Line 6 Helix Reviews Are Starting to Appear...

There is a lot of posts that assume the interface on Helix is easier/faster than FAS but that remains to be experienced. Granted, there are less parameters to deal with but, that is a negative aspect for me as FAS' have all been useful!
No matter how good the Helix display is, if I can't see it easily playing outdoor gigs, it's worthless! No matter how multifunction the foot switches are, if they activate something unwanted during performance, it's worthless!
These are a lot more unknowns than just 'are Helix sounds good enough...'.
 
jakbur said:
There is a lot of posts that assume the interface on Helix is easier/faster than FAS but that remains to be experienced. Granted, there are less parameters to deal with but, that is a negative aspect for me as FAS' have all been useful!
No matter how good the Helix display is, if I can't see it easily playing outdoor gigs, it's worthless! No matter how multifunction the foot switches are, if they activate something unwanted during performance, it's worthless!
These are a lot more unknowns than just 'are Helix sounds good enough...'.
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Exactly - it's amazing what some people take away from a youtube video- Just amazing--Very Well said Jakbur..............
 
jakbur said:
There is a lot of posts that assume the interface on Helix is easier/faster than FAS but that remains to be experienced. Granted, there are less parameters to deal with but, that is a negative aspect for me as FAS' have all been useful!
No matter how good the Helix display is, if I can't see it easily playing outdoor gigs, it's worthless! No matter how multifunction the foot switches are, if they activate something unwanted during performance, it's worthless!
These are a lot more unknowns than just 'are Helix sounds good enough...'.
Click to expand...

I asked about the LEDs in bright sunlight early on in the process and was told they tested this so it should be ok. Worst case would be a sun shield like I see many using with other pedals. But they did at least take this into account.

As for the interface being easier and there not being many parameters.... well, I watched a video last night and I had no idea what the guy was doing so there will absolutely be a learning curve. The dedicated amp knobs on the AX8 may actually be an advantage when setting up tones. For me it's the scribble strips during a gig that have me excited. I could be totally wrong on their usefulness, but I wish I could get my FX8 to say Echorec instead of DLY which is too generic.

Mine arrives today but I won't get home before my gig so I'll see if I have time to mess with it over the weekend. I fully expect to like some features but prefer the sound of the AX8, based on my thoughts on my FX8. I can see keeping two of the three but not all three. We shall see.
 
You'll probably be the first and maybe only one here owning both units David, so I'll be eagerly waiting for your tests and conclusions :)

I'm still deciding. Atomic, Fractal, L6... so you'll help me tons.
 
Great example of the importance of IRs and how each unit can get close enough when going thru the same quality IR!

This guy on TGP enabled only the cab section of a Kemper Marshall profile & then captured the IR using Voxengo Deconvolver.

Helix JCM800 preset using the Kemper's IR & the Kemper obviously using the Marshall profile that the IR was captured from.

Each riff is first played using the Helix & then immediately repeated using the Kemper.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9333867/Helix/JCM800_KemperCab.mp3
 
pima1234 said:
There will be others. We're sure to get a number of reviews. Looking forward to it.
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Yes, Dave and I will do some comparisons with my AxeFX II when he gets the Helix (should be any day now). We really need to do it more than once. We'll do it within a week or so, and then it would be good to do it again after he gets to know if better and dials in some tones. I have an Atomic CLR on the way so it should be fun!
 
ethomas1013 said:
Yes, Dave and I will do some comparisons with my AxeFX II when he gets the Helix (should be any day now). We really need to do it more than once. We'll do it within a week or so, and then it would be good to do it again after he gets to know if better and dials in some tones. I have an Atomic CLR on the way so it should be fun!
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As long as all clips are thru the same IR it will be informative.........
 
I was tempted to see how the Helix sounded on my system, until I started reading all the posts from folks having major problems with it. From the inability to back things up to hardware crashes that rendered the box unusable. Im sure a certain amount of challenges are involved in being an early adopter, but from what Ive read some of these problems are way more serious issues then a software bug. Im gonna pass.
 
willowdale said:
nonsense.........it's as close to an equal footing as you can get
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Or it should be. Convolution is a mathematical operation. It is not open to interpretation.

The .wav file posted on the other forum is stereo so it won't work with the current build of Cab-Lab (stereo support is on the to-do list). I've attached the sysex file for anyone who wants to use the Morgan IR in their Axe-Fx.
 

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willowdale said:
As long as all clips are thru the same IR it will be informative.........
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I disagree. I'm interested to see what each unit has to offer out of the box.

Personally, I don't get Into purchasing IR's. I use the AxeFX out of the box and I have chosen not to go down the IR rabbit hole.

And I didn't say anything about providing clips.
 
ethomas1013 said:
I disagree. I'm interested to see what each unit has to offer out of the box.
Personally, I don't get Into purchasing IR's. I use the AxeFX out of the box and I have chosen not to go down the IR rabbit hole.
And I didn't say anything about providing clips.
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Well it's been well documented that IRs are responsible for the majority of an amps tone. Cliff has said so himself on many occasions. 3rd party IR loading is usually the #1 option folks want in a modeler that doesn't have it. There is a reason for this.

So if you don't demo each units amp model thru the same IRs, all you can really get from your conclusion that one units amp tones are better than the other, is that maybe the IRs were the difference. Why not just easily eliminate that major factor........
 
Buy one and do own and do your own comparison if you don't like the way we're going to do it. ;)

Plus I'm using the stock IR's on the AxeII. Can't exactly pull those off and put them on the Helix. I suppose I could run the Helix through a loop in the AxeII to use a cab block that way. I don't know if we'll have time for that on the first get together since we'll be trying to figure out how the Helix works, but if we do I can give it a try.

I'm not going to use a generic IR for each. What good does that do? As you said, the IR is important to the amp tone and using the same IR on both units that is not a good match for a variety of amp models is not particularly useful in my estimation. I'd much rather hear the Helix AC30 with it's internal Celestion Blue speaker cab (assuming it has one) in comparison to the AxeII with it's internal Celestion Blue IR. The same for Fenders, Marshalls, etc...

This is just two friends having fun with gear (as it should be), not the evaluation to end all debate for all time.
 
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