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

[bassfan]

 

2 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Hah - been asked that a couple of times already!  

Here you go...

Synth Patch.pdf 308.38 kB · 0 downloads

 

All uploaded. Very nice and not in your face. I like it 😃👍🏻 Cheers Mr Krow. 

[dave_bass5]

26 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Hah - been asked that a couple of times already!  

Here you go...

Synth Patch.pdf 308.38 kB · 3 downloads

Cheers Bas. Luckily my Stomp is still hooked up to my PC so I’ll give it a go in the morning. 

Oh, just noticed its a PDF. Thought it was the patch itself. 

Edited April 30, 2020 by dave_bass5

[krispn]

I’ll give it a spin over the weekend - got a few more nightshifts before this week is over!

[dave_bass5]

Here’s a cool feature the Pod Go has. Create a basic patch and you can save this to all the blank presets with one action. Makes creating multiple patches with similar effects much quicker.

[Al Krow]

16 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Cheers Bas. Luckily my Stomp is still hooked up to my PC so I’ll give it a go in the morning. 

Oh, just noticed its a PDF. Thought it was the patch itself. 

 

16 hours ago, krispn said:

I’ll give it a spin over the weekend - got a few more nightshifts before this week is over!

Good stuff. I'm sure it can be easily refined / improved on with different choices of Fuzz and changes to the Auto Filter settings, particularly if playing through a rig - I knocked it up in 30 mins flat via headphones last night, just to get the ball rolling. 

[krispn]

Gonna get to this in a wee bit (just woke up)! Did you have particular song or sound in mind or just throwing something together? 

[dave_bass5]

Got a question relating to using a Comp with the Helix (or Pod Go).

As much as i like the new Rochester Comp it would be a shame not to use my Becos, especially as I love the visual indication from the meter. As I’m still finding my round Comp I find it’s helping me adjust things.

As the Pod Go has an effects send/return in every patch, i thought i might use this and run the Comp in, at the start of each patch. This saves me using the Rochester and taking up one of the 4 slots. This I assume will enter the path after the HPF/noise gate and Global EQ, which i quite like the idea of. Obviously running it before the Helix will mean the compressed tome will go through those. Ive tried it with my Stomp and it works fine, but I’m not sure if that is better than running it before the Helix. I can only use headphones a at home so cant really get a true indication of whats better. I do like the idea of the HPF first in the chain.

Any comments? What i do like is that the Becos is so small it will actually sit on the Pod Go rather than on the floor (I’m not using a board), and I’m hoping I can take a feed off the Line6 PSU for it. 

[krispn]

Depends if you can select an fx slot and where it comes in the signal chain. With the PGo are all the fx blocks 'fixed' in sequence so as an example it will always be ordered comp>drive>filter>pitch>modulation>amp/cab kinda thing or can you move their position in the chain?

If you can reorder theor position and can drop the fx loop anywhere in the chain you'll be grand.

Another thing might be to A/B settings with the Stomp and the Becos in an adjacent fx loop and A/B between them (or another similar comp from the list) to get the type of comp feel/sound you like so you've basically cloned the sound you gravitate to as a preset.

[dave_bass5]

Cheers. You can move the slots on the Pod Go, so the plan is to have it at the start. 

The advantage of using the fx loop is it’s there anyway. I had planned on using the Rochester, but that will take up a block, so for now I’ll use the Becos. This will help me get a bette feel and understanding. Hard to use my ears when setting things up with headphones for live use. 
It also means it’s closer to my old pedalboard which has a micro Thumpinator at the very start. 

[Al Krow]

On 30/04/2020 at 18:01, Osiris said:

Me too. And the VT Bass. I desperately wanted to like both but couldn't get on with either. 

But the dUg Pinnick pedal was awesome. 

Apologies for the thread de-rail, but penny for your thoughts on what it was about the sound from the BDDI and VT Bass that didn't float your boat and what the dUg does to deliver?

I note you had the VT Bass rather than the VTDI, interestingly the VT Bass appears to be lacking the "bite" switch and blend knob, which for me are both really key in making the VTDI such a great pedal.

[dave_bass5]

47 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Apologies for the thread de-rail, but penny for your thoughts on what it was about the sound from the BDDI and VT Bass that didn't float your boat and what the dUg does to deliver?

I note you had the VT Bass rather than the VTDI, interestingly the VT Bass appears to be lacking the "bite" switch and blend knob, which for me are both really key in making the VTDI such a great pedal.

I cant remember off hand exactly what the deal with the Bite switch, but IIR with it in replicates the non DI VTBass. I might be wrong, but its not quite a simple as one has the button and the other doesn’t. There is also the second gen VTBass which had the speaker defeat button added. 

Agree though, for me the VTBass DI was the best of the lot. I hated the MK1 pedal when i had it, but i didnt give it long enough. When I borrowed a mates one i fell in love with it. The features on the DI were the icing on the cake. I do feel that unlike the BDDI, the VTBDI doesn’t need the blend to be usable. I dont think i ever used the blend backed off, where as with my BDDI’s the blend is never higher than 10 o’clock. . 

[Al Krow]

10 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

I cant remember off hand exactly what the deal with the Bite switch, but IIR with it in replicates the non DI VTBass. I might be wrong, but its not quite a simple as one has the button and the other doesn’t. 

The 'bite' provides a ‘presence’ boost by boosting the upper mids and treble so that the tone becomes more pronounced and present especially in a mix. It also has a subsonic filter (i.e. HPF) to tighten up the sound.

[dave_bass5]

3 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

The 'bite' provides a ‘presence’ boost by boosting the upper mids and treble so that the tone becomes more pronounced and present especially in a mix. It also has a subsonic filter (i.e. HPF) to tighten up the sound.

Yeah, spot on. I meant in relation to the non DI version though. They aren't the same with the bite turned off. 

Edited May 3, 2020 by dave_bass5

[krispn]

@Cuzzie has the VTbass 500w head which is basically the VTDI plus power amp in one wee unit. He might have some good info on the unit if interested? 

[Al Krow]

15 minutes ago, krispn said:

@Cuzzie has the VTbass 500w head which is basically the VTDI plus power amp in one wee unit. He might have some good info on the unit if interested? 

Thanks. I was actually more curious what it was about the BDDI that put and Osiris off that particular pedal? You've both said it wasn't for you, but with no explanation as to why. That's the more interesting / informative bit from my perspective. 

[krispn]

What don’t I like about it? I just preferred the MXR in the side by side. Maybe the eq was more suited or the drive was ‘better’ for what I was doing at the time? One of the things with describing what I don’t like is that you might be drawn to all the things I dislike. Describing these things in terms such and meaty lows or full mids could be overblown lows or boxy mids to the next person. 

It’s like on a jazz bass. I think you and I have different sounds we gravitate to. I have a preference on where I like my mid range and on my amp I know boosting certain frequencies works for me to reinforce lows mids without boosting lows which I find boosting lows becomes too much. When using drive I have a preference for my mids much higher but still below or around 2kHz. Looking back maybe the BDDI was lacking something there in the low mids or too high in the highs?

You’re asking me to give notes on a pedal comparison from 10yrs ago and I wasn’t really taking notes I just knew in a head to head the MXR worked better for me.

You’re in that stage of pedal buying where you have a bunch of them side by side and  as such are maybe more into hearing the differences. I’m just at a stage where I know what I gravitate to. For instance I don’t think a super wide frequency response can like the F112 would work for me live as I like the cab to add its own thing and don’t need 18-20kHz response 4-6kHz is plenty for the bass or certainly my style. 

[dave_bass5]

33 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Thanks. I was actually more curious what it was about the BDDI that put and Osiris off that particular pedal? You've both said it wasn't for you, but with no explanation as to why. That's the more interesting / informative bit from my perspective. 

Don’t forget you have a BDDIv1 in the HFX. You could do your own tests, with the updated info you have about the BDDI. You might find the BDDI isnt as bad as your first time around. 

[Al Krow]

Nah I was just curious. I know exactly why I didn't like it which I've already stated. I just find it more useful / interesting when folk say they do or don't like something (which is very easy to do) if they could articulate, even in general terms, as to why. Can sometimes give a helpful insight or something to look out for.

But no biggie, back to Helix... 

[Osiris]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Thanks. I was actually more curious what it was about the BDDI that put and Osiris off that particular pedal? You've both said it wasn't for you, but with no explanation as to why. That's the more interesting / informative bit from my perspective. 

I just couldn't get a sound out of the BDDI that I liked. I've heard others use it and it sounded great but no matter what I did with it I couldn't get the sound that I wanted. Ditto the Dark Glass B7K, it sounds great when I hear others using it but I can't get a sound out of it that I like or works for me. 

That's not to say it's bad, just not for me. 

[dave_bass5]

17 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Nah I was just curious. I know exactly why I didn't like it which I've already stated. I just find it more useful / interesting when folk say they do or don't like something (which is very easy to do) if they could articulate, even in general terms, as to why. Can sometimes give a helpful insight or something to look out for.

But no biggie, back to Helix... 

I remember you saying you didnt try It with the blend down. Just thought it might be worth givIng that a go to see if it sounds more to your liking. 

[Al Krow]

14 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

I remember you saying you didnt try It with the blend down. Just thought it might be worth givIng that a go to see if it sounds more to your liking. 

Sure - I'll give it a go on the Helix. But does the Helix BDDI sim nail the actual BDDI sound? It's been 3 years since I had the pedal, so a bit like krispn I'm starting to get hazy as to what it sounded like and it would have been through a different rig / bass too!

[dave_bass5]

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

Sure - I'll give it a go on the Helix. But does the Helix BDDI sim nail the actual BDDI sound? It's been 3 years since I had the pedal, so a bit like krispn I'm starting to get hazy as to what it sounded like and it would have been through a different rig / bass too!

Yes. It’s close enough. No different to most of the sim’s. Not trying to convince to to like it,. It’s an acquired taste, just though it worth hearing it like most of use use it rather than how most use it when they first get it (myself included). In fact if you turn the blend right off it just becomes an EQ, so can still be useful sometimes. 

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, dave_bass5 said:

Yes. It’s close enough. 

👍

And that's the great thing about Helix: marginal cost of trying out the BDDI sim = £square root of nil 😊

[dave_bass5]

7 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

👍

And that's the great thing about Helix: marginal cost of trying out the BDDI sim = £square root of nil 😊

And more boutique pedals as well, not to mention whole rigs lol. 

[Cuzzie]

He is a nice man that Jon Willis and he has shared all his presets.

His goal was to see if with one bass and a helix you can recreate a multitude of tones practically on the button.

He done alright and has showcased them here.

Good example of what spending time with a machine can deliver.