After a bunch of weeks of ownership, I guess I can write up my thoughts:
General:
- The workflow is unparalleled. Genuinely I mean this when I say, Helix Stadium is the defacto standard when it comes to hardware modellers and their workflow, user experience, and user interface. It takes what devices like the QC and Headrush did, and basically says "hey.. let's do this RIGHT" - and I really vibe with it in that sense.
- Bugs, bugs, bugs. God, I can't wait for this thing to settle down. Quite a bit more buggier than Helix was at release. I don't begrudge it, and I'm not angry or anything. I know exactly how it gets in MI and the pressures to release. Right now Helix Stadium is a cool new toy I've got, but I can't and I'm not planning on using it for anything mission critical yet.
- Quality-wise, the hardware is clearly quite a large step up. The noise floor seems far superior to OG Helix; and it really pisses all over the Quad Cortex when it comes to 4-cable-method signal quality. It is basically neck and neck with the Axe3 now; whereas before OG Helix was just a tad behind the Axe3.
- I know I'm totally falling for eye candy, but I just really like seeing the skeuomorphic icons when browsing for things. I see amp head with pretty colours, I click yes. I'm a simple guy.
- The tuner is amazing. Easily as good as Fractal's now. No more whining from me about the tuner! It is what the OG Helix's should have been.
- Browsing IR's is too slow. There doesn't seem to be a way for me to just quickly scroll through a folder of IR's, unless I'm missing it?? I have to tap each one individually. This is one area of pain.
- On the whole though, there's just way less bullshit with Stadium to have to contend with. Take using SPDIF to record a dry DI signal.... it just works. No fucking around with levels, no having to apply a trim to it... no awkwardness when reamping it back through the Stadium. Even to this day, it baffles me how non-standard and illogical the Axe3 is when it comes to recording and reamping DI signals.
(I can whinge about this in another thread if you want me to!)
Routing:
- Signal flow and routing on Stadium just makes sense. Creating splits just makes sense. Sending your guitar to your amp, while sending your guitars signal through a modelled amp to your computer, it just makes sense. Very little headscratching required. This kind of fluidity is super important to me.
- The quick setup templates are very useful. Setting up for 4-cable-method is much faster and more user friendly than the other platforms.
- And you can do all of this very quickly on the device. It doesn't make you feel like a computer is necessary.
Amps:
- Quite a lot of the time, I am finding that I prefer the Agoura tones to the competition; specifcally Helix Native, HX legacy amps, and a smattering of Axe FX III amps. Nearly every time I compared against any of my NDSP plugins, or Amplitube 5, Agoura impressed me much more with its tactile feel and sonics.
- I have to confess, I wasn't entirely expecting Stadium to hold its own against the Axe3; I genuinely expected Axe3 to still be top dog. But there are quite a few cases where I just outright prefer the Agoura model. The Revv Generator and the Bogner XTC; both are way better for my tastes on Agoura than Axe3. But the Axe3's EVH5150III amps are way superior to the Agoura ones. In fact, I just straight up don't really like the Agoura ones. They lack the brightness and the aggression that the real amp has, and that the Axe3 accurately duplicates.
- There have been a few instances where I fired up an amp model on another platform, and compared to Agoura, and Agoura left me baffled with how it sounded. To the point where I would get immediate disatisfication and buyers remorse. However in nearly all of these cases, the problem was the model defaults and the stock cabs. Addressing them resulted in tones I was a lot happier with. I'm still finding my feet with it I guess.
- I feel like the masters are overall a bit too high. My typical thing to do when I first load an amp model is turn down the masters, and turn up the 'level' parameter to compensate for volume loss. This helps to avoid too much power amp distortion, and cleans up palm mutes a bit.
- Sometimes there's a bit of a fuzziness to the tone though, even when doing this. Kind of hard to identify but it is something myself and
@MirrorProfiles have conversed about many times; often arriving at differing viewpoints!
- There does seem to be a bit of a 'dark' character to the amps overall. Sometimes it is difficult to get the same amount of fizziness that you'd get from a real amp. It is a subtle thing, but I notice it.
Effects:
- I've whinged about reverbs before. I don't really like them. That's all I need to say. Not going to beat that dead horse.
- Cosmos Echo; man.... I forgot how fucking amazing that one is. It is easily up there with the other Space Echo type models and plugins out there in music tech land. It is probably one of my favourite versions of this effect.
- I'd really like a bog standard Boss DDx style delay, where the feedback and mix knobs just work like they do on those simple pedals. Simple Delay aint really the one.
- Going with the Stadium XL for the 4 FX loops was definitely the right choice for me. I plan on making extensive use of those in the future.
- Consequently.... there isn't a ton of stuff to really get excited about in effects land yet. But I do have faith that the platform will improve in this area in the future.
All in all, I feel good about my purchase. But at the same time, I feel more like an early adopter with this product than I ever have with any other guitar gear in the past. This isn't a bad thing, but it is certainly a thing.
I'm not intending on selling my Axe3. I thought I might before I got Stadium. I thought if the workflow was better (it is) and the sounds were just as good (nearly always as good) that I wouldn't need my Axe3 anymore... but I can't bear to part with it. Ironically, buying the Stadium has not only made me appreciate Stadium, but has also made me appreciate my Axe3 more.
Feeling very good about my decision to sell my 2nd Quad Cortex earlier this year, and feeling good about my decision to not purchase a Headrush Prime too.
