Line 6 Helix Stadium Pre-Launch Discussion

[Lysander]

Wait, what? Okay, once it's delivered, the "Never Bought Shit" label should definitely come off.

Definitely. Our boy has grown!

 

[timbuck3]

What I'm saying is that the effects I'm referring to directly, especially reverbs, I don't think are up to snuff with the current top tier modelers - and I'm not alone thinking this. If they sounded really great, I would hope for improvements, sure, but I would not be pushing for new ones. As it stands I think an upgrade for the time based effects, reverbs especially, is as deserved as the new amp modeling.

I also would love to see this because when I had the helix, I was not impressed with the reverbs, but that was 10 years ago when it first came out, but after reading a lot of forums and videos and things like that I think that is one of the weakest areas in helix as well as the fuzzes From what I understand so yes, I would hope that they would not just sit back on their laurels as far as the effects go, especially the most important ones which are time based in reverb and think they’re just good enough going forward however obviously DSP plays a huge role in effect quality so if this stadium units are gonna be wrapped up with GSP the ability to really improve the effects especially the time based in reverb effects is going to be there I hope

 

[dk_ace]

I mean, I think with the VP for fractal has made the interface a little bit more user-friendly from what I’ve read so he seems to be on that track to simplify the whole process of interacting with the models inside his unit so we’ll just have to see what his next step is

I’d love to be wrong, but I just can’t imagine the day that fractal products have helix-level usability. The helix just does this crazy thing where it puts huge rig power with a lot of complexity in front of you in a relatively small package and it somehow makes it actually fun to use and tweak. It’s really as close to having a MASSIVE pedalboard as one can get without actually lugging around a massive pedalboard.

D

 

[Lysander]

I think I need to get my ears checked, because I never had major issues with HX reverbs? The recent Dynamic series, in particular, is amazing.

 

[timbuck3]

It’s incredibly unlikely that there will be a better buying opportunity than that anytime soon. You might be able to resell it for exactly what you have in it if you use it past the return window and change your mind. If someone is thinking they want it, this is about as good an opportunity as you could hope for to save some money on it.

D

Yeah, I agree. I mean there’s always next Fourth of July right but who knows what will happen then so I think it’s the right time to jump in and guitar center has 45 days to try it out as well and yeah I think I could probably resell it for at least what I got into it if I really wanted to, so it’s kind of like a win-win situation. My only hesitation was do I go with the original non-XL or XL and I just went with the XL just because I could’ve went with the non-XL but that was where I was really stabbing my toe.

 

[sashimi]

I can’t figure out what everyone is bitching about with the helix reverbs. They sound great. I actually saw someone post that a boss rv6 sounds better than the new dynamic reverbs, and the rv6 sounded like absolute shit to me.

don’t you assholes dare make Tim cancel his order. The new reverbs are great, Tim.

 

[Mongillo19]

For anyone qho

The new reverbs are great, Tim.

Are the dynamic ones considered the new additions?

 

[Vic Winters]

The MF coupon seems to have stopped working.

 

[GTR37]

Remember, DI introduced this in the presentation as "here's what the next 10 years will be bringing us", or something to that effect. Stadium IS the

Wait, what? Okay, once it's delivered, the "Never Bought Shit" label should definitely come off.

Can we change it to pre ordered shit now ?

 

[Digital Igloo]

What I'm saying is that the effects I'm referring to directly, especially reverbs, I don't think are up to snuff with the current top tier modelers - and I'm not alone thinking this. If they sounded really great, I would hope for improvements, sure, but I would not be pushing for new ones. As it stands I think an upgrade for the time based effects, reverbs especially, is as deserved as the new amp modeling.

Here's the rub. Once you're in all-new-flagship-multieffects-platform territory, there may be 1000 or more infrastructure projects to finish that people don't see and another 1000 DSP and feature projects that people do see. One goal of Helix was to—eventually—improve absolutely everything about HD500X (which I'd argue we did in spades, except for maybe size, weight, and lack of vocoder). A goal of Stadium is to—eventually—improve absolutely everything about Helix Floor.

The other trick is that Line 6 doesn't have a Cliff Chase. We don't have someone who can seemingly do anything at the drop of a hat. If we want to do Proxy and an all new looping engine, we can't do them at the same time because the same engineers who are experts at LSTM, GRU, and Wavenet are also the in-house experts at building cool new looping capabilities. So one of those things simply has to wait until the other is finished.

It's one thing to ask if one's pet feature or model (out of 1000) will ever make it into said platform. It's another thing to act all flabbergasted that one's pet feature or model (out of 1000) wasn't specifically announced amongst the dozens of others, months before any boxes actually ship... as if Line 6 is suddenly gonna switch gears and decide to not improve the platform over many years. (Including reverbs.)

I'm not suggesting you believe this, Tito, but some people honestly believe that Helix 3.80 should've been what we delivered back in 2015. And some people today believe that Stadium 5.0 or whatever is what we should be delivering on day one this fall. Those people are impossibly out of touch with how any tech business works.

 

[AlbertA]

Ok I did it… preordered. Stadium xl. 1827 after tx and 15% off and my my gear card discounts (230$)with 48 month financing

 

[timbuck3]

Here's the rub. Once you're in all-new-flagship-multieffects-platform territory, there may be 1000 or more infrastructure projects to finish that people don't see and another 1000 DSP and feature projects that people do see. One goal of Helix was to—eventually—improve absolutely everything about HD500X (which I'd argue we did in spades, except for maybe size, weight, and lack of vocoder). A goal of Stadium is to—eventually—improve absolutely everything about Helix Floor.

The other trick is that Line 6 doesn't have a Cliff Chase. We don't have someone who can seemingly do anything at the drop of a hat. If we want to do Proxy and an all new looping engine, we can't do them at the same time because the same engineers who are experts at LSTM, GRU, and Wavenet are also the in-house experts at building cool new looping capabilities. So one of those things simply has to wait until the other is finished.

It's one thing to ask if one's pet feature or model (out of 1000) will ever make it into said platform. It's another thing to act all flabbergasted that one's pet feature or model (out of 1000) wasn't specifically announced amongst the dozens of others, months before any boxes actually ship... as if Line 6 is suddenly gonna switch gears and decide to not improve the platform over many years. (Including reverbs.)

I'm not suggesting you believe this, Tito, but some people honestly believe that Helix 3.80 should've been what we delivered back in 2015. And some people today believe that Stadium 5.0 or whatever is what we should be delivering on day one this fall. Those people are impossibly out of touch with how any tech business works.

Thanks for that. I totally understand with my background what you’re talking about but I consciously made a decision today to jump into the helix platform again in 25/26
And my hesitant am I leery, of course, but not in a bad way just in a cautious way, but like I said, I consciously made the decision to jump aboard knowing the track record. I do have faith and who knows next year I may also buy the new fractal or whatever But with the discount available to me at this time, I just couldn’t resist.

 

[sashimi]

I also would love to see this because when I had the helix, I was not impressed with the reverbs, but that was 10 years ago when it first came out, but after reading a lot of forums and videos and things like that I think that is one of the weakest areas in helix as well as the fuzzes From what I understand so yes, I would hope that they would not just sit back on their laurels as far as the effects go, especially the most important ones which are time based in reverb and think they’re just good enough going forward however obviously DSP plays a huge role in effect quality so if this stadium units are gonna be wrapped up with GSP the ability to really improve the effects especially the time based in reverb effects is going to be there I hope

Not only do I think the newer reverbs in helix sound great, but the fuzzes really surprised me. I thought for sure they would be disappointing. But I have analogman and fulltone fuzzes that I leave in their boxes because I can get exactly what I want from the helix fuzzes. I think the fuzz distortion and overdrive options in helix are very good.

 

[Los-D]

Ok I did it… preordered. Stadium xl. 1827 after tx and 15% off and my my gear card discounts (230$)with 48 month financing

Congrats!!

 

[timbuck3]

Congrats!!

Oh, come on it’s no big deal. I’ve been buying gear all year just not modelers. I’ve been on this acoustic kick my favorite brand of acoustic guitar right now is Yamaha. In fact, I kind of went overboard and my acoustics in the last eight months, but I’m kind of where I wanna be as far as my acoustics anyways so now I guess it’s back to modeling
I will say I did buy that new Yamaha Tran acoustic TAC three or whatever it’s called TAG3C and I returned it because it just didn’t sound as good as the old Tran acoustic I had and it was like 9 pounds

 

[paisleywookiee]

Oh, come on it’s no big deal. I’ve been buying gear all year just not modelers. I’ve been on this acoustic kick my favorite brand of acoustic guitar right now is Yamaha. In fact, I kind of went overboard and my acoustics in the last eight months, but I’m kind of where I wanna be as far as my acoustics anyways so now I guess it’s back to modeling
I will say I did buy that new Yamaha Tran acoustic TAC three or whatever it’s called TAG3C and I returned it because it just didn’t sound as good as the old Tran acoustic I had and it was like 9 pounds

This ain’t theacousticforum.com

 

[EOengineer]

Ok I did it… preordered. Stadium xl. 1827 after tx and 15% off and my my gear card discounts (230$)with 48 month financing

Dude! Congrats! You made the right choice with the XL. This may have actually been my first time ever preordering a product.

Wait, what? Okay, once it's delivered, the "Never Bought Shit" label should definitely come off.

Definitely. Our boy has grown!

 

[timbuck3]

This ain’t theacousticforum.com

Dude! Congrats! You made the right choice with the XL. This may have actually been my first time ever preordering a product.

As I said, I did pre-order the original helix 10 years ago or whatever and I was very underwhelmed within 30 days of using it so I did send it back, but that was 10 years ago that was then and honestly, I haven’t tried the helix since then so I’m a bit apprehensive, but I’m also excited And I trust that line 6 will evolve this product as much if not more than the original helix down the road . I guess the biggest factor is that all those discounts I got but also that it’s local I can get it at the local store guitar center and I can return it just as easy if I really needed to so that’s something that fractal does not really have the ability or kemper locally.
I really hope from what I remember on the original helix that the squirrels are gone with the new engine that’s coming

 

[AlbertA]

Oh, come on it’s no big deal. I’ve been buying gear all year just not modelers. I’ve been on this acoustic kick my favorite brand of acoustic guitar right now is Yamaha. In fact, I kind of went overboard and my acoustics in the last eight months, but I’m kind of where I wanna be as far as my acoustics anyways so now I guess it’s back to modeling
I will say I did buy that new Yamaha Tran acoustic TAC three or whatever it’s called TAG3C and I returned it because it just didn’t sound as good as the old Tran acoustic I had and it was like 9 pounds

So in a way, you've funding the Stadium development all along.

 

[eggpl@nt]

The MF coupon seems to have stopped working.

Damn. Can confirm.