Line 6 Helix Stadium

[jmcecil]

in a mix absolutely you're right.
Not in a mix there are audible differences. Kemper gets blasted all the time for having more flub than the original. Tonex is close but has a weird gain thing going on, v2 is better. Fractal comes close on many amps.
With feel, nothing is 100% there yet.

Not in a mix, just A/B device to real. Your statement about feel is another example “can’t evaluate that on the intertubes.”

 

[dean701]

feel is another example “can’t evaluate that on the intertubes.”

I never said you could

 

[jmcecil]

It’s just my point, the fetish stuff about sound clips have no basis for determining if you can get any of these things to sound like whatever you want it to sound like when you take it out of the box.

 

[jmcecil]

He says hoping the deluxe reverb sounds/feels like my blackface…

 

[dean701]

It’s just my point, the fetish stuff about sound clips have no basis for determining if you can get any of these things to sound like whatever you want it to sound like when you take it out of the box.

agreed. since the product isn't out and line 6 keep posting sound clips, there's not much else but anticipation and speculation.

 

[sashimi]

Guys, don’t make me point to the asshole in the room.

 

[Sascha Franck]

The constituents of this particular forum are very fussy with how faithful the amps are reproduced on devices.

I'm not.

 

[Lysander]

but the Red Enema had some sounds I liked.

 

[Orvillain]

I play post rock and post metal. Aint none of the vegan chumps in the headline band beating me up.

 

[EOengineer]

Not in a mix, just A/B device to real. Your statement about feel is another example “can’t evaluate that on the intertubes.”

Since modeling has reached the pinnacle of perfection, should we assume you won’t be bothering with the new hardware?

 

[Orvillain]

In actual blind tests people haven’t been able to tell digital from actual for quite some time.

Some people.

@Deadpan can probably attest, there are a number of people here - me and my golden ears being one of them!!! - who have a very high ratio of being able to tell a valve amp recording from a digital one; specifically when comparing captures of the amp against the real thing, recorded at the same time as making the capture.

Obviously comparing a model or a capture of a different amp, to any valve amp at an earlier or later setting, in a different room etc, isn't comparing apples to apples.

 

[Goontone]

 

[Gary_W]

Some people.

@Deadpan can probably attest, there are a number of people here - me and my golden ears being one of them!!! - who have a very high ratio of being able to tell a valve amp recording from a digital one; specifically when comparing captures of the amp against the real thing, recorded at the same time as making the capture.

Obviously comparing a model or a capture of a different amp, to any valve amp at an earlier or later setting, in a different room etc, isn't comparing apples to apples.

I probably wouldn’t be able to tell simply because I’ve only had a couple of decent valve amps in my years of playing and neither of them are modelled in Helix / never saw any Kemper profiles for them! For that reason, I’m probably easier to please than some of you folks here who have had much wider exposure to some of the real ones on offer….. unless I get out then playing live again (I haven’t in a while) then it’ll be me playing through studio monitors and occasionally via a 1x12 with a Loudster providing the push. There will 100% be folks here who can pick out the real thing but I’m not one of them :)

Even though I’ve got no means (or experience) to a/b them, I still seek accuracy as a concept. But it’s a concept only - it’s what I think a Plexi sounds like and where am I getting that perception from? From records? I suppose that’s reasonable in a way as I’m playing back via the same studio monitors. If I’m honest, a fair bit of my perception of a plexi is from previous modellers. Sad but true and I doubt I’m alone.

Why do I want (need? :) ) a Stadium? Tone-wise I’m looking forwars to Agoura and also quite a few of the existing helix amps (I don’t have a helix). Improvements I’m expecting to hear vs what I have now will be from improved dynamics and ‘does it make me smile more than the old one’. That might make me sound like an absolute bedroom warrior (and I am these days unless I get out there again at some point) but what I’m describing here is probably true for a fair few people buying this (or any other) modelling unit. How many of us have photo-finish memories for the amps modelled in these things? It’s why it cracks me up when folks are upset at ‘only’ 16 Agoura amps and umpteen cabinets. I gigged with a single channel amp and a pedal board with several home-made dirt pedals for flavour. No-one left and everyone had a great time. Our love of accuracy is probanlg more to please ourselves and that’s entirely fair enough if we acknowledge that along with where we’re getting our ideas from!

A lot of my reasons for getting this are the other things it will do (focus view looks incredibly useful for someone like me who isn’t used to dialing in a real AC30 plus tons of other useful things) and the likelihood of cool stuff down the road via upgrades. Of course, buying futures is always risky but it’s got enough in there now to have caused me to buy and they’ve convinced me that it’s got sufficient hardware improvements over the previous generation to support upgrades for years - I could not convince myself of this with Kemper MK2 and they seemed uninterested in changing my mind on that!

 

[mbenigni]

Coming 2026: Behringturd HL Arena

View attachment 53876

Looks more like a Behringturd Fraud Tampax™ to me.

 

[mbenigni]

I know people have stated that the NDSP QC has the easiest-to-use interface, but I've had zero issues with how L6 implements things and can tweak on the fly with ease.

Well, the QC's UI is very similar to the Helix's (a point not lost on Line 6) and mainly benefits from having a touchscreen. Obviously, the Stadium closes that gap, so here we go...

 

[DanRad]

found the focus audition page. a little underwhelmed by all the of brit plexi variations but the Red Enema had some sounds I liked.
The Princess 76 sounds great on all options.

View attachment 53888

Maybe I was expecting too much, but was anyone else disappointed that you could only select the five zones? I was hoping to play around with blending the different sounds — what's that middle area between Grunt and Chaos sound like?

Oh, well. Soon enough.

Do we have a tracker for the container ship as it crosses the Pacific?

 

[Whizzinby]

Maybe I was expecting too much, but was anyone else disappointed that you could only select the five zones? I was hoping to play around with blending the different sounds — what's that middle area between Grunt and Chaos sound like?

Oh, well. Soon enough.

Do we have a tracker for the container ship as it crosses the Pacific?

I thought that’s what the Focus zones were doing, interpolating between multiple zones as you dragged between them. (Until you get to the edge, which would only be just that zone)

 

[DanRad]

I thought that’s what the Focus zones were doing, interpolating between multiple zones as you dragged between them. (Until you get to the edge, which would only be just that zone)

I could only get it to select each zone. I couldn't select anything in between the five zones.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I think you can on the unit. They just can't easily program that in an instance of a website I wouldn't think?

 

[mbenigni]

I knew 10 years ago I would order a successor to the floor the moment it becomes available. I'm not even a "professional" anymore but Helix (Floor and Native) was one of the best investments in gear ever. So do I need it? I want it!

I've said this before, but 10(ish) years ago I was chasing my tail building out pedal boards, footswitches, etc. etc. etc. to try to meet my "needs" at gigs. Then Helix came out and solved every one of those problems in one neat package... and I haven't gigged since. Typical.