Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[synthpenguin]

Amalgam have said they would but I've not had any news on any of my packs being updated yet. Anyone else?

Tbh I haven’t kept track of it, but afaik it’s tied to issues with the new website, which was going to provide the system to provide the updates…? I could be wrong though as I haven’t looked since my Tonex experiment ended.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

<bites tongue>

 

[dean701]

To put the reverbs in perspective, there is nothing wrong with these reverbs as a baseline at 0:30. More reverbs are always welcome though.

 

[synthpenguin]

To put the reverbs in perspective, there is nothing wrong with these reverbs as a baseline at 0:30. More reverbs are always welcome though.

They’re definitely good enough for a lot of contexts, and it’s great that a lot of people are happy with them. But they’re still reverbs from 2021 built to work on a much-lower-powered unit, and that weren’t really competitive with what their competition had then, or what popular dedicated pedals released in 2013 have, let alone what the competing modelers are offering now. I think some new ones would be great, and these would still be here for people who don’t need better ones and want to save the DSP :)

 

[EOengineer]

The reverb wars are up there with the accuracy wars. It's been a whole 12 seconds since we've debated these topics.

 

[BadCat90]

The Only Agoura amps I'm waiting for are the BE-100 and the Dumble. I prefer models because they respond to tweaking better than captures IMO.

I agree that some new Agoura level FX would be great... starting with an updated Rotary block. The envelop filter has sucked for a while as well.

Plus one vote for the BE-100. Now that I’ve got the Matchless the BE is the last amp I’d want…and maybe the Peavey 5150 haha

 

[mikah912]

They’re definitely good enough for a lot of contexts, and it’s great that a lot of people are happy with them. But they’re still reverbs from 2021 built to work on a much-lower-powered unit, and that weren’t really competitive with what their competition had then, or what popular dedicated pedals released in 2013 have, let alone what the competing modelers are offering now. I think some new ones would be great, and these would still be here for people who don’t need better ones and want to save the DSP :)

You do realize that "new" reverbs will probably be compatible with the "much-lower-powered" Helix as well? (For reference, OG Helix Floor hardware is roughly the same as FM3 and more powerful than Kemper.)

I'll continue to note that I find it odd that people aren't fans of the last several gens of Line 6 algorithmic reverbs, yet desperately want more (cue "I hate this restaurant, and the portions are so small!" joke) that would be programmed by....the same people.

You can absolutely note that Fractal or Kemper has some esoteric cloud ones that have some complexity Line 6 doesn't, but if you didn't like them before.....more processing power probably won't change your mind.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

The reverb wars are up there with the accuracy wars. It's been a whole 12 seconds since we've debated these topics.

 

[dean701]

I don't think a more powerful processor justifies making more reverbs that use more dsp as that just limits block count.
as seen by clones and Agoura models, they use more dsp already.
However, there is no harm in refining reverbs based on cool new features or lessons learned.
I don't buy the fact that the same reverb has to be cross platform. FAS does not use the exact same reverb across the FM3, 9 and III. They can be coded differently and are coded per platform based on its architecture.

 

[synthpenguin]

You do realize that "new" reverbs will probably be compatible with the "much-lower-powered" Helix as well?

I'll continue to note that I find it odd that people aren't fans of the last several gens of Line 6 algorithmic reverbs, yet desperately want more (cue "I hate this restaurant, and the portions are so small!" joke) that would be programmed by....the same people.

You can absolutely note that Fractal or Kemper has some esoteric cloud ones that have some complexity Line 6 doesn't, but if you didn't like them before.....more processing power probably won't change your mind.

I don’t think a new reverb for Stadium has to be made to perform well on Helix (which *is* much lower powered). I get that they said they’d try to release any new FX on Helix too, but if a new looper doesn’t have to, then a new reverb doesn’t either.

And yes, the increased processing power absolutely allows them to do reverb in different ways that will give a more complex and realistic sound.

Making a good modern reverb is a thing people know how to do when you have the system resources to do it. I have full faith in Line 6 and the excellent people they have hired being able to do it.

I don’t really want to eat up this thread talking about this though. My original comment was just that Stadium looks great and even better with Proxy, but that for me personally that aspect is still not great, so I hope they revisit them soon or hint that they will.

 

[JiveTurkey]

If anything; who cares what some entitled PodGo turd thinks they should have ported downward

 

[dean701]

If anything; who cares what some entitled PodGo turd thinks they should have ported downward

funny enough Rik Emmett has his gear ready for the 2026 Triumph tour and is going with the PODGo.

 

[JiveTurkey]

funny enough Rik Emmett has his gear ready for the 2026 Triumph tour and is going with the PODGo.

View attachment 60777

FFS someone get the man a Stadium!

 

[synthpenguin]

FFS someone get the man a Stadium!

But the vintage warmth of the PODGo converters…

 

[dws2384]

I agree that some new Agoura level FX would be great... starting with an updated Rotary block. The envelop filter has sucked for a while as well.

The modulations certainly aren’t a strong point.

 

[JiveTurkey]

But the vintage warmth of the PODGo converters…

 

[molul]

I wonder if the data gathered by the proxy captures sent to the cloud can be used to improve the Agoura engine somehow.

This is totally made up, but seeing that a proxy capture takes up same DSP as an Agoura amp, I wonder if the data sent to the cloud creates an "Agoura instance" based on that data. If that's correct, then all Proxy captures could help to improve the engine.

 

[dean701]

The modulations certainly aren’t a strong point.

I don't like any phaser on any modeler. I've always thought it was the modelers that are doing something to the signal as it passes through all of the amp parameters. If I put my my phase 90 into the Helix loop it sounds very close. If I use it externally, whol nutha level.

 

[mikah912]

I don’t think a new reverb for Stadium has to be made to perform well on Helix (which *is* much lower powered). I get that they said they’d try to release any new FX on Helix too, but if a new looper doesn’t have to, then a new reverb doesn’t either.

And yes, the increased processing power absolutely allows them to do reverb in different ways that will give a more complex and realistic sound.

Making a good modern reverb is a thing people know how to do when you have the system resources to do it. I have full faith in Line 6 and the excellent people they have hired being able to do it.

I don’t really want to eat up this thread talking about this though. My original comment was just that Stadium looks great and even better with Proxy, but that for me personally that aspect is still not great, so I hope they revisit them soon or hint that they will.

As I noted above, everything you like about Fractal in those categories is present in the OG Helix's level of processing power in the FM3. I don't think that's a constraint at all.

I think it's more where their development priorities were in the past few years (understandably it was on Stadium), although I'll also agree that they haven't done much on modulations in that time. Some new in-housemade rotary, micropitch, chorus and flanging "engines" with lots of tweakable parameters would certainly be handy. Personally, I don't use modulation much, and when I do...I pretty much just go with Leon Todd's favorites in those categories.

I would also enjoy new reverbs, but I'm coming from the perspective that I enjoy the ones they currently have too. I just know there are some capabilities/complexities I enjoyed when I had my FM9 that they objectively do not currently offer.

One good example are the Fractal "cloud/space" reverbs. Some of them sound like you have a keyboard player playing right behind you like the Pegasus reverb that Cooper Carter demonstrates here:

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Good digital reverbs have existed for ages on REALLY primitive processing power. For truly incredible modern reverbs, I can understand the need for processing power but a lot can be done with very little when they're well designed.