Line 6 Helix Stadium Pre-Launch Discussion

[molul]

Ugh. Much to my dismay, they removed the part where I tell people stem separation won't come until the macOS/Windows app is at 2.1.5 (January). Showcase should otherwise be ready mid-December, before the holidays. (We're deep into stress-testing it right now.) So still technically fall.

Thanks, and good luck with these last days before launch. I hope someone at Line6 is working on the much deserved release party :)

 

[bucephalus]

Not dumb. Just maybe a lack of self awareness and a missed opportunity.

It also might be that they don't know not everyone has got theirs. Not all people waste so much time at places like this.

 

[Gary_W]

Ugh. Much to my dismay, they removed the part where I tell people stem separation won't come until the macOS/Windows app is at 2.1.5 (January). Showcase should otherwise be ready mid-December, before the holidays. (We're deep into stress-testing it right now.) So still technically fall.

I seem to remember you’d previously mentioned stem separation not being in the first showcase version. In my head, I had showcase in Jan and stem separation down the road somewhere next year so this timeline is sounding far better to me than I’d imagined. Good luck with the remaining bits before launch

 

[metropolis_4]

Speaking of which, what would everyone want to see in a Stadium Stomp besides the obvious?

• Better footswitching. Either something like Fractal does where you can choose what each switch does, or at the very least some way to toggle between modes without an external switch
• Gapless preset switching
• Spillover on preset change
• Global blocks, or some other way to have an amp on 10 different presets and when I tweak the settings on one preset and save, those changes are automatically synced on all other presets using it.
• If possible, less impact on tone when running in front of an amp
• Improved amp feel and response
• Combo XLR/1/4” outputs would be nice if possible
• Add the missing 6V6 power section option to the Divided Duo model

Whatever you do, don’t lose the existing I/O or the MIDI capability. It might be the best MIDI controller on the market

 

[Tito83]

While the stem splitting and capture stuff seems cool, I'd like to see some run of the mill life quality improvements that could easily be on the OG Helix line.

- Block presets. So you have a number of presets using the same cab, you make a tweak on a gig and want it to reflect on every other preset. That would make things a lot faster/easier on a number of occasions. Edit @metropolis_4 totally missed on your post, 100% agree it would be a very useful feature.

- Envelope follower and LFO assignable controller. Throw in an editable curve for the expression pedal.

- global input gain. Not my thing, but it's common to see people having some gain boost for specific guitars, I think it would be useful for a lot of people and easy to implement. A bit like the block preset, but I think a gain control on the input seems right.

- Clip detection automatically triggering input pad + digital gain compensation. As someone that used pedals in front of the HX Stomp a lot, something I thought of was to maybe make the input pad automatically turning on when the input clips while also adding the gain back digitally, maybe showing a note that it's happening on screen. That avoids the digital clipping while maintaining the volume/gain boost you intend to use.

- add input impedance values for the FX block. That makes it so that pedals in the unit's FX loop will be able to sound closer compared when having a guitar straight connected to them.

- Rethinking the default value for the input impedance of some effects. There's what's true to the original unit, and there's what's more useful in practice. There's no reason to have low input impedance on some effects like chorus or delays, those are very common mods actually. They are only useful for drive/fuzz pedals. (not that it matters now that I'm using an HF effects... so please add variable input impedance to every device that it's applicable in the future)

- different functions for hold and double press

- add clean signal through to anything that has "mix". A toggle or something, "mix/effect level", so it can work as a mix or just the level for the effect with the dry signal as is. Me personally like to add delay on top of my original signal without changing its level. Apparently you can have many loops with the new devices, but that would be really useful for the OG Helix line.

- minor, but I'd like some sort of high/low cut (high cut specially) for the pitch stuff.

*extra because of hardware limitations

- add usb host capabilities to every new device. The trend of midi through usb doesn't seem to go anywhere, so making it able to control other devices through usb seems like a good idea. Hope it's already there for the new Helix stadium

what's a manual?

I always was the one among my friends that went through the manual of every game I got. To this day, while I may not read it all of it, I'll certainly go through the manual of any piece of gear I get.

 

[EOengineer]

- Rethinking the default value for the input impedance of some effects. There's what's true to the original unit, and there's what's more useful in practice. There's no reason to have low input impedance on some effects like chorus or delays, those are very common mods actually. They are only useful for drive/fuzz pedals. (not that it matters now that I'm using an HF effects... so please add variable input impedance to every device that it's applicable in the future)

A possible solution to this might be to allow setting the impedance on a per-effect basis and then saving that as a favorite for recall later. I’d prefer the stock behavior match the stock gear, personally.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I thought we solved impedance gate 27 years ago at TGP?

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

@Digital Igloo It's Tuesday. Want video. Give me video.

 

[Digital Igloo]

@Digital Igloo It's Tuesday. Want video. Give me video.

Today’s video is super lame. It’s just me talking in my office.

 

[laxu]

Speaking of which, what would everyone want to see in a Stadium Stomp besides the obvious?

The whole Turkey Sandwich of course! But I'm guessing you want to make something smaller than that.

The reason why I never bought the HX Stomp was how gimped the UI was compared to the full Helix. So I would like to see the full HX Stadium UI shrunk down to something more compact. I get the HX Stomp form factor is great, but IMO it could be a little bit larger just fine.

I think the HX Stomp I/O is pretty spot on, I'd maybe swap the MIDI DIN jacks for 1/8" TRS, and obviously USB-C instead of USB-B.

Otherwise I'm down with @metropolis_4 's list of improvements. I think on the HX Stadium Stomp the starting point should be "this is a multifx unit" first, full blown modeler second.

I feel the smaller HX Stadium is still large for people who are fans of e.g HX Effects. The full HX Turkey Sandwich in my mockup is somewhere between the Fractal VP4 and HX Effects in size.

 

[Tito83]

A possible solution to this might be to allow setting the impedance on a per-effect basis and then saving that as a favorite for recall later. I’d prefer the stock behavior match the stock gear, personally.

Make three presets.

1 clean amp (variable impedance on)
2 memory man model -> clean amp (variable impedance on)
3 memory man model -> clean amp (impedance set at 1M)

You tell me what's preferable for what happens when you turn the delay on between these two scenarios. I'll guess it's the second one with the 1M input impedance.

While the vintage unit does have a low input impedance, it's a common mod to have it raised, you'll see many many pedal manufatures go on about this. No modern unit that is known for replicating a vintage unit behaves like this, the Strymon Volante or Boss RE 202 for example.

I thought we solved impedance gate 27 years ago at TGP?

The overall behavior yes, not the default value for some effects.

 

[Lysander]

Today’s video is super lame. It’s just me talking in my office.

Pffft, noooo sir, we're not falling for that again

Post in thread 'Helix Talk'

Jun 1, 2025

Let me just say it before DI gets in here and down plays it

Indeed.

Jeez, talk about setting everyone up for disappointment. The June 11th event is mainly to make up for the fact that we haven't thrown a Helix party at NAMM since before COVID, and the 10 Year Anniversary made sense.

• Digital Igloo

• 
• 
• 

 

[banned]

Thanks, and good luck with these last days before launch. I hope someone at Line6 is working on the much deserved release party :)

The whole Turkey Sandwich of course! But I'm guessing you want to make something smaller than that.

The reason why I never bought the HX Stomp was how gimped the UI was compared to the full Helix. So I would like to see the full HX Stadium UI shrunk down to something more compact. I get the HX Stomp form factor is great, but IMO it could be a little bit larger just fine.

I think the HX Stomp I/O is pretty spot on, I'd maybe swap the MIDI DIN jacks for 1/8" TRS, and obviously USB-C instead of USB-B.

Otherwise I'm down with @metropolis_4 's list of improvements. I think on the HX Stadium Stomp the starting point should be "this is a multifx unit" first, full blown modeler second.

I feel the smaller HX Stadium is still large for people who are fans of e.g HX Effects. The full HX Turkey Sandwich in my mockup is somewhere between the Fractal VP4 and HX Effects in size.

Really like your design! Super cool compared to existing Stomp.

 

[metropolis_4]

I think on the HX Stadium Stomp the starting point should be "this is a multifx unit" first, full blown modeler second.

I agree. For me, the Stomp should be thought of as the HX/Stadium for pedalboards

It’s a pedalboard multi-tool and amps just happen to be one of those tools

 

[SymphonicDischord]

For all my Canadian brethren on this thread, I did my preorder through Long & McQuade and I got an email yesterday stating it would be available for pickup at my local store November 28th. I’m out west so I wouldn’t be surprised if central Canada starts to see them 4 or 5 days earlier.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

For me, the Stomp should be thought of as the HX/Stadium for pedalboards

 

[GTR37]

The whole Turkey Sandwich of course! But I'm guessing you want to make something smaller than that.

The reason why I never bought the HX Stomp was how gimped the UI was compared to the full Helix. So I would like to see the full HX Stadium UI shrunk down to something more compact. I get the HX Stomp form factor is great, but IMO it could be a little bit larger just fine.

I think the HX Stomp I/O is pretty spot on, I'd maybe swap the MIDI DIN jacks for 1/8" TRS, and obviously USB-C instead of USB-B.

Otherwise I'm down with @metropolis_4 's list of improvements. I think on the HX Stadium Stomp the starting point should be "this is a multifx unit" first, full blown modeler second.

I feel the smaller HX Stadium is still large for people who are fans of e.g HX Effects. The full HX Turkey Sandwich in my mockup is somewhere between the Fractal VP4 and HX Effects in size.

I’ll take 5

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

Curious how that smaller mockup compares in size to the current Stomp. I like the idea. It's kinda like an FM3.

 

[GTR37]

Another intresting thing I saw
A Japan store seems to have the regular Stadium showing delivers Dec 16th

 

[mbenigni]

Yeah that PSU sucks big hairy donkey b@ll$ .. don't know what they were thinking but it is what it is.

Form-factor alone though the QC is just perfect imho; absolute joy to grab-and-go, fit in a case etc.

I do legitimately like the QC, in terms of UI and the tones I've tried. But yeah, not a fan of that PS shit.

The wall wart and barrel jack connector actually work better for me in some ways.



QC itself is smaller than it otherwise would be, and I can easily run it on a laptop battery under a pedal board. That said, the QC's noise floor is a little worrisome, but no one's managed to convince me (yet) that the wall wart is the reason. (I think it's more likely a matter of "smaller" resulting in more cumulative induced noise between circuit elements.) Regardless, I'm expecting the Stadium will be quieter, and that'll probably be enough to chase the QCs out of the house by and by.