Line 6 Helix Stadium Pre-Launch Discussion

[synthpenguin]

Yeah, I'll be interested to see some full walk-through type demoes where we get to see and hear an amp being tweaked.

I didn't love a lot of these tones, and while that's very subjective, and "bad" tones can be dialed in with real amps too, it's tough reading through threads (not here) where the "this is nothing compared to the QC / Fractal / Tonex / NAM" and "we don't even need a new Helix; the current gen sounds just as good as this" camps are fed by them. And while it is very subjective, some of these amps have stereotypical expected sounds, so I think it can give a weird impression when, say, a Plexi is dialed in to be so dark with no other point of reference.

It would be cool to even just see some focus view tone morphing going on during demoes like these, especially when the amps are setup to be very dark or thin to start.

 

[[Nathan]]

I ended up playing Panama Red on helix native for about an hour, pretty glorious. No doubt the Agoura stuff is a couple notches better.
The Fluff style tones sounded like they could have benefitted from a 6-8db vol boost into the amp. They were probably using boost pedals already but sometimes just an extra kick into the front of the amp is what's needed for the genre.

 

[Lysander]

FINALLY:

Oh, that's more like it

I swear to god, Pete Thorn must've been born with a Plexi, because the tones he gets out of those amps/models floor me every time.

 

[Lysander]

Fun tidbit for the high-gain clip: All of the tones were dialed in by Line 6's Igor Solarsky. Pretty remarkable because he really nailed their usual tonal tendencies.

That explains a lot; Igor definitely knows how to dial a tone. His video tone-matching Helix to NDSP's Gojira sounded amazing.

 

[Stone]

Really you guys go by what you hear on YT vids ? I mean it might be ok or terrible, consider it's not your gear, not your enviro, not your ear, and not your playing and everybody will listen to it though different systems One might listen to it through a Hi-Fi others headphones some even BT speakers.
Point is way too many variables to judge, only way to know is order one, tweak it to your liking with your axe and use your hearing and then judge is it a keeper? or do i use my timbucks to return it and get a refund?

 

[Orvillain]

Really you guys go bye

Oi! I'm not going anywhere!

 

[synthpenguin]

imo if you are listening to a demo on a good playback system you’re familiar with and have listened to lots of other demoes on, you can definitely form an opinion on a guitar sound from a demo. You may not be getting every nuance or the feeling of playing it, but you can judge a sound relative to your experiences with that same playback system.

I think it’s fair to not like some of those sounds in that demo, but I don’t think anyone here is throwing out the Stadium based on that.

 

[Gary_W]

Really you guys go bye what you hear on YT vids ? I mean it might be ok or terrible, consider it's not your gear, not your enviro, not your ear, and not your playing and everybody will listen to it though different systems One might listen to it through a Hi-Fi others headphones some even BT speakers.
Point is way too many variables to judge, only way to know is order one, tweak it to your liking with you axe and use your hearing and then judge is it a keeper? or do i use my timbucks to return it and get a refund?

I love seeing the clips and they help with the excitement / anticipation of getting one but I’m not basing my decision on playback of tones from YouTube.

I’m coming from a Kemper I’ve been happy with. My tone decision here is based on me trying the current version of Helix Native on a two week free trial. The fact that there were several sounds in there I liked more than my Kemper pleasantly surprised me - I didn’t see that coming. So my tone decision is based on ‘I like some of the current stuff in Native and the stadium will have all that plus other tones that are newer modelling so will be technically better still’.

From a wider context beyond tone expectations (based on Native), my decision comes from Stadium having some additional features at release that I’ll enjoy. That plus Line 6 being up front with all the hardware changes in this unit vs the last generation; I’m confident I’ll be buying something genuinely new that will have enough legs in the hardware to be supported with meaningful upgrades for several years. It’s these things that have caused me to change camps here - despite trying my best to understand the changes, Kemper were not interested in reassuring me that I wasn’t basically buying the same hardware again as my current (aging but still great) toaster if I stayed with them. Plain communication so as I can make an informed decision makes sense to me and I commend the Line 6 marketing folks for the way they’ve done this and also Eric for his open nature here - these things matter to me more than the YouTube videos.

 

[EOengineer]

YouTube clips are just data. Most of us are not making buying decisions solely on the clips. The community has wanted new gen Helix for YEARS and the clips are all we really have to see/hear it in action.

If people can’t understand this, I’m not sure how to help them.

 

[ian_dissonance]

YouTube clips are just data. Most of us are not making buying decisions solely on the clips. The community has wanted new gen Helix for YEARS and the clips are all we really have to see/hear it in action.

If people can’t understand this, I’m not sure how to help them.

Clips are fine, it’s the whole “ermahgawd it’s soooo goood/soooo baaad” comments that sound silly. There’s literally no way to tell if it’s better or not from a YT clip, imo. I’m also one that wants to see someone sit down and build a tone from scratch and add a bunch of FX and assign them to footswitches and make snapshots and then dial it in using an aux input the mixer matrix to get a solo performance set up and ready to go. At this point why even bother if it doesn’t sound good? Show me the process on the device, because of course it sounds good. I could see a demo having audio value if there was some new esoteric effect or a unique reverb/delay. Straight amp tones have to be good at this point.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

It’s not that hard to make sick sounding demos, and playback medium shouldn’t be too hard of a barrier. Generally speaking, I find listening on phones and inferior speakers to usually flatter guitar tones and it’s only really on studio monitors or good headphones that I can hear the real details.

They’re a necessary evil in that not everyone will like every tone but that’s true for anything, modellers or not. And we’re all happy to hear complements no matter what we’re listening on, the playback medium gets more typically associated with tones that get a negative reaction.

 

[Chocol8]

Anything uploaded to YouTube in the last few months has not only been compressed, but also processed by their internal AI. It is sometimes clearly visible in a bad way and who knows what it is doing to the audio. I don’t think you can make any reliable judgement off of YouTube videos these days.

 

[GTR37]

Not gonna lie. I watched all of Pete, some of Fluff, and skipped over Javier. Not because I don't like him. It's just that I don't go for those tones.

Loved Pete's stuff. That probably shouldn't have been a surprise to me.

I thought Pete’s stuff was decent it still felt very restrained , I myself am after something like big chords ringing out not just the picking , I also agree with other it was a bit dark and muffled , overall decent

Fluff had the 5153 blue and red sounding good and a bit more bite

Javier did a nice job with the Ampeg SVT

My impressions as other said you can’t judge it from a you tube video , I am sure the tones are in there , but tones in my wheelhouse have not yet been well represented
I really like the AC, Princess Double black but some of the higher gain stuff and Marshall’s have not got me yet

But again that personal preference and comparing it to sounds i like and work for me

 

[dk_ace]

I did not care for any of those tones. The Essex? Ugh.

Same. It ain’t the hardware, I’ve heard plenty of stadium clips that sounded dope. But I didn’t like any of these at all.

D

 

[dk_ace]

Pretty much in line of him saying he's mainly a live player. For live, any excessive low or high end will not be too great, so you get used to dial in rather mid-rangey tones.

Couldn’t disagree more. I’m primarily a live player and go aggressively towards the highs and high mids. I hate those super midrangey tones and find they get buried in a mix more than ones that are tuned a little higher on the frequency spectrum.

D

 

[Sascha Franck]

I’m primarily a live player and go aggressively towards the highs and high mids.

I'm sure your bandmates and the FOH folks love you.

 

[dk_ace]

Many places have a no amp/cab statement because they're used to super loud amps and are trying to bring down stage volumes. They simply don't know any better.

If you can convince them that you can stay within (or much lower than) the output level of an acoustic drumset, a cab will work and is a million times better than any IEM or FRFR. I've played this way for a long time - I send an IR signal to FOH.

Now if it's completely silent stage - then, yes, nothing can be done. Might as well play an audio track at that point. No drummer wants to touch an electronic drumset if they can help it so many of these so called 'silent stages' have acoustic drumsets.

Getting and keeping work is usually accomplished by being really good with your instrument, a cool hang, and super agreeable to work with. Trying to get them to change existing policies for you is never in your best interest assuming there are other people around who are good and cool and won’t put them through that hassle.

I totally agree that the ban on guitar amps for a lot of gigs is ridiculous. I rarely argue about it though. You either want the gig and will work with the baggage that comes with it, or you don’t. There’s usually someone else who will be happy to take it.

D

 

[dk_ace]

I'm sure your bandmates and the FOH folks love you.

Actually, they do… I’m usually told that my signal basically needs nothing to sit perfectly in the mix.

I didn’t do this blindly. I did it after many reviews of board recordings, video, and broadcast work. Took me a while to learn what worked. It ain’t that weird midrangey thing. It ain’t the stuff in that clip. I’m not saying that those clip tones would be awful in a mix, just that I didn’t like them and you don’t have to dial things in that way to sit in a mix.

D

 

[Sascha Franck]

It ain’t that weird midrangey thing.

Mike Landau would disagree.

 

[timbuck3]

Really you guys go by what you hear on YT vids ? I mean it might be ok or terrible, consider it's not your gear, not your enviro, not your ear, and not your playing and everybody will listen to it though different systems One might listen to it through a Hi-Fi others headphones some even BT speakers.
Point is way too many variables to judge, only way to know is order one, tweak it to your liking with your axe and use your hearing and then judge is it a keeper? or do i use my timbucks to return it and get a refund?