Line 6 Helix Stadium

[JiveTurkey]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. For the longest time I wondered what the huge draw was and what all the adoration was about. Really good player, seems like a nice enough guy too. But man...the tone and unnecessary complexity of the presets. Split crossovers, big compression at the end of the chain, no dynamics, boiled milk tone. Ugh.

Yes; you are going to have a hi and low cut here and there. If I have to go beyond those levels to ridiculous lengths to make something sound good (pro-tip: you don't); no thank you. Ugh. Bonus points for yelling at people when they commented on his videos and told him the AC/DC tones did not sound like AC/DC

 

[HomespunEffects]

I have my global settings on my Stomp set to a cut at 82Hz and 15k.

 

[HomespunEffects]

… Bonus points for yelling at people when they commented on his videos and told him the AC/DC tones did not sound like AC/DC

I must see this.

 

[banned]

Ok, that Plexi Clip sounds fantastic! Great dynamics.

 

[banned]

One of my favorite amp features in fractal is being able to adjust the bright cap value. While the huge stock cap has a certain trick to it, for general playing I like a much smaller cap value. The values I prefer are pretty close to what was in the helix plexi model IIRC. The big cap has this extra trash/static type of stuff around the note when you back off the guitar volume or hit it with certain drives and boosts that I just can’t go for. No cap loses the vibe for me too.

If you can’t adjust the cap value, you’re
damned any way you go. Big cap, people will say they hear squirrels still. Small cap, people like James will roast them for missing the full Marshall experience. No cap, a lot of us will complain about it being too dark and missing the sparkle and kerrang of a plexi.

D

Yeah, need bright cap as a switchable...they're already implementing bright switches on other amps...think of this the same. Pls do it L6 - pls also add a Variac!

 

[mikah912]

Yeah, need bright cap as a switchable...they're already implementing bright switches on other amps...think of this the same. Pls do it L6 - pls also add a Variac!

The existing "Sag" parameter essentially already gives you a tweakable Variac. Just crank it on the Marshall of your choice and see how the response gets "browner".

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

@Digital Igloo did you ever answer the question of why it was named "Stadium"?

 

[banned]

The existing "Sag" parameter essentially already gives you a tweakable Variac. Just crank it on the Marshall of your choice and see how the response gets "browner".

Yes, the Sag parameter works very well to modify feel on a given model (and its effect changes drastically from model to model) - it's actually one of my favorite parameters. But I'm requesting a voltage modifier to specifically modify that one parameter - voltage. It may be possible to get equivalent tone/feel with the Sag knob - but sometimes I just want to play with input voltage.

Where I'm at is that I don't need the full complement of 'under the hood' tools/levers that Fractal exposes - but do desire a few key ones to made available in the HX ecosystem like Variac and Bright Cap.

 

[timbuck3]

 

[Digital Igloo]

@Digital Igloo did you ever answer the question of why it was named "Stadium"?

1. Naming products is the single hardest part of our Product Managers' job. It has literally resulted in dueling Powerpoints with dozens of people in the room all arguing.
2. "Helix 2" is a milquetoast name and doesn't do justice to the fact that Stadium is a from-the-ground-up endeavor.
3. "Double Helix" is an even worse name, because what's double? The DSP? The storage? The number of blocks? The number of switches? It's just asking for criticism.
4. "Helix Stadium" was an early meant-to-be-aspirational working name and it just stuck. No one could come up with anything we hated less.
5. Did I mention naming products sucks?

 

[timbuck3]

 

[Digital Igloo]

Jason's one of my favorite people, even if he wasn't a Helix user. Everyone be nice please.

 

[banned]

1. Naming products is the single hardest part of our Product Managers' job. It has literally resulted in dueling Powerpoints with dozens of people in the room all arguing.
2. "Helix 2" is a milquetoast name and doesn't do justice to the fact that Stadium is a from-the-ground-up endeavor.
3. "Double Helix" is an even worse name, because what's double? The DSP? The storage? The number of blocks? The number of switches? It's just asking for criticism.
4. "Helix Stadium" was an early meant-to-be-aspirational working name and it just stuck. No one could come up with anything we hated less.
5. Did I mention naming products sucks?

I think you're overthinking it. It doesn't have to be that hard - any of those names could have worked. I actually like both Helix 2 and Double Helix quite a bit over Helix Stadium.

But Helix Stadium is what we have. FWIW, I think naming products is fun!

 

[TubeStack]

It does make me auto-think "Arcadium" right after seeing the name...

 

[Chocol8]

Everyone be nice please.

That's not one of our strong points!

 

[Orvillain]

@Digital Igloo - So basically, the 'hype' knob is a way to go "okay... under the hood we have Fractal levels of complexity... but fuck showing all of that to the user.. give them a macro knob with a cheeky name!"

???

 

[Digital Igloo]

@Digital Igloo - So basically, the 'hype' knob is a way to go "okay... under the hood we have Fractal levels of complexity... but fuck showing all of that to the user.. give them a macro knob with a cheeky name!"

???

To a certain extent, yeah, maybe, although there are a lot of model tools that aren't meant to be user facing at all, even via the Hype knob. Depending on the amp, Hype may also expand control ranges beyond the amp's real limits and even control processing that isn't part of the amp at all, like additional filtering and in a few cases, dynamics.

 

[GTR37]

To a certain extent, yeah, maybe, although there are a lot of model tools that aren't meant to be user facing at all, even via the Hype knob. Depending on the amp, Hype may also expand control ranges beyond the amp's real limits and even control processing that isn't part of the amp at all, like additional filtering and in a few cases, dynamics.

I know Igor mentioned we could allow access to a ton of parameters like Fractal and choose not too
Do you think there will ever be an advanced mode where people will be able to select some a small amount of deeper features
Like Power Tube Type
Negative Feedback
Bright cap values

 

[Fireproof]

1. Naming products is the single hardest part of our Product Managers' job. It has literally resulted in dueling Powerpoints with dozens of people in the room all arguing.
2. "Helix 2" is a milquetoast name and doesn't do justice to the fact that Stadium is a from-the-ground-up endeavor.
3. "Double Helix" is an even worse name, because what's double? The DSP? The storage? The number of blocks? The number of switches? It's just asking for criticism.
4. "Helix Stadium" was an early meant-to-be-aspirational working name and it just stuck. No one could come up with anything we hated less.
5. Did I mention naming products sucks?

Ha. I know what you mean and don't envy you.

FWIW - when I first heard "Stadium" it was a positive reaction. It's not goofy or too kitchy and doesn't seem like you guys were trying too hard to be cool or something. And who doesn't want to think about rocking a sold out stadium?

 

[paisleywookiee]

5 Reasons I Don’t Give a Fuck What That Schmuck Thinks, Based Entirely On His Stupid Thumbnail Image.