Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[Mongillo19]

I will say, the "feel" of the stadium is top notch. I dare say the best of any modeler I've tried. They definitely cracked the code on something there.

 

[MIJLOVER]

Playing solo looks like the more appealing use case after using it as click track and backing tracks in a band context.

Yeah, my buddy (singer in the band) and I have talked about it for duo gigs and original material. This way, we can get it done with XL and a guitar and mic. I am planning og making some tracks for practice too.

 

[fr8_trane]

I will say, the "feel" of the stadium is top notch. I dare say the best of any modeler I've tried. They definitely cracked the code on something there.

Really curious to "feel" this for myself. Right now my rig is an HX Stomp XL in 4CM into the Toneking Imperial tube preamp. The TKIP has by far, the best feel of any modern device I have used especially into a SS poweramp and cab. They definitely took it up a notch from the Friedman IR-X which I could 100% duplicate with the HX Placater in terms of tone and 95%+ of the feel. The TKIP is on another level.

 

[Mongillo19]

Really curious to "feel" this for myself. Right now my rig is an HX Stomp XL in 4CM into the Toneking Imperial tube preamp. The TKIP has by far, the best feel of any modern device I have used especially into a SS poweramp and cab. They definitely took it up a notch from the Friedman IR-X which I could 100% duplicate with the HX Placater in terms of tone and 95%+ of the feel. The TKIP is on another level.

Yeah I never played the TKIP. I guess to me, the Stadium feels similar to the Tone X as well. There is a give and weight to it. This can be especially felt for clean tones. Some digital units are just too static...almost DI like in nature. If that makes sense?

 

[EOengineer]

I guess to me, the Stadium feels similar to the Tone X as well. There is a give and weight to it. This can be especially felt for clean tones.

This was my initial perception as well having departed from Hx a year ago in favor of Tonex. Stadium has some of the same vibes as Tonex, which I consider a compliment.

 

[Digital Igloo]

Will there be an ability in future updates to view and Edit the Showcase songs /setlists lists from the editor? Same with adjusting focus view from the editor? I love the large touch screen but it doesn't hold a candle against my 32 inch monitor and my eyes aren't what they used to be.

Yes. It's exceedingly rare to have an editor at launch anyway. We thought it was just going to be a librarian but the software team went ham.

Wow. You know for a fact that they are Fender employees?

From their FB profile:

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...?

Not sure what you mean. People use snapshots to build up sections of songs all the time in Helix, all from the same preset. Stadium is no different.

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

Showcase is just a set of tools; they can be used (or misused!) however you want.

For example, if you don't play to a click, but your drummer is rock solid, you could place intros, outros, interstitials, sound effects, backing vocal parts, etc. onto the stems. In your DAW, remove most empty space between them. After loading into a Showcase song, place marker flags at the beginning of each audio part and turn Pause at Marker on. Then when that section of the song comes in, just press play—whatever you have recorded will play and will pause when it reaches the next maker, waiting for you to press Play again (or the drummer can strike a trigger). It now becomes sort of a sample player with sequential groups of up to 8 samples that can all be flied in at the press of a switch.

There are all sorts of other workflows as well. We'll be outlining some of them in the coming months.

 

[HotRats]

Showcase is just a set of tools; they can be used (or misused!) however you want.

For example, if you don't play to a click, but your drummer is rock solid, you could place intros, outros, interstitials, sound effects, backing vocal parts, etc. onto the stems. In your DAW, remove most empty space between them. After loading into a Showcase song, place marker flags at the beginning of each audio part and turn Pause at Marker on. Then when that section of the song comes in, just press play—whatever you have recorded will play and will pause when it reaches the next maker, waiting for you to press Play again (or the drummer can strike a trigger). It now becomes sort of a sample player with sequential groups of up to 8 samples that can all be flied in at the press of a switch.

There are all sorts of other workflows as well. We'll be outlining some of them in the coming months

Good suggestion, chief! I haven't thought about it that way.

You really should show all these way to use it to the public because showcase is awesome and I'm sure will inspire people to do things.

 

[12tone]

Not sure what you mean. People use snapshots to build up sections of songs all the time in Helix, all from the same preset. Stadium is no different.

On a Fractal unit, their version of a "Song" has 6 Sections which are just pointers to other presets scenes (Snapshots) so the definition of one song can potentially point to several different presets, using any of those presets scenes.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

On a Fractal unit, their version of a "Song" has 6 Sections which are just pointers to other presets scenes (Snapshots) so the definition of one song can potentially point to several different presets, using any of those presets scenes.

Probably a non-starter to have Snapshots from different presets as part of a "Song" unless you have gapless preset switching, which Stadium doesn't.

 

[GLiDE-BPM]

Jeez, another Fender employee is throwing shade at Helix Stadium on our own FB forums. What the hell is wrong with these people?

Are they posting a lot on Chad Boston's FB Helix Stadium page?

Or I guess I should ask WHICH FB pages are getting Competitor Bombed?

 

[Chocol8]

What the hell is wrong with these people?

I don’t think the forum servers have enough space to host the answer to that question

 

[Marshall_Guy]

I will say, the "feel" of the stadium is top notch. I dare say the best of any modeler I've tried. They definitely cracked the code on something there.

I think I’m there with you. I was playing through my Quad Cortex last night and it sounds great but compared to the Stadium, the feel isn’t quite as good. I don’t know what Line 6 did but it feels like I’m plugged into one of my tube amps with this thing.

I should pull out my tonex and do a little comparison to see how it stacks up but I don’t remember being as impressed with that unit either. Wish I still had a fractal product as well as I can’t quite remember how they felt, but just going off of memory, I don’t recall experiencing a feel discrepancy between the axe iii/fm3 and the cortex so the Stadium might still beat it for me.

 

[Mongillo19]

Stadium might still beat it for me.

Imo the stadium feels better than the fractal lineup

 

[Marshall_Guy]

Imo the stadium feels better than the fractal lineup

Anyone in LA want to do a little comparison? I’m pretty sure I’d still prefer the Stadium too but now I HAVE to know!

Honestly didn’t expect to like this thing as much as I do but it’s getting more play time than any of my amps too. I will say though, I’d like more kerrang out of the Plexi on the Stadium. That’s my only real gripe at the moment but I still really enjoy playing through that model.

 

[Dimiguitar]

I think I’m there with you. I was playing through my Quad Cortex last night and it sounds great but compared to the Stadium, the feel isn’t quite as good. I don’t know what Line 6 did but it feels like I’m plugged into one of my tube amps with this thing.

I should pull out my tonex and do a little comparison to see how it stacks up but I don’t remember being as impressed with that unit either. Wish I still had a fractal product as well as I can’t quite remember how they felt, but just going off of memory, I don’t recall experiencing a feel discrepancy between the axe iii/fm3 and the cortex so the Stadium might still beat it for me.

Just shoot tonex captures of the stadium. There you go, about equally impressed :)

(OK, the feel likely won't be 100% the same though. For me, it's close enough to where I don't mind any difference much).

 

[Dimiguitar]

That's one thing I want to see from stadium: the proxy capture function.

For years I didn't care about captures, after having profiled 738292 amps with Kemper -- but now the best of commercially available machine learning tech is so good, the results often justify the work for me.

And this function will expand the tonal pallet of stadium a lot. Hopefully it's as good as what tonex currently offers, if not better.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

Okay, what does it mean when one of your preset numbers is highlighted in green like 1B is here? It’s highlighted in both the USER PRESETS and the setlist.

 

[Mongillo19]

Okay, what does it mean when one of your preset numbers is highlighted in green like 1B is here? It’s highlighted in both the USER PRESETS and the setlist. View attachment 56754

Hmmm did you edit the preset and not save it? Just a guess

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

The preset has been saved. And saved again. Still green. Rebooted, still green.

 

[molul]

Imo the stadium feels better than the fractal lineup

As somebody else already said, I'm really looking forward to getting my non-XL and feeling that "feeling" thing everybody's saying.