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

[Owen]

Right, I have never really done the FX thing but I have a Neunaber Slate which gives me a shimmer thang which is lovely on arco DB work as well as giving me super long reverbs so that I can set up pads. The reverb has "infinite" tails so I can drop in and out of it while playing "dry" as well. I would also like to do the Strymon Big Sky Chorale thing. Can the Helix family bring me all in one FX joy?

 

Edited December 6, 2018 by owen

[GisserD]

12 minutes ago, owen said:

Right, I have never really done the FX thing but I have a Neunaber Slate which gives me a shimmer thang which is lovely on arco DB work as well as giving me super long reverbs so that I can set up pads. The reverb has "infinite" tails so I can drop in and out of it while playing "dry" as well. I would also like to do the Strymon Big Sky Chorale thing. Can the Helix family bring me all in one FX joy?

 

You might get more of a response on one of the other 37 helix threads on here. This one was for user tips and tips.

[Woodinblack]

The helix can't do the big sky but it does have tails for its reverb

[BassBus]

1 hour ago, owen said:

Right, I have never really done the FX thing but I have a Neunaber Slate which gives me a shimmer thang which is lovely on arco DB work as well as giving me super long reverbs so that I can set up pads. The reverb has "infinite" tails so I can drop in and out of it while playing "dry" as well. I would also like to do the Strymon Big Sky Chorale thing. Can the Helix family bring me all in one FX joy?

 

The Helix does not do anything as good or as long as the Big Sky. I have my Big Sky in a stereo send and return. It's set in the Helix to allow the trails in endless reverb and I have the Helix pedal set to control the decay on the Big Sky through midi. Works really well. There are some good reverbs on Helix but not a patch on the Strymon.

[OzMike]

@GisserD - Thanks for posting this patch. I received my Stomp yesterday, and was struggling to get some cleaner sounds with it - the vast majority of the bass presets seem to be angling for the 'driven tube amp' tone. Using this patch as a starting point I've already got a few great sounding variations (essentially just changing the amp / cab model, and modifying the cross-over point) to use at a jam tonight. Awesome!

Edited December 7, 2018 by OzMike

[GisserD]

2 hours ago, OzMike said:

@GisserD - Thanks for posting this patch. I received my Stomp yesterday, and was struggling to get some cleaner sounds with it - the vast majority of the bass presets seem to be angling for the 'driven tube amp' tone. Using this patch as a starting point I've already got a few great sounding variations (essentially just changing the amp / cab model, and modifying the cross-over point) to use at a jam tonight. Awesome!

No worries at all, I'm glad somone has made use of it! 

It opened a whole load of doors for me too... Put all other FX on the amp chain, leaving the lows untouched. It just opens the helix right up for bass!!! 

 

[Muppet]

VERSION:  Floor

TITLE: Basic amp patches

DESCRIPTION: Basic Live tones set up

IN DETAIL: Here are six patches for the Floor. SVT normal, Mesa 400+ Channel 1, Mesa 400+  Channel 2, Aguilar DB 751, GK 800 and the B15 Portaflex. The 'SW' in the preset name are my initials.

These are optimised for my live sound with a Fender Precision. I send XLR to FOH and the 1/4" to a Barefaced FR800 for monitoring.  I reduce the XLR output by 16db and use the volume knob to control the 1/4" output only. The sounds through headphones is slightly different. I initially created them using headphones (AKG 702) but then had to tweak for live use.

Also in the patch is an IR block directly after each amp block. if  you load these in to your Helix the IR is missing but ping me a message and I'll let you have it, or you can just select a cab block of your choice. 

There are a basic set of effects too.  I included the graphic at the end of the chain just in case I needed to make any room adjustments but in the presets they are currently all set to flat. 

For me, the inclusion of the 3 band compressor at the beginning makes a huge difference as it tames the live sound and reduces boominess. The compressor settings are the same across all patches.

The SVT preset has three snapshots too - clean, drive and distortion. 

Steve

 

SVT SW.hlx

Mesa 400+ Ch1 SW.hlx

Mesa 400+ Ch2 SW.hlx

DB 751 SW.hlx

GK 800 SW.hlx

Flip Top SW.hlx

[tonyclaret]

Stomp arrived today, looking forward to having a play. Is the general consensus to put all amp blocks at the end of the chain?

[Muppet]

4 hours ago, tonyclaret said:

Stomp arrived today, looking forward to having a play. Is the general consensus to put all amp blocks at the end of the chain?

I started off building the signal path in the same way as I would in 'real life' but the beauty of the Helix products is that you can move stuff around anywhere you like to get the sounds you want.  As I said above, the result that you get when using headphones can be quite different to the sound you get live though.

[Woodinblack]

14 hours ago, tonyclaret said:

Stomp arrived today, looking forward to having a play. Is the general consensus to put all amp blocks at the end of the chain?

I wouldn't put that sort of restriction on myself

[Jack]

Thanks, Muppet! I'd love the IRs if you're able to share? I've never used an IR before.....

 

Someone suggested a while back that we tag any patches that we upload to Tonecloud, something like put 'BC - ' before the patch name, did anyone ever do this?

 

Lastly, I'm struggling to properly do 'Closer' by NIN, can't get the autowah right, but that's probably because there isn't a proper autowah and I know nothing about modulation. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Muppet]

26 minutes ago, Jack said:

Thanks, Muppet! I'd love the IRs if you're able to share? I've never used an IR before..... 

I've pinged you a PM @Jack!

[Muppet]

Following on from my patches post, I've recently switched out the IR/cab blocks when playing live with FOH. I'm still using them if I'm relying on backline only or recording. 

Our Yamaha desk has limited EQ control and using the IR or cab sims added a level of boominess that I've been struggling to dial out using the mixer, so for now they go.  I'll modify the patches eventually to add a split path for onstage monitoring and maybe I'll add them back in then. Interested to know how others are doing it with their patches. 

[tonyclaret]

On 19/12/2018 at 21:16, Muppet said:

VERSION:  Floor

TITLE: Basic amp patches

DESCRIPTION: Basic Live tones set up

IN DETAIL: Here are six patches for the Floor. SVT normal, Mesa 400+ Channel 1, Mesa 400+  Channel 2, Aguilar DB 751, GK 800 and the B15 Portaflex. The 'SW' in the preset name are my initials.

These are optimised for my live sound with a Fender Precision. I send XLR to FOH and the 1/4" to a Barefaced FR800 for monitoring.  I reduce the XLR output by 16db and use the volume knob to control the 1/4" output only. The sounds through headphones is slightly different. I initially created them using headphones (AKG 702) but then had to tweak for live use.

Also in the patch is an IR block directly after each amp block. if  you load these in to your Helix the IR is missing but ping me a message and I'll let you have it, or you can just select a cab block of your choice. 

There are a basic set of effects too.  I included the graphic at the end of the chain just in case I needed to make any room adjustments but in the presets they are currently all set to flat. 

For me, the inclusion of the 3 band compressor at the beginning makes a huge difference as it tames the live sound and reduces boominess. The compressor settings are the same across all patches.

The SVT preset has three snapshots too - clean, drive and distortion. 

Steve

 

SVT SW.hlx

Mesa 400+ Ch1 SW.hlx

Mesa 400+ Ch2 SW.hlx

DB 751 SW.hlx

GK 800 SW.hlx

Flip Top SW.hlx

Hi, tried loading a few of these, but it came up with an error? That because i don't have the IR's? cheers

[CameronJ]

@tonyclaret, what version of Helix do you have? If it’s HX Effects or Stomp, you can’t load presets from Full Helix (Rack/Floor/LT) as they don’t share the same processing power and features

[tonyclaret]

6 hours ago, CameronJ said:

@tonyclaret, what version of Helix do you have? If it’s HX Effects or Stomp, you can’t load presets from Full Helix (Rack/Floor/LT) as they don’t share the same processing power and features

Aghhh, I have the stomp! Thanks 👍

[Al Krow]

20 hours ago, CameronJ said:

@tonyclaret, what version of Helix do you have? If it’s HX Effects or Stomp, you can’t load presets from Full Helix (Rack/Floor/LT) as they don’t share the same processing power and features

Cam is that correct? 

I thought the Stomp did share the same processing power as the Full Helix, which is part of how Helix are differentiating it to the HX? 

[BassBus]

They are all different. Stomp can only use six blocks as maximum. HX doesn't have amps and cabs so it stands that patches can't be shared between them. I have experienced the same issue in trying to use a Stomp patch in full Helix. Can't be done.

[CameronJ]

40 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Cam is that correct? 

I thought the Stomp did share the same processing power as the Full Helix, which is part of how Helix are differentiating it to the HX? 

Totally correct. 

HX Effects and Stomp both have 1 DSP core - Floor, Rack & LT each have 2 cores. Stomp has all of the same effect AND amp models as Floor, Rack & LT but has a limit of 6 blocks. HX Effects has no block limit but obviously has no amp models.

Loading a full Floor, Rack or LT preset into Stomp would produce a very incomplete result as you’d hit the block limit and most of the components of the preset would not be present. Even if the preset from Full Helix contained only 6 blocks, what happens if those 6 blocks are each incredibly DSP hungry? They’d run just fine on Full Helix as the processing can be split across its dual DSP cores, however on Stomp parts of the preset would be missing due to not being able to run fully on the single DSP core. 

Loading a Full Helix preset into HX Effects would obviously incur the same errors re: DSP but with the added hindrance of not being able to include any amp or cab models present in the original patch. More errors.

All of the above means it’s more effort than its worth for Line 6 to make Full Helix (Floor, Rack & LT) preset files compatible with Stomp and HX Effects. We’d get error messages all over the place, incomplete signal paths which bore no resemblance to how the creator intended them to sound and there would be complaints all over the Internet. Much wiser to keep the file types separate, ensure platform stability and tell folks “if you want to copy a Full Helix patch into your HX Effects or Stomp, copy parameters over by hand and get creative within the routing and DSP limitations of the device!”

[BigRedX]

On 02/12/2018 at 13:33, Woodinblack said:

Don't overlook the sound options that playing through a guitar amp and cab will give you just because they say guitar.

IME the most important thing to do with the Helix is to ignore what the various modules are supposed to be copies of and just use your ears to decide whether a particular module sounds any good for your needs. 

Of my 30 or so patches I have only 2 with a bass amp (and no cab) and those are used entirely for the overdrive sound of the amp so in effect I am using it as a distortion module. 

The rest of my patches use either guitar amps (with and without cab sims), or no amp or cab sims at all and simply one of the EQ modules and a distortion module if required.

[leemarseillebass]

Hello. 

I definitely need to chime in here with a question. I’ve the lt and use a dual output bass, anyone have instruction on how to have the woofer input go through the unit and have that signal compressed seperstely to a second amp and cabinet?

Any help would result in a grown man weeping tears of happiness. 

[olipaulo]

18 minutes ago, leemarseillebass said:

Hello. 

I definitely need to chime in here with a question. I’ve the lt and use a dual output bass, anyone have instruction on how to have the woofer input go through the unit and have that signal compressed seperstely to a second amp and cabinet?

Any help would result in a grown man weeping tears of happiness. 

Don't know if you're there already, but there's a FB group "Helix for bassists".

https://www.facebook.com/groups/145604946038429/?ref=share

And there's a guy (Jon Willis) that posts a lot of videos with Yamaha dual output basses. And he shares all the information to build his patches. Have a look there, I'm sure there's goodies for you!

Edited January 22, 2019 by olipaulo

[CameronJ]

Also look for videos by Erik Ärko. He has Helix and plays a Yamaha Attitude dual output bass. I’m sure he’s done videos of his sounds/signal paths with that bass.

[OzMike]

3 hours ago, olipaulo said:

Don't know if you're there already, but there's a FB group "Helix for bassists".

https://www.facebook.com/groups/145604946038429/?ref=share

And there's a guy (Jon Willis) that posts a lot of videos with Yamaha dual output basses. And he shares all the information to build his patches. Have a look there, I'm sure there's goodies for you!

Was just going to post the same thing., great group and Jon has posted lots of helpful information. Here's a video where he shows to setup things on the Stomp for a dual-input bass, The main 'trick' is to pan the inputs fully left or right on the 'split' at the junction between the two audio paths:

 

[leemarseillebass]

Excellent stuff, thank you so much