For my uses, Helix snapshots have worked fine. I have had to learn to tweak things out on complicated patches with multiple amps and such. Your observations on the USB connectivity limits are a good consideration. I have the opportunity to play most every pedal out there and on its way, and I'm still quite happy with all that Helix brings to the table as the centerpiece of my gigging rig.
Gapless switching is brilliant, but the Snapshots in the Helix bypass that issue for me, using two amps in a preset. I think the Helix stands up solidly, sounds great and has great releases. DSP is becoming higher but it hasn't affected me much yet, despite fairly heavy presets that I use. In the future I'll look at Fractal if and when it is time to upgrade but for now, the Helix still is absolutely delivering for me on a huge level. I played it (cab emulation turned off) through a 50 watt head into a 2x12 orange closed back cab the other night with a band and it blew me away with the Dumble turquoise amp. Also the Friedman for the heavier stuff.
The only time I've bumped into DSP issues so far I think is having 2 high DSP amps on the top line, and then maybe wanting a second drive pedal and being limited on choice. If it is a real issue I can make arrest for a particular song but I've still got some mileage to go until I upgrade. @@JonnyLeeguitarist
powerful indeed. Sadly the Helix can do that (preset spillover)... but getting rid of a full DSP line. At the end it's lack of DSP.... again... 😔 sadly because I'm a happy Helix user still loving its approach: all-in-one device (including exp pedal) with a minimum of 8 stomps available and easy to tweak.
Yeah but the preset Spillover and the PolyPhonic pitch shifting DSP hit makes it unuseable on the Helix. Helix Floor user for 7" years and I also own a Stomp XL. Been fighting making a change as I know the Helix inside and out, but probably going to make the move over to Fractal, as L6 has no plans to release a new unit in 2024 from what they have indicated, and the Helix is starting to really show its age.
Boss gt 1000 has had seamless patch switching since day dot, not sure if you’ve ever tried it?? Always found that snapshots (helix) or scenes on the fm9 more than enough not sure it will change how I’m using it though. Good to see you on the fractal links ( you must be earning a few quid off them already.) has your line 6 work stopped and have they got anything new in the pipeline??
I’ve had most of the BOSS gt series , they just never developed, the Wampler pedal course links are a good source of info if you want to learn what it its actually all about “ tone “ , I still do helix presets here and always will , but I do use the fractal aswell .
Hello. I’m really new to the channel and I really love all of your videos, lots of great content and you are an awesome player with a great taste. I downloaded most of your presets for the helix in customtone. Thanks. My question to you is , in this video at 4 minutes 43 seconds you are playing preset number 14 Recto and it sounds so massive omg. Can I get that one sound from the helix? That is like the best metal sound I ever heard from a modeler. I’m actually thinking about getting an fm9. Thanks again and have a great day
You rock my brotha love you so much! Fractal is a game changer and always will be… I do own the Fender and it took me a minute with it, but I got it sounding amazing.. Keep rocking!!!
Hi Jonny, pleased you didn't catch any nasty bugs and thank you for the coverage of the show. So what was that tune called? because Ozzy has already done "Changes" !!! So I only own a Kemper and a HX Stomp and gapless changing dosen't affect me because as a 23 year old in a overweight 64 year old body I don't play live anymore and have no need for gapless. But you are right the Fractal camp has knocked it out of the park with this "Game Changer". All the best, good demo cheers.
Still love my Helix but this is a fantastic feature and really what we want our modellers to be able to do. That delay in switching Helix presets is a groove killer.
I play worship music at church…..been using the Helix LT for it for the last two years. I really have no complaints …..other than when my computer died and lost my backup😂. That being said, it rocks just as hard as I can! 🤘🏻Keep playing guitars . Love the channel
Line 6 has indicated that a new generation Helix won’t be in the cards for a couple of years. I’m sure it will be awesome, but I’m not sure I can wait that long. They would have to come out with some smoking’ upgrades during the wait to keep me hanging on. To be fair, they have provided some amazing free upgrades in the past. However, the DSP is an issue and I’m not sure how much further they can go. I have been a loyal Line 6 user since the POD kidney bean. I hate to say it, but I may have to pull the trigger on an FM9 in the near future. Thanks, Tone Whisperer!
Yes. In my opinion, fractal killed Helix. I bought my Helix last year and I returned mine. I bought FM9 a few months ago, and I finally got my sound in my head. It's that good that I finally sold all my amps and other pedals.
Not everyone needs gapless preset switching but yes it's cool the FM9 has it. I'm sure Helix 2.0 will have similar and more DSP. Helix does have it but then you have to give up the 2 paths and only have one so thats allot less but some folks only need a few effects and an amp and there good.
For me snapshots in the Helix solves the gapless switching issue along with delay trails. I have no problem and I’m essentially a pedal and amp guy but the Helix versatility beats all that tap dancing hands down. I use 8 sounds live typically and have no issues but I see that people with a more complicated set up might need more . I really think sound is in the ability of the player to get what they want out of a unit. I pretty sure some people will get a shit sound out of a fm9 if they don’t know how to make it sound great. Equally if you are good at modellers and have a good ear I reckon you can get decent sounds out of pretty much anything these days…that’s my opinion anyway…..
It’s to my knowledge that helix can be divided into on the DSP and you could have switchable between presets. Also, you could still have your snapshots for each of the presets. You can set up your footboard for top row snapshots. Bottom row presets so it may not be as good as the newest FM nine but it’s good enough for me. Will that be a game changer? In the market it will be especially if people are buying a model for the first time. But then again, the fractal equipment is very very expensive and I heard is not very available when you need it. I would urge people to save their money on the fractal and hang onto the helix.I bet that the helix will eventually come out with a new version of it. That will probably beat everybody. But the helix is a work of art.
Helix is still good , yes you can do spillover of presets BUT you have to sacrifice a full DSP line to do it , this video really is more about the DSP issue helix owners are having . I still love it and use it everyday.
Gapless would be a big deal to me. This is due to me wanting both clean tone and super high gain within the same preset, and being able to use the poly capo to down tune cause I like to keep my guitars in standard or Drop D. If I do this on helix and use snapshots, at times there will be a VERY loud and intrusive snap due to the sudden shifts in gain, even if the amps are balanced volume wise. This is super annoying for songs I want to play that have cleans at the start or mid song. It makes it harder to work with and find a solution that works without that noise. My HX Stomp I have paired with a Tonex for this reason. The Tonex is gapless and with snapshots I effectively can have 3 amps per preset with snapshots and command centre from the stomp into Tonex to switch sounds. I get no audio snapping or pauses from loading a preset with the Tonex in the loop. This is at the detriment of making presets taking WAY longer though as configuring the MIDI commands to tonex takes a bit, as does finding captures, setting up IR's/cabs, and balancing volumes again. I love my Helix floor but this is an issue I am still working with in helix even when I had the stomp as standalone as well. I hope I can find a workaround, but gapless would be such a huge winner to me. I refuse to use DSP spillover cause then I may as well just use my stomp instead anyway. It gets pretty annoying at times cause I want an all in one solution for simplicity sake, and the tonex for options the helix does not have.
To be fair, I see the Fractal in a league of its own. If you know how to use it, it blows everything out of the water; however it requires the time and money investment other more "mainstream" modellers don't. As for this gapless switching...I'm impressed but not interested. Before switching to Helix I was a bit concerned about this since since up to the Pod HD I did that and the hiccup was barely there, yet the HX system had it pretty noticeable. But as soon as I got the Stomp first and the LT later I was doing fine with snapshots. Right now I'm joining a new band so I went for the single preset route, rather than my usual preset per song method, and I can cram everything I need in one from high gain to ambient clean (and a the poly capo for some detuning). Maybe I'd love some extra DSP to dazzle them with the greatest reverbs and delays the Helix offers, but I'll do it when I get my bearings on each song. So that preset switching doesn't really impress me that much, I'm envious of other features like the significant amp deep dive that actually makes sense compared to the Sag and Bias controls Line6 provides
@@JonnyLeeguitarist I bought mine second hand, and I don't regret it at all. The question now is how to incorporate, for live. FRFR or SS power amp and cab. Would be a good video to do.
@@JonnyLeeguitarist I've seen a lot of people complain about them not being that loud. I was just going to get the MF10s by Red Sound but it's a big investment
I've been a longtime, avid defender of the Helix line. But we're facing a timeline when rest of the world sounds better and we can't. I've only got one or two spots in my typical setlist where I could really use gapless switching, but that's two times in every show. My backup is an HX Stomp board. But any preset that no longer fits on one path also won't fit in the Stomp. We can all say it still sounds as great as it sounded last year; that's a valid point. But it's getting harder and harder to "sound better". New firmware is terrific, but my hardware is six years old and on its second failed set of footswitches and gets outperformed twice over by an FM3. It's time to move up.
Line 6 is very easy to use i can make my own preset on the stage thats how easy it is... no other modelers can beat helix for live.. and like the hx stomp you can easily add external drives and mods...
@@gauravlama2079 How does it feel different? I haven't tried a Fractal or Quad Cortex with the last few firmware updates. What changed? Does the FM3 have the same difference in feel?
@@JD-vj4go Fractal feels organic and has a great dynamic response, helix feels like a plug-in. I miss the dynamic response and power on the Helix that Fractal has. When I play Fractal, I feel very very comfortable and confident to play it. I can’t feel the same with The Helix. Have been using Helix LT for 5 years now.
Helix user here. For me, gapless switching isn't an issue. I don't really need to make such severe changes in sound and even then the snapshots work well enough. As for DSP, my main patch uses 2 guitar amps, a bass amp, octave, IRs, overdrives, eq's... and the only time I hit a genuine DSP wall was when I tried to stick a whammy in there too. I'm sure there's lots of people who need and want a dozen effects and amps and cabs but for what I play, and playing live, there's more than enough for me.
like computers as soon as you get more dsp they make software that makes use of more dsp then you again need more dsp when more better things in software happen to keep the crowd happy - or you could have a 80 pedal pedal board, 6 amps and a giant switcher etc etc and still "need" more
I agree we always want more , but helix now is updating all the time and killing it’s DSP in the process , things like Quad cortex and fractal are still full of DSP . Comes down to what you need and what works for you , I mean some people can simply gig with a HX stomp , which I do now and then .
Helix was inferior from the jump. I owned it for 2 weeks. The sounds just sounded like most of line 6 products, digital piss. I own the fm9, very big difference.
Definitely not irrelevant, snapshots is just between one rig . Preset gapless is a whole other thing , a lot of people are using it live . If it doesn’t work for you that’s ok .
I run 3 Amps in my helix one clean and two dirty in true stereo all seamless.. I could never do in my FM9 what I could do in my helix so I’ve had my FM9 for a year and still gig my helix. But now w gapless I can probably start using my fm9 live instead but for now I’m still rocking my helix
@@JonnyLeeguitarist let me know what you think? The power supply makes me nervous and many users have reported serious ground hum issues, let us know if you run into any noise issues with the quad, cheers
@jamesryder9158 I’ve had one before it wasn’t really a finished unit . This one is pretty awesome , the editor is very good and the sounds are tremendous, now hum or power supply issues so far .
Isn't it all about actual playing?... As long as it sounds good, it's good. Suddenly the Helix is a dinosaur and not good enough. We're in danger of disappearing up our own backsides regarding multi effects. I'll just stick to playing guitar and let the ' fashion chasers ' do just that.
You've obviously jumped ship. Just admit it. lol. Personally I think these modellers are selling features no real live playing musician would use. But if you think you want to change 20 different amps and effects in 1 song go for it. Funny how great musicians could get by with 2 guitars and an amp and a few pedals and build an entire career on it.
