Line6 Helix Stadium

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I'd like to see guitar platforms become more like modular synths where we can just let people go crazy and try to come up with new important sounds, design their own circuits, etc; but I can't see that happening until amp modelling has been nailed down and flayed so hard there are no more mysteries and no more challenge. Engineers will have to be bored.
 
I am really excited for this product. Currently have an FM3 and was debating upgrading to a FM9, but I think I will wait for the helix stadium and go that path. I love the fractal stuff and have always enjoyed the line 6 products as well. I am a fan of capture tech, and that is a huge feature for me. I really like that the helix can control external amp switching. Running a helix stadium in 7 cable method with 2 amps and being able to control those via snapshots is a pretty compelling feature. I also feel like one of the strong points of the helix is some weirder effects and I like playing with those. Hoping this will prompt fractal to implement some of these upgrades (first and foremost capture tech) and we will all benefit.
 
BROCKSTAR said:
What i want is just more experimentation when it comes to modelers. Crazy delays, loopers, and other weird effects. A full polyphonic guitar synth with different kinds of synthesis along with everything else etc.

All of the blues, metal, rock stuff is fine and does great and all of that kind of stuff is covered in every single modeler but most of these units don't have much in the way of experimenting except fractal does have lfo's, sequencers etc.. which is one reason I came over to this world (i love my fm9 and vp4), but I'd like to see more of it and weird/experimenting ideas too for effects!

We got to stop thinking modelers are just for blues, rock and metal type people. I love all of that too but I also love ambient, synthesizers and experimenting with sounds too. Give us chase bliss type idea, give us empress effects zoia type ideas etc. Wrap it all in the same box with the amps/cabs :D
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That's a tall order

However, I'm constantly impressed by what @simeon @Admin M@ and others are able to conjure up with the axe-fx already.
 
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EricMC said:
I am really excited for this product. Currently have an FM3 and was debating upgrading to a FM9, but I think I will wait for the helix stadium and go that path. I love the fractal stuff and have always enjoyed the line 6 products as well. I am a fan of capture tech, and that is a huge feature for me. I really like that the helix can control external amp switching. Running a helix stadium in 7 cable method with 2 amps and being able to control those via snapshots is a pretty compelling feature. I also feel like one of the strong points of the helix is some weirder effects and I like playing with those. Hoping this will prompt fractal to implement some of these upgrades (first and foremost capture tech) and we will all benefit.
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I do miss the shuffling looper and glitch delay and some of the experimental delays in helix. I may grab a hx one down the road sometime for those... however with a little bit of thinking and experimenting with my fm9/vp4 and using lfo's, sequencers and stuff, you can come up with some cool stuff as well that helix couldn't do!
 
BROCKSTAR said:
I do miss the shuffling looper and glitch delay and some of the experimental delays in helix. I may grab a hx one down the road sometime for those... however with a little bit of thinking and experimenting with my fm9/vp4 and using lfo's, sequencers and stuff, you can come up with some cool stuff as well that helix couldn't do!
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Yeah the shuffling looper is really cool! The fractal stuff can do weird stuff and do it really well, but what I think helix is good at is making it easy to play with and get the weird sounds. The fractal stuff takes some deep editing and you have to know what you are doing (which I don’t always!), but it has some great capabilities for sure. Really I think a big selling point in the helix is the ease of use, both in ease of weird sounds as well as ease of use every day. The capacitive touch switches and the numerous encoders are great. Really glad they kept those along with the touch screen.
 
km 202257 said:
I heard that this comes with a "dynamic impedance curve", which seems to suggest that it models the dynamic changes in speaker impedance curve depending on the input to speaker cabs. I'm not sure if such dynamic changes even exist in real life, but if that's the case, it could be one of Helix's advantages over Fractal with regards to accuracy.
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This is an existing feature of Fractal’s modeling, and has been for a long time.
 
Biggest pros to me of the stadium is all of the extra UI/UX stuff. If the stem separation stuff is good I may end up getting one just for cover band practicing at home.

I also love the idea of Ethernet based digital IO expansion. Would be super cool to have something like that on the axe FX 4.
 
Glad to see L6 take the plunge here. It will provide a great test case for Fractal to review, see what features make sense, see which ones are overly niche, get customer feedback, and adapt from there. It is really interesting to see that the actual sound and realism are no longer the focus of a modeler launch. That says a lot about the state of the technology and how good it already is. Many of the features of the Stadium are cool in theory, but I can't think of many use cases where I need them, but that is just me. I am much more interested in hearing the new models and effects vs the current Fractal generation. Given the lack of focus on those things, I doubt I am going to be blown away, and thus, compelled to make any new purchase, but as many have already said - competition is always a good thing for customers.
 
The DMX, Midi, backing tracks, and preset automation will be huge for touring musicians. That's one less person you need to bring with you to manage your video or lighting or complex patch changes, and a lot less stuff you need on stage. You can do this now with device extensions but this will double your FC12/FM9 foot print and add another 1,000 dollars of cost between the floorboard, the extra DI, the manager device (or off stage laptop). You're getting into twice the cost of a Stadium which admittedly is less of a big deal for bigger acts than the fact you dont need someone controlling a laptop off stage. I really might have to switch if the amp modelling sounds at least good enough. I think this is their killer feature. You get all this in one device you can replace at the nearest big music shop if something goes wrong.
 
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dws2384 said:
The two can coexist
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Sure, but there's opportunity cost, specially for smaller companies - Working on B takes resources away from A.

dws2384 said:
and both are needed to make a top tier product.
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Axefx has proven / does prove itself as top tier w/o touch screen ...,

dws2384 said:
We can only get AS accurate as the gear being modelled/profiled, not more. Fractal is already there
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re: "Fractal is already there" - my response once again: every time those words have been spoken (many X over many years), a subsequent FW (or hw) release has followed that significantly and audibly improved the modelling accuracy according to the ears and physical amp familiarity of large numbers of users here.

dws2384 said:
You can argue that it wont happen all you want, but it will.
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I can't argue about what Fractal will/won't do for whatever reasons. I do argue tho, that:
  • there is still room for continued ongoing modelling improvement as evidenced by the regular ongoing reaction of this forum to regularly deployed modelling improvements, and, by the continued wide spread use of physical tube amps and cabs by players that also use modelling.
  • UI features like touch screen are not necessarily a silver bullet to make deep device features simple for those that don't want to read manuals or understand concepts. It's more the intelligent and well thought thru design aspects and choices of how technologies, old or new, are used to mask underlying complexity that makes a difference. My guess is that users who dislike a menu'd UI to do abc, could easily, despite hopes and dreams, dislike a touch screen UI if its not well designed to accomplish abc, or, even if it is well designed but abc is just too complex a feature to make touch screen (or whatever UI approach) a viable complexity masking solution - Since Axfx goes waaaay deeper than HX despite HX's apparent expanding width / height of function, there's a case to be made, imo, that the current Axfx UI is still the best approach given the feature mechanics made available to users in Axefx.
Don't get me wrong, I like the shininess of newer tech UI features as much as anyone, and I loooove incorporated authentic gear graphics, +, imo, my HXStlomp is, overall, the best small form factor MFX (if L6 new modelling is significantly improved and makes its way to HXStomp, I'm in for an upgrade). But the algo sound, accuracy, and feel, are still king for me in my #1 device, and I think those things can continue to be a big part of what sustains Fractal / Axfx as #1. If competition catches up on tone/accuracy/feel, then. ya, Axfx will have to change more to survive - I just don't see any evidence yet that the competition is catching up in these areas.
 
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Being a amp, cab and a few effects kind of guy sure does save me a lot of money in that all these other products have features I'll never use. I'll hang on to my FM3 until it dies, but with a non working USB and with it starting to every now and then acting weird it may not be long. When it does, I'll replace it with an FM9
 
What I like to definitely see in fractal world on next generation products is more I/O stuff. I miss my 4 fx loops of helix and have to make due with only 2 on FM9, but yeah give the users more fx loops.

Also please never take away the FASLINK option. The idea of having a modeler on your desk or somewhere else and controlling things with footswitches other then a midi controller is awesome and another reason I joined fractal world because I wanted to keep my stuff on desk but also use my feet to control things on/off etc. You only have that option in helix world with the rack or midi controllers.

This is something that HELIX floor models and the new HELIX stadium misses out on!
 
I'll take a look at this, but I had a few Line6 things back in the day and I recall updates/fixes being essentially nonexistent.

Fast forward to today and owning an AxeIII that is always being improved, often due to feedback directly from users.
 
NY Guitarist said:
I'll take a look at this, but I had a few Line6 things back in the day and I recall updates/fixes being essentially nonexistent.

Fast forward to today and owning an AxeIII that is always being improved, often due to feedback directly from users.
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sick pickle said:
I’m not the biggest helix fan, but it had numerous updates over the last 10 years.
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Yes 19 i think since 2015. Usually 2 a year.
 
yek said:
As a Fractal user I don't care for anything sound-related in this new product,
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Yeah, I was listening with my Ollo headphones and the overall sound of their demo didn't appeal to me. Maybe it's the YouTube compression, or just the mix itself, but overall it sounded lifeless and missing sparkle.

yek said:
but some of the I/O and UI features are interesting.
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I definitely never want a unit with a touch screen sitting on the floor, especially with the reliability problems I had with the two Helix Floor units I used to have; One was out of commission for a year waiting on a part. They'd have to hit a bulls-eye on every feature plus have a spotless reliability record for several years before I'd ever think about one.

The rest is interesting but I figure Fractal will leapfrog it eventually.

And it'll be interesting to see if they accelerate the pace of their firmware updates to keep pace with Fractal.
 
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