Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

Perhaps Kevin convinced the brass by pointing out that choosing this knob to be the one to expose to the end user could be marketed as something rather unique—something not readily available in other sims or real amps.

I guess the best thing would be not to listen to Kevin in this instance. What a knob…
 
Orvillain said:
Well the real amps convo is just a side quest.

The real question is, why have a prePost-Z control in Stadium at all? All I can think is, one of the DSP engineers said "we don't want to pull a Fractal and unlock all of the controls in the UI, but maybe we can invent an original control that gives people some of the customisation they are used to on other platforms" and there you have it.

You can be sure as shit that under the hood, their amp models have all the same kinds of controls that Fractal does; hell, even Fractal probably have a lot more that they're not showing too.

Likewise with the hype control. Someone went "hey, we noticed this other platform consistently gives their amps more gain than the real thing, and a smiley EQ curve.... let's make a knob for that" ....

It is where the distinction between accuracy and product design becomes a thing.
Click to expand...
This is more or less my beef with pre/post, hum, ripple, etc. It smacks of inconsistent design decisions. Let’s not expose deep parameters because it’s a wormhole, but oh wait here are a half dozen extra parameters that are difficult to explain, impossible to reason about, and don’t map to any real use case that would require them.

Guess how many times I’ve been in a session where I’m like THAT RIPPLE AINT RIGHT!

But a fucking bright cap switch is just unfathomable. God dammit. I’m getting salty again.

Orvillain said:
We need to talk about Kevin....
Click to expand...
90S Spider GIF by Home Alone
 
EOengineer said:
This is more or less my beef with pre/post, hum, ripple, etc. It smacks of inconsistent design decisions. Let’s not expose deep parameters because it’s a wormhole, but oh wait here are a half dozen extra parameters that are difficult to explain, impossible to reason about, and don’t map to any real use case that would require them.

Guess how many times I’ve been in a session where I’m like THAT RIPPLE AINT RIGHT!

But a fucking bright cap switch is just unfathomable. God dammit. I’m getting salty again.
Click to expand...
Well for me.... if the modelling is top notch, then you don't need any of that shit. You just need 100 amps or so, with their real world counterpart controls exposed.

Even Fractal kinda does my head in with some of their choices in this respect.

I do think NeuralDSP are overall offering the best amp experience - not necessarily the sounds, but the workflow.
 
Orvillain said:
Well for me.... if the modelling is top notch, then you don't need any of that shit. You just need 100 amps or so, with their real world counterpart controls exposed.

Even Fractal kinda does my head in with some of their choices in this respect.

I do think NeuralDSP are overall offering the best amp experience - not necessarily the sounds, but the workflow.
Click to expand...
It’s a sliding scale, I suppose. I love getting into the shit but the majority of those extra fractal params are not doing the heavy lifting. Some folks live by those extra controls.

I don’t blame L6 for not wanting to open that door, but they kinda did and then made weird choices.

If we’re gonna do it, these combined solve a lot of problems:

  1. Input bright cap value
  2. Negative feedback
  3. Depth
  4. Sag
  5. Bias
Or I could see some interesting abstractions that combine the effect of these controls - maybe new amp, old amp, etc.
 
EOengineer said:
It’s a sliding scale, I suppose. I love getting into the shit but the majority of those extra fractal params are not doing the heavy lifting. Some folks live by those extra controls.

I don’t blame L6 for not wanting to open that door, but they kinda did and then made weird choices.

If we’re gonna do it, these combined solve a lot of problems:

  1. Input bright cap value
  2. Negative feedback
  3. Depth
  4. Sag
  5. Bias
Or I could see some interesting abstractions that combine the effect of these controls - maybe new amp, old amp, etc.
Click to expand...
I definitely see the value, and you're right it is a sliding scale. I just notice for myself, I'm my most creative when I plug a few pedals into the front of a valve amp , eschew the FX loop, dial in the amp loud as fuck, and go about my day.

When I start getting very analytical and in the weeds, I end up not writing any music. :rofl
 
[Nathan] said:
Having a look now. I'm on the JUMPED channel and the normal/bright drive are both affecting the gain, is that weird? There's only one knob on the amp so i'm not sure why they're both doing things. Master volume I assume is "Volume" on the amp and level is just line level.

View attachment 59146
Click to expand...
Normal Drive = Normal channel volume.
Bright Drive = Treble channel volume.
Master = master volume, which should be on 10 if you want it to behave like the real Plexi. It's a convenience if you want to make it a Plexi with a master volume.
Level = output volume.


When jumpered, you mix the two channels together using the normal and bright drive knobs. Functionally this is just like the gain knob on most amps, but without a master volume it controls volume and then the amount of distortion as the preamp starts overdriving the poweramp.

I don't mind the graphics or that they are simply a picture. I think they add a bit of flair. They are mostly there for the Focus function to have a background, and to be able to see what model you are using at a glance.

An issue that still exists on the Stadium is the lack of any grouping for controls. Here's a simple recolour to separate normal vs advanced controls. I think that would make it much easier to separate what is part of the amp and what's advanced, mostly unnecessary stuff.

Screenshot 2026-02-13 at 15.15.38.png
 
EOengineer said:
It’s a sliding scale, I suppose. I love getting into the shit but the majority of those extra fractal params are not doing the heavy lifting. Some folks live by those extra controls.

I don’t blame L6 for not wanting to open that door, but they kinda did and then made weird choices.

If we’re gonna do it, these combined solve a lot of problems:

  1. Input bright cap value
  2. Negative feedback
  3. Depth
  4. Sag
  5. Bias
Or I could see some interesting abstractions that combine the effect of these controls - maybe new amp, old amp, etc.
Click to expand...
This is all I need, and wouldn’t need to be a sliding range of settings - even just 2 or 3 options would scratch all my itches. Maybe delectable SIC’s too
 
Orvillain said:
I definitely see the value, and you're right it is a sliding scale. I just notice for myself, I'm my most creative when I plug a few pedals into the front of a valve amp , eschew the FX loop, dial in the amp loud as fuck, and go about my day.

When I start getting very analytical and in the weeds, I end up not writing any music. :rofl
Click to expand...
Strong agree. I was migrating away from modeling for a couple years for similar reasons. I want to play and write songs. That’s the part I like.

I am finding myself setting and forgetting on Agoura way more than on any other platform I’m using outside maybe some of my own Tonex caps.
 
laxu said:
Normal Drive = Normal channel volume.
Bright Drive = Treble channel volume.
Master = master volume, which should be on 10 if you want it to behave like the real Plexi. It's a convenience if you want to make it a Plexi with a master volume.
Level = output volume.


When jumpered, you mix the two channels together using the normal and bright drive knobs. Functionally this is just like the gain knob on most amps, but without a master volume it controls volume and then the amount of distortion as the preamp starts overdriving the poweramp.

I don't mind the graphics or that they are simply a picture. I think they add a bit of flair. They are mostly there for the Focus function to have a background, and to be able to see what model you are using at a glance.

An issue that still exists on the Stadium is the lack of any grouping for controls. Here's a simple recolour to separate normal vs advanced controls. I think that would make it much easier to separate what is part of the amp and what's advanced, mostly unnecessary stuff.

View attachment 59153
Click to expand...
A simple colour grouping like that would be a great update
 
EOengineer said:
Strong agree. I was migrating away from modeling for a couple years for similar reasons. I want to play and write songs. That’s the part I like.

I am finding myself setting and forgetting on Agoura way more than on any other platform I’m using outside maybe some of my own Tonex caps.
Click to expand...

This was my experience with the HX Stomp! I think Line 6 products are very musical and easy to get lost in pretty quickly.
 
RiffDuck said:
Might be the insomnia but I'm dying laughing at this comparison lol. I'm new to this forum but I take it you guys aren't fans of NDSP here?
Click to expand...
I have ethical problems with how they’ve treated their customers. They do seem to be making an effort now so I’m whatever about it. They are a legit player in the space.

We seem to kind of simultaneously love and flog our modeling companies here. Everyone gets hit eventually.
 
dbfretz said:
The graphics really do cheapen it, does not look good in the slightest. Some stylised knobs or 2D panel might have looked cooler but the weird angle graphics are whack.
Click to expand...
Agreed , the Bogner drive me crazy it looks like a caricature of the amp w red grill blue grill
Just draw the damn wheat grill and have red an blue leds
Or Have the background be blue / red

And the angle is just off too
I agree just show the panel with the knobs and switches
 
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