Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

Thanks for the responses. 1 & 3 are Agoura, 2 & 4 are the OG Helix. Both sound good to me. I prefer 2 and 4 as I like the fatter sound, but Agoura is still good, just slightly different.

I thought it would be fun to do a quick comparison as the old 2203 is widely regarded as one of the best models in the Helix and I was curious if there was a big difference.

I haven’t analysed either but no weird mid push or high end roll off to my ears

I’ll try a direct comparison to the actual amp when I get a chance.
Thanks! I do think Agoura tends to have some qualities that makes it easy to pick out in comparisons. IMO the older Helix having more bottom and top end can make the the Agoura model sound more midrangey by comparison. Here it seems a bit band pass filtered to me. The Sterlacci and Sadites videos have the same differences.

Even though the differences in this one don’t seem as stark, having spent a good amount of time with the Legacy model I’d still say I don’t think the Agoura model isnt quite right (even if playing it alone sounds and feels great). The Legacy model matched very close to my amp and I think it was generally very well received.

Think of the Fractal updates to the amps - they’re almost always tiny because the old model was so close, and if there was a huge jump it would mean that the old model was a long way off.
 
Second rehearsal last night with the Stadium, and I used a mix of the 2203, Soldano, Jubilee and Mesa; all sounded awesome. Used the same cab for all of them (stereo G12M25 with a 57 and a G30 with a R121) and they all just seemed to stand out a lot better than the Fractal for me - so much so that everyone else was commenting how much better everything sounded.

I'm also EQ'ing the cab block with a cut on the 57 at 5.6KHz and the 121 at 6.6KHz, and then the output EQ set to have a hi cut at 90Hz, lo cut at 7KHz, and a few very tight (max Q) notches of -4dB at around 2.2KHz and 4KHz to remove some of the 'digitalness' from it.

Had a few bugs though - specifically the expression pedal settings not being remembered per preset etc.
 
makes me glad I no longer give a flying fuck about what “real” amps sound like

I'm 100% in the same camp.
Yes, I need a bit of "classic" amp sounds, but I don't need any authenticity, for me "Marshall-ish" is fine in case the amp feels great and sits well in the mix.

Otoh, I do applaud everyone investing their time in finding out details and reporting them (after all, the "James Freeman 2203" is one of the best amps in the OG Helix).
I only wish people would be that engaged when it came to other features as well.
 
So, I had a strange occurrence last night.

I have a preset that was imported from OG Helix. In Stadium 1.1 I copied it 2-3 times and replaced OG amp models with Agoura amps. Then I updated to 1.2. Then I made a copy of one of the Stadium 1.1 versions of the preset and tried to swap out the Luxe Black and drop in the new Super Black. Immediately newly modified preset with the Super Black lost all sound. I was going through checking to make sure I hadn't inadvertently turned a level way down somewhere and in the course of that I noticed that the "hom screen" rendering of the signal flow block diagram was not showing the lines connecting blocks in the upper path (the path where the amp model change was made. I decided to reboot the Stadium and noticed that on it that the hardware screen looked like it was rebooting (for lack of a more precise term) over and over. I powered off the stadium, gave it a minute, and powered it back on. After some time it was back in the same cycle with the screen continuously rebooting but the Stadium itself apparently fully rebooted and ready to go. Even though the display on the unit was wonked out, I was still able to get around the Stadium with the editor app. Long story short, I had to delete that preset I'd been working on (which should have come back up as just a copy of the one I'd copied initially because I did not save any changes before I rebooted the Stadium) and then use the edit app to select a different preset. Once I did that whatever was going on with the onboard Stadium screen resolved itself and the unit worked flawlessly from that point on.

One of the reasons I mention it is that it's behavior was somewhat similar to what I observed when I tried to use @mikah912 's first version of the Mk II+ preset in that something was going on moving/copying a preset around with one of the 1.2 Agoura models in it. In the case of mine, the preset went from OG Helix-> Stadium 1.1->Stadium 1.2.

Since I had to delete the offending preset to get the Stadium to return to normal behavior I don't have anything to share for forensic purposes, and I'm not real keen on trying to recreate the problem because I'm not 100% confident what I did to get rid of the problem is something I can successfully do a second time. For now I'm going to stop making copies of current presets and swapping out amp blocks to make new ones. Most of the time that's how I create new presets so it'll be good maybe to find a new way to work.

One of the main reasons I'm mentioning the occurrence is a PSA--if you get into a loop of screen reboots on the stadium, it appears a corrupted preset might contribute to it and if possible, using the editor app to delete the current preset then select a different preset might resolve it. One thing I didn't try was just selecting a different preset without deleting the presumably offending one. Dunno if that would work to resolve the issue on the hardware, but I had no interest in keeping the wonky preset around.
 
I’m glad I didn’t get in on stadium early, you guys are dealing with a lot of BS. I was not expecting that given how mature the HX platform is.

I’m sure they’ll get it all sorted, but in the interim this looks rough.

D
 
I’m glad I didn’t get in on stadium early, you guys are dealing with a lot of BS. I was not expecting that given how mature the HX platform is.

I’m sure they’ll get it all sorted, but in the interim this looks rough.

D
Thankfully they were able to finally reproduce my main issue. They are listening to this thread, so hats off to Line6 for going above and beyond.

As I said above, the tone is worth the hassle. I'll find a workaround or just deal with it for a couple of performances.
 
On another note as above, I also lost sound while copying and pasting a preset. Didn’t have the weirdness described up thread but it was completely muted.

Had to restart and it’s back to normal. Preset seems to work fine now. Hopefully it doesn’t happen at my gig tonight!
 
I only wish people would be that engaged when it came to other features as well.

I mean, (accurate) amp sounds are kind of an essential feature, no? But I understand that other features and aspects of these devices also matter. If there were a hamster inside my Fractal that needed to run 100 laps on a wheel before the unit turns on, that would be a bigger problem than core amp tones being 10% inaccurate :)
 
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Is anyone thinking of ways to utilize Showcase that don't involve backing or click tracks. My band is philosophically opposed to backing tracks (no offense to folks who use them) and we've never run off a click.

For me, the only use case I'm coming up with for Showcase is practicing at home and maybe for running drum tracks at practice on the rare occasions the drummer can't make it.

Anyone else have more briliant ideas?
 
Am I correct in saying that for set lists, it has to be one preset per song - not snapshots?

For example - I use a main preset for most of my songs, but some songs have certain effects at certain parts etc.; I love how (ahem) Fractal allows you to select multiple scenes / snapshots in a preset to build up a song.

If this isn't possible, is it going to be coming soon...?
 
Is anyone thinking of ways to utilize Showcase that don't involve backing or click tracks. My band is philosophically opposed to backing tracks (no offense to folks who use them) and we've never run off a click.

For me, the only use case I'm coming up with for Showcase is practicing at home and maybe for running drum tracks at practice on the rare occasions the drummer can't make it.

Anyone else have more briliant ideas?
TBH, I'm doing something similar with using it for backing tracks when travelling.

I did wonder if I could use it to queue up midi controls to change mine, the bass player and the keyboardists gear to drop a semitone on certain songs though - that's done manually at the moment, and I guarantee at least one of us forgets at least once a gig....
 
TBH, I'm doing something similar with using it for backing tracks when travelling.

I did wonder if I could use it to queue up midi controls to change mine, the bass player and the keyboardists gear to drop a semitone on certain songs though - that's done manually at the moment, and I guarantee at least one of us forgets at least once a gig....

You could do that with Command Center, I'm pretty sure.

Figuring out how to use MIDI Events Processor to convert a CC command to a SysEx command to switch my GM-800 between MIDI and the GK pickup automatically was a complete game changer for me.
 
Is anyone thinking of ways to utilize Showcase that don't involve backing or click tracks. My band is philosophically opposed to backing tracks (no offense to folks who use them) and we've never run off a click.

For me, the only use case I'm coming up with for Showcase is practicing at home and maybe for running drum tracks at practice on the rare occasions the drummer can't make it.

Anyone else have more briliant ideas?

I don't see a way to use showcase live with a band without using at least a click track.

If you don't tide your self to a click track & a timeline, anything you do with showcase (changing snapshots, sending midi commands, hot keys, ECT) can be done without it. As far as I know.

For bands that use a click track cool things can be done.

In my opinion showcase is the greatest addition in the helix world.
 
I’m glad I didn’t get in on stadium early, you guys are dealing with a lot of BS. I was not expecting that given how mature the HX platform is.
It's an almost brand new OS. It's Stadium v1.2, not Helix 4.2. I'm sure Line6 has done a fine job with beta testing, but it's a different world when the product is on customers hands.

They could have waited 3-6 more months, but there's an optimal release window that one has to jump in to make the best sales you can. Otherwise you could find yourself like Kemper MK2 with profiling 2.0.

Being an "early adopter" in 2025 means dealing with bugs. I'm sure Line6 will work tirelessly to get them all fixed in a reasonable time frame.

Is anyone thinking of ways to utilize Showcase that don't involve backing or click tracks. My band is philosophically opposed to backing tracks (no offense to folks who use them) and we've never run off a click.

For me, the only use case I'm coming up with for Showcase is practicing at home and maybe for running drum tracks at practice on the rare occasions the drummer can't make it.

Anyone else have more briliant ideas?
Playing solo looks like the more appealing use case after using it as click track and backing tracks in a band context.
 
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