Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[Chocol8]

Umm, are you guys just finding ways to not say aliasing?

??? That's not aliasing. It's something real tubes do.

 

[JiveTurkey]

FWIW; I am as Fractal as they get and I am enjoying the Stadium experience overall. Looking forward to more jamming on it \m/

 

[GuitarJon]

Reasonable fractal enjoyers are playing guitar, mostly.

I enjoy my FM9 too! :)

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Not meant for people on this forum per se, but are there any Fractal Audio fans out there who can be like "cool unit, good for line 6, enjoy guys!". Cause, I'm seeing much more of the other approach...

Not a Fractal fanboy - I actually just sold my Axe-Fx III to fund the Stadium. Fractal's modeling has always sounded much warmer and fuller in the low mids than Line 6's. The Agoura models now seem to be much closer to what I hear with Fractal.

 

[AlbertA]

??? That's not aliasing. It's something real tubes do.

He was taking about "disembodied distortion"

 

[EOengineer]

If you cross your eyes when reading the Stadium manual it says all Fractal players have overly sensitive nipples.

 

[Chocol8]

But on the whole I find the speaker impedance worries overblown. Does it include modeling of a speaker impedance curve that reasonably matches a guitar cab? Then I’m good.

Yep! The audible difference in impedance curves from speaker to speaker and cab to cab are pretty subtle for the most part (with real amps and cabs). The difference between a real curve and no curve or one that doesn't mimic a speaker cab are much bigger issues.

 

[EOengineer]

Yep! The audible difference in impedance curves from speaker to speaker and cab to cab are pretty subtle for the most part (with real amps and cabs). The difference between a real curve and no curve or one that doesn't mimic a speaker cab are much bigger issues.

More or less I just want to shove the inevitable Agoura triple rectifier through the 8inch tweed champ cab so I finally know what that sounds like without cooking my real amps. I’m hoping Agoura accurately models a full on meltdown.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Not meant for people on this forum per se, but are there any Fractal Audio fans out there who can be like "cool unit, good for line 6, enjoy guys!". Cause, I'm seeing much more of the other approach...

Most FB groups for brands tend to be like "I wonder what wine pairs best with Cliff's/Christoph's/Doug's boots for the licking?"

Not knocking on any of those guys. But all brands attract sycophants.

 

[brianwahl]

So this comparison brings me back to…why does the Agoura Deluxe Reverb have SO LITTLE gain compared to the Hx model. It’s immediately apparent in this comparison. It’s not a small difference. Sure, we’re not usually looking for a deluxe to breath fire…but it’s an interesting detail.

I have two Deluxe Reverbs. One is an almost 100% original '67 Deluxe with an Oxford speaker. The other is an Alessandro re-built deluxe, built to '65 specs with an Alessandro GA-SC64 speaker (which is supposed to replicate an old Jensen, I think?).

The breakup character of the my '67 is almost exactly like the Agoura model. The HX model breaks before my actual amp does.

The Alessandro amp is actually cleaner than the Agoura model. Could be the speaker is more efficient, maybe?. But it's just evidence that all these real-world amps behave a bit differently, and it probably all depends on the actual amp Line 6 has, and whether it's vintage or not. I'd love for them to give us more info on the actual amps they modeled. Like what year they are, what, if any, mods have been done (or un-done) to them, etc. But I'm an amp nerd, ha.

 

[GuitarJon]

Most FB groups for brands tend to be like "I wonder what wine pairs best with Cliff's/Christoph's/Doug's boots for the licking?"

Not knocking on any of those guys. But all brands attract sycophants.

Tbh, this is the only forum that I still visit... Aside from my comment section, FB groups etc

 

[brianwahl]

This is absolutely true. And claims about aliasing cannot be proven with ears either. You need scopes and sweeps and measurements.

Welcome @brianwahl btw !!

Thank you!

 

[paisleywookiee]

Tbh, this is the only forum that I still visit... Aside from my comment section, FB groups etc

Me too. Well, I don't have a comments section (except my wife and kids), but this is the only forum I still go on.

 

[JiveTurkey]

No, I'm not. Haven't even gotten mine yet. But I already know you have particular workflow and tastes, and I respect it, bro.

1.2 is bringing sumthin, sumthin new amp wise in December, which is just a few weeks away.

In the meantime, I'm reeeeaaaaaaally curious to see how you get along with the Agoura Bogner Ecstasy Red. That's an amp that can provide a lot of different high-gain tones with all of the switches, and definitely with different drive pedals in front of it.

I tried the Bogners and the SLO and the EVH. They all had a modern metal chug vibe immediately. Using the same IR I didn't hear a big difference in experience between them? I enjoyed the EVH the most. It was the one I stuck with out of that pile?

I found myself greatly preferring the traditional Helix signal chain view vs. focus view when dialing things in. The graphical view of an amp with visuals I wasn't jiving with at a 45 degree angle lost out to the functional signal chain view every time.

Must be the FASshole in me

 

[Fireproof]

Brian here ( I created Worship Tutorials, and Bradford and I created Signal Theory).

We have been discussing starting a new brand for years now, and finally it seemed like the time was right. Worship Tutorials was original intended to make.... worship tutorials, ha. In the beginning that's really all I did - teach how to play worship songs in church.

Over time we focussed our content more and more on gear, presets, captures, etc. It always felt strange for us to do that on a church/worship channel, and we also felt it would be difficult for guitar players outside of the (admittedly odd at times) sub-genre of modern praise and worship to either be interested at all in our content, or to take us seriously.

We also wanted to split the business of our presets and captures away from a Christian/church centric brand. I made both Def Leppard and Slash signature presets this past year. Putting those on Worship Tutorials feels... weird.

So we wanted a brand that was solely focussed on gear/presets/catpures, etc. And we wanted Worship Tutorials to be able to go back to its initial vision of providing content specifically for church players.

So, in a round about way, yes - we created Signal Theory because nobody would take a high gain demo from Worship Tutorials seriously .

We do have some Stadium content on Worship Tutorials on Youtube, but it's us using it to play worship songs. OK - back to Stadium talk.

Makes a ton of sense.

Great move. Hope that leads to continued success!

 

[Jarick]

Not meant for people on this forum per se, but are there any Fractal Audio fans out there who can be like "cool unit, good for line 6, enjoy guys!". Cause, I'm seeing much more of the other approach...

Unfortunately people get some weird insecurity over their gear.

That’s why I dig your videos, you’re not afraid to go against the grain. You got a helix rack when everyone else was jumping to axe fx 3, you are the only one I know who actually did updated clips with the fender TMP after it got fixed, and no surprise you’re pulling some of the best tones out of the new helix. All while still presenting great tones out of the fractal as well.

 

[ejecta]

What do you guys think of this?

 

[Jarick]

Welcome @brianwahl ! I hope you stick around through the insanity! You’ve got tons and tons of practical experience and knowledge to share. Congrats on your work post launch too, outstanding stuff.

 

[brianwahl]

Welcome @brianwahl ! I hope you stick around through the insanity! You’ve got tons and tons of practical experience and knowledge to share. Congrats on your work post launch too, outstanding stuff.

Thank you so much!

 

[ejecta]

You're gonna Jehovah's Witness me into returning this thing

IMHO if I were you I’d go back to Fractal because that seems to be where your tastes seem be best satisfied. Not sure you’re going to find anything outside those sounds since you seem so into the company and their products. I don’t think any of the modern modelers are worth switching between so much just to think the tones are going to be light years different between them because they are not. The whole grass isn’t greener thing and as always YMMV