Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[ejecta]

People have talked about the low midrange, and that seems to be where it's most noticeable, but if you listen for it, it shows up all over.

Man if I have the same experience this will make it a keeper for me. The mids are where I think ALL modelers really don’t have it right especially with lower gain crunch tones. The need to be rich and have a warmth that helps them poke through in a mix.

I hope I don’t have my hopes up too much but I’ll find out later today when I get home.

I like what I’m hearing so far.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Chatting in a PM chain on this. The more I think about it; Proxy will be a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE draw on this.

1. Not going to get anything Neural.

2. Tone-X, different reasons than NDSP but generally same POV for me. Captures never turned out for me and was just an absolute slog for nothing.

3. If Fractal has their own capturing process; I'd 1000% give it a go. As is described and planned with NAM; I'm not sitting at home doing NAM nerd stuff. Yuck. I'll just grab a FAS amp and go. That'll will probably remain to be the case anyway.

4. Helix is poised with Proxy to smash this particular niche-but-not-really-a-niche feature out of the park, imo.

 

[Jarick]

Where you setting the treble on the Fractal model? I find myself putting at 9:00 or lower. And of course, depends on cab and mic.

Great feedback! I always struggle with getting knobs too far away from noon, but I tend to run this model around 10-11:00 and then lower the bright cap value. I don't like removing the bright cap but default it's pretty aggressive unless the gain is run up high. Because the Helix doesn't have adjustable bright cap I wanted to get a sense for how bright it is out of the gate.

 

[EOengineer]

Great feedback! I always struggle with getting knobs too far away from noon, but I tend to run this model around 10-11:00 and then lower the bright cap value. I don't like removing the bright cap but default it's pretty aggressive unless the gain is run up high. Because the Helix doesn't have adjustable bright cap I wanted to get a sense for how bright it is out of the gate.

Your post here is a perfect example of why opinions vary so wildly on 800s. You can try a dozen, some will have the cap clipped, others will use a different value, etc. Fractal got this right by exposing that bright cap value as a parameter. We’re still very early with Agoura so no idea whether parameters like this show up, but I will say check out the Superbass if the 800 is too snappy for you. Once you crank it there is some common ground to be covered there.

 

[dbagchee]

2. Tone-X, different reasons than NDSP but generally same POV for me. Captures never turned out for me and was just an absolute slog for nothing.

If Proxy is on par with TONEX (which I expect it to be) it will be a grand slam for Line 6. I've really turned around my perspective on captures after really digging in to TONEX more since getting the TONEX One. You still have to slog through captures, but generally the curated sets vendors put together do the heavy lifting.

I think Jon mentioned this in one of his videos too, this is week 1 of the next 10 year cycle - we're on the ground floor of what the Stadium has the potential to be.

 

[Jarick]

Chatting in a PM chain on this. The more I think about it; Proxy will be a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE draw on this.

1. Not going to get anything Neural.

2. Tone-X, different reasons than NDSP but generally same POV for me. Captures never turned out for me and was just an absolute slog for nothing.

3. If Fractal has their own capturing process; I'd 1000% give it a go. As is described and planned with NAM; I'm not sitting at home doing NAM nerd stuff. Yuck. I'll just grab a FAS amp and go. That'll will probably remain to be the case anyway.

4. Helix is poised with Proxy to smash this particular niche-but-not-really-a-niche feature out of the park, imo.

Yes that will be really interesting to see how it develops. From my experience:

Quad Cortex didn't nail the gain, levels, and EQ properly. Captures always sounded under gained. I almost always preferred stock models over what I could create. I'm just generally suspect of them though.

ToneX definitely sounded a bit more accurate, but running through the software and whatever random chain of hardware is a mess, along with the crapshoot of levels. Plus the software mess. First time I shot a capture sounded awesome, then Tonex lost my capture next time I fire up the software, and then I tried to re-shoot with the same exact hardware chain and there was a ton of noise.

Kemper for as much shit as they get at least normalizes the hardware part of the capture and has a long track record of success. We need to get the Mk2 profiling to see if there's truly an improvement or not, because the current process lacks consistency and the end result lacks fidelity.

NAM I have zero interest in unless there is a consistent hardware capture portion. So if NAM capturing can be done with Axe FX 4 or Stadium, then I'm more intrigued. Right now it seems too wild west.

I also really think what we do with the captures afterwards will be key. Kemper is miles ahead of the rest in terms of adjusting profiles. Again we need to see Mk2 here, but there's a lot of opportunity beyond a simple EQ and level.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Well, I've been playing all morning, using my JS2000. And I've gotta say, I MUCH prefer the HX amps, especially the 2203 and SLO.

Then again, I don't actually have an HX Stadium, so I've just been using Helix Native. That might be why I like them more. It's better than imaginary modelers sitting here.

Seriously though, this sounds so good. If Agoura is even just a hair better, I don't know what I'd find to complain about.

 

[brianwahl]

Speaking of which @Digital Igloo - feature request for the future... IR creator on the unit. Export as WAV file please. Not a proprietary format.

I would love this as well!

 

[paisleywookiee]

I would love this as well!

Yeah, I wonder how hard that'd be to do, if they're already planning on Proxy for the whole chain? I'd love to be able to do IR's on-device, of literally every Mesa, Marshall, and Suhr cab I can get my hands on in the shop!

 

[Orvillain]

Right, got some time now. Here's my first clip. It is high gain. EV Panama Red, into one of my own IR's:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[Baba]

Well, I've been playing all morning, using my JS2000. And I've gotta say, I MUCH prefer the HX amps, especially the 2203 and SLO.

Then again, I don't actually have an HX Stadium, so I've just been using Helix Native. That might be why I like them more. It's better than imaginary modelers sitting here.

Seriously though, this sounds so good. If Agoura is even just a hair better, I don't know what I'd find to complain about.

100%

I'm trying to convince myself that I'll need a Stadium someday, so I pulled my Helix Floor out, and I've been playing that 2203, (I use the low input for my clean sound as well), and it's just ridiculous.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Right, got some time now. Here's my first clip. It is high gain. EV Panama Red, into one of my own IR's:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

That sounds kickass, Andrew.

 

[paisleywookiee]

100%

I'm trying to convince myself that I'll need a Stadium someday, so I pulled my Helix Floor out, and I've been playing that 2203, (I use the low input for my clean sound as well), and it's just ridiculous.

I've been looking at used HX Stomps again.......

 

[dk_ace]

Even if I custom label it, there has to be some way for me to figure out "wtf does this thing really do". That's why I feel like it should have some sort of "actions list" to pull up. Otherwise you just can just keep piling up stuff and if you need to change any of it...good luck.

Or was that "nope" for holding the touchscreen buttons? Eg. on the Stomp A/B if I want to go to the "More" view, do I need to always hold the footswitch, or can I just hold that particular button on the touchscreen? I think on the others it just opens the momentary/latching assignment view?

On Helix IIRC you could tap the capacitive switch with your finger repeatedly and it would jump through the things assigned to that switch.

D

 

[Mongillo19]

, I MUCH prefer the HX amps

Sorry if I missed an initial comment, what are you comparing them to? Or are you just revisiting Native?

 

[Digital Igloo]

Even if I custom label it, there has to be some way for me to figure out "wtf does this thing really do". That's why I feel like it should have some sort of "actions list" to pull up. Otherwise you just can just keep piling up stuff and if you need to change any of it...good luck.

Repeatedly touch the stomp switch and it cycles through all assignments. It even jumps to the Bypass/Control screen for assigned parameter control and the Command Center for assigned commands. Literally no menu diving required—tap and it jumps to what's assigned, even in and out of various menus.

Or was that "nope" for holding the touchscreen buttons? Eg. on the Stomp A/B if I want to go to the "More" view, do I need to always hold the footswitch, or can I just hold that particular button on the touchscreen? I think on the others it just opens the momentary/latching assignment view?

You mean the colored boxes on non-XL's Play view? Tapping them doesn't do anything right now, but it probably will.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

Because the Helix doesn't have adjustable bright cap I wanted to get a sense for how bright it is out of the gate.

Honestly, I find the OG HX version of this model is less bright than the Fractal model. On a real 800, I'd be running that treble and presence pretty low and getting most of my high end from the mid knob. The Fractal model behaves that way too. I'll find out soon enough how the Agoura version stacks up (pun certainly intended).

 

[paisleywookiee]

Sorry if I missed an initial comment, what are you comparing them to? Or are you just revisiting Native?

I was being a smartass, since I don't even have a Stadium yet. Sorry