Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[Orvillain]

Not everyone has “musical problems”. Anything that allows me to think less about my gear is as or more valuable than 2dB at 3khz.

If you don't have a musical problem to solve, then why are you even using musical gear?

Maybe you don't understand my point still. I tried to simplify it. But you just interpretted it into some kind of sarcastic claim - I don't know why you'd bring up 2dB at 3kHz. That has nothing to do with what I said.

 

[ian_dissonance]

If you don't have a musical problem to solve, then why are you even using musical gear?

Maybe you don't understand my point still. I tried to simplify it. But you just interpretted it into some kind of sarcastic claim - I don't know why you'd bring up 2dB at 3kHz. That has nothing to do with what I said.

I guess I truly don’t know what musical problem is solved by absolute accuracy versus device usability.

 

[Orvillain]

I guess I truly don’t know what musical problem is solved by absolute accuracy versus device usability.

I guess you don't.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Thing is, most of the folks arguing kinda contra global blocks (or at least telling you it's irrelevant) are not playing live regularly. Business as usual.

Just because someone’s not gigging right this second doesn’t invalidate their viewpoint. To think so is utter nonsense.

 

[Orvillain]

Just because someone’s not gigging right this second doesn’t invalidate their viewpoint. To think so is utter nonsense.

It's not even true. I've gigged solidly for most of my adult life. I had a dry spell for the past 3 years or so, up until the other week.

 

[paisleywookiee]

It's not even true. I've gigged solidly for most of my adult life. I had a dry spell for the past 3 years or so, up until the other week.

I’ve literally had a 6 year dry spell. But shit happens, and it’s tough to get going again. I have, on the other hand, built and programmed a lot of Helix, Fractal, and BOSS rigs for other musicians.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Just because someone’s not gigging right this second doesn’t invalidate their viewpoint. To think so is utter nonsense.

Global blocks are only really relevant for gigging folks. And apparently it's only gigging folks understanding the wish for such a function.
But keep going.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Global blocks are only really relevant for gigging folks. And apparently it's only gigging folks understanding the wish for such a function.
But keep going.

This is why you’re an arrogant moron. But keep going.

Btw, I’m not against adding it, as I already said. I’m just saying there are more important issues at hand.

 

[sashimi]

I haven’t played a gig in years, and never with a modeler, always with an amp. I want global blocks because I like making different variations of my main preset and it would make that a lot simpler.

 

[paisleywookiee]

I haven’t played a gig in years, and never with a modeler, always with an amp. I want global blocks because I like making different variations of my main preset and it would make that a lot simpler.

Ooh, that’s a tough one! Will he agree with you because you agree with him? Or is your opinion invalid because you’re not the pro he is!!

 

[ian_dissonance]

I guess you don't.

You could explain it. I guess I don’t even know what a musical problem is in this context. All my problems exist between brain and fingers, everything else is just minor annoyances. My line of discussion is based on what options get the gear as far back in my mind as possible when I’m making music or playing music live or rehearsing. Things like block favorites, global blocks, easy preset management, etc are the things I think about more than accuracy. That doesn’t mean it’s not important, obviously, but I really do feel it’s a game of inches that doesn’t interest me anymore for my use. At this point I can get killer tones (for me) out of just about any piece of modeling equipment that has the FX I need, so the test of the gear (for me) is how little I consider it during a performance or while writing or whatever. It’s not supposed to an argument about whose needs are more important.

 

[paisleywookiee]

You could explain it. I guess I don’t even know what a musical problem is in this context. All my problems exist between brain and fingers, everything else is just minor annoyances. My line of discussion is based on what options get the gear as far back in my mind as possible when I’m making music or playing music live or rehearsing. Things like block favorites, global blocks, easy preset management, etc are the things I think about more than accuracy. That doesn’t mean it’s not important, obviously, but I really do feel it’s a game of inches that doesn’t interest me anymore for my use. At this point I can get killer tones (for me) out of just about any piece of modeling equipment that has the FX I need, so the test of the gear (for me) is how little I consider it during a performance or while writing or whatever. It’s not supposed to an argument about whose needs are more important.

The thing I really wish the Stadium had, and it doesn't look like it's ever happening, are block channels. For me, that's more important than nearly everything outside of actual sound quality. You can work around it in other ways, but channels on Fractal are awesome. There are guys on 2-3 presets, vs. far more on other platforms that I've worked with.

 

[laxu]

You say:
Usability > perfect tone authenticity.

I say:
We already had functional systems 15+ years ago so "more functionality" is not solving a real musical problem. The only thing left to improve is tone.

If your modelling still doesn’t sound right, then "more features" or "more functionality" is not a compensation, it’s a distraction.

The way I see it, the less effort and annoyance there is with working with my gear, the more time I spend playing. That's why I want modelers to be functionally really fast to use. They're getting there with this gen.

I could say that we have had good enough tone for over 20 years in digital products. No records were cancelled because someone had to record with a Line6 POD. But we are far, far away from the sound of those devices, right? For the past 7-10 years we have had incremental improvements on the little details of modeling rather than any drastic "wow that sounds so much better" epiphanies.

We are in a phase of fine details that most people would not even notice if they weren't in some firmware update as a bullet point. Like the latest Axe-Fx 3 update has a whole pile of fixes to wrong virtual values and whatnot, yet nobody was complaining those models didn't sound quite right.

Those are important things for the developers of the devices to chase, but it won't kill my enjoyment if an amp that I don't own or have never used doesn't sound exactly like the real deal down to the finest detail. I wouldn't know any better. There have even been cases where people enjoyed the flawed model for what it was because it sounded good to them, and a couple of those live on as custom FAS models.

So at this point I'd rather take a unit that is better to use than one that sounds marginally better.

Now you could argue that if the tone is spot on, then you will spend less time tweaking it, and that can be true as well. I've certainly spent less time getting tones I want out of the Fractal AM4 than I did with the Hotone Ampero 2 Stomp for example.

But I don't see functionality and sound upgrades as mutually exclusive things. Line6 always provides both. There's always multiple teams working on this stuff.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I haven’t played a gig in years, and never with a modeler, always with an amp. I want global blocks because I like making different variations of my main preset and it would make that a lot simpler.

Perfectly legit. And not contradicting what I said.