Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[FuzzyAce]

If you want to play fast don’t use a pick?

There's a lot of truth to that!

 

[laxu]

Interesting that his main distortion patch is an Hx model - the Brit Trem Jumped and not the new Stadium Plexi. He picked a legacy Marshall amp model with a bright cap over that garbage pile that is the Agoura Superlead.

Who could have predicted.

Did he use a Helix before? If yes, it might be just that he's using what he's used to.

 

[bucephalus]

There's a lot of truth to that!

I don't use a pick because it's just annoying trying to hit the right string

 

[dean701]

Did he use a Helix before? If yes, it might be just that he's using what he's used to.

He uses them all. QC, FM, Helix. Since he is endorsed by everyone, although Yamaha for a long time, he seems to hop back and forth. Many videos show him using an FM3 live prior to that the Helix. Nice to see him using the Stadium and it sounds like he just made those patches.

 

[EOengineer]

What’s wrong with the Plexi? The guys at Worship Tutorials love it? All the samples I’ve heard sound good too.

It doesn’t have a bright cap. There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with it. They modelled the one they have. A lot of the snarl from a plexi comes from the cap, but also kinda makes it useless for anything other than running it cranked up when it is present.

I remember on the Marshall forum years ago there was a spec spreadsheet of maybe 100 vintage plexis and their specs. They were all over the place, and I’d say the majority had no bright cap. Can probably still find the list.

This gets very nuanced but the Plexi as we know it is really a very specific subset of the Marshall Superlead from the ~1968 period. Those tend to have no bright cap, or a less aggressive one, and smaller filtering caps that make the amp feel softer/spongier - a bit more JTM45ish. Think Hendrix.

Around 1969-1970 Marshall started transitioning to more aggressive bright caps and stiffer filtering which produces a brighter, more aggressive, rocky version of that sound. That trend continued through the late 70s.

The Agoura Plexi does a good job with the 60s Marshall sound. I shouldn’t bash it as much as I do, as I think it’s fairly accurate for that sound, it’s just not the version of the Superlead some of us prefer.

Fractal solves this by exposing deep parameters for bright cap and filter cap values.

Stadium is still young so I’m really hoping for a late 70s Superlead one day, or a path to adjust some of those parameters. If you’re looking for the 70s Superlead sound the Agoura Plexi just flat out can’t do it.

 

[Lysander]

I remembered that he switched to an FM3 some time ago "for the smaller form factor", so it looks like this is not an issue anymore for him to carry such a huge modeler.

IF that was the reason... it makes perfect sense?

The HXS is not that much bigger than a FM3, weights the same, has all the sounds he's been used to playing for years now, and it's much better suited for live use overall.

EDIT: n/m, he's using the full Helix Stomp XL it seems

 

[laxu]

This gets very nuanced but the Plexi as we know it is really a very specific subset of the Marshall Superlead from the ~1968 period. Those tend to have no bright cap, or a less aggressive one, and smaller filtering caps that make the amp feel softer/spongier - a bit more JTM45ish. Think Hendrix.

Around 1969-1970 Marshall started transitioning to more aggressive bright caps and stiffer filtering which produces a brighter, more aggressive, rocky version of that sound. That trend continued through the late 70s.

The Agoura Plexi does a good job with the 60s Marshall sound. I shouldn’t bash it as much as I do, as I think it’s fairly accurate for that sound, it’s just not the version of the Superlead some of us prefer.

Fractal solves this by exposing deep parameters for bright cap and filter cap values.

Stadium is still young so I’m really hoping for a late 70s Superlead one day, or a path to adjust some of those parameters. If you’re looking for the 70s Superlead sound the Agoura Plexi just flat out can’t do it.

Switchable bright caps honestly should be a feature on Helix in the advanced parameters section.

They can make such a big difference in the sound. I've grown to love the angry 4700-5000 pF bright caps for Marshall tones and without those it's just "meh".

 

[EOengineer]

Switchable bright caps honestly should be a feature on Helix in the advanced parameters section.

They can make such a big difference in the sound. I've grown to love the angry 4700-5000 pF bright caps for Marshall tones and without those it's just "meh".

Yeah I agree and have a 5000pf option on both my Marshalls. Those are my go to with humbuckers, where I’ll either bypass it or swap in a far less aggressive cap with my single coil Teles. Honestly the lack of a switch is a design oversight by Marshall. Fender figured it out on the Bassman and Twins.

I’m really hoping L6 gets there. Anyone in doubt who owns a Fractal - jump into the deep params and play with the bright cap. Massive difference.

 

[DanRad]

So I submitted a ticket for this and apparently "they have never heard about this before" and after their macOS dev guy is consulted - apparently this is not considered a bug.

The ONLY application in my entire decade+ experience with Macs and various apps that does this...

So, I think the problem is that once you close the main window, there's no way to reopen it without closing and relaunching the app. I don't know whether that's technically a bug, but it is certainly not great programming. There should be a way to reopen the main window, and having that happen when you click on the icon in the dock makes sense.

There are other apps that remain open if close the main window, but they generally reopen that window if you click on the dock icon or through an option under the Window menu in the app.

 

[AlbertA]

So, I think the problem is that once you close the main window, there's no way to reopen it without closing and relaunching the app. I don't know whether that's technically a bug, but it is certainly not great programming. There should be a way to reopen the main window, and having that happen when you click on the icon in the dock makes sense.

The window is clearly just hidden, given the fact that if you hit "Devices" in the menu bar displays it again.
They are simply not hooking up the event when the icon is clicked once it's running in the background.


BTW the same thing happens if you try to relaunch with spotlight, or click in the Apps menu or double click in Finder->Applications.

There are other apps that remain open if close the main window, but they generally reopen that window if you click on the dock icon or through an option under the Window menu in the app.

Right, every single other app, uses those 2 conventions that @laxu mentioned above.

In fact, from Apple's Interface guidelines in the past:

Activate a window when the user clicks your app’s icon in the Dock. If your app is already running with open windows, activate the front open window or the last minimized window. If your app isn’t already running or is running without any open windows, open your main window or a new document window.

 

[ian_dissonance]

Matteo Mancuso is such an amazing player and a nice person! Probably one of the best guitar player form his generation.

He could play through anything and still sound great and "like him", like all great players do.

I remembered that he switched to an FM3 some time ago "for the smaller form factor", so it looks like this is not an issue anymore for him to carry such a huge modeler. Or that he signed a new contract, I wish for him that's the case! There's also an HX Stomp just beside the Stadium, I wonder if this is his backup? Maybe.

Thanks for posting the video!

The Stadium is only 4” wider. The FM3 and FM9 are HUGE for the footswitching IMO.

 

[DanRad]

Right, every single other app, uses those 2 conventions that @laxu mentioned above.

Yeah. I posted before I read @laxu's response, or I wouldn't have bothered. They were more succinct than me, anyway.

 

[Amarok]

@Digital Igloo do you happen to know if this is already a known issue?

I switched from the XL to Floor Stadium. I backed up my presets from the XL and imported them into the Floor. They all work fine, except I can't delete any blocks from my imported presets. Trying to delete a block makes it flicker but then it sticks around. Not a huge deal, I can just re-create them with same settings but was curious if anyone else has run into this. Love this thing, btw!

 

[Melodioso]

The Stadium is only 4” wider. The FM3 and FM9 are HUGE for the footswitching IMO.

Matteo went from an FM3 (11.1 in / 28.1 cm) to a Stadium XL (19.4 in / 49.2 cm). That's more than 8" wider (+75% width), not 4 ?

Agree that the FM3 is big (specially its depth) for only 3 footswitches.

 

[Melodioso]

This may be Matteo live with his Stadium XL:

 

[ejecta]

Well I’m out on this product.

Bye.


Helix XL is really cool but what’s the exact polar opposite of that….. is the F’n WiFi. They’ll never learn. Let me hook it up only with the USB with no care in the world about WiFi. Why is that so hard?

Taking it Wednesday to Nashville for trade bait on some other gear. I don’t even care to try sell and ship the thing.

Gotta a plan for a cooler board with a Syn1 JMP preamp and some pedals for my direct gig anyway.

Pretty sure I see a VP4 in my future.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Agoura Plexi just kind of shows that Line 6 didn’t really learn what people wanted out of a proper Marshall Super Lead. Helix Legacy got so close and at least offered plenty of choice. The Agoura model ain’t it. They’ll get there eventually but it’s baffling that they chose this one for the first batch.