I just bought a Helix a week ago and I've been lurking on your channel. Figured I ought to sub since I've been watching a lot of your videos. I was kind of on the fence about buying one vs Axe Effects, but to be honest, I really like the flow of the Helix. I love the Helix Native plugin that I can put in my DAW and get the same tone. There's lots of routing options for just about anything I can think of. It just has a lot going for it and since they seem to be updating it over time, at least I'm not buying an abandoned product. The difference in price between Axe Effects and Helix is also appreciable. I'm pretty happy with my purchase for sure. Your videos have been a lot of help so I just wanted to stop in and say thanks!
Finally used the pad setting for just my Custom 24. Magic!! Makes so many more of the amp models useable for clean tones. The pickups aren’t that hot but they are physically close to the strings.
I guess most people with a variety of guitars have guitar-specific presets, so having the pad be per preset is helpful. I usually use one of two high output guitars as my main guitar and use the vintage output ones as my backup, so the global setting generally works for me. Love your vids. Keep up the great work!
That was one of the coolest things in that update. Little things like that just make it that much easier to run two guitars, that are very different, like a strat and something with grunty buckers.
I found that the pad actually smoothed out the highs and made the lows less woofy. It also allows for more usable gain in the amp models. Clean amps it's almost always better for me to achieve clean without breaking up. You have to readjust your patch after turning it on to make up the gain and of course check your outputs again with a meter in the DAW or on your board.
I've got several guitars with different types of pickups, so this could come in handy. Will definitely check it out. Somehow, this Parameter has flown under my radar. Video suggestion: I've long known that real Guitar Amps tend to sound much warmer than Modelers, but until recently hadn't known/appreciated that many "Guitar Cab Speakers," including Classics like the Celestion, have shocking steep high frequency cutoffs around 4-5kHz! There was a Preset I was struggling to dial in last night, and just couldn't get it to sound like a Real Amp. I discovered the Cab setting for the High Cut was around 8kHz. I brought it down to 5kHz, and that fixed it. I know you have videos about this topic and have talked about it a lot, but when I was new to I using an HX Stomp, the proper use of some Settings and Parameters didn't really sink in. Perhaps this is a good one to revisit. 🤷
100% agree - once you start looking at real guitar speaker specs (typically 75hz-5kHz,) and then start looking at the cab or IR high cuts settings you start understanding that by dialing in higher frequency ranges, you are adding in high end that doesn't exist in the real world and of course things can sound brittle and peircing. Keep things under 8kHz (mine are usually set between 5k and 6.5 k,) and the ear fatigue is greatly reduced.
@@TRWilley Wampler Pedals replied to a comment I made on one of his recent videos, and that informed me about the typical guitar speaker frequency specs. I don't recall if other RU-vidrs have mentioned those numbers or not. Do you recall about when you became aware of them? It hadn't dawned on me how important those numbers are for those who use Modelers until I took a look at a Frequency Response Chart for Celestion Speakers a couple days ago. Yikes 😱
@@picksalot1 I'm fairly new to the Helix - I don't remember where I saw it suggested that one look up the speaker specs - maybe on one of the Line 6 forums? Either way it was a major lightbulb moment. I usually dial in more low cut than the specs - 75hz can be a little wooly - I typically set mine to 80Hz - and the high cut anywhere 5kHz to 8kHz depending on the preset and what my ear tells me.
@@TRWilley Thanks for letting me know. I got my HX Stomp 1.5 years ago, and struggled with the excessive highs for a while. The simplest and most effective solution I found was to change the Mic in the Cab Block. I'm now starting to lower the High Cut instead to match real world speakers, as a better starting point. So far, my Presets are now sounding more like Real Amps. 😎
You are right.I remember getting to that and I was so relieved. It may seem obvious to some but it should be far more clearer from the start. When I played my tube amps I never thought about specifics regarding frequencies like I am now.
Thanks for the share on this, it should prove useful. I do have a question though. Can you think of a way the PAD could be assigned to a preset key as "On" or "Off" regardless of the status of any of the snapshots? For example, using one of my default presets, I have 3 snapshots, Clean, Crunch and Drive which work very well with Crunch pushing the amp more than clean and Drive pushing the amp more than crunch. This might be perfect for a Strat type, or "average type of 'bucker; but with a significantly stronger 'bucker it can be slightly harsh. I can think of a use for a PAD switch performing "On" or "Off" and staying that way regardless of whichever snapshot I use. I could duplicate the preset just for the PAD but that strikes me as a bit long-winded. I would appreciate your thoughts..
Thanks! Nice video. Quick question - I followed your 4 cable method for my 5150 Iconic but find it may not be working as designed? For instance, I can pull the cable out of my front input and the tones don’t change. I also don’t have use of my switch box that came with the amp and none of the amp settings matter. Obviously I’ve done something wrong but I can’t figure it out no matter what I try!
@@flixsymmetry I use the send/return block and use fx loop one. I use that with my HX effects 4 cable method. If I don't use that block what happens is none of my amp controls work, even if I have it hooked up correctly with 4 cable method.
