Rival Sons' Scott Holiday on going full Helix

Lysander said:
Sweet baby Jebus! Hope you can recover!

money-wallet.gif


Congrats :LOL: Helix is an amazing piece of gear.

So is Fractal, btw, though i don't know if anyone here ever argued otherwise. I went through pretty much all modelling platforms before landing on HX myself, and this had less to do with sound quality issues than workflow and usability. I hated editing patches on my FM3, but boooy, did that thing sound incredible...
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Yeah i feel like the hx has enough tweak options to be dangerous but fractal can go much deeper from what i've observed. I'm trying to get away from that side of things these days as it eats up a lot of time i could be making music instead. I have a tweaker's brain so I see the appeal of that route but also the danger in it killing my creative vibes.
 
If I want a small box that doesn't drive me nuts when I throw it on my board doing utilitarian stuff for a gigging situation; Stomp all the way.

If I want Marshall tones; I'd grab another Atomic.

If I want Boogie tones for recording purposes, despite having 2 Boogies sitting in my jam room with direct out options; I'm using my FM.

If I want to argue about which is "better" while somebody makes YT vids with IR sponsorship flags as their backdrop and insane amp settings I would never use just to "prove their point"; I'd go to that other place.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

FWIW; tones I did hear in the video sounded gross :bag:stirthepot:rofl
Amy Poehler Smiling GIF
 
So if I have an HX stomp does that make me homeless? In all seriousness other than the Marshalls it really does sound amazing. Still prefer my fm3 tones but they are both stellar.
 
EOengineer said:
*Unless you are using Helix Marshall tones.

I’m getting to the point where I agree though. About a month back I did some “in the room” testing with my SFDR, 1959, and Mark III against the closest corresponding Helix models. I wanted to see whether I could realistically approach the tones I use from those physical amps with the Helix through a BAM200 and into my go-to guitar cab. I generally just go direct at gigs these days but flirt with the idea of splitting the signal out to a guitar cab on stage for personal monitoring.

Anyway, got SCARY close with Hx deluxe reverb against my SFDR. If I had taken the BAM into the deluxe’s cab it may not have been possible to pick up the difference tonally. The Hx Mark IV sounded great but for sure is a bit different than my Mark III through the same cab, I think because of the Hx Mark IV is using a slightly unusual switch/pull knob configuration that makes it a little odd. Still felt like an amp though. I couldn’t get anything dialed in that got close to my 1959 though, but Hx doesn’t really get the job done there so it’s a tough task from the start.

Taking a modeler into a guitar cab is for sure getting better results now than ever before. It’s pretty incredible.
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Yeah. I was A/Bing with the QC some time back through my cab and while there were some differences between the models and my amps (models had a very slight feel difference like a mild compressor pedal was on) there was really no meaningful difference. I had a pretty elaborate preset switching between two models and four channels of Synergy preamps, and via cab nobody would ever know what was digital vs analog unless you knew how the preset was configured.

Which is just a long way to say that once you isolate your preferred playback method (monitors vs cabs etc) none of this shit really matters. With any of the high end modelers the second you run it to a cab all that “in the room” goodness comes back and the source (analog vs digital) becomes largely irrelevant.

I’ve never tried a Helix modeler. :bag I’ve used an HX FX, but never their amp sims. I trust the good folks here that their Marshall stuff may be off. Generally though I’m moving more towards less of “is this perfect” vs “does It sound good”. There is a lot of tail chasing in the A/B game. I mean I get it, you’d ideally want an SLO to sound like an SLO, but if it’s fun to play, and sounds good, I’m not going to obsess over .5 db boost at 3k, that I only know exists because of a graph.:ROFLMAO:
 
Rival sons is one of my faves, cool to see that he’s still using Helix.

I knew someone would eventually run a Bradshaw rig with a Helix, wouldn’t have bet on Scott Holliday to be the one to do it though. The Helix is a brilliant rig controller, it was only a matter of time.

For live work, I’m still convinced it’s the very best thing out there. I still have an Axe-fx that rarely gets used, and I sold my FM3 after comparing it side by side with Helix for a few days. Using the same IR, I could get them to sound the same for the tones I care about.

After a few years and many, many gigs, I do wish they would give us a great stock plexi (bonus points for selectable bright cap values and switchable mods). But I can still get most of what I want between the Marshall models and the placater.

Funny all the fractal/helix chatter here and I don’t see a single mention of that guitar collection. Actually I wonder how many people in this thread even watched the video lol.

D
 
Is a Helix really considered a budget piece of equipment? I just looked and they're $1700 new? Am I missing something here?
 
So, serious question, I've tried my Helix into the effects return of a couple of amps, using both preamps and full amp models, no cab sims, and I haven't been too pleased with the results either way. Is it different with standalone power amps and cabs?
 
spawnofthesith said:
Is a Helix really considered a budget piece of equipment? I just looked and they're $1700 new? Am I missing something here?
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Fractal fanboys think it’s $399 like it’s an old pod. They can’t bring themselves to imagine that people actually prefer Helix, it must be that those people don’t have as much money as the fractal fanboys so they settled for Helix…

D
 
Baba said:
So, serious question, I've tried my Helix into the effects return of a couple of amps, using both preamps and full amp models, no cab sims, and I haven't been too pleased with the results either way. Is it different with standalone power amps and cabs?
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That will depend on the amp/loop designs that you tried it with. Lot of different approaches to effects loops, many of which won’t work worth a darn for what you’re trying to do unless you just get lucky. I’d personally go with a standalone poweramp.

D
 
If you are using a tube amp with an FX loop you will have between 6 to 12dB of boost at the impedance peaks from the cab, that color the tone a lot.
But if you are using a flat power amp that response will be missing and should be part of the model.

Another very important thing is this impedance coloration and presence effectiveness is diminished as you turn up the Master volume of the model or real amp, so try to build your tone in the first 1/3 on the Master volume to preserve this coloration.
 
dk_ace said:
Fractal fanboys think it’s $399 like it’s an old pod. They can’t bring themselves to imagine that people actually prefer Helix, it must be that those people don’t have as much money as the fractal fanboys so they settled for Helix…

D
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Now now…. there can only one calling out of the Fractal fanboys “broken record” around here and that’s me. :p
 
The word fanboy reeks of hurt feelings and other places. Yawn. Its a word that takes you instantly to passive aggressive land and completely useless if you want to constructively discuss gear. "Ironic:" forum QC origin story aside. And even that turd is boring af at this point.

I'm a fan of my Stomp and my FM and my amps

To quote @la szum
:idk
 
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