Mr.Anderson
Member
Recently, I was fortunate enough to have a friend bring his Line 6 Helix down to the studio for a brief spin.
I was pretty excited to see the thing in person, and of course to hear how it sounded!
My first impression when he took it out of the case was that it's built very well. Everything looks and feels really solid, and the industrial design is brilliant.
We ran it (and my AFX2) into a small powered PA.
Next, we spent a little time listening to amp models, and when we first powered it up, the Helix sounded pretty good. I thought the clean models sounded very nice, and the high gain stuff was pretty good. I then powered up the AXE FX II, and brought up a corresponding model.
I felt that the Fractal unit had a lot more realism or harmonic complexity in the amp models, and the Helix models sounded rather sterile by comparison.
We didn't pay a bunch of attention to the effects, but what I heard in the Helix did sound very nice.
Overall, the usability and feature set in the Helix is STELLAR. It's a super clever design. But the models didn't stack up to the Fractal unit.
I'll most likely get a rematch in the next week or two. Anyone want specific info, it comparison? Let me know.
I was pretty excited to see the thing in person, and of course to hear how it sounded!
My first impression when he took it out of the case was that it's built very well. Everything looks and feels really solid, and the industrial design is brilliant.
We ran it (and my AFX2) into a small powered PA.
Next, we spent a little time listening to amp models, and when we first powered it up, the Helix sounded pretty good. I thought the clean models sounded very nice, and the high gain stuff was pretty good. I then powered up the AXE FX II, and brought up a corresponding model.
I felt that the Fractal unit had a lot more realism or harmonic complexity in the amp models, and the Helix models sounded rather sterile by comparison.
We didn't pay a bunch of attention to the effects, but what I heard in the Helix did sound very nice.
Overall, the usability and feature set in the Helix is STELLAR. It's a super clever design. But the models didn't stack up to the Fractal unit.
I'll most likely get a rematch in the next week or two. Anyone want specific info, it comparison? Let me know.