Helix Floor/LT/HX/Stomp/PodGo owners' Club - Tips, Ideas & Patches

[javi_bassist]

The Stomp replaced all my pedals and I played some gigs with it. However, I missed my Ashdown preamp, so it is back. Not that the amp sims in the Stomp are bad, but I just love my preamp.

Yesterday I was also toying with my favourite compressor: the JHS Pulp'N'Peel. I love the sound of parallel compression with the JHS. Then, I thought if I could do the same in the Stomp. I tried the Rochester compressor with a high ratio and blend at 36%. I could not achieve the sound of the JHS... but it sounded even better. I just loved it. The signal was:

Global HPF/LPF at 38Hz&15kHZ-->Rochester comp (with parallel compression)-->Split at 150Hz and the Teemah in the low part-->Legacy Overdrive in the high part-->Legacy Big Muff in the high part-->Ashdown Original preamp. 

It sounds pretty cool I think.  

[bassfan]

8 hours ago, el borracho said:

During lockdown I sold off all my effects as I hadn't needed them in years. Predictably I have now joined a band where I need effects & Line 6 looks like way to go.

Got a problem though - I'm having issues at the minute with my vision - it's a passing phase until I probably need varifocals. I wear reading glasses & can see very little close up without them - distance is OK but between 3-5 feet it's pretty blurry -  not good when using pedals!!

Does anyone have similar experiences & could advise which is the best re clarity? The Stomp display looks to be a decent size whereas the Effects displays possibly too small. Most probably can't help as you can see them OK!

The problem should be resolved when my next optician's visit is due but currently is a real pain. I can't even make out my amp settings & struggle seeing the fret dots on maple neck basses! I can't play with the reading glasses on as I can't see beyond 2-3 feet & they make the neck appear bent!   Aarghh - hate getting old 😬

I don’t have the eyesight issues but I have owned the stomp and hxfx. If you don’t need the amp & cab sims and it’s purely effects then the displays on the hxfx will be easier for you in my opinion, you’ll have more of a sense of what effect is in each block to, the downside is, it’s a bigger unit. The screen in the stomp is clear enough, but I found the hxfx easier to read. 
All my opinion of course… other people may have different experiences. 

[cattytown]

9 hours ago, Apeneck Sweeney said:

I didn't get on with varifocals at all

The first time I tried them, they were awful, and I lasted less than a week. A few years of struggling later, and an important change in the fashion for glasses,  step up of the level I bought and they are awesome. I would need to carry 2-3 pairs of glasses without them, be constantly swapping between them, and struggling in sunshine. My prescription is strong - about +5.5, then reading is plus 1.5. I now go for the REALLY good lenses (high refractive index so thin and light) and photochromic so a pair of glasses is north of £700. It's worth it as the first thing I do in the morning is reach for my glasses, and the last thing at night is take them off. I really am useless without them.

The big thing is getting used to looking through the right bit, which does mean moving your head more.

The bit about fashion? when I first tried them lenses were quite small. Now lenses are a lot bigger which gives more space for the zones.

[SumOne]

If I have say, an overdrive assigned to FS1 and Chorus on FS2 and I'm on FS1 with the effect engaged and soft touch to scroll to the next overdrive model in the list to hear what it's like - when I select the new overdrive the FS automatically gets assigned to FS2 (or sometimes another random FS) rather than staying where it was on FS1, so I then need to re-assign it to FS1. Not a big deal but a bit annoying, why is it doing this rather than staying on the FS the original was assigned to? I can't find anything in the manual about this, perhaps it's linked to the 'learn' function and it's trying to be clever to match the FS I've assigned that particular effect to in other presets?

[Higgie]

2 hours ago, SumOne said:

If I have say, an overdrive assigned to FS1 and Chorus on FS2 and I'm on FS1 with the effect engaged and soft touch to scroll to the next overdrive model in the list to hear what it's like - when I select the new overdrive the FS automatically gets assigned to FS2 (or sometimes another random FS) rather than staying where it was on FS1, so I then need to re-assign it to FS1. Not a big deal but a bit annoying, why is it doing this rather than staying on the FS the original was assigned to? I can't find anything in the manual about this, perhaps it's linked to the 'learn' function and it's trying to be clever to match the FS I've assigned that particular effect to in other presets?

Sounds like strange behaviour to me, i’ve never noticed mine do that. The ‘Learn’ function is for MIDI, so I don’t think that has anything to do with it. Sorry I can’t be more helpful, apart from hopefully eliminating that line of enquiry!

[uk_lefty]

Sounds like a bug to me. 

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, SumOne said:

If I have say, an overdrive assigned to FS1 and Chorus on FS2 and I'm on FS1 with the effect engaged and soft touch to scroll to the next overdrive model in the list to hear what it's like - 

Sounds like something you should report to line6

[SumOne]

Cool, I'll back everything up and do a reset if it keeps doing it.

[acidbass]

One of the under utilised features of the Stomp (IMO) is the pitch shift. I have some patches set for -2 and -3 semitones for songs where my band drop tunes, and I am able to maintain my standard tuning and string setup. The tracking is immense also and the tone is perfect!

[dave_bass5]

22 minutes ago, acidbass said:

One of the under utilised features of the Stomp (IMO) is the pitch shift. I have some patches set for -2 and -3 semitones for songs where my band drop tunes, and I am able to maintain my standard tuning and string setup. The tracking is immense also and the tone is perfect!

Yeah, ive used that twice when my singer decided the key is wrong at rehearsals rather than when we are all (or are all supposed to be) learning the songs.  After us taking two weeks to learn the songs in one key, i wasn’t going to bother changing this. They were only Christmas songs so not part of our normal list. 

[SumOne]

On 16/07/2021 at 12:33, SumOne said:

If I have say, an overdrive assigned to FS1 and Chorus on FS2 and I'm on FS1 with the effect engaged and soft touch to scroll to the next overdrive model in the list to hear what it's like - when I select the new overdrive the FS automatically gets assigned to FS2 (or sometimes another random FS) rather than staying where it was on FS1, so I then need to re-assign it to FS1. Not a big deal but a bit annoying, why is it doing this rather than staying on the FS the original was assigned to? I can't find anything in the manual about this, perhaps it's linked to the 'learn' function and it's trying to be clever to match the FS I've assigned that particular effect to in other presets?

I've realised this isn't a fault: It only does it when scrolling through 'Favorites' where I have previously assigned a particular FS when I saved the effect as a Favorite - it remembers what FS that effect was assigned to and always puts it there (I'll be re-saving my favorites without a FS assigned because I don't find it to be a useful feature).  

[acroxixo]

Some questions, thanks in advance:

What are your settings on the Global EQ? Did you change them?
I have the HX Stomp. I’m using it almost for bass, but sometimes with guitar too. 
 

When you use the HX Stomp direct to an bass amp what output must be used? Balanced or unbalanced?

 

Here is my pedalboard with the HX Stomp 

[dave_bass5]

I had a HPF set in the Global section, but nothing else was changed from default. 

I just used a normal jack lead in to my amps. Just using the main out (Left). 

[Jack]

High pass filter at 35Hz, everything else is flat as I can use the channel eq (when I'm the soundman) or somebody else can when I'm not. 

 

It probably doesn't matter which cable you use, nearly every amp will just accept the unbalanced with no harm done. If it sounds funny then it's time to worry. 

[Elfrasho]

Picked up a helix stomp yesterday. First impressions is that it's brilliant. particularly the reverbs sound lush and rich! Not really delved too much into it yet but I'm very excited to gig it. Bass wise I don't do much with effects, so it's mainly going to be used for its preamp options, so I think I'm more excited for the guitar side if thing. 

 

I think the knobs and buttons feel a bit flimsy though. I have a slight worry somethings going to fall off! 

[javi_bassist]

I've been experimenting a lot lately woth the HX and I'm liking it more and more each day. However, it has some things that don't convince me 100%. In my case, I don't really like the Bass Octaver. It's not too bad, but I can't find a setting that I like. I was used to the MXR Bass Octave Deluxe that I liked. Which are the things you don't like about the HX?

[bassfan]

On 25/07/2021 at 12:14, Elfrasho said:

Picked up a helix stomp yesterday. First impressions is that it's brilliant. particularly the reverbs sound lush and rich! Not really delved too much into it yet but I'm very excited to gig it. Bass wise I don't do much with effects, so it's mainly going to be used for its preamp options, so I think I'm more excited for the guitar side if thing. 

 

I think the knobs and buttons feel a bit flimsy though. I have a slight worry somethings going to fall off! 

You can replace the knobs with some metal ones. I had them on my hxfx @Tesi Switch make them for the stomp. I’ll be getting a set for mine. 

[dave_bass5]

10 minutes ago, bassfan said:

You can replace the knobs with some metal ones. I had them on my hxfx @Tesi Switch make them for the stomp. I’ll be getting a set for mine. 

 

Yeah, i had some as well. To be honest, what they ended up closing after TAX and Import duty they worked out quite expensive.

 

 

[bassfan]

7 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

 

Yeah, i had some as well. To be honest, what they ended up closing after TAX and Import duty they worked out quite expensive.

 

 

I think they worked out around £30 from memory by the time customs had been paid 😤

[SumOne]

35 minutes ago, javi_bassist said:

I've been experimenting a lot lately woth the HX and I'm liking it more and more each day. However, it has some things that don't convince me 100%. In my case, I don't really like the Bass Octaver. It's not too bad, but I can't find a setting that I like. I was used to the MXR Bass Octave Deluxe that I liked. Which are the things you don't like about the HX?

 

I like the octaver, thought it tracks better than analogue octavers I've had (mxr BOD, and Aguilar Octamizer), I guess it loses a bit of their character but I don't use it at 100% and usually have some other fx or overdrive after it. I also prefer the Helix dual pitch over the TC Sub n Up for octave up stuff. 

 

The big winners to me are modulation, reverb/echo, eq, and the amp/cab sims, just buying them as individual pedals would cost the same as a Stomp. Losers are synth and envelope filter. 

 

If I were to get rid of the Helix it wouldn't be because of the quality of any sounds, it would be because I prefer more idiot proof individual pedals rather than programming presets. 

[dave_bass5]

42 minutes ago, bassfan said:

I think they worked out around £30 from memory by the time customs had been paid 😤

Yeah, thats what I remember as well. 

[Elfrasho]

I must admit, I had some initial concerns over the complexity of it. Butnow I've got it set up how I like it.. With the 3 pedals being assigned to 3 individual blocks within one preset, that's my live bass rig sorted and it's pretty easy to navigate. 

 

I still canr get over how good the guitar stuff sounds. Quite astonishing! 

 

 

[dave_bass5]

43 minutes ago, Elfrasho said:

I must admit, I had some initial concerns over the complexity of it. Butnow I've got it set up how I like it.. With the 3 pedals being assigned to 3 individual blocks within one preset, that's my live bass rig sorted and it's pretty easy to navigate. 

 

I still canr get over how good the guitar stuff sounds. Quite astonishing! 

 

 

It’s been mentioned before, but it’s always worth pointing out, you can have more than one function assigned to each foot switch.

For example, you can set one foot switch to turn one effect on at the same time as turning another off.  I used to have a BDDI always on, with low gain. I also had a BDDI with more gain, and less high end, and a slightly lower volume. I had both assigned to the same foot switch, so each time i pressed it it would swap between the two. This worked really well. I could balance  the two out so the high gain version was well balanced, volume wise with the first one, just a bit dirtier. Worked great at give it a bit more when needed, without the tone changing. 

You can also assign the foot swtiches to control different settings within each block.

 

[javi_bassist]

9 hours ago, SumOne said:

The big winners to me are modulation, reverb/echo, eq, and the amp/cab sims, just buying them as individual pedals would cost the same as a Stomp. Losers are synth and envelope filter. 

 

 

I have to admit that my preamp pedal cost me nearly as much as the HX. But I have to say that the sum of the prices of pedals I had in my previous pedalboard was far larger than what the HX cost me. And with the HX I can do much more.

 

About pitch shifter. I am playing with a cover band next week. The guitarist (who is a friend of mine and the one who got me into the Helix world)  sent me the setlist and one of the songs they play one tone down. He told me he just uses the picht shifter in the HX and plays standard. I tried... and I liked it. For one song, it sounds pretty good. 

[SumOne]

I need to try and get out of the separate stompbox 'what you see is what you get, one footswitch per effect' attitude because I still like separate footswitches for each effect and being able to look down and instantly see where settings for each of them, and the sort of good accidents you get when mucking about stomping a big chain of fx on and hands-on tweaking - but I know the Helix Stomp can make the same sounds for less money and less boardspace....plus it opens up a lot of new opportunities with routing options etc.

 

Say I want Octave>Fuzz>Chorus, with separate pedals that's immediate by just clicking on those three stompboxes and instantly tweak the controls, with the Stomp that's easily done (and can do much more) but you do need to have saved it as a preset and remember where that preset is or spend a minute or so selecting the blocks/FS assignment and clicking on them individually to change parameters....it's just that very slight inconvenience in workflow that I'm not so keen on but I think I need to spend more time building up presets and getting over the stompbox attitude.