago. UI, features, etc. etc. etc. were always fantastic. Effects (most of them) were great. I never quite gelled with the amp and cab tones. A handful were fine, but in general HX took some work and I found it distracting. (Totally willing to entertain the idea that this was user error, or all in my head LOL.)

Anyway, I'm confident that Agoura will be a big step forward in comparison with even the latest HX stuff.

Can only speak for my particular tastes and experience, but the three 3.8 amps (Super Reverb, Bogner Ecstasy 101B, EVH 5153 6L6) are not only the best three they've done to date, but so versatile that you could cover almost every conceivable genre between them. Same for that Cartographer cab they added.

40 guitar/bass amp channels supposedly even better than that level of quality? That's why I'm excited for even Stadium 1.0, much less the promise of Proxy and new Agoura amps that haven't appeared in Helix at all.

 

[mbenigni]

Can only speak for my particular tastes and experience, but the three 3.8 amps (Super Reverb, Bogner Ecstasy 101B, EVH 5153 6L6) are not only the best three they've done to date, but so versatile that you could cover almost every conceivable genre between them. Same for that Cartographer cab they added.

40 guitar/bass amp channels supposedly even better than that level of quality? That's why I'm excited for even Stadium 1.0, much less the promise of Proxy and new Agoura amps that haven't appeared in Helix at all.

I was admittedly pretty lax about digging into new content in recent years. By a certain point I was just using things that had already proved useful to me.

But yes to all of this. Stadium GAS!

 

[Sascha Franck]

However, that puts Fractal and Kemper as the last major modelers without modern, easy to use onboard user interfaces.

As said before, I think the Kemper is very easy to use - at least as soon as you've done some pre-preparing homework.
Could it be better? Very likely. But I always found it to be pretty intuitive and fast to work with. The rather fixed and "single path only" signal flow architecture (which many people seem to almost hate) defenitely helps with that - so as soon as that might change, the interface might in fact get in the way. As is, I can't see much issues.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Nothing in particular. I finally got around to selling my HX Stomp (having acquired a 2nd QC a couple of months prior.)

 

[Digital Igloo]

I hope this time it has both channels (and jumperable too) instead of the brilliant channel only as in the Helix

It does. Normal, Bright, and Jumped in a single model.

I think some potential buyers will see things like drum and light uses as well as other things overkill for their use and I am hearing a lot of 2199$????? Yikes bantor going on in the internet because many features like I said are not going to be used by some guys.

What's dumb is that almost none of the features that some claim they won't use add to the cost of Stadium in any appreciable way. Showcase is basically the cost of four hardware buttons and one LED. Less than $1, probably. Drum trigger circuitry is also less than a buck. The cost of developing these features is negligible when amortized over (hopefully!) hundreds of thousands of current and future Stadium family units sold.

If one really wants cheaper products, they should ask for fewer processors, slower processors, less RAM, a smaller LCD, no scribble strips, lower-quality I/O, worse noise specs, folded steel (or plastic) chassis instead of extruded aluminum, plastic side panels instead of cast aluminum, no cap sense circuitry, an external power supply, etc. And they should also understand that Helix Stadium XL isn't actually $2199, it's $XXXX plus a $XXX ‡a®!ff tax.

(I'd go so far as to say QC introduced some ideas that we're now seeing on Stadium.)

Stock answer on YouTube: "Right? Just like Klon totally copied the classic Behringturd Centaur!"

Stock answer on TGF: The only thing we copied from Quad Cortex (and newer products) was to also copy Kemper.

 

[mbenigni]

Stock answer on TGF: The only thing we copied from Quad Cortex (and newer products) was to also copy Kemper.

I never said you copied anything from Quad Cortex; I said, "QC introduced some ideas that we're now seeing on Stadium." This isn't to say that those features (e.g. a touchscreen, or the inclusion of both models and captures) preceded Line 6's internal ideas. Only that the availability of these features on QC preceded Stadium's release.

 

[Digital Igloo]

I never said you copied anything from Quad Cortex; I said, "QC introduced some ideas that we're now seeing on Stadium." This isn't to say that those features (e.g. a touchscreen, or the inclusion of both models and captures) preceded Line 6's internal ideas. Only that the availability of these features on QC preceded Stadium's release.

Fair enough.

"Introduced" could be debated tho'; Headrush released a touchscreen-based multieffect first and TC did rotary footswitches forever ago. Mobile editing and cloud sharing were Line 6. Modeling+capture tech was first introduced in the THU plugin a year or two before QC, but yes, Neural put a combination of both in hardware first.

 

[Orvillain]

I never said you copied anything from Quad Cortex; I said, "QC introduced some ideas that we're now seeing on Stadium." This isn't to say that those features (e.g. a touchscreen, or the inclusion of both models and captures) preceded Line 6's internal ideas. Only that the availability of these features on QC preceded Stadium's release.

The Headrush Pedalboard, released in 2017, had a touchscreen. QC didn't introduce the concept at all.

 

[mbenigni]

Fair enough.

"Introduced" could be debated tho'; Headrush released a touchscreen-based multieffect first and TC did rotary footswitches forever ago. Mobile editing and cloud sharing were Line 6. Modeling+capture tech were first introduced in the THU plugin a year or two before QC, but yes, Neural put a combination of both in hardware first.

Also fair. "Introduced" is always fraught.

 

[mbenigni]

The Headrush Pedalboard, released in 2017, had a touchscreen. QC didn't introduce the concept at all.

You're late.

 

[JiveTurkey]

"Allow me to introduce myself
My name is touch screen
Pronounced with a QC
Was it a Headrush
Let-me-get-a-bit-juicy
To all the modelers out there
Please allow me to dump thee"