Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[Orvillain]

Just a friendly reminder that it’s fun to just dial in something and play…. If you are in to that sort of thing! Ha.

Yeah cool. I can do that with my amps.

 

[Dez]

 

[MIJLOVER]

Yeah cool. I can do that with my amps.

What kind of amps do you gravitate towards?

I get tempted by amps from time to time, and I do miss my Carol Ann.

I'm glad that Stadium feels like plugging into an amp (imo). It's going to be great integrating it with the band and for duo stuff. I just need Line 6 to squash some more bugs and release some more goodies!

 

[Orvillain]

What kind of amps do you gravitate towards?

I get tempted by amps from time to time, and I do miss my Carol Ann.

I'm glad that Stadium feels like plugging into an amp (imo). It's going to be great integrating it with the band and for duo stuff. I just need Line 6 to squash some more bugs and release some more goodies!

I've got 10 different valve amps, so kinda spoilt for choice really!

My favourite amp for the last year or so has been the Boogie Mark V. After that, I love my Orange Rockerverb, Dual Recto, Fryette SigX, and 6505+. I mean... that's this minute anyway!

Honestly, mostly just been playing my Mark V.

 

[mbenigni]

OK so I finally got around to running some comparisons of my Mark III against Stadium and the AM4. You can kinda see the Mark III peeking out from behind that pile of madness. Note I did tap off the Surh RL but the 1960A you can't really see there was the the actual load presented to the amp. I dialed the amp to approximate the settings I used in the others, this obviously isn't totally apples to apples as we're comparing 2C+ to the III. I was too lazy to hook up the studio preamp.



View attachment 57709

I didn't do any hardcore level matching, and am not going to play games. The first pass is the Mark III, the second the AM4, and last is the Stadium in each example.

Damn. I don't remember the MkIII having anywhere near that much gain. Are you running an overdrive in front? It sounds amazing (and the AM4 is a dead ringer IMO.)

 

[Dez]

Damn. I don't remember the MkIII having anywhere near that much gain. Are you running an overdrive in front? It sounds amazing (and the AM4 is a dead ringer IMO.)

I always thought the Mark III's had just as much gain as the IIC+, if not voiced a little more aggressively? I could be wrong though (I want a Mark III lol)

 

[mbenigni]

Who shoots out modelers though a room mic?!

...after dialing them in to "sound their best" by adding tons of reverb and delay, and then playing completely different parts as he warms up?

Guy's a good player, but that video is pretty useless for comparing amp tones.

 

[Lysander]

Guy's a good player, but that video is pretty useless for comparing amp tones.

Yeah. Again, no shade - it's just impossible to compare anything about devices on that video.

Meanwhile, at TOP™, people are dissecting it

 

[Richard_G]

Damn. I don't remember the MkIII having anywhere near that much gain. Are you running an overdrive in front? It sounds amazing (and the AM4 is a dead ringer IMO.)

I always thought the Mark III's had just as much gain as the IIC+, if not voiced a little more aggressively? I could be wrong though (I want a Mark III lol)

The different revisions of the III differ in this respect, don’t they—with the Blue Stripe considered the most aggressive in terms of preamp voicing and gain character?

 

[marshall2553]

Yeah. Again, no shade - it's just impossible to compare anything about devices on that video.

Meanwhile, at TOP™, people are dissecting it

View attachment 57744

But he was using "studio headphones and monitors"

 

[EOengineer]

Damn. I don't remember the MkIII having anywhere near that much gain. Are you running an overdrive in front? It sounds amazing (and the AM4 is a dead ringer IMO.)

Pretty much every III I’ve used has been able to breath fire if dialed in to do so (treble and both gains high). This particular III did start life as a Blue Stripe but has been very slightly modded with a 500pf cap in C30, which puts it more in line with the red stripe and IIC+ in terms of its aggression and overall spectral footprint.

I always thought the Mark III's had just as much gain as the IIC+, if not voiced a little more aggressively? I could be wrong though (I want a Mark III lol)

Overall the IIC+ and III are more similar than they are different. The III has a little more grain to the gain character and is ever so slightly bolder/stiffer. They record nearly identically.

 

[JiveTurkey]

My blue stripe peels paint

 

[Dez]

My blue stripe peels paint

That's the stripe I want lol

 

[JiveTurkey]

That's the stripe I want lol

Marks are idiotically addictive

 

[EOengineer]

What I absolutely don’t want to do is play a part in feeding some kind of exodus from Stadium. Even with suspicions that something might be off sonically, I kept my XL because I trust L6 to either explain or address the deviation in their modeling.

It’s entirely possible this is some small bug in SIC or IR handling that gives the perception of some larger problem. It may not be Agoura at all.

Please keep in mind that Helix had a decade long development timeline and came out light years ahead of where it started. Whatever is happening will get figured out. It’s going to happen.

 

[HotRats]

It may not be Agoura at all.

100% agree with that.

 

[ccc118]

Yeah. Again, no shade - it's just impossible to compare anything about devices on that video.

Meanwhile, at TOP™, people are dissecting it

View attachment 57744

Interesting quote from over there about this: "All sound quite close, but the Helix high end pokes out as it did in their HX models. They must really like that top end sheen sound over at Line 6."

So over there, you've got people saying there's "squirrels" and too much high end and over here the high end is rolled off (not that I'm disagreeing). I feel bad for Line 6 since they have to deal with so much conflicting feedback (although some of it from over there is from obvious trolls).

 

[mbenigni]

But he was using "studio headphones and monitors"

Not at the same time, let's hope.

 

[EOengineer]

Interesting quote from over there about this: "All sound quite close, but the Helix high end pokes out as it did in their HX models. They must really like that top end sheen sound over at Line 6."

So over there, you've got people saying there's "squirrels" and too much high end and over here the high end is rolled off (not that I'm disagreeing). I feel bad for Line 6 since they have to deal with so much conflicting feedback (although some of it from over there is from obvious trolls).

This is why data quality is so important. We need good quality clips with as controlled environment as possible demonstrating the differences in behavior.

 

[mbenigni]

What I absolutely don’t want to do is play a part in feeding some kind of exodus from Stadium. Even with suspicions that something might be off sonically, I kept my XL because I trust L6 to either explain or address the deviation in their modeling.

I'm already a bit concerned that there's been so little feedback from Line 6 on this topic. I know the Stadium's only been out a few weeks, but they're usually so engaged, it's conspicuous when a concern comes up and there's no immediate response.