Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[EOengineer]

I regret rehashing this whole thing.

It’s a lot of scrutiny on a single model but it’s an important model. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed L6 has something up their sleeve.

 

[Bosons Tear]

I wish Proxy would sleeve the cradle

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I wish Proxy would sleeve the cradle

I don't understand what that means?

 

[GTR37]

Back when I really lost my shit and threw my regrettable little childish temper tantrum over the Agoura Plexi, this was the core of my frustration.

I’ve dropped $5k+ into the Helix & Stadium ecosystem over almost a decade and still can’t get a decent Superlead crunch. Fractal got me there for $768 and 1 knob turn. To say I have concerns about whether my investment is going to pay off would be an understatement. I’m beginning to feel like I’m in a plane that isn’t going to clear the runway.

I’m hoping the Beta helps crowdsource some of this knowledge. I think there’s a more open process than what may have existed with Helix.


I think their point is that software probably shouldn’t be going out the door with broken core/critical functionality. The dual band SSID thing isn’t unusual or crumbling edge tech at this point.

We’ve had a couple FW updates, big feature releases like showcase and soon Proxy, yet foundational core pieces of the system aren’t currently working well.

This sort of thing fuels the perception that L6 is spread too thin and focusing too much on shiny stuff (showcase/proxy) while overlooking the meat and potatoes functionality. I’m a dev, I get it, and I’ve repeatedly defended L6 on this point but at this point even I’m starting to have my doubts.


I had similar findings performing tests a couple weeks ago. The SIC selection thing is something they are going to have to expose. Period. In this day and age too many people use IRs to not provide control of this parameter. This should have been in 1.0 and if they aren’t planning to implement it they are going to get laughed out of this space.

I don’t need a $2200 iPod. I need to reproduce real world signal and amp behavior.

Get shit right, add toys later.

I got an email from my guy at LM up here in Canada and they are expecting their order this month from the distributor and honestly I am still on the fence
I know 1.3 should be out this month and I am hoping for more bug fixes and proxy and also hoping proxy does not introduce another bunch of bugs

The part that makes it more complicated is I just absolutely love my AM4 at the moment took it over to singers place again just to do some rough demos and it’s compact size and amp models and effects are just so impressive

 

[EOengineer]

I got an email from my guy at LM up here in Canada and they are expecting their order this month from the distributor and honestly I am still on the fence
I know 1.3 should be out this month and I am hoping for more bug fixes and proxy and also hoping proxy does not introduce another bunch of bugs

The part that makes it more complicated is I just absolutely love my AM4 at the moment took it over to singers place again just to do some rough demos and it’s compact size and amp models and effects are just so impressive

Yeah I totally get it. I’ve justified having both the Stadium XL and the AM4 by telling myself that they serve slightly different contexts.

The AM4 features a much broader amp selection, great effects, and more mature amp modeling, but lacks things like space echo, complex chains, and the expansive switching options of the Stadium. After a couple months with it, I don’t love all the tap dancing I’m doing to switch between scenes, channels, etc. I love the sounds though.

Stadium gives me everything I liked about Helix in terms of tons of switching and control options, complex chains, scribble strips and brings along with it the promise of improved amp modeling that I do think will eventually get to the point where it turns more heads. Proxy is a bit of a wildcard as well, as I have had Tonex as my mistress on the side for a couple years now and love the idea of being able to incorporate my own amps with all the Stadium flexibility without having to deal with IK’s stench. Showcase is neat too but I’m mostly whatever about it right now.

TLDR: folks buying the AM4 for what it does now will likely be happy. If I were buying the stadium for what it does now I’d be mega disappointed, but I sort of broke my own rule and bought it gambling on the future. Nobody knows how that’s going to pan out. You have to be ok with the gamble. If you aren’t, stay with Fractal.