Mini Helix - HX Stomp...

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, CameronJ said:

Good news for me, since I run Strymon power supplies 😬

For me it'll be a case of using it's own PSU given that my MXR IsoBrick has a total juice output of 2.7 Amps and using the IsoBrick to power the rest of my pedals. This will be even more the case for Ciocks and 1Spot CS6 owners where the total output is < 2 Amps

But that's completely fine; I'll just go ahead and wire up the rest of the board ready for its arrival (hopefully) next month, although I'm not holding my breath given past experience with new releases!

In terms of where it should sit in the signal chain, where do you guys have your current multi-fx pedals in your pedal board chains and why? 

[CameronJ]

I reckon I’ll actually just run my entire existing pedalboard into the FX return on the Stomp, with the Stomp acting as a master hub/interface/DI/headphone amp. I may change my mind on that though. We’ll see.

[dannybuoy]

23 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Can someone give some good starting point settings for the B7K emulation?

Because the default setting sounds horrible and every adjustment I make seems to make it worse.

Set the EQ flat, attack switch on, gain around 25%, volume set so it's even no mattter where the blend is set, and blend set around 65%. Add an additional LPF module or speaker sim to get rid of the fizzier treble if going FRFR. I also boost my high mids but that's because my bass is passive and my strings usually pretty dead! And try it in a mix before making a full judgement - it's sonic signature is a fairly extreme mid cut around 500Hz, but the attack switch boosts around 1-1.5KHz, I find it leaves a nice hole for crunchy guitars and male vocals while still cutting through.

[CameronJ]

Truly portable.

 

And to supplement my earlier size comparison to the HX Effects:

Edited October 6, 2018 by CameronJ

[CameronJ]

@Al Krow, don’t you have a Cioks DC7? Or did you sell it? I can’t keep track 😅

I know this is specifically re: the HX Effects but looks like the DC7 has a bit of headroom to spare current-wise when combining two outlets.

[Al Krow]

I had a DC8 which I sold a while back.

I have a MXR IsoBrick for my main board and a DC5 for my "home" board.

The DC7 at £225 seems exorbitant and only has 7 isolated outputs. The IsoBrick has 10 and costs a lot less.

As I mentioned earlier I'm totally relaxed about having two PSUs underneath my board - one for the HX (its own that it comes with) and the IsoBrick for everything else. That for me won't be the least bit problematic.

[Al Krow]

Hah! Prices falling already - G4M doing for £465. 

At this rate I might even wait to get one in the Jan sales when Andertons and G4M have managed to only sell six between them, and need to lower prices to £399⁽¹⁾ to shift surplus stock. Come on, we've seen it all before!  

Btw - if you like amp and cab models, this thing has a miserly 74 amp and 37 cab models.

 

⁽¹⁾Heck, even better if the £ gets a boost following a "dramatic last minute Brexit deal", which of course there inevitably will be. No way are the EU governments going to let some over-zealous Eurocrats risk tens of thousands of their voters' jobs which are dependent on a £70 billion export surplus that the EU has with the UK. Just sayin'!

 

[Muzz]

Went into PMT Manchester on Satdy with high hopes of giving one of these a run out... "Sorry, we haven't got one. No firm date yet, but we'll drop you and email when one turns up..." 😕

[Al Krow]

Yeh - G4M are estimating delivery between 1 Dec and 8th Dec. But based on past experience, frankly I'd not be surprised if this ended up getting pushed back to Jan 2019.

My Gecko 3 midi control arrived today, which was the other missing piece of the jigsaw for my board. Was kinda hoping to have them both arrive at the same time and get everything set up ready to use in one go (I seem to easily spend a couple of hours wiring and setting up my board of 12 or so pedals - guessing I'm probably just slow!). But I'll just leave a gap ready for this new arrival where my B3n used to be. Given that it's going to have its own separate power supply, it should be straightforward later addition.

In the meantime I can give some attention to working out how to get some great sounds from my FI; so actually it's probably a good thing this isn't coming along for a while!  

On 06/10/2018 at 18:03, CameronJ said:

Truly portable.

Speaking of FIs...in terms of size the Stomp looks pretty similar to an FI (155mm x 125mm x 65mm), but I've not managed to find anything that states the Stomps dimensions yet - be useful to know in terms of leaving enough - but not too much - space for it on my board.

[itsmedunc]

On 06/10/2018 at 18:03, CameronJ said:

Truly portable.

 

That's a very big pocket! Wish I had a wallet the same size   TE marketed the Elf in a similar fashion but  (as was probably intended) I found myself taking more notice of the young ladies rear than I was of the Elf! I thought that was an over-sized pocket too but I really didn't care 😂

[CameronJ]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Speaking of FIs...in terms of size the Stomp looks pretty similar to an FI (155mm x 125mm x 65mm), but I've not managed to find anything that states the Stomps dimensions yet - be useful to know in terms of leaving enough - but not too much - space for it on my board.

The Stomp’s dimensions are 7” x 5” x 2.5” (17.5cm x 12.5cm x 6.25cm) so yes it’s very similar to the Future Impact, just slightly wider.

Edited October 8, 2018 by CameronJ

[CameronJ]

And obviously the Future Impact is taller than it is wide, whereas the Stomp is wider than it is tall. The Stomp also has more I/O, positioned on 3 of its 4 sides. Something to consider when allocating board space for it.

Edited October 8, 2018 by CameronJ

[Al Krow]

14 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

And obviously the Future Impact is taller than it is wide, whereas the Stomp is wider than it is tall. The Stomp also has more I/O, positioned on 3 of its 4 sides. Something to consider when allocating board space for it.

Good point. Looking like a top corner slot to provide easy access to all the outputs! 

[Dood]

Am I right in reading that in stomp mode, you only actually have two buttons to turn effects on and off, leaving the third as Tap Tempo and Tuner access?

[Ghost_Bass]

23 hours ago, Dood said:

Am I right in reading that in stomp mode, you only actually have two buttons to turn effects on and off, leaving the third as Tap Tempo and Tuner access?

No, i've just seen the video on Line6 site and the guy said something like you could assign the third switch to one of the effects and even plug in two adicional momentary footswitches.

[Ghost_Bass]

Go to min 2:40 to see the tap/tuner thing.

[Dood]

3 hours ago, Ghost_Bass said:

No, i've just seen the video on Line6 site and the guy said something like you could assign the third switch to one of the effects and even plug in two adicional momentary footswitches.

 Back in the gaaaaaaaaaame!!!

[CameronJ]

Quoted from a post on The Gear Page:

Quote

I just unboxed my Stomp.

Even before breaking the seal on the box, the quality is obvious, just in the packaging alone.

The first thing that came to mind when I got the box open and held the Stomp in my hands was, THIS is why we CAN have nice things.

A BIG thank you for including a USB cable and for not assuming, like some other companies, that I have plenty of them laying around. I don't.

The power supply has a slot on one side, I'm thinking, for a velcro band to secure the cord for transit. Pure genius. It's the little things...

On the other side of the power supply is a dovetail slot. What is that for?

Well done Line 6 guys and gals. I'm stoked.

Edit: And the rubber feet come on a strip so you can choose to use them or not. Smart.

 

[CameronJ]

Another quote from The Gear Page, this time a transcription from an interview with Eric Klein (chief product design architect at Yamaha/Line 6) regarding the development team’s decision to limit the HX Stomp to 6 blocks, despite the DSP chip being technically capable of more:

Quote

FAQ:  Why only 6 blocks?

ANSWER:
“It was a lot of things. Part of it was UI. We didn’t want something that was really intimidating and weird and having these little tiny things that you couldn’t see.

Part of it was navigation - we didn’t want to have to navigate all the way across all the time.

Some of it was simplicity and elegance. Because again this is for amp & pedalboard guys as well. We didn’t it to vibe as this gigantic and crazy modeler that does everything.

But the biggest reason (and this sort of ties into how the more block locations you have the faster you run out of DSP because you feel like you have to fill them up)...it’s pretty hard to run out of DSP in HX Stomp because it’s limited to 6 blocks. But as we go forward, especially when we talk about polyphonic pitch stuff, it takes up a lot more DSP, so you’re going to be running out of that stuff a lot faster.

And as we get deeper into amp modeling, it wouldn’t be surprising that amp models start to take up more DSP than some of the existing amp models. So we wanted to make sure there were the appropriate amount of blocks... So 6 blocks almost feels like it might be too few given how much DSP there is in HX Stomp. It’ll feel more appropriate in a year, if that makes sense. We’re always thinking way ahead and want to make sure we don’t design ourselves into a corner.”

 

[Ghost_Bass]

I've seen that interview. He also left the door opened to adding more blocks in future upgrades if they see a public demand for more blocks in the unit.

[Ghost_Bass]

The stomp seems like a great little thing and could possible replace my pedalboard (tuner-octave-wah-distortion-compressor) but i would need to see if the fx are as good as my current ones. I would use it with a single patch leaving the 3 knobs only to turn on/off the three effects. Compressor is allways on and the mute/tuner would need to be activated like on the B3 (pressing one of the knobs for a bit more time, if possible). I would also take advantage of the amp/cab sims to create a second patch to get that true V4B/810 valve sound that should be spot on since Ampeg has recently joined Line6/Yamaha family.
The trickier part would be to have it reproduce all the effects i like, the B3k, the Bass Octave Deluxe and, most important, the 3leaf GR (lovetone meatball). I'll need to try it to see for myself. In the meantime i'll have to convince my guitarrist to lend me his HX effects to try the sounds in it.
Only thing that really annoys me in this is that why are we given 6 blocks (6 possible fx or amp/cab sim) but only three knobs that don't really allow for all 6 blocks to be turned on/off as we please? Maybe there's a way to do it and i haven't read about it yet...

[CameronJ]

11 minutes ago, Ghost_Bass said:

I've seen that interview. He also left the door opened to adding more blocks in future upgrades if they see a public demand for more blocks in the unit.

Indeed. It’s a really informative video!

[CameronJ]

1 minute ago, Ghost_Bass said:

Only thing that really annoys me in this is that why are we given 6 blocks (6 possible fx or amp/cab sim) but only three knobs that don't really allow for all 6 blocks to be turned on/off as we please? Maybe there's a way to do it and i haven't read about it yet...

I know what you mean - the only option really is to either connect a dual expression switch giving you the ability to turn on/off block #4 & 5 (still leaving #6 unswitchable individually) or connect a MIDI controller footswitches and map the CCs to be able to control all 6 blocks. I may do the latter when I eventually get a Stomp.

[Ghost_Bass]

1 minute ago, CameronJ said:

I know what you mean - the only option really is to either connect a dual expression switch giving you the ability to turn on/off block #4 & 5 (still leaving #6 unswitchable individually) or connect a MIDI controller footswitches and map the CCs to be able to control all 6 blocks. I may do the latter when I eventually get a Stomp.

Yeah, you're right, but that really defeats the purpose of "making it small" doesn't it? I think i'm not made for multi-fx as i don't want to change patches to change sounds especially mid song, i would like for a multi-fx to work as if it was a series of single, good quality, pedals. The B3 was excelent in its design but the sounds just don't cut it enought to replace my pedals, it also isn't very transparent sounding, it really changes the tone of the bass even with everythingin bypass mode and all global settings flattened. Maybe forgetting about the amp/cab sims and going for the HX effects that will start to pop up in the FS secction is the way to go for me. Not as small as i would like it but still smaller than my current pedaltrain-nano harley benton clone.

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, Ghost_Bass said:

Yeah, you're right, but that really defeats the purpose of "making it small" doesn't it? I think i'm not made for multi-fx as i don't want to change patches to change sounds especially mid song, i would like for a multi-fx to work as if it was a series of single, good quality, pedals. The B3 was excelent in its design but the sounds just don't cut it enough to replace my pedals, it also isn't very transparent sounding, it really changes the tone of the bass even with everything in bypass mode and all global settings flattened. Maybe forgetting about the amp/cab sims and going for the HX effects that will start to pop up in the FS secction is the way to go for me. Not as small as i would like it but still smaller than my current pedaltrain-nano harley benton clone.

Hmmm...sounds to me that the Zoom B3n may also hit the mark (just) for you? Consensus seems to be that the newer, more powerful chip processing in the B3n provides a noticeable improvement on sim quality as compared to the B3 - check the comments from @songofthewind, in particular, in the attached thread. Although the HX should be a further step up from the B3n (and I'd certainly hope that to be the case given the price differential) and a safer bet in that sense if you're looking for high quality sims.

FWIW - I suspect that folk who invest in the Helix Mini are likely to be holding on to them either 'cos (i) they are existing Helix users looking for something more compact or (ii) folk who have been holding off getting a Helix until they brought out a HX mkII that had amp and cab sims, aux in and headphones out. Well the Yamaha Line6 boys and girls have gone one step further and provided all of those "missing bits" and made the Stomp half the size (or less?) than HX. 

So I'd be really surprised if there are folk jumping in to get the Stomp who aren't doing it with their eyes open (not least given the nearly £500 launch price tag) and knowing exactly why they're getting one. Anyway that's a very long winded way of saying I'm guessing there won't be too many of the Stomp version coming up in the FS section, but time will tell eh? I wouldn't be surprised, however, if new prices for the Stomp were down to £399 in a year's time.

...and a doubly long-winded point given that you're actually after a used HX, which are starting to come up from time to time 

Edited October 10, 2018 by Al Krow