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

[bassfan]

30 minutes ago, SumOne said:

Yeah you'd need to physically wire them up as an fx loop using the Stomp send/return sockets, then add an fx loop block somewhere into your Preset, then you can split the path ahead of it for parallel routing adjustments. 

 

28 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I have a helix HX, a SY200 and a jamman solo that plays samples.

The Helix is in the effects loop of the SY200, the Jamman goes into the effects return. 

The effects return is the last block in the chain (after the effects) on the helix so it gets neither the effects of the SY or the effects in the HX

Cheers guys. I’m already in the send/return with the synth. Just need to play with the paths👍🏻

[uk_lefty]

First gig running the Helix tomorrow night. Mostly using the factory presets, they work well enough for this band and set up and they are consistent in volume output. I've swapped around some different effects to "stomp" in and out as needed. Fingers crossed it behaves on the gig and gives out good enough sound quality!

 

Edit: so the gig was last night. Some bloke came past the PA speaker to stand in a little area where he could get hit by the sound from my amp and in the break he was asking about what's making the bass sound. A few people complimented me on the sound which was Helix presets going into an Ashdown RM500 with the EQ bypassed, into two 15" Ashdown ABM PRO Neo cabs. So sound quality was a big tick. That was the main thing. The only slight drawback is scrolling through the presets is a pain in the bum and not something that can be done very quickly even with the outboard added switches. I will need to be smarter about arranging my presets around the setlist.  

Edited December 11, 2021 by uk_lefty

[petetexas]

At the moment I play through my Helix stomp into my Messa D800 ( set flat ) into two Markbass 2x10 cabs .

 

I am looking at going through my Helix stomp , into a full range powered speaker (lightweight)

 

Any suggestions ?

 

Pete

[Frank Blank]

Just now, petetexas said:

At the moment I play through my Helix stomp into my Messa D800 ( set flat ) into two Markbass 2x10 cabs .

 

I am looking at going through my Helix stomp , into a full range powered speaker (lightweight)

 

Any suggestions ?

 

Pete

I go through a Stomp into a QSC K12.2. It’s not the lightest but a K10.2 might be light enough.

[Greg Edwards69]

4 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

I go through a Stomp into a QSC K12.2. It’s not the lightest but a K10.2 might be light enough.

Even QSC themselves recommend the smaller K10.2 for bass in live bands. Although this is with PA support. You might be better served with two of them or the K12.2 without PA support.

 

https://www.qsc.com/resource-files/productresources/spk/k.2/q_spk_k.2_appguide_livebands.pdf

 

PS, I'm seriously considering downsizing from my headrush frfr-112 to the K10.2.  It would also replace the smaller headrush frfr-108 I sometimes use for rehearsals.

[mrtcat]

I've massively simplified my gigging patch for my main function band. Starts with a touch of compression and then  split signal at 400hz with lows going to a woody blue and the highs to a matchless guitar amp. A couple of different eqs (one for overall and the other that i use when I use a pick) and then an Aguilar 8x10 ir. 4 snapshots all with progressively more drive on the matchless. Works well for indie pop rock stuff.

Edited December 14, 2021 by mrtcat

[krispn]

37 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

I've massively simplified my gigging patch for my main function band. Starts with a touch of compression and then  split signal at 400hz with lows going to a woody blue and the highs to a matchless guitar amp. A couple of different eqs (one for overall and the other that i use when I use a pick) and then an Aguilar 8x10 ir. 4 snapshots all with progressively more drive on the matchless. Works well for indie pop rock stuff.

I’ll give this a go later on the stomp. Got some bass time scheduled in for this morning

[ThirteenDevils]

came up with this today, I called it Fat Tube Pre, the footswitch gives you a woolly lightly overdriven tone by cutting the highs to 1khz and switching to mic input  ( similar to Red house on Valleys of neptune by Hendrix) i'm using an American Vintage 60s Jazz with the tone on 1/2, bridge pickup rolled back 1/2. The Aguilar DB 925 is on, bass at 9o'clock treble at 8oclock

Edited December 27, 2021 by ThirteenDevils
playing through headphones, global eq off

[pn_day]

Hi all,

Thanks to the many tips contained in this forum, TB, and YouTube, I'm in the process of setting up an HX Stomp - bought from a kind chap on here (thanks @CJPJ). 

 

However, I'm a fan of clean, transparent amps and cabinets - I have a Euphonic Audio (EA) iAmp 350 and 2 Cx110 cabinets (both have 10" woofer and a tweeter, with the woofer feeding a long transmission line) which are great - lots of bottom end, but very transparent. 

 

I'm struggling to find any impulse responses of similarly transparent bass amps and cabs. Right now if I drop in any of the cabinets that are modelled in the Stomp I lose lots of clarity in the sound - and much prefer the sound just using a modelled amp, running clean (thanks to Dr Tonelab for the starting points on EQ) and then going direct.   

 

Does anyone have any tips of other IRs I could try? 

 

I mostly play in church - and our sound operators are volunteers so giving them a signal that will sit in the mix easily without much work is an advantage. If I was working with somebody with lots of experience - I would just not use the IR at all and let them shape the tone as needed - but thought that dropping in a cab/IR model on the end of the signal chain should help volunteer sound people. 

 

Thanks for any tips,

Phil

[javi_bassist]

On 27/12/2021 at 17:28, ThirteenDevils said:

came up with this today, I called it Fat Tube Pre, the footswitch gives you a woolly lightly overdriven tone by cutting the highs to 1khz and switching to mic input  ( similar to Red house on Valleys of neptune by Hendrix) i'm using an American Vintage 60s Jazz with the tone on 1/2, bridge pickup rolled back 1/2. The Aguilar DB 925 is on, bass at 9o'clock treble at 8oclock

 

I've been getting some ideas from this preset to modify mine and now the Stubio Tube Pre is possibly one of my favourite preamps. Very clean with some warm. 

I am trying to mimic my Markbass Little Mark Tube and I am using an, EQ block the Studio Tube Pre and a LPF to mimic the VLE. Not 100% there, but I'm pretty happy with the result.  

Edited December 31, 2021 by javi_bassist

[ratman]

Just stick to an amp model without a cab so you sound more like a DI on your bass head.

Also, for a clean tone I'm getting great results with the Fender Princeton amp model.

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by ratman

[pn_day]

Thanks @ratman

 

[javi_bassist]

17 minutes ago, ratman said:

Just stick to an amp model without a cab so you sound more like a DI on your bass head.

Also, for a clean tone I'm getting great results with the Fender Princeton amp model.

 

I agree with him. Maybe because of my experience. Since I started playing bass (14 years ago) my cab has been mic'ed twice. And, the idea behind IRs is really cool, in a live situation, I just prefer the DI of my amp. Now that I use my HX stomp, I have tried many different cab simulations and IRs and I don't really like them. 

[krispn]

The tube pre amp with an eq patch and a little compression can give a very pleasing tone too. I’ve a patch which I posted earlier which does a nice clean tone. There’s pics of my settings on this page just scroll down a bit…

 

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by krispn

[pn_day]

I should have said - I'm building a tone to go direct from Stomp into the PA - we run IEMs and have no backline - and therefore I was wondering about adding an IR / cab to shape the tone before handing off to the sound person. 

[ratman]

As always, it's horses for courses. I've stuck to amp models only for a couple of years now but in the last week I've been messing about with some cab models, and I've got a killer SVT preset and my Motown preset is coming along nicely. I guess I understand better how the Stomp works & sounds now and I'm getting much better results with cabs now than I did when I'd just bought the Stomp. It's all about the fine tuning.

I have found a simple way of dramatically changing the way a cab sounds is to scroll through all the mic options as they all sound so different. I usually find a couple of mic models that sound close to what I like before I apply any major EQ to the preset.

[ratman]

3 minutes ago, pn_day said:

I should have said - I'm building a tone to go direct from Stomp into the PA - we run IEMs and have no backline - and therefore I was wondering about adding an IR / cab to shape the tone before handing off to the sound person. 

Don't forget that the PA guy is used to hearing a dry DI sound from your amp and/or bass. He really won't care if there's a cab model or not. As long as it sounds good, it is good, however you build your presets.

[Jack]

I've got some patches that use cab models but just as many which don't. In fact my most-used preset has some effects, the Aguilar model, and ends with a compressor, no cab to be seen.

[krispn]

22 minutes ago, ratman said:

As always, it's horses for courses. I've stuck to amp models only for a couple of years now but in the last week I've been messing about with some cab models, and I've got a killer SVT preset and my Motown preset is coming along nicely. I guess I understand better how the Stomp works & sounds now and I'm getting much better results with cabs now than I did when I'd just bought the Stomp. It's all about the fine tuning.

I have found a simple way of dramatically changing the way a cab sounds is to scroll through all the mic options as they all sound so different. I usually find a couple of mic models that sound close to what I like before I apply any major EQ to the preset.

Yeah this can make a huge difference and worth messing about with as another eq option. It can be a bit of a rabbit hole with so many options but I found with that tube pre patch once you have it dialed in and like what you hear then making small adjustments along the signal path makes it a bit easier than constructing a whole signal chain from start to finish. Both options have their merits just really depends on how much time you have to invest per sitting.

[pn_day]

Thanks everyone - I've now got a nice clean-warm tone based on the mic pre settings from  @krispn . 

 

I'll now go back to some of the cabs & IRs and play with mic options as well - thanks @ratman 

[obbm]

Well I now have my Stomp and very interesting it is. Had to upgrade to v3.11. Seems incredibly easy to use with the editing software. There is however one big problem with it. I want to use it as a sound interface and to listen to iTunes through it. It works fine for about 3mins and then it all stops. Same with media player. Never had a problem with my Steinberg interface. Has anyone else had this problem and is there an easy fix before I send it back?

[ratman]

I've not come across that before. Do a back up then a factory reset. That cures most niggles.

 

[uk_lefty]

On 31/12/2021 at 09:28, pn_day said:

I'm struggling to find any impulse responses of similarly transparent bass amps and cabs. Right now if I drop in any of the cabinets that are modelled in the Stomp I lose lots of clarity in the sound - and much prefer the sound just using a modelled amp, running clean (thanks to Dr Tonelab for the starting points on EQ) and then going direct.   

I bought the bass essentials pack from 3 Sigma audio and it's pretty good, I also got their Trace Elliot IR which some love but I found a bit too deep and almost boomy. 

 

I've been using the Helix Stomp presets because making my own patches led to having really inconsistent volume output between patches. Like you though I want some cleaner sounds. A bit of drive helps get through the mix but I'm listening back to a gig from early December where I mostly used the "Brit Bass" preset and there's just no bottom end and too much grit, I'd like to start with a clean sound and add EQ and drive as required.... Hopefully Line6 or someone clever can create this, Boss were excellent for this with the GT10B multi.

[prowla]

Apologies for the newbie question and that I haven't read all 75 pages of this thread, but I'm wondering if a HX Stomp will work as a replacement for a selection of discrete pedals.

My current pedals are these, but I always seem to be tight on board space and end up with one left over:

• Phaser (MXR Phase 90).
• Chorus (MXR Black Label).
• Octave down (EBS Octabass. Aguilar Octamizer).
• Octave up (EH Mosaic).
• Flanger (I don't have one and have no space on my board anyway).
• Tremolo (won't fit on my board).
• Envelope filter (I have a Bass Synth Wah and previously had an Aguilar Filter Twin).

So, I'm wondering if a Stomp would be a way of consolidating them into a single unit.

I don't really need amp modelling, as I'm using an EBS Microbass 3, and I have a Dave Hall DHA-1 valve pedal for a bit of grit.

I'd likely run the Stomp via the Microbass's Fx loop, along with my Source Audio C4 synth pedal.

[krispn]

57 minutes ago, prowla said:

Apologies for the newbie question and that I haven't read all 75 pages of this thread, but I'm wondering if a HX Stomp will work as a replacement for a selection of discrete pedals.

My current pedals are these, but I always seem to be tight on board space and end up with one left over:

• Phaser (MXR Phase 90).
• Chorus (MXR Black Label).
• Octave down (EBS Octabass. Aguilar Octamizer).
• Octave up (EH Mosaic).
• Flanger (I don't have one and have no space on my board anyway).
• Tremolo (won't fit on my board).
• Envelope filter (I have a Bass Synth Wah and previously had an Aguilar Filter Twin).

So, I'm wondering if a Stomp would be a way of consolidating them into a single unit.

I don't really need amp modelling, as I'm using an EBS Microbass 3, and I have a Dave Hall DHA-1 valve pedal for a bit of grit.

I'd likely run the Stomp via the Microbass's Fx loop, along with my Source Audio C4 synth pedal.

HX FX might be a better option but if you prefer the form factor of the Stomp it’ll have all the same fx models.