Mini Helix - HX Stomp...

[Osiris]

26 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Ive actually just stopped using it and have replaced the B7K with the BDDI Sim. This seems to get me back to my old tone, but with the Fearless F112 adding extra clarity that i couldn't get before.

The only downside is i dont think the BDDI does dirt as well as the Bk7, but i dont want to end up using both, so i have the BDDI on a FS with added Drive (going up from 6 to 7.5) and slightly lower level.. I like the idea of my basic tone, but with dirt added, rather than using something that will change the tone as well.

M y setting for the Distortion in the B7k was just  Drive on 5, mix/blend on 6 (this made the most difference)and the rest pretty much as it comes. I did play with with taking out the EQ and that too sounded good, but my goal was just to dirty up my base tone, rather than have an obviously distorted tone.

Cheers, I'll give those settings a go with the B7K model.

I actually prefer the Line 6 BDDI model to the real thing as it's easier to put the mids back in that the BDDI takes out. 

[dannybuoy]

48 minutes ago, Osiris said:

What settings are you using with the B7K? No matter what I try with the drive section it just sounds utter 💩 to me. I like the tone when I hear other people use it but I can't get anything usable out of it when I try it, so any pointers would be appreciated. 

First off it sounds best with a scooped growly bass, like a Jazz with both pickups on, or a PJ, etc. If you're playing a  classic P with flats for example, this is not the distortion you are looking for!

Attack switch needs to be on to get the full growl out of it, grunt gives a bass boost before the gain section but I find that to be a little too much so I turn that off. Set the EQ to flat at first, the gain to where you get some nice crunch when digging in, and the volume so that the volume is roughly even no matter where you set the blend (the volume only affects the dirt side). Try the blend at 1 o'clock and adjust the master volume to taste.

If it's too fizzy sounding, try it in a mix and you may find the fizz disappears amongst the rest of the instruments. Or you can add a LPF or cab sim to the end.

[dannybuoy]

33 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Ive actually just stopped using it and have replaced the B7K with the BDDI Sim. This seems to get me back to my old tone, but with the Fearless F112 adding extra clarity that i couldn't get before.

The only downside is i dont think the BDDI does dirt as well as the Bk7, but i dont want to end up using both, so i have the BDDI on a FS with added Drive (going up from 6 to 7.5) and slightly lower level.. I like the idea of my basic tone, but with dirt added, rather than using something that will change the tone as well.

M y setting for the Distortion in the B7k was just  Drive on 5, mix/blend on 6 (this made the most difference)and the rest pretty much as it comes. I did play with with taking out the EQ and that too sounded good, but my goal was just to dirty up my base tone, rather than have an obviously distorted tone.

Try using a crossover to send everything above e.g. 150Hz to the BDDI sim, and the lows to a compressor. The BDDI sounds quite bloated if you crank the gain, but if you divert the lows to a separate parallel chain, you can crank the gain more and get a tighter sounding distortion.

Then once you get that figured out, you enter a hole rabbit hole of having the entire palette of guitar distortions and amps open to you, because it doesn't matter if they drop the lows!

[LukeFRC]

What I love about the stomp is that I can set up a basic rig in 30 seconds.... but you can go deep into setting things up....

i have a patch where the first switch is an od, and the second switch goes between the 810 cab or the 410 cab with a compressor on at the front of the chain - the ability to switch three things with one button press is awesome. And I’ve not even got into snapshots yet!

[Osiris]

2 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

First off it sounds best with a scooped growly bass, like a Jazz with both pickups on, or a PJ, etc. If you're playing a  classic P with flats for example, this is not the distortion you are looking for!

Attack switch needs to be on to get the full growl out of it, grunt gives a bass boost before the gain section but I find that to be a little too much so I turn that off. Set the EQ to flat at first, the gain to where you get some nice crunch when digging in, and the volume so that the volume is roughly even no matter where you set the blend (the volume only affects the dirt side). Try the blend at 1 o'clock and adjust the master volume to taste.

If it's too fizzy sounding, try it in a mix and you may find the fizz disappears amongst the rest of the instruments. Or you can add a LPF or cab sim to the end.

Cheers for that. I'm very much a P player, albeit with rounds instead of flats, I also play short scales which are inherently darker than regular sized basses, so that may also be a factor. The attack switch sounds too abrasive and clanky to me so I tend to leave it off or even cut, but as you say that could be tamed with an LPF after it. I'll give it a go. But I suspect a lot of my problem is down to the fact that I'm not keen on mid scoops, whether they be upper or lower mids, and especially with a driven bass sound where I advocate boosting the mids instead of cutting them. I could never get a drive sound that I liked out of the Darkglass amp either so it was always looking dubious as to whether the model would give me what I wanted anyway. For my tastes I have more luck with the various Tube Screamer based drives that give me the mid range fatness that I want. 

[dannybuoy]

Yeah, I'm not much of a fan of the B7K with a P Bass either. The natural eq curve of a P bass kind of fights against what the B7K is trying to do to your tone. It's a perfect fit for a J bass however!

I have 2 general approaches to bass tones, either dominate the low mids with my P Bass, or scoop the hell out of the mids, dominate the low end and slice through the high mids with my BB in the middle pickup position!

[krispn]

@Osiris AATISSS!

[dave_bass5]

1 hour ago, dannybuoy said:

First off it sounds best with a scooped growly bass, like a Jazz with both pickups on, or a PJ, etc. If you're playing a  classic P with flats for example, this is not the distortion you are looking for!

Attack switch needs to be on to get the full growl out of it, grunt gives a bass boost before the gain section but I find that to be a little too much so I turn that off. Set the EQ to flat at first, the gain to where you get some nice crunch when digging in, and the volume so that the volume is roughly even no matter where you set the blend (the volume only affects the dirt side). Try the blend at 1 o'clock and adjust the master volume to taste.

I agree about the bass type. my P34 doesn't quite sound like a Fender P, and has a bit of that Jazz vibe going on so maybe that does work better.

@OsirisI forgot to add that my setting included those Grunt/Attack things both set to flat. I didn't want much, or any tone shifting other than getting a bit dirtier.

As far as the BDDI sim goes, i find its as good as the MK1 version but lacks the mid control of my MK2. Plenty of options in the Stomp to bring that back though.

[Frank Blank]

On 01/10/2019 at 09:57, Osiris said:

Frank, I reckon you could easily halve the number of patches you already have to just one for each guitar. Simply take the reverb patch for each and assign the reverb block to one of the footswitches, that way you have the EQ and compression on all the time and you can kick the reverb on and off at will without having to change patches. To assign the reverb block to a footswitch, select the block on the stomp interface and touch (but not press) the switch you want to assign it to, a message will then pop-up asking you to confirm the action (more technically I think it says something along the lines of merging the effect with another one on the same switch, or overwriting it so that only the block you want is assigned) I don't have my stomp in front of me to check but it's way more simple than I have made it sound  

Cheers Sir, I did exactly this (a very easy process in HX Edit too) which has, as you suggested, halved my patches down to, ahem, two! Cheers again.

[Osiris]

7 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

Cheers Sir, I did exactly this (a very easy process in HX Edit too) which has, as you suggested, halved my patches down to, ahem, two! Cheers again.

I'm all for making life simpler and easier! 

[tandark]

On 01/10/2019 at 12:36, dannybuoy said:

Try using a crossover to send everything above e.g. 150Hz to the BDDI sim, and the lows to a compressor. The BDDI sounds quite bloated if you crank the gain, but if you divert the lows to a separate parallel chain, you can crank the gain more and get a tighter sounding distortion.

Then once you get that figured out, you enter a hole rabbit hole of having the entire palette of guitar distortions and amps open to you, because it doesn't matter if they drop the lows!

I need to try this @dannybuoy, thanks for the chat.

I switched straight away from the Darkglass to the BDDI on my HXe, but miss the gain levels on offer.

[dannybuoy]

@tandark, you might need to boost the volume on the high chain if it's more gain you're after, since chopping off the lows results in less overall volume and less overall clipping. Maybe even put a Teemah drive in line before it hits the Sansamp.

[dave_bass5]

On 01/10/2019 at 12:36, dannybuoy said:

Try using a crossover to send everything above e.g. 150Hz to the BDDI sim, and the lows to a compressor. The BDDI sounds quite bloated if you crank the gain, but if you divert the lows to a separate parallel chain, you can crank the gain more and get a tighter sounding distortion.

Then once you get that figured out, you enter a hole rabbit hole of having the entire palette of guitar distortions and amps open to you, because it doesn't matter if they drop the lows!

Sorry, i missed this. Will give it a go tonight. Ive not done any splitting yet, but i have been meaning to try something. Im not quite sure how this will work though, as i want to use the BDDI always on, but kick in the drive when needed. Also keeping the Chorus and whatever 3rd effect is at the end.

So far backing the Blend off a bit has cleaned up the dirt if that makes sense.

Edited October 3, 2019 by dave_bass5

[basskit_case]

Another option for powered speaker from Gear4Music's SubZero range: https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/SubZero-12-Active-DSP-Speaker/2WWW

Also have a 15" and sub.

[DanEly]

I'm SO close to pulling the trigger on a Stomp. How many of you have ditched your full stacks for these? 

I see a couple of you guys are using these with things like the B7K. How do they compare? I love my distortion sounds with my current rig. Have many of you guys used things like a micro synths and sub/meatboxes with the HX stomp, do they play well?

[Al Krow]

Nope not ditched all my pedals.

IMO Stomp can't do the following as well as dedicated pedals: synth (cos it doesn't have a synth engine); octave up or bit crush. Jury is out for me on drive  / fuzz and filter. It's not too bad on plain vanilla octave down but it's certainly no DOD Meatbox (but then what is?!)

Can handle pitch shift, and other modulation effects (chorus, delay, flange etc) well. Seems to have got the thumbs up on compression from several BCers. It's pants as a looper compared to the 6 to 8 hours recording and 99 memories available on dedicated loopers. It can manage all of 60 seconds so do hold your breath. Very capable EQ and should be a decent hpf / lpf (although I've still kept my Thumpinator for now for hpf duties).

Supposed to be pretty darned good at amp and cab sims, but as I'm very happy with my amps and cabs not an area that will be particularly relevant for me, but if you're thinking of going IEM then it could well be just the ticket.

And it's a blood*y good tuner 😁

Edited October 5, 2019 by Al Krow
How could I forget about tuner?

[Frank Blank]

7 hours ago, DanEly said:

I'm SO close to pulling the trigger on a Stomp. How many of you have ditched your full stacks for these? 

I have, bass > Stomp > QSC K12.2.

...you are welcome to try mine out if you like.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Frank Blank

[krispn]

@Al Krow

Maybe you should have bought a HXFX instead as it sounds better suited to your needs? 

Have you not messed about with amp and cab sims yet on it? Have you experimented with the drive options yet as there are many especially with the latest update KOT drive, svt4 amp, BDDI etc. Mixing amps and drives offers up more possibilities too...

If filter, drive, octave and a good 6-8 hours worth of looping capabilities are all you need and your pedal board has this covered maybe it’s possibly just not the right unit for you!

[Al Krow]

19 minutes ago, krispn said:

@Al Krow

Maybe you should have bought a HXFX instead as it sounds better suited to your needs? 

Have you not messed about with amp and cab sims yet on it? Have you experimented with the drive options yet as there are many especially with the latest update KOT drive, svt4 amp, BDDI etc. Mixing amps and drives offers up more possibilities too...

If filter, drive, octave and a good 6-8 hours worth of looping capabilities are all you need and your pedal board has this covered maybe it’s possibly just not the right unit for you!

Nope to HXFX. Size / PB real estate is a major consideration for me. 

You've missed off all the things I said it does well which I am using it for and I omitted EQ from above (I'll add that in). 

It's already paid for itself by: 

- replacing a Q\Strip, octave down, headphone amp and avoiding me needing to get a Fishman Power Chord! 

And yes I have messed around with the drive etc. Not yet matched my dedicated drives (hence "jury is still out") but early days. 

Where have you landed on Stomp ownership, can't remember if you still have one / replaced the one you returned? 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Al Krow

[krispn]

You forgot tuner 😀😉

[Al Krow]

15 minutes ago, krispn said:

You forgot tuner 😀😉

Actually you're not wrong there! 

So did you replace your temporary Stomp / get the software version or are you currently Stompless?

Edited October 5, 2019 by Al Krow

[krispn]

No stomp here! I pretty much tried the stomp out in a range of settings and it is indeed a very capable unit. I just found that live I like to have an amp and cab on stage. The drummer and I both felt the in ears gigs lacked something so it’s earplugs and full rig live for me. My fx needs are somewhat minimal on a gig so the stomp was over kill as the effect I use I already have on my pb.

Edited October 5, 2019 by krispn

[DanEly]

Maybe there was a little confusion with my original post...

How do the Stomps play with other pedals? Ideally I'd be using it with a darkglass B7K, X7, Meatbox, fuzz potentially another octave. 

I'm more interested in the ability to ditch my 610 and mesa 400+ and use the amp sims along with a IR. Have people struggled in venues with monitoring? I am currently on ears but I do like having the "feel" of a cab behind me.

 

[la bam]

I'm now using my patch split 2 ways to send my 'sound' to the PA via main out and my sound minus a cab sim via send to my cab. That way stage sound doesnt affect PA sound, and my stage sound isnt clouded by a cab sim and a cab.

Also guarantees consistency for ever gig.

[dannybuoy]

54 minutes ago, DanEly said:

Maybe there was a little confusion with my original post...

How do the Stomps play with other pedals? Ideally I'd be using it with a darkglass B7K, X7, Meatbox, fuzz potentially another octave. 

I'm more interested in the ability to ditch my 610 and mesa 400+ and use the amp sims along with a IR. Have people struggled in venues with monitoring? I am currently on ears but I do like having the "feel" of a cab behind me.

 

You could probably ditch the B7K and X7. The B7K sim is bang on, and you have all the crossover/compression/distortion/Eq capabilities to build an X7-ish effect too (I managed to get quite close to my DP-3X which is in a similar ballpark). Although you are limited to run fewer FX with the Stomp vs the rest of the range!