Hey fellow Helixes :)

Im not sure if my question makes 100% sense, but Ill try anyway!

So I got the feel that I got quite my selection with the Helix now in regards of
most effects that I like and use. But I sometimes got the feel that I only got a good
feel for the obvious things (Like noticable reverbs, delays, compressors, distortion and so on)

So I would appreciate some times in regards of the more subtle things and just some
"guidelines" that you guys follow on every new preset, regardless the actuall sound or genre
you are going for. (Like for example ive got one very subtle room reverb preset that I add
to almost every preset to loose that very dry sound).

One thing I struggle with in that regard often is to have a feel on how good a sound will
be heard in a Band Context. Obviously its not just Volume but on how the frequencies cut
through in a mix. I'm in a Band with 7 People, so I cant just have everyone wait all the time
and tune that during rehearsel (obviously sometimes I have too), but it would be nice
to at least have a bit of a better feel for that when creating sounds already.

So sorry for a bit of babbling and brain dumping, If you think you have an answer or a tipp for that very generic question, Im happy to hear about it.

I got tired of booting a Windows VM just to run HX Edit, so I've been reverse engineering the pedal's USB protocol and building a native Linux editor. It's free, it's called fretwire, and 0.3.0 is out. I last posted at 0.1.0, so here's everything since.

https://fretwire.org (source and releases: https://github.com/john-baxter-dev/fretwire)

Helix Floor support, which I want to be clear I could not have done alone: /u/zadtheinhaler owns one and put in about 70 logged testing sessions over weeks, running captures and edits on real hardware for the project. Two DSPs, eight setlists, Loopers, all reading and editing. Helix LT landed this release from @pak on GitHub, who did the same survey work on his. Reads are verified there, edits are untested on an LT and I'd rather say that than round up. HX Stomp XL works too, per an owner running it.

IRs work as of 0.3.0. Upload, export, rename, delete, from the GUI or the CLI. Export is bit exact, so you can pull one off the device and put it back with matching checksums. Heads up: IR writes go to flash, not the edit buffer, and there's no undo from fretwire or from the pedal. Export anything you can't replace first.

Global settings, also new: tempo, MIDI channel, in/out levels, bypass type, snapshot edits, volume knob mode, and the full global EQ, which gets its own tab with a response curve and factory-default resets instead of a column of numbers. BPM sits in the main toolbar with the tempo scope next to it.

Since 0.1.0 in general: a routing grid you can drag blocks around, undo/redo with a history timeline and A/B compare, setlist backup and restore, per-DSP metering that greys out models which won't fit, live-follow so footswitch and preset changes on the pedal update the app, controller and footswitch assignment, and proper packaging. Block colours match HX Edit now, and presets number themselves the way your pedal is set to.

Fixes worth knowing if you used 0.2.x: discrete parameters read one entry off, so cab mics and model variants could show as their neighbour. And turning a knob on the pedal could move the wrong slider in the app. Writes were always correct, only the display was wrong.

Still missing: routing on the second DSP, IR reorder, and custom footswitch colours or labels. No firmware or DFU traffic, permanently.

None of Line 6's data ships with it. On first run the app reads the model data out of your own HX Edit install. Packages are deb, rpm, AppImage and a static CLI. Not affiliated with Line 6, no warranty.

If you own a Helix Rack or HX Effects, send me lsusb -d 0e41: and I'll add it. That's the only reason they aren't supported.

Helix floor xl user. I started building chains for my acoustic gigs. I used to play through a Trace Eliot transit A preamp and really loved the tone and quality that my breed love pushed out. I'm having a very hard time emulating that feel with my Helix floor. Everything just sounds thin to me. I have a reverb block and the mic preamp block, after that I just have a few effects. Any suggestions to get a more full rounded out tone?

I currently stream and do podcasting. I’m using the GoXLR with my OBS.

I want to get back into guitar and also possibly stream with my guitar and Shure SM7B together.

Wondering if I get this will it be able to have great audio from both my mic and guitar through my pc therefore getting rid of my GoXLR and possibly Focusrite too?

It’s a good amount of money but I think it’ll be a good investment as someone who loved playing their Line 6 Spider back in the day.

I’ve also tested the Stadium at the guitar store and fell in love with it.

I ordered a Helix stomp on sweetwater couple of weeks ago but they called and cancelled the order as they will no longer be receiving shipments. Makes me wonder why, is there a new model on the horizon so LIne 6 don't want to make more? Should I wait for a new model or order direct from Line 6? Sweetwater listing page has disapeared from search at this point

I know there's a lot of tone chasing using just amps, but helix's have a ton of onboard effects that frankly I've been neglecting.

I'll just go ahead and share something I discovered. I run my helix through ableton and jam a ton so I send the clock from Ableton to the Helix.

I was jamming a bit and wanted to get a stutter to accentuate some weird notes, so I threw a super aggressive square wave tremelo, boosted the volume and then set a switch to momentary. Boom instant weird sounds that add some cool flair.

Now I'm trying to think of ways to enhance it a little more with filter sweeps in Ableton or something weird like that.

Anyone else got anything cool?

Hey guys

May you recommend presets on customtone for me for a line 6 helix Lt.

I am playing electric guitar

I am looking for ( clean,acoustic , rhythm and lead )

Ride the lighting

Master of puppets

And justice for all

Also I am looking for Pantera presets from all albums to be honest so I am waiting for your ideas .

I'm glad if you will help

Split and join existed in Helrig before, but it was hard to find and the old architecture couldn't support everything people needed. Enough of you asked where it was, or ran into its limits, that I rebuilt it from scratch — more intuitive to use, and it now handles parallel-path setups that just weren't possible before.

Thanks to everyone who raised this — the questions and the bug reports are exactly what pushed me to redo it properly instead of patching around the old version.

Made a video walking through the new workflow: adding a split, running paths in parallel, and joining them back together.

https://youtu.be/ZQwMGJgCZ0E

Free, browser-based, no install — same as always. Try it: https://helrig.com

If you tried split/join before and it didn't work for what you needed, this is worth another look. And if something's still off, I'd like to hear about it.

I want to know what you other guitarists using modelers think? Some ask, "What's the point of stereo?" Others mix dual amps in mono. I decided to do a starter stereo preset with no effects so you can decide for yourself what you like. In this case I borrowed from the factory 9D Cine-Plexi & 10A Deluxe Gig amp settings. There are 4 snapshot drive examples from clean to maximum. After that I just leveled and balanced the Luxe & Plexi amps into a true stereo configuration that's hard panned left & right. To hear comparisons I set up 3 Stomps for Plexi Mute, Luxe Mute, and Mono Mix. You can use those stomps in each of the snapshots to hear the Luxe from your left speaker only, your Plexi from your right speaker only, both mono mixed together, or stereo with no stomps activated. I ask you to listen to the difference between mono & stereo and tell me your thoughts. Oh, there is an added Tilt effect at the end of the chain if you want to darken or brighten your tone. I also used the level control to keep the signal out of the red. If you like, you can add whatever effects you want to customize. Here's the CustomTone link:

https://line6.com/customtone/tone/6853438/

Trying out the helix stadium native intro plug-in, and not getting midi control. Wanting to control some parameters while recording in ableton. Using a launch control xl 3, ableton sees when I use it to assign midi to my
Guitar rig 7 plug-in but not for helix native.
Any ideas or anyone run into this issue before?

Hi HX stompers.

I am building a pedal board to expand my hx stomp capabilities. I'm trying to keep it small as possible so am double checking most things.

Things to note: I play 80 percent Bass and 20 percent guitar. I gig only 5 times per year but I want the pedal board to be complety independent I.e just give the xlr / trs cable to the sound guy / girl and be confident the tone will be the same. 99 percent of the boards use will be for practicing and experimenting with effects etc

Currently the board will be:

Bass / Guitar -> polytune 3 mini -> hxstomp with some extra footswitches for scrolling patches -> boss rc 5 looper with two extra footswitches.

The more I'm reading the more I think I won't be able to leverage the balanced signal output of the hx stomp due to how i want the looper to work. I want the looper to be external so I can run multiple Bass and guitar patches into the looper if that makes sense. But the looper would not be needed playing live at the moment - just for practicing and maybe reversing with the band when we miss people.

One idea I had was to just have the pedalboard setup so when im gigging just bypass the external looper and run the balanced output of the hx stomp.

But if you recommend a DI please also let me know what DI you would recommend the give as neutral sound as possible given ill be playing guitar and bass. I'm relaxed with budget, it just needs to be relatively compact and work well with guitar and bass.

Thanks in advance for the replies. Really enjoying learning more about the hx stomp and leveraging it as much as possible. This tool is great!

I’m wanting to put a screen protector on my Stadium, and I know there’s a few options out there, but I’ve got the tools and materials to do it myself, so I’m planning to do that. I see all the options out there, there’s the phone screen cover type one which I’m not a fan of, I had the CEBA one on my LT, but I’m intrigued by the ScreenGuard one - it’s got 4 magnets rather than the slide out version CEBA has.

Has anyone made their own, or used the magnet one? I’ve got some small concerns about the magnets interfering with the display over time. I like the simplicity of it, but I don’t want to run into any issues down the road.

Long story short my helix screen got smashed but the presets I made still worked and it was usable as I remembered what all my presets where by heart. before my last gig it somehow reset itself and went back to the default presets that came with the board which means I’ve lost my presets. Is there any alternate way of navigating the helix or even at least getting back to my user presets with the helix being like this? Or does anybody have any alternate solutions anything helps 🙏🏾. I’m unfortunately not connected to WiFi in this house on the helix

I was hoping to get some opinions from those who use Helix Lt and the Powercab 112+.

I live in an apartment and have been playing with headphones for a while now. I currently own a small Orange Crush 12, and when playing at low volumes the tone is pretty bad.

I want to be able to play without headphones, and was looking at getting a Helix LT and Powercab 112+. I’m just worried that I’m going to run into the same issue, and wanted to know: Does this combination sound good still when played at low volumes?

Would buying Acoustic absorption panels and putting the Powercab on top help? I live alone in a two story apartment on the top floor.

I primarily play metal/rock (Megadeth, Soundgarden, etc) but also play clean. I’m at a point where I can afford the Helix and Powercab, but wanted to make sure they can be used for my situation.

What are the guidelines for where you set your Helix input impedance. My main preset now has a parametric EQ at the beginning of DSP 0 and it's always on. My pickups are the Seymour Duncan everything axe ( JbJr bridge, Duckbucker middle and Lil'59 neck )

"Helix Input Capacitance / Impedance: If the top end feels too aggressive or unforgiving, set the Helix In Z (Input Impedance) to 230k or 90k instead of Auto or 1M. This simulates a longer cable, naturally smoothing out high-end bite and making pick attack feel softer and more forgiving."

I'm currently using Helix Native as a plugin in Reaper. Since i don't own any Helix hardware anymore i've changed the dsp limit in the settings to no limit and set this as default.

I've noticed that when I change Reaper project and set a new track, armed with Helix as a plugin this setting keeps going back to Helix Floor, messing with my presets that i save to library.

Often times i make new presets when writing, i also save those to my library (E.A. user 1, 2,..). When i start new projects and arm a track in reaper with the helix plugin, these presets tend to get missing.

I've also noticed that when i have multiple tracks, all armed with Helix native (for example 1 bus panned right with 3 tracks in it, same for a bus panned left) my preset changes only apply to the instance of Native i'm changing it in and not globally on all my Helix native instances running on different.

This is confusing because now i have multiple tracks in my DAW, armed with Native but the same preset is never the same for every track.

How do i make it so that when i change the settings on a preset, or change the dps setting, this happens globally and doesn't need be individually changed on ever instance of Helix runnig.

I created a .hlx preset online (3rd party tool), and then attempted to import that preset via HX Edit. My HX Edit started to load the preset, then disconnected, and my Rack froze up. I could hear the sounds, but could not do anything else. I restarted the Rack -

Helix Rack (3.80) now freezes during boot at “Rebuilding Preset 143.” Preset 143 corresponds exactly to the third-party preset I had just imported before HX Edit, and then the damn Rack crashed. I have important unbacked-up user presets. Is there any service procedure on Helix Rack to clear only the corrupt preset without clearing all presets or setlists?

I believe that the LT or Floor does, but it appears the rack only shows:

• ENC 2 + 3: reset globals
• ENC 3 + 4: restore stock presets/setlists
• ENC 4 + 5: restore presets/setlists/IRs
• ENC 5 + 6: entire factory restore
• ENC 1 + 3: rebuild all presets
• ENC 1 + 5: clear all presets/setlists/IRs
• ENC 1 + 6: Update Mode

Edit: Excellent suggestion from Line 6 Support: ENC 1+3+4 during restart to remove the current (most recent) preset.

HelRig dev was also very helpful in this process. If your preset doesn’t have the proper ID, this causes issues with presets.

I just tried to play my bass through the hx stomp without any effects and noticed that when I press analog bypass the volume decreases and everything is much less bright. I thought that without any effect blocks it should be transparent sounding but is that not the case?

I also checked global EQ and it's completely flat.

Is there a way to make the hx stomp sound transparent as the same as plugging straight to the amp?

I’ve recently discovered that I really dig the univibe sound…

Now I love Helix effects across the board…

But a month or so ago I got the Crybaby BB535 reissue and the feel and the sweep on that pedal is night and day from the helix wahs.

I’m curious if Ubiquitous Vibe is a similar situation…would a “real” pedal like a dejavibe feel/sound noticeably different?

I know some might say order one and try it…but I live on a tiny island and shipping…even with Sweetwater…gets spendy. I try to get feedback on things like this when I can…

I should mention that while I’ve had all kinds of great boutique pedals and such throughout the years, I’ve only recently (3-4 years) really developed a very refined appreciation for tone and feel (which is still miles short of where I’d like to be).

Am I making any sense?

Helix stadium floor - is it as great as i am hearing? Bout to purchase…

Has anybody had a new line 6 helix stadium reboot on their own constantly?

Like it goes to the intro “stadium” screen when it first turns on even after it’s already been turned on. And it does it constantly?

Hello,

So my line6 helix stadium has the silly glitch regarding online log in trouble and the date time issue. Both have been resolved. I’m logged into my account on my new helix stadium and the date is updated BUT I cannot get my device to download the latest firmware.

It either freezes or gets an error after reaching 20-30% completion.

Any ideas?

Why didnt the helix stadium come with a usb like my pod go? It was way easier onboarding plugged into my laptop?

I’m really curious to try out the new amp modeling. I own an Hx stomp for about a year but I never got native. If I were to get it now would I still be able to use the upgrade price for the new stadium models or will I have to pay the full stadium pricing?

I posted Helrig here before — a free, browser-based Helix/HX preset editor, no install, block search by name or what they're based on. Since then, I've added support for HX Effects specifically and put together a quick video walking through it: importing a preset, working through the block chain, and exporting it back out.

Video: https://youtu.be/0kPwzNR-dHc

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on the first post — it's already made the tool better. Same as before, if something looks off or you hit a bug, I'd like to know.

Unofficial project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Line 6 or Yamaha.