Line 6 Helix Stadium

[Gary_W]

As this week’s video features lots about the I/O side…. A couple of questions for DI - I quite understand jf this is too early to say or you can’t comment but if you can:

How’s the latency to a DAW via USB? I currently go Kemper into SPDIF but will be moving to Stadium XL. My recording interface is USB 2 and, although I get great results using SPDIF (and could for sure do that with Stadium) I’m wondering if the Stadium XL going straight to USB would be better what with it being USB 3?

On a related note, the dynamic range specs on the mic input are better than my Focusrite Clarett. Obviously there’s more to making a decent mic preamp than a dynamic range number so…. Is the quality of the mic pre in the stadium good enough to take on mid-range recording interfaces like the Clarett or am I hoping for too much there?

 

[Digital Igloo]

How’s the latency to a DAW via USB? I currently go Kemper into SPDIF but will be moving to Stadium XL. My recording interface is USB 2 and, although I get great results using SPDIF (and could for sure do that with Stadium) I’m wondering if the Stadium XL going straight to USB would be better what with it being USB 3?

Don't know yet. We're still optimizing a bunch of stuff. I will say it's not like we have an army of driver gurus who do nothing like that like, say RME have.

On a related note, the dynamic range specs on the mic input are better than my Focusrite Clarett. Obviously there’s more to making a decent mic preamp than a dynamic range number so…. Is the quality of the mic pre in the stadium good enough to take on mid-range recording interfaces like the Clarett or am I hoping for too much there?

Oh yes.

 

[ian_dissonance]

How’s the latency to a DAW via USB?

I’m definitely curious. Current HX USB driver is all but useless if you want to do any DAW monitoring instead of direct from the hardware.

 

[Sascha Franck]

will say it's not like we have an army of driver gurus who do nothing like that like, say RME have.

Just do it as good as Motu with their cheap M-series and everybody will be super happy.

 

[Gary_W]

Don't know yet. We're still optimizing a bunch of stuff. I will say it's not like we have an army of driver gurus who do nothing like that like, say RME have.

Oh yes.

Thank you for the swift reply - very much appreciated and understood. Even jf the usb isn’t as quick as I’d like at first I’m sure it’ll get there. In the meantime I’ll look forward to hooking up via SPDIF and seeing what the mic pre can do vs fhe Focusrite. Really looking forward to exploring this once they’re out.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Both Stadium and FM9 run at 48kHz natively so yeah, that should work.

What's the over/under on when someone not familiar with LT pops in, saying "DuRr! They copied QC's gIG ViEw!"

Fractalixium Rig of Doom!!!

 

[AZG]

Helix/HX can do this now via the Command Center

There are now up to two commands for each stomp, but unfortunately, toggling between two specific snapshots would use both of them

Thanks for the reply.

So my understanding is I can set foot switch 1 to toggle between snap 1 and 2, and foot switch 2 between snap 3 and 4, but press and hold can not be assigned to do something on those foot switches? All other foot switches could be set to do similar things or just used for turning effects on/off. Is this correct?

 

[Vic Winters]

Will Performance View get a BPM readout or is that destined to remain a scribble strip luxury?

 

[timbuck3]

 

[HotRats]

Uncomfortably excited about this. Looks like the LT's view display at a first glance, but there's a lot more going on here.

View attachment 51497

I hope this view will be available for XL too.
Even if redundant it might be an useful option to have.

@Digital Igloo I hope there will be a proper setlist manager in stadium, a way to write down and store your setlist(s) and then link each line to a preset (or not) instead of having to shuffle around presets inside banks and repeat & rename identical presets used for multiple songs.

and a "setlist view" would be also a nice thing to have, I mean a screen where you can just see your set list nice and clear.

 

[Sascha Franck]

and a "setlist view" would be also a nice thing to have, I mean a screen where you can just see your set list nice and clear.

Yeah. And, talking about this: What about having an additional "volume offset" per patch, available straight in that setlist manager?
It'd be nothing else but an additional volume knob tied to the setlist, not altering the patch you're using, also only in effect once you call up the setlist. No need to save that setting, either, it'd automatically be part of the setlist.
Thing is, once you're using plenty of different patches (I typically don't, but I most defenitely would in, say, a theater situation, in a regular band playing original stuff, etc, some cover band folks do as well), balancing their volumes against each other can become quite tedious. Also, you may want to use the same patch just with a different level in more songs. Having to go through each patch and perhaps even resaving it (as long as global blocks aren't a thing) is quite laboriuos. A patch volume offset tied to a setlist would nicely adress that as you could see all patches at a glance and have immediate access to their volumes just by tapping them.

Now, before anyone mentions it: I am perfectly aware that a single volume offset wouldn't do the semi-modular nature of the HX stuff justice. So, in case you were running, say, multiple sources through the unit, it possibly wouldn't work anymore.
But my guess would be that in 95% of all cases this isn't relevant and the overall patch volume would be set by a single final output block. So in all these cases, the scenario described above would work.

 

[laxu]

Uncomfortably excited about this. Looks like the LT's view display at a first glance, but there's a lot more going on here.

View attachment 51497

@Digital Igloo So how do you get this view to pop up on the HX Stadium? Do you have to select it on the touchscreen, does it show up if you use a footswitch and then go away after a bit if you are not in focus view?

I think it's a good substitute for the scribble strips, depending on how it works.

 

[HotRats]

I admit that I'd love to buy a Stadium XL, I really do because looks like is gonna be an awesome product, packed with features I know I'll love.

But the thing is that I already own an Helix floor since 2018 and has been awesome for what I've done all these years and currently I'm not even using it because the traditional pedalboard + amp works better with the band I'm in.
I really need to find another band that fits the Stadium potential and then buy one with no remorse

 

[Sascha Franck]

But the thing is that I already own an Helix floor since 2018 and has been awesome for what I've done all these years and currently I'm not even using it because the traditional pedalboard + amp works better with the band I'm in.

Similar here (just that the "amps" I'm using are mini modelers on whatever sort of typical pedalboards). But I have a feeling that the user experience delivered by the Stadium might be the closest it gets compared to a pedalboard. Tap a block and *blam* it's ready to be adjusted. No need to even sacrifice a switch just for quick selection anymore (which I did with the Floor, was using it in 4 snap/stomp mode usually, the "hidden" additional 4 stomp switches just serving the purpose of quickly selecting things). With 8 instead of 6 encoders it should as well hardly ever be necessary to flip pages when quickly adjusting a thing during soundcheck anymore.

 

[HotRats]

Similar here (just that the "amps" I'm using are mini modelers on whatever sort of typical pedalboards). But I have a feeling that the user experience delivered by the Stadium might be the closest it gets compared to a pedalboard. Tap a block and *blam* it's ready to be adjusted. No need to even sacrifice a switch just for quick selection anymore (which I did with the Floor, was using it in 4 snap/stomp mode usually, the "hidden" additional 4 stomp switches just serving the purpose of quickly selecting things). With 8 instead of 6 encoders it should as well hardly ever be necessary to flip pages when quickly adjusting a thing during soundcheck anymore.

100%

with the Floor I have 2 main scenarios (with or without using a real amp in 4cm).

The one preset per song scenario where I had snapshots for any song section + a solo footswitch always available and placed always in the same spot and a "next song" FS that recalled the next song in the setlist. Super handy for fast song transitions.

The kitchen sink scenario where I use the helix more like a traditional pedalboard with a programmable looper. I used to have 2 or 3 variations of the same template with few different effects in it. The added dsp, block count, routing capabilites, switching modes and the two 10 stomp pages I'm sure will make Stadium shine for this application.

 

[Sascha Franck]

The kitchen sink scenario where I use the helix more like a traditional pedalboard with a programmable looper. I used to have 2 or 3 variations of the same template with few different effects in it. The added dsp, block count, routing capabilites, switching modes and the two 10 stomp pages I'm sure will make Stadium shine for this application.

I always only used one single kitchen sink preset per each gig (as I usually need/want to be able to adjust things quickly and globally for many gigs I'm playing) and it's been quite amazing how much I could get out of a single preset, the only downside being some handling aspects - I always ran out of free switches and missed things such as, say, a second split path, etc. So selecting things for quick editing was not always possible as easily and preselecting things that were supposed to happen when I activated the split path was limited as well.
The Stadium series seems to nicely adress quite some of these issues.
And fwiw, I hardly ever run out of CPU juice with the Floor, so with the Stadium that shouldn't be an issue, either, even less so (I could even imagine to run the OG amps instead of Agoura models to save some DSP power).

Fwiw, global blocks (did I ever mention them before? Hm...) would adress all of these issues as well.
No more reverse engineering of whatever kitchen sink stuff that you haven't touched in a while (just recently I've been loading an old Floor patch in HXN, and while I knew about all footswitch things being lost anyway, the rest was still almost cryptic to me as well - "wtf did I actually do with that patch"?).

 

[burningyen]

stompshots

I’m so proud stompshots as a term actually happened.

 

[Digital Igloo]

Thanks for the reply.

So my understanding is I can set foot switch 1 to toggle between snap 1 and 2, and foot switch 2 between snap 3 and 4, but press and hold can not be assigned to do something on those foot switches? All other foot switches could be set to do similar things or just used for turning effects on/off. Is this correct?

Unfortunately no. If you choose "Toggle" as the action for the first command, the second command becomes the toggled value, even if it's a different type of message. Two stomps could accomplish what you want.

Buuuut, there are two layers of stomps now and if you use Showcase, you don't need to manually select snapshots at all, so there are perhaps other ways to get there.

Will Performance View get a BPM readout or is that destined to remain a scribble strip luxury?

It's supposed to; hopefully at launch? Play view was just recently integrated so I haven't had a chance to check if it's in yet. Have a P35 at both work and home, but my P37's only at work.

• P35—Helix Stadium XL
• P36—HX Stomp XL (yes, Stadium XL got its project code before Stomp XL)
• P37—Helix Stadium

@Digital Igloo I hope there will be a proper setlist manager in stadium, a way to write down and store your setlist(s) and then link each line to a preset (or not) instead of having to shuffle around presets inside banks and repeat & rename identical presets used for multiple songs.

and a "setlist view" would be also a nice thing to have, I mean a screen where you can just see your set list nice and clear.

We wanted to do this for Helix/HX too—even from the beginning—but never got around to it:

• FACTORY PRESETS—Folder with (as of this writing) 64 presets that cannot be overwritten, each with at least 4 snapshots, info text, and a unique dry clip. (Although you can save them as User presets and edit/organize them there.) This lets us expand the Factory preset count, improve, tweak, reorder, or delete them at any time. Now there's no way for users to reload out-of-date 1.0 factory presets when restoring their older backups
• USER PRESETS—Folder with 512 empty preset locations. Why go from 1024 to 512? Because you can load a bunch of full state backups to a microSD card and restore them.
• SETLISTS—Up to 123 setlists can be created, renamed, reordered, etc. Each can contain up to 128 aliases of User Presets. Saving changes to one preset updates that preset everywhere it exists. So yes, you can create a setlist that does nothing but reorder presets for a particular gig
• TEMPLATES—New presets all start with a Template. Your own presets can be saved as a Template so you don't need to start from scratch every time. You can organize Templates into nested folders as well, but they cannot be recalled via MIDI like presets in the Factory, User, or Setlist folders

Presets can be freely dragged and dropped to/from folders, except for Factory Presets which again, are locked down by design.

@Digital Igloo So how do you get this view to pop up on the HX Stadium? Do you have to select it on the touchscreen, does it show up if you use a footswitch and then go away after a bit if you are not in focus view?

I think it's a good substitute for the scribble strips, depending on how it works.

It's pretty much exactly like Helix LT, HX Stomp/XL, and POD Go/Wireless—Press HOME to toggle between Edit and Play views.

I’m so proud stompshots as a term actually happened.

<hands cookie>

 

[mikah912]

@Digital Igloo How many dual amp or dual signal chain templates will be there at launch. I'm really just thinking of two amps/cabs into one effects chain and then two distinct signal chains summing to one output.

 

[Digital Igloo]

@Digital Igloo How many dual amp or dual signal chain templates will be there at launch. I'm really just thinking of two amps/cabs into one effects chain and then two distinct signal chains summing to one output.

Not sure yet; making them today. We can always add more later and as with Helix, you can get from any routing template to any other routing template by just editing a preset.