Line 6 Helix Stadium

[AlbertA]

Honestly; I get having no sound clips. Everyone knows what the Helix sounds like. This will be a "higher res" version of those same sounds.

Ummm, I see it differently (obviously), just based on the current descriptions of their new modeling. Is that what people are expecting, just like an HD sheen on it?

But I get it - it's still cooking.

 

[laxu]

Fractal, IMO is there too with their latest rounds of Factory preset updates for latest firmware. There's many bangers in there now, again, IMO.

That's great, because Fractal has the major issue where their firmware development gets so far ahead of the factory presets that they just don't have time to update them to sound best with the latest and greatest.

It would be awesome if they tweaked them a bit for every major firmware at least but I know they went a long time without updating them.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Ummm, I see it differently (obviously), just based on the current descriptions of their new modeling. Is that what people are expecting, just like an HD sheen on it?

But I get it - it's still cooking.

I know my overall thoughts on the HX sounds. So it could be I'm already projecting my own verdict on it, tones unheard I am expecting an uptick in clarity and hoping to all hope that disembodied distortion went bye-bye or that the hype knob brings that fizzy top overtone note down to the note actually being played and makes it a non-issue.

 

[Chocol8]

Ummm, I see it differently (obviously), just based on the current descriptions of their new modeling. Is that what people are expecting, just like an HD sheen on it?

But I get it - it's still cooking.

I am absolutely positive there will be plenty of clips of Agora modeling by time it is ready to ship. Today is still too early.

 

[mikah912]

FAS presets are great. Sacrilege crew checking in and this a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG caveat of you have to like Boss amp models (turd reacts incoming obviously); they had a batch of amp&cab presets dialed in for the GT Core iirc that were exactly what you would want basic out of the box presets to show bread and butter sounds to be. As long as you were OK with their batch of original turd amps

The existing Line 6 Helix slate of presets just needs some love. The first 44 that are just amps need snapshots with contextual titles, and from what I've seen of the Stadium footage.....looks like they've already done that.

After that, you need a good set of bass presets also with snapshots. Then, your obligatory "U2/Metallica/Stevie Ray Vaughn/Van Halen/John Mayer/Dream Theater/etc." artist/song presets. Then, a block of the wacky esoteric stuff.

In other words, pretty much how Fractal does it - bass presets excepted.

 

[[Nathan]]

I’m just allergic to the “Line 6 (or other manufacturer) should …” statements.
It was a characteristic of TOP which was absent in the early days of this forum. Just my opinion.

There’s so many factors involved with these things and rarely can anyone see it through the lens of a business. Marketing working with everyone to make sure people are on track with realistic deadlines. Who knows maybe this kind of release was calculated to keep everyone salivating for more.

My takeaway is that Line6 have knocked it out of the park. They’ve been copping crap for years because the rhetoric has been “helix is old crap now”. They’ve shown this early and lit the internet on fire where people are psyched to finally see a new flagship modeller coming out.

Would be cool to see some demos but it’s not going to make a difference. I’m sure they’ll have marketing plans and videos ready to roll before official orders start.

 

[Lysander]

Not to be an ass, but solely because I haven't had an iPhone in about 15 years, are the touchscreens different between say android and apple?

It's the same. In the US 9 out of 10 seem to use iPhones, so it became a bit of a synonym for "cellphone".

 

[HomespunEffects]

I don’t care about YouTube demos. All I want to know is when they are sending me one to design the presets.

 

[[Nathan]]

Not to be an ass, but solely because I haven't had an iPhone in about 15 years, are the touchscreens different between say android and apple?

Probably about to start a war

Probably as good as each other these days. It’s basically code for “not a shit touch screen”

 

[HomespunEffects]

Preset 1: Caverns of Valhalla
Preset B: Plain Vanilla
Preset III: Messy Mark Eye Vee
Preset fore: All the Mids!

 

[molul]

I’m just allergic to the “Line 6 (or other manufacturer) should …” statements.
It was a characteristic of TOP which was absent in the early days of this forum. Just my opinion.

I hear you. People should say "Line6 could..." instead.

I mean, people could say "Line6 could..."

 

[ian_dissonance]

FAS presets are great. Sacrilege crew checking in and this a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG caveat of you have to like Boss amp models (turd reacts incoming obviously); they had a batch of amp&cab presets dialed in for the GT Core iirc that were exactly what you would want basic out of the box presets to show bread and butter sounds to be. As long as you were OK with their batch of original turd amps

I the X Amps are killer.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I the X Amps are killer.

I do like them generally. I just wish the legacy amps would hold up as well.

 

[ian_dissonance]

I do like them generally. I just wish the legacy amps would hold up as well.

I’ll stop going OT after this. I think as a studio tool Boss modeling is kinda meh. For live stuff there a couple of X- Amps and the “Boutique” that will cover everything I’d need and sound great doing it. Still haven’t heard if Stadium addresses some of the niche control features that I ditched Helix in favor of the Gt-1k, either. Between Boss and Fractal I see that as the main area that would get my looking harder at Stadium. Pitch follower, dynamics envelopes, LFO controllers.

 

[GTR37]

I’m just allergic to the “Line 6 (or other manufacturer) should …” statements.
It was a characteristic of TOP which was absent in the early days of this forum. Just my opinion.

I think difference is Igloo is saying let me know
He is asking for feedback here
It the unsolicited feedback that more of a frustrating IMO

 

[yek]

I think difference is Igloo is saying let me know
He is asking for feedback here
It the unsolicited feedback that more of a frustrating IMO

Uh, he was referring to actual beta testers. Anyway, I've vented, carry on.

 

[AlbertA]

I’m just allergic to the “Line 6 (or other manufacturer) should …” statements.
It was a characteristic of TOP which was absent in the early days of this forum. Just my opinion.

I guess it doesn't really bother me - mainly it bothers me when people say stuff like "should be easy to implement, should be easy to add" without any background in software or engineering, other than that - I think its fair game.

 

[Vic Winters]

That means that adding/fixing missing components say a BRIGHT CAP will be a breeze!!
Hype!

I'm excited by the wrong thing, don't judge.

Depends if Stadium will continue to follow the "no breaking presets" rule of the original Helix.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Depends if Stadium will continue to follow the "no breaking presets" rule of the original Helix.

Dump that rule immediately.

 

[Digital Igloo]

View attachment 46955
Pretty funny. I do honestly think at this point sound clips are useless. I understand why people want them but I also understand why line 6 isn’t giving them to us yet. There will be plenty of sound clips available in a few months for the bedroom tone experts to criticize, but at least then people will have access to the stadium so that it can defend itself so to speak. Why give people a chance to start crapping on it before it’s even out, based on some over compressed youtube video played back through an iPhone speaker?

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have admitted to that out loud—Line 6 doesn't even know we did that. The clips actually sounded great, because Axe FX sounds great. But yeah, still hilarious.

-What's the maximum number of tracks you can have in Showcase?
-Is there a technical reason not to use combo jack+XLR sockets for both outputs, so both are balanced? Or are the jack outputs balanced too?

I'm asking this because I'm trying to figure out how to use Showcase for having backing tracks and a click track that only the band would hear. I'm guessing I would send the click track alone to one output and my guitar and the backing tracks to another, and then in the mixer do the routing. But I wonder if I should get a DI box for the jack outputs to avoid signal loss in certain gigs.

OTOH, not sure if I would be able to send the click track through one of the sends, so I have one output for my guitar (for monitoring) and the XLR output for my guitar+the backing tracks.

8 mono or stereo.

Presumably, you'd just mute the click for the 1/4" and XLR Matrix layers, and leave it on for the Phones output to your drummer. No special routing necessary. There are other routing scenarios we support, but I can't get into details right now.

Channels, bright switches and inputs seem also switchable now. If you look closely at DI's video on the Stadium landing page, you can see that on some amps. They did that on the newer Helix models already but it's nice that this seems the standard now. You can also set the controls of the unsued channels. So real channel switching even on vintage amps seems possible now.

We were going to wait to announce this but screw it. If you count models like we did with Helix, Stadium currently has 39 Agoura amps/channels, not 16+6. (The 50th Anniversary Ampeg SVT has 5 channels alone.) However, some amps (like the Revv 120 and Bogner Ecstasy) are too big to include multiple channels in a single model, so we're keeping them separate, as in OG Helix.

Definitely understandable why they’d want to be cautious with it, but demonstrating absolutely ripping tones should be pretty easy for them to do. They have access to some of the best guitarists ever to have lived, a decent studio, the most ideal conditions imaginable.

I think it’s just a case of them planning the right approach - picking the right examples and framing them in the most appropriate contexts. I don’t think they need to be TOO cautious about it, I think a bit of bravery and confidence goes a hell of a long way.

The opposite is something like what Nembrini do, a half assed soundcloud playlist of largely dreadful demos. I’m not surprised at the response of them posting AxeFX preset demos - something that has been dialled in by someone else is never going to sound quite right when played by someone else. Demos should show the absolute best of what’s possible, not just “here’s me playing a random ass preset that I didn’t even make, and not sure I even like”.

I think if I made a playlist playing through stock presets on any device they’d sound underwhelming. It would be like trying to mix a song using only presets made by someone else

The demo video's guitar was Agoura and dialed in by Jeff Schroeder (Smashing Pumpkins); the bass was Agoura and dialed in by John Button (Roger Daltrey, session guru).

Clips are forthcoming.

@Digital Igloo really? Meaningless? I guess I completely disagree.

Within the context of what we were actually talking about, yes, they're meaningless specifically because a veritable army of chodes will descend like locusts with a billion "HuR DuR! ThAt S0uNdZ diGItuHL y0U nEEd fRacTal oR yoU sUcK!" comments. The screenshot in sashimi's quote above describes a real-world example that proves my point.

It doesn't matter how amazing our clips sound, it literally won't affect the narrative at all. YouTube will YouTube and biased douchebags will douchebag. If they invested in a particular product, they somehow feel incentivized to knock everyone else's product down a peg, as if it somehow validates their purchase decision... yet they treat it as if their comments validate their very existence. Frankly, it's transparent and pathetic, and if I catch a Helix user doing the same thing, I try to call them out on it.

So they're not itching for clips to hear Agoura, they're itching for clips so they can $#!‡ on Agoura, whether they actually listen to them or not. $100 says we could release a YouTube video of Stadium clips today—with no audio whatsoever—and the comment section will still contain comments on how it sounds like @$$ and that Fractal or QC is soooo much better. Honest criticism takes work and perspective.

Also, a big part of Agoura (and this is echoed repeatedly by beta testers) is its immediacy and how it responds under your fingers; clips do nothing to help convey this. Still, clips are forthcoming. As mentioned repeatedly in both the keynote and long-form video, please be patient.

Yes. Ive seen lots of pix of big, touring bands with Fractals in racks backstage. Can’t imagine L6 wants to leave that “market” to the competition.

Had a few folks mention the Native as a solid alternative to the Rack for studio use. But, when already expecting your computer to crunch through dozens and dozens of tracks in a DAW, adding Native to the processor’s workload seems like asking for frustration.

Back when POD HD Pro was out, people still used hardware to record guitars in studios. But now, the percentage of Helix Racks sold vs. Helix Floor/LT compared to HD Pro/X vs. HD 500/X are notably smaller. Rack form factors are selling less as years go by, presumably because it's so much easier to just use plugins like Helix Native.

I have songs with 30+ instances of Helix Native. No reamping ever required, because they're all running in real time. I just use Helix Rack as a front end/variable impedance input now and when I want to mess around without having to boot up my studio Mac and Logic.

TBH, the 'armchair engineer' attitude in this place is getting a little out of hand.

TGF isn't a tiny fraction as bad as YouTube. Man, that Sweetwater video comment section is a straight clown car, and the Guitar World announcement thread for Helix stadium is 99% toxic bile filled with AIDS-infected needles. Seriously, some of those guys are just plain bad people; the constant feral urge to spew diarrhea onto anything and everything cannot be good for one's mental health.

Relatively speaking, this place (and Chad Boston's group) is a breath of fresh air. So thank you all.