Line 6 Helix Stadium

[mikah912]

I wasn't even going to ask if they updated their direct sunlight visibility!

The white black scribble strips look like they know.....

 

[Sascha Franck]

I wasn't even going to ask if they updated their direct sunlight visibility!

Me neither. The itch is strong, though...

(in the interview with Sadites, at least the LEDs look pretty bright, though, so that's positive so far)

 

[GTR37]

I wasn't even going to ask if they updated their direct sunlight visibility!

That’s where the AI comes in
Depending on the country
Time of year , time of day and direction of the SUN stadium with adjust the screen shading to optimal viewing
Digital Igloo covered that at 11:43

 

[mbenigni]

To be fair, they both have "Floor" in their names.

HX Stadium Floor
HX Stadium XL Floor

It's a bigger floor.

Wait, is that really the big one's name? HX Stadium XL Floor? That is a hot mess right there.

 

[mbenigni]

Just wait until I hop onto that train. It'll end that discussion instantly. And possibly get me a lifetime ban.

I'll take the fifth.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

Wait, is that really the big one's name? HX Stadium XL Floor? That is a hot mess right there.

From the product page:

Edit: And it's "Helix", not HX. My mistake.

 

[mbenigni]

Every bit this. That's also why, in the Kemper thread, even if I would possibly not use it often (let alone I don't own the unit), I was so astonished how people could compare any other device's controller assign functionalities to the morphing function of the Kemper. Sure, you can get the same results. But with the Kemper it's actually fun, with all other devices you can only hope it's not *just* as tedious.

Similar with the HX series' capacitive switches. Once I had my user defaults done back in my Floor days, I was sometimes creating patches from scratch pretty much out of fun, simply to see where it'd take me. And because operating it was incredibly satisfying.

UI matters. Almost as much as sound (which is at least acceptable on anything better than the lowest tiers anyway).

I still think you would have loved the QC. As excited as I am about the arrival of Helix Stadium, it's almost a shame you'll never try it.

 

[OrganicZed]

I'm sure @Digital Igloo would agree, but the "parity with FAS" framing is cringeworthy to me.

The only parity they should remain in pursuit of is with the actual amps they own. Line 6 will not likely ever try to get to the 350+ amp channels that Fractal offers (although Proxy cloning may make that a moot point), and they won't ever try to dip as deep (like having a Mesa Mark II, IV, V and JP2C with almost all modes/switches modeled or three different BE100s, etc.). They just have completely different goals, so why would Line 6 ever "catch up", so to speak?

What they have done with Stadium - and what excites me - is that they've thought long and hard on how to make tone crafting, practice, live performance and finding and managing new sounds (things that are incredibly important to me) as easy, fun and efficient as possible.

What I meant by parity was in terms of amp modeling quality. The number of amp models is kind of irrelevant so long as they have good examples from the main food groups.

 

[mbenigni]

From the product page:

View attachment 46467

Edit: And it's "Helix", not HX. My mistake.

...and a venti double decaf chai latte, with a twist.

Initially, I thought they'd dropped the "Helix" and called it the Line 6 Stadium. And I thought it was XL or Floor. This is... this is a lot.

(I notice it doesn't actually say Floor anywhere on the unit itself, though? There's only so much room, I guess.)

 

[mikah912]

What I meant by parity was in terms of amp modeling quality. The number of amp models is kind of irrelevant so long as they have good examples from the main food groups.

Crazy talk, but I already prefer some HX models to their FM9 versions (e.g. Revv Generator) even though the FM9 is still my main gigging rig....

....for now.

 

[Lysander]

Going through @Digital Igloo interviews from the launch party, a thing that stood out to me is some of cool functionality for the HXS seems to be cloud based - namely, splitting audio into STEMs, and training Proxy captures.

I really hope all of this can be replicated in device, even if it takes longer.

EDIT: Looks like Proxy training can only happen in the cloud

 

[eggpl@nt]

Crazy talk, but I already prefer some HX models to their FM9 versions (e.g. Revv Generator) even though the FM9 is still my main gigging rig....

....for now.

That’s crazy because I like the FAS Revv so much more that I sometimes get angry using that model on Helix because I’m so used to the instant gratification of the FAS version.

Hit me up with some tips on the HX Revv lol

 

[synthpenguin]

...and a venti double decaf chai latte, with a twist.

Initially, I thought they'd dropped the "Helix" and called it the Line 6 Stadium. And I thought it was XL or Floor. This is... this is a lot.

(I notice it doesn't actually say Floor anywhere on the unit itself, though? There's only so much room, I guess.)

Yeah, the naming is sort of confusing and awkward at this point. The site says "Helix Stadium Floor" and "Helix Stadium Floor XL", the video and DI call them "Helix Stadium" and "Helix Stadium XL" like the writing on the units do, and my Sweetwater preorder says "Line 6 Stadium" lol.

Since going by comments made on Reddit, Rack and Stomp versions are not out of the question, it makes me wonder if they'd be named something like "Helix Stadium Rack" and "Helix Stadium Stomp" / "HXS Stomp" instead of the Stadium part of the name changing.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I still think you would have loved the QC. As excited as I am about the arrival of Helix Stadium, it's almost a shame you'll never try it.

Oh, I had a more or less thorough testride at a friend's studio-ish place, but it's been an earlier unit. And I hated that you had to open and close the windows displaying whatever block's control all the time. Is that still so? Ok, to be fair, it doesn't seem to be like that with all blocks.
However, the Helix does that a lot better - and obviously that very way of selecting things and seeing the most relevant parameters down at the bottom of the screen, mapped to the encoders below, will immensely profit from the touchscreen. No open/close actions.

 

[Sascha Franck]

cloud based - namely, splitting audio into STEMs

Oh, that's cloud based, too?

And as far as capturing being cloud based goes, let's hope there's a way to capture, keep the data on the device and do the training later. I mean, there's still plenty of basement rehearsal or recording rooms with no proper internet connection over here.

 

[Lysander]

Oh, that's cloud based, too?

Yeah, based on Yamaha's proprietary technology.

I don't care much about those features in particular, mind you, i just hate hardware tethered to cloud services which might not exist 10 years down the line. I know for a fact i can plug in any OG Helix device down the line, and they will always work.

 

[mbenigni]

"HXS Stomp"

I'LL TURN THIS CAR AROUND RIGHT NOW!!!!

 

[Lysander]

I'LL TURN THIS CAR AROUND RIGHT NOW!!!!

But daaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

 

[synthpenguin]

I'LL TURN THIS CAR AROUND RIGHT NOW!!!!

hey, I'm not saying it's a good name!!

 

[mbenigni]

Oh, I had a more or less thorough testride at a friend's studio-ish place, but it's been an earlier unit. And I hated that you had to open and close the windows displaying whatever block's control all the time. Is that still so? Ok, to be fair, it doesn't seem to be like that with all blocks.
However, the Helix does that a lot better - and obviously that very way of selecting things and seeing the most relevant parameters down at the bottom of the screen, mapped to the encoders below, will immensely profit from the touchscreen. No open/close actions.

It's true that you have to select effects blocks to edit parameters. I'm not really following how Helix (assuming you mean Stadium?) allows for editing of all parameters in a preset without changing context (no open/close actions?) to a given effect. I guess I'll have to watch some more videos.