Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[Orvillain]

I just temporarily laid out a couple of things on my Pedaltrain XD24, see if this could be reality:

Now... problems....

1. The ferrite on the power cable is very chunky, and prevents me from putting the VP4 in that top left corner.
2. The Stadium is taller than the wah pedal, which I know from experience definitely messes with me and being able to quickly jump on and activate the wah.
3. I don't actually like everything being up that high. You've got the board itself, then you've got the Stadium height too. Resting my heel on the ground and tapping the tempo with the tip of my shoe is quite uncomfortable. I think I actually prefer just having the Stadium directly on the ground, or perhaps on a flat board that is not as tall.

Anyway this is what I ended up with:

Not gonna lie, I definitely prefer the spaciousness of the board I've been running with for the last 6 months or so. Might not go with this layout after all.

 

[Gary_W]

I just temporarily laid out a couple of things on my Pedaltrain XD24, see if this could be reality:
View attachment 55351

Now... problems....

1. The ferrite on the power cable is very chunky, and prevents me from putting the VP4 in that top left corner.

I suppose you could just replace the mains cable with a regular one and get a suitably chunky clip on ferrite?

 

[Rewolf]

Or get a right angle IEC adapter?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Not gonna lie, I definitely prefer the spaciousness of the board I've been running with for the last 6 months or so. Might not go with this layout after all.

I'd place the Stadium flat on the ground/case and get something raising anything in the back above all Stadium connections. That way, all cables could be nicely tucked together and be hidden.

 

[Foxmeister]

Whilst I've never had an issue with sliders in HX Edit, I appreciate the inclusion of the possibility to use knobs instead of sliders in Stadium Edit, but I do think they make it significantly more difficult to "read" the knob positions because the position indicator is hard to see at at glance.

I think it could do with being a different colour - e.g. white.

 

[sashimi]

I just temporarily laid out a couple of things on my Pedaltrain XD24, see if this could be reality:
View attachment 55351

Now... problems....

1. The ferrite on the power cable is very chunky, and prevents me from putting the VP4 in that top left corner.
2. The Stadium is taller than the wah pedal, which I know from experience definitely messes with me and being able to quickly jump on and activate the wah.
3. I don't actually like everything being up that high. You've got the board itself, then you've got the Stadium height too. Resting my heel on the ground and tapping the tempo with the tip of my shoe is quite uncomfortable. I think I actually prefer just having the Stadium directly on the ground, or perhaps on a flat board that is not as tall.

Anyway this is what I ended up with:
View attachment 55354

Not gonna lie, I definitely prefer the spaciousness of the board I've been running with for the last 6 months or so. Might not go with this layout after all.

Maybe a right angle iec cable could work?

Or what I’d probably do is a smaller board with everything else on it, next to the stadium.

 

[EOengineer]

@Orvillain Your impressions match mine almost exactly, with the caveat that I’ve only had an hour with the thing.

These Agoura amps seem very clear and open sounding; without any distracting frequencies that shouldn't be there. A lot better than the legacy ones from memory.

It’s so hard to objectively discuss these things. I agree with all this. I’ll add IMO there is also meaningful advancement in the time domain - primarily bloom/sustain/decay all sound and feel more cohesive and natural.

- I really wish there were more high-gain Agoura amps though. I'm trying not to be greedy, but Agoura is good and now I want Axe III quantity! Really wish we had a good Recto and Mark option.

I straight up saved a vacation day this year so I can take it if there’s a Mesa party in the next update. Every modeling platform demands a solid Recto & Mark series sim. There’s no world where these aren’t coming to Agoura.

really like the Z PrePost knob. That gives you access to some really good tones, and so if you find an amp a bit too stuffy or 'vintage' voiced, you can try cranking the Z knob and get something with a bit more bite to it.

I’m still figuring out the practical effect of this parameter but one use I found for it is that it seems to be able to defeat “megamush“ - that super mushy thing some amps do when the master is cranked and the front end is also boosted. I’ve found gold at the extremes too so the full range seems useful.

I hate to say it, but Hype is actually cool. Again, I find that on the whole it just does "nice" things. You don't need to crank it. Usually going up to 2 or 3 will be enough to just give a bit more oompf to a tone.

When I’m using hype, it’s like 98% between 2-3. It depends on the amp but generally the low settings add just a little extra sauce that I like.

- I spent a good chunk of time yesterday comparing the 2203 to some clips that @MirrorProfiles sent me. Using his IR, I was able to get a good sounding tone, but I wasn't really able to match his tone. The fundamental gain texture was just too different. I was happy with the sound, but we were both wondering why the difference. Probably just the fact the actual HW amps are different; tubes, bias, circuit differences maybe.

This seems odd. I didn’t notice the agoura 2203 being highly divergent from the Hx version - but I’m also going off memory. I haven’t touched Hx in a year. Guess I’m gonna have to throw together a comparison against my 2204 this week.

 

[Sascha Franck]

but I do think they make it significantly more difficult to "read" the knob positions because the position indicator is hard to see at at glance.

That's really just a matter of the color scheme. What I've seen so far looks kinda tough to decipher indeed, but I usually have no issues with whatever knobs on whatever plugins.

 

[Mooselake]

One more thing .. I'm getting dropouts when clicking around the various partitions, resizing, or basically playing with the interface of the app at all. Anyone else getting that?

Do you mean audio dropouts? If so, I haven't had any at all with the caveat being that I'm keeping things simple with the editor app. What I have noticed is just that sometimes the app and unit will spontaneously disconnect. I'll just be playing away and look up and the editor screen will be gone with two dialogue boxes, one to reconnect automatically, one to just reconnect (have to specify to reconnect to the stadium, even though there's nothing else out there to connect to. But even that occurrence doesn't interrupt the sound.

 

[laxu]

I just temporarily laid out a couple of things on my Pedaltrain XD24, see if this could be reality:
View attachment 55351

Now... problems....

1. The ferrite on the power cable is very chunky, and prevents me from putting the VP4 in that top left corner.
2. The Stadium is taller than the wah pedal, which I know from experience definitely messes with me and being able to quickly jump on and activate the wah.
3. I don't actually like everything being up that high. You've got the board itself, then you've got the Stadium height too. Resting my heel on the ground and tapping the tempo with the tip of my shoe is quite uncomfortable. I think I actually prefer just having the Stadium directly on the ground, or perhaps on a flat board that is not as tall.

Anyway this is what I ended up with:
View attachment 55354

Not gonna lie, I definitely prefer the spaciousness of the board I've been running with for the last 6 months or so. Might not go with this layout after all.

Couldn't you just remove the ferrite choke and put it a bit further on the cable to solve that problem? Even if right next to the power input might be the ideal position, moving it 5 centimeters should fix it.

Otherwise a layout like that probably means you want to control the boxes up top entirely with the Stadium.

 

[Mooselake]

So after a day of owning it, and putting it through its paces. Here's where I'm at:

- It sounds great. At least as good as my Axe FX III. I've done a bit of comparison across a couple of models, and there's nothing lacking from the Agoura models. I've deliberately not even touched any of the legacy amps right now.

- There is a feel and sonic difference to the amps that I do not remember having from OG Helix. I'm going to plug the old unit in at some point today and compare them, for kicks.

- I don't perceive any kind of mid to high frequency nastiness, whether aliasing or crossover distortion or whatever it was on the OG unit. These Agoura amps seem very clear and open sounding; without any distracting frequencies that shouldn't be there. A lot better than the legacy ones from memory.

...

You've been more adventurous than I have so far but my experience to date has been similar. Notably I haven't done anything with Hype or the ZPrePost yet. Actually, I realize I haven't done any editing on the unit yet. I was pretty habituated to the editor from using my OG LT, and have really just wanted to play the thing. I'm a cheap date in the sense I usually can find something I enjoy playing without much fuss, and that's generally the bigger consideration for me--finding a tone I want to play rather than scouting around for a perfect tone. Last night I was pretty worn out from a long day that included a memorial service for one of my cousins after a morning of housework and yardwork getting ready for the Holiday next week. So I just sampled some more of the presets. One thing I've noticed is that I bonding much more readily to some of the ambient and/or cleaner tones than I did with the LT. Dunno if that's because of superior sound, or the folks who made the presets happened to dial in things closer to my taste, or if my ears/playing have just grown into a space where that stuff fits better.

Never touched a fractal device, so no comparisons there.

I've noticed some similar changes in the overall sound characteristics that I've been deliberately downplaying--both in my own mind and in what I've said here. I'm trying to get adjusted to the Stadium before I start thinking anything definitive. I haven't played through anything but the LT or my little Pod Express when I'm ensconced in the woods over the summer, so I want to make sure there's more to it than the Stadium just being a little different than the other devices. My ear isn't as attuned as a lot of you guys, and as silly as it seems, I don't want to get a rap here as a naive, blind, fanboi, lol.

I'm now a bit anxious to try out focus view, Hype, and the impedance adjustment. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to do that this evening.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

@Orvillain Your impressions match mine almost exactly, with the caveat that I’ve only had an hour with the thing.


It’s so hard to objectively discuss these things. I agree with all this. I’ll add IMO there is also meaningful advancement in the time domain - primarily bloom/sustain/decay all sound and feel more cohesive and natural.


I straight up saved a vacation day this year so I can take it if there’s a Mesa party in the next update. Every modeling platform demands a solid Recto & Mark series sim. There’s no world where these aren’t coming to Agoura.


I’m still figuring out the practical effect of this parameter but one use I found for it is that it seems to be able to defeat “megamush“ - that super mushy thing some amps do when the master is cranked and the front end is also boosted. I’ve found gold at the extremes too so the full range seems useful.


When I’m using hype, it’s like 98% between 2-3. It depends on the amp but generally the low settings add just a little extra sauce that I like.


This seems odd. I didn’t notice the agoura 2203 being highly divergent from the Hx version - but I’m also going off memory. I haven’t touched Hx in a year. Guess I’m gonna have to throw together a comparison against my 2204 this week.

Very much looking forward to your thoughts when comparing to your 2204. Particularly interested how close things are at the most theoretically authentic settings (for hype and Z Pre Post). And similarly, it would be cool throw in the old 2203 model for good measure. The old 2203 felt like a solid representation of that amp circuit to me and I think it’s a solid yardstick for modern amp modelling in general.

No doubts you’ll get results that sound good and that feel nice to play so hopefully it’s fun to dive into.

Their videos can be a tough watch (!) but Sadites and Sterlacci have recent videos showing old and new 2203 at equal settings. Their differences seem consistent with the examples in the thread so far and with what I’m hearing generally (less fizz, less bass, more smush). The most similar clips I’ve heard so far (both to Helix Legacy and real amps/fractal/plugins) have required fairly liberal use of Hype and Z Pre Post….

 

[mavrick102000]

I suppose you could just replace the mains cable with a regular one and get a suitably chunky clip on ferrite?

Just ensure it's a Mix 31 ferrite for power mains RFI blocking. Many ferrites sold on Amazon are of questionable mix composition.

I can't recall the name of the Mouser or engineering firm equivalent selling quality ferrites in the UK.

Martin Lynch and Sons (amateur radio dealer) might actually carry some quality clamp on ferrite chokes - be sure to check the inner diameter based on the diameter of the power cable and call first to see if they carry them.

 

[JiveTurkey]

The underlying concept is that each snapshot (can) store a different set of command center assignments. You can see different things for each snapshot you're in.

You have to decide what your assignments are when in snapshot 1, 2, ect.

In your case snapshot A have FS X to recall snapshot B. And snapshot B have the same FX to recall snapshot A.

That's assuming stadium works the same way as OG helix.

I don't have a stadium therefore I can't give you a step by step guide, sorry.

No apologies necessary. It does work as it should if the switches are in Snapshot mode or Combo mode. If I assign the snapshots to a switch in Stomp mode (which is where I was doing it); it does not work. I am going to make some changes in Stomp A mode to allow for more effects switching and leave the main mode I use in a live setting as Combo mode. Not sure how much of this was in the old HX stuff. Appreciate the help.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I'd place the Stadium flat on the ground/case and get something raising anything in the back above all Stadium connections. That way, all cables could be nicely tucked together and be hidden.

Fwiw, this is how I'm doing it with my GT based board, and I'd be doing it every bit the same with anything larger - obviously, no standard readymade pedalboards will work, but if you slap a DIY thing together it'll be better, lighter and cheaper (and mine will look better somewhen in the next weeks, too, as I'm about to redesign a few things):

All cabling and the PSU are just hidden.

 

[AZG]

- It sounds great. At least as good as my Axe FX III. I've done a bit of comparison across a couple of models, and there's nothing lacking from the Agoura models. I've deliberately not even touched any of the legacy amps right now.

Interesting, because this has not been my experience so far using a ABY switch with my FM3. Plexi and 2203 don’t have the kerang of the FM3 and I can’t seem to get there no matter what I try. I haven’t touched the Hype control yet, maybe that’s the secret sauce?

 

[JiveTurkey]

So after a day of owning it, and putting it through its paces. Here's where I'm at:

- It sounds great. At least as good as my Axe FX III. I've done a bit of comparison across a couple of models, and there's nothing lacking from the Agoura models. I've deliberately not even touched any of the legacy amps right now.

- There is a feel and sonic difference to the amps that I do not remember having from OG Helix. I'm going to plug the old unit in at some point today and compare them, for kicks.

- I don't perceive any kind of mid to high frequency nastiness, whether aliasing or crossover distortion or whatever it was on the OG unit. These Agoura amps seem very clear and open sounding; without any distracting frequencies that shouldn't be there. A lot better than the legacy ones from memory.

- I really wish there were more high-gain Agoura amps though. I'm trying not to be greedy, but Agoura is good and now I want Axe III quantity! Really wish we had a good Recto and Mark option.

- I really like the Z PrePost knob. That gives you access to some really good tones, and so if you find an amp a bit too stuffy or 'vintage' voiced, you can try cranking the Z knob and get something with a bit more bite to it.

- I hate to say it, but Hype is actually cool. Again, I find that on the whole it just does "nice" things. You don't need to crank it. Usually going up to 2 or 3 will be enough to just give a bit more oompf to a tone.

- I spent a good chunk of time yesterday comparing the 2203 to some clips that @MirrorProfiles sent me. Using his IR, I was able to get a good sounding tone, but I wasn't really able to match his tone. The fundamental gain texture was just too different. I was happy with the sound, but we were both wondering why the difference. Probably just the fact the actual HW amps are different; tubes, bias, circuit differences maybe.

- I find it so much more fun to use than the Axe FX III. I setup a block. I like the sound of it. I save it as a favourite. I make a new preset. I compile the preset from a list of pre-existing favourites. Piece of piss to use. I setup snapshots. Dead easy. Putting together a 3 amp + effects preset took less than 5 minutes to do, and I didn't need to be connected to a computer to do it.

- I had a patch with a Boss SD1 and the 2203, and I got a really chunky Pelican-esque tone out of it. Took no time at all.

- There isn't a reverb that sounds anywhere near as good as Fractal's Plex Verb (in the Plex Delay block), Cumulonimbus, or any of the Shimmer options. In fact, as much as I think they are usable in your average circumstance, the reverbs on the Helix are by far the weakest area. A lot weaker than the delays. Your lowly Boss RV-5 has more punch and presence and cut to it than any of the Helix reverbs, and it was made in 2002!

- Sometimes certain delays and reverbs... it's hard to find the right mix where the guitar and effect signal sound as present as each other. I have a very strong feeling that the mix algorithm changes from block to block, or that there's some internal compensation that is lacking. 50% should always give you an equal mix between the two, except it just doesn't. Consequently, it takes a bit more to dial those effects in.

- The touchscreen is amazing. Best in class for a device like this. Feels so smooth and responsive. QC is good, but Stadium is WAYYYYY better.

- I did have 1 crash. For some reason I thought I could turn the bottom right encoder to scroll through IR's. But you can't. Instead what it did was scroll the IR block to the next effect, which was a Kinky Comp, and I got a huge burst of noise and the unit reset. Hasn't happened again. @Digital Igloo

- Today I'm going to get the Stadium and VP4 connected VIA spdif, and see if I can do some cool stuff with that pairing.

Report back on the combo platter with the VP4! Plex Verb is an elite level ambient effect. My experiences are limited but that lushness is unmatched in the modelers I've used at least. By far. To the extent that I might just order a couple of cables to see what chocolate and peanut butter do together with the FM9

My thoughts consolidated from rambling posts along this thread:
Stadium is a blast to play through. No disembodied distortion. I will say the need to turn some of these master volume values lower ala James is still there. There is a thickness to the sounds that can't quite be dialed out. I am finding I need to use EQ blocks and apply low cuts in as many blocks as I deem necessary because the low end is THERE. Some additional note definition will hopefully come as they develop Agoura.

I used my old reliables of the Cali Rectifier and OG 5150. They sound and feel fantastic. I'm interested to see what Agoura brings in their direction. I greatly prefer the OG to the EVH models.

There are some good effects but <ducks> I kind of see tim's point on some of this stuff; fx wise at least. Some of the effects sound brash and just not good when loaded at default. Found some great chorus/pitch stuff and a solid flanger. My revisit on the phaser situation was not enjoyable and the rotary blocks available are really bad. Unless I am missing some model that is the go to that I passed over for whatever reason? FAS rotary is and like the Plex Delay block is going to be tough to beat.

Ease of use is great and setting up footswitching is comparatively simple. I am definitely itching to see what amps get Agoura'd next and will be happy to see what other fx and cabinets get that same Agoura treatment.

 

[SymphonicDischord]

My revisit on the phaser situation was not enjoyable and the rotary blocks available are really bad.

How are you setting up the rotary in your preset? I find running it in parallel with a regular speaker cab works best for myself.

A quick question for everyone, I can’t seem to find the controller/footswitch assignments in the app, am I just blind and missing the tab or does it have to be done directly on the Stadium at this point.

 

[Baba]

No apologies necessary. It does work as it should if the switches are in Snapshot mode or Combo mode. If I assign the snapshots to a switch in Stomp mode (which is where I was doing it); it does not work. I am going to make some changes in Stomp A mode to allow for more effects switching and leave the main mode I use in a live setting as Combo mode. Not sure how much of this was in the old HX stuff. Appreciate the help.

I’m sorry this isn’t working brother. I will tell you, I was in your exact spot, with my Stomp. My lady was going crazy, listening to all my footswitching and subsequent frustration.

I don’t know or remember how, but I DID get it to work. For some reason it took WAY longer than it should have, and I was following instructions just like you are.

 

[Orvillain]

Well, the SPDIF I/O doesn't appear as its own FX loop block. Which honestly, is a shame. But I kind of understand why.