Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[paisleywookiee]

XY Controller

Guitar Mounted Wireless Controller for Graviton Series Pedals Low-profile design: Minimizes changes to the instrument's look and playability (compatible with whammy bars). Simple operation: With no power button to worry about, it always works like a pickup selector switch. Fully programmable...

luminitefx.com

The Luminite stuff is cool AF. Thinking of getting the M2.

 

[Chocol8]

The Luminite stuff is cool AF. Thinking of getting the M2.

Yeah, I am considering the M1 but not sure. I really don't need midi but...

 

[paisleywookiee]

Yeah, I am considering the M1 but not sure. I really don't need midi but...

I'm really, really going to need MIDI. I shouldn't have sold my MC6MkII.

 

[bucephalus]

"Is that piss? IS THAT PISS?"

 

[Rocco Crocco]

You should not die unknowing. Global blocks is concept where you have the settings of a certain block in your signal chain being persistent over all presets. So when you change a setting in that block the change is reflected in every preset that uses this particular (probably named or otherwise marked) block. One example use case would be an amp/cab block that you use on multiple presets for a gig. When you make adjustments on that block, you want it to be the same on all presets. It is one, besides "channels" the most discussed, concept to overcome the limitations of presets and snapshots/scenes.

Thanks for the explanation. I would never want to use a feature like that.

 

[BenIfin]

Admittedly, Showcase is the feature I will personally use the least for the foreseeable future (the groups I perform with like to do stuff impromptu, and we don't switch guitar tones mid-song nearly that much), but that is a powerful and hella cool demo of how it takes something "techy" like laptop MIDI automation and makes it more approachable for the everyday guitarist.

%100 totally. And pretty f*cking amazing tones and efx too.

 

[DanRad]

Thanks for the explanation. I would never want to use a feature like that.

I feel the same. I think having favorites is great because it gives you a starting point. But tweaks to a block that sound great in one preset could sound like dog crap in another.

 

[Chocol8]

I feel the same. I think having favorites is great because it gives you a starting point. But tweaks to a block that sound great in one preset could sound like dog crap in another.

Yep! Blocks interact, so if you make global changes, at a minimum you would have to go check each preset impacted, and then what do you do if further tweaking is necessary? Make the block non-global where you need to make adjustments, or adjust other blocks that may or may not be global?

I can see the appeal of global EQ but I would have very little desire for other global blocks.

 

[jcfluhr]

I noticed DI mentioned that providing a way to control the XY pad thingy without bending down and touching it was also on their radar. That could work great for live use!

I was messing this yesterday. If you use a midi cable going out and back into the unit you can send a midi command to go to a coordinate on the xy pad and then use the rubber band feature so that it returns to 0,0. Pretty cool. Still working it out, but there's potential there.

 

[StarF666]

Yep! Blocks interact, so if you make global changes, at a minimum you would have to go check each preset impacted, and then what do you do if further tweaking is necessary? Make the block non-global where you need to make adjustments, or adjust other blocks that may or may not be global?

I can see the appeal of global EQ but I would have very little desire for other global blocks.

All fair points. But what about using the same amp and cab across multiple presets for a gig and you want consistency across them? Soundcheck time and you need to make some adjustments, remove some bass because the room has plenty, feel like adding some gain because you brought single coils. Same for your main reverb or drive.

I think there are probably even more concepts and ideas out there which are suited to extend ye olde presets and snapshots. What about favourites that are recallable inside snapshots, like micro presets for blocks? ...just realizing this is Fractal's channels basically.

I just think there are many different approaches how to use such a capable device. So many features in Helix, most of us won't use all of them. Just use, what you need.

What I liked about the OG already, you could very much tailor it to your needs. I'd just like to see them push this even further. And I think there is some demand for this when I look at the possibilities of a Morningstar controller and how people use them.

Sorry for the long post...

 

[Chocol8]

Soundcheck time and you need to make some adjustments, remove some bass because the room has plenty, feel like adding some gain because you brought single coils. Same for your main reverb or drive.

There is no way I would use the amp block to make room adjustments at soundcheck. Thats what I would use a global EQ for. Global EQ could also be used for a SC/HB boost, but I handle that on the guitar or with separate presets if needed. I want all the guitar related stuff sorted out well before soundcheck.

As far as adjusting a drive, no way I would do that globally without a chance to check how it impacts every preset. Reverb might be less risky, but I am not messing with that last minute too much either.

 

[ian_dissonance]

I feel the same. I think having favorites is great because it gives you a starting point. But tweaks to a block that sound great in one preset could sound like dog crap in another.

The way Boss does it on the GT-1000 you have 10 slots per effects block type that you can save as a “Stompbox”. So you can freely use all the blocks in any preset, but you can load a Stompbox into a block and that will be effected by changes to that Stompbox. In my case, I typically have 4 presets that I use live that share clean and dirty amps and FX layouts, so when I’m tweaking a delay mix or amp gain or boost settings at rehearsal I don’t have to go make the same change across four presets to change my rhythm boost or whatever. And if I don’t want to use a blocks shared settings I just switch it from Stompbox to Patch Data and I can freely change the settings of the block without effecting other presets. So it’s not really “global blocks”, but block shared settings via an assigned location. If you don’t want a block to follow other blocks don’t assign it to a Stompbox location. I definitely wouldn’t want my delay to have to be the same thing across presets for everything that I load a delay on. But I can build as many “pedalboards” around the same amp setup, and if I need to change the amp settings at rehearsal it’s done for all my various fx configurations that I want to use with that amp setup. It is super duper handy and doesn’t limit anything.

 

[Sascha Franck]

But tweaks to a block that sound great in one preset could sound like dog crap in another.

Ok:

- People are adjusting their amp channels per gig demands since decades.
- People are adjusting their pedal settings per gig demands since decades.
- Same goes for several other things.

In fact, before you could save all your stuff, *anything* was global blocks, so to say - and people were and still are making use of these things.
Don't know what's the potential of things sounding like "dog crap" in case I want to slightly shave of some trebles on a clean patch. In fact, it's the opposite - because unlike without global blocks, I am in fact able to correct a less than ideal sound per situation. Which you simply aren't in case you're using plenty of patches.

I think people are just not fully grasping the concept.
Add to this, you could as well use a properly implemented global blocks functionality to, say, completely disable cab simulations on your patches without having to resave each - making it easy to use the same patches through a guitar cab instead of a fullrange solution.
Etc.

I think having favorites is great because it gives you a starting point.

A global block function has *zero* to do with favourites.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Blocks interact, so if you make global changes, at a minimum you would have to go check each preset impacted,

No. See my examples from the last post. That's just nonsense. Nobody's checking out all patches in their loop switcher based setups just because they dialed back the trebles on their clean channel a few notches.

 

[Sascha Franck]

There is no way I would use the amp block to make room adjustments at soundcheck.

But you would use it to, say balance the clean and dirt channels. Which is impossible with a global EQ.

All of a sudden, it's as if you folks have never used a real amp in all your life. Because people are doing these things *all the time*. During soundchecks and sometimes even during gigs. Top professional guys included.

 

[Sascha Franck]

As far as adjusting a drive, no way I would do that globally without a chance to check how it impacts every preset.

I'm doint this all the time since decades. In fact, pretty much all players are doing so. I've been at an Ariel Posen gig on wednesday and he bowed down to adjust his King Tone Minifuzz at one point. And he's been using that thing for all of his tones, multiple other settings of his other FX included.
But hey, I guess Ariel Posen doesn't know anything about tone. Maybe you could lecture him.

 

[StarF666]

As far as adjusting a drive, no way I would do that globally without a chance to check how it impacts every preset. Reverb might be less risky, but I am not messing with that last minute too much either.

I totally understand that you won't use it and that's perfectly fine. But as many other posts stated for a lot of players it would be very helpful because they are used to do it.

I for myself am much more scared to f up my sound with global eq than adjusting just one pedal. We are not talking drastic changes here across all presets but consistency across a few In a coherent context.

But as I wrote before, there is just not one way to do things and the demand for concepts beyond presets/snapshots is real. Your way is fine if it works for you. Others might like to do things differently.

 

[bucephalus]

I think people are just not fully grasping the concept

No, I think they grasp it just fine. They just don't agree with you.

 

[Richard_G]

The way Boss does it on the GT-1000 you have 10 slots per effects block type that you can save as a “Stompbox”. So you can freely use all the blocks in any preset, but you can load a Stompbox into a block and that will be effected by changes to that Stompbox. In my case, I typically have 4 presets that I use live that share clean and dirty amps and FX layouts, so when I’m tweaking a delay mix or amp gain or boost settings at rehearsal I don’t have to go make the same change across four presets to change my rhythm boost or whatever. And if I don’t want to use a blocks shared settings I just switch it from Stompbox to Patch Data and I can freely change the settings of the block without effecting other presets. So it’s not really “global blocks”, but block shared settings via an assigned location. If you don’t want a block to follow other blocks don’t assign it to a Stompbox location. I definitely wouldn’t want my delay to have to be the same thing across presets for everything that I load a delay on. But I can build as many “pedalboards” around the same amp setup, and if I need to change the amp settings at rehearsal it’s done for all my various fx configurations that I want to use with that amp setup. It is super duper handy and doesn’t limit anything.

I think that’s pretty much the functionality I’m thinking of when I say I’d like to have «global blocks» as an option.

 

[Sascha Franck]

They just don't agree with you.

So you don't understand it, either.
Because there's nothing to agree with. It's an additional feature. Why would anyone even think about disagreeing? Use it or don't. But stop telling people it's nonsense or whatever.