Frodebro
Experienced
My first digitech was a dsp128 then a gsp5
Annnd... We're old.
My first digitech was a dsp128 then a gsp5
That's ok cuz I grew up with Van Halen on the radio and got to see him do his 316 solo live in 1993. So I'm totally fine with grey whiskersAnnnd... We're old.
That's ok cuz I grew up with Van Halen on the radio and got to see him do his 316 solo live in 1993. So I'm totally fine with grey whiskers
As in the words of Paul Harvey, "Now you know the rest of the story."
No grey in my hair. Because there's no hair on my head.No grey in my whiskers.
No grey in my hair. Because there's no hair on my head.
Life is like thatFunny how that happens. I used to buzz my hair every spring because it was more comfortable under my helmet when mountain biking, and then one year... Some of it didn't come back. Now it stays buzzed year round.
I'm just coming off an old Pod XT Pro, the only amp in there I liked at all for distortion was the JCM-800. Never was that happy with any of the Line 6 amp models. The effects were all great though.there was something about the gain, a fizziness, that reminded me of the XT Live and X3 Live.
Life is like that
The two most evil jokes god has played on man:Proof that there is an ever-loving God who has a really shitty sense of humor.
The real bummer is that I have more hair on parts of me that should not have hair, than on top of my head.Proof that there is an ever-loving God who has a really shitty sense of humor.
I prefer to say that God gave ugly guys hair.Proof that there is an ever-loving God who has a really shitty sense of humor.
Have you tried 3rd party IRs? That's often a missing ingredient for Line 6 users.
Honestly, I think I'm probably at the same place with the Helix as you are. I've heard tons of clips with it that sound really good, but have always struggled to get there myself. I think that the biggest hurdle is that the stock settings for most amps are already in serious need of deep diving to get them even in the ballpark before the final tweaking to taste, and with the FM3 the stock settings are already right on the money.
What's up with the multiple Helix Bros in this thread???
It's almost like you are talking the OP into making the Helix work, when
he has said he has tried for years, and out of purchasing a Fractal.
Am I on the wrong forum or something, and don't even know it??
Really? Huh. I would interpret that as saying a lot about Fractal, in a good way.Just mention fractal on some other forums I could mention and you're out in the cold lol.
I can only relay my own experience with the two. I've tried them through all kinds of setups at various volume levels:
All of these setups will sound different and respond in a different way no matter which modeler is in use. At low volume I like the studio monitors the best and at higher volume the PS-100 and guitar cabs is probably the most satisfying. Headphones need both frequency correction and room reverb to sound natural and are probably the worst option but sometimes a necessary one.
- Helix preamps into Bogner and Victory tube amps' fx returns.
- Helix and FM3 amp models into a Fryette Power Station 100 and real guitar cabs.
- Helix and FM3 amp models into the BluGuitar Amp 1 fx return and real guitar cabs.
- Helix and FM3 amp models into computer and VST plugins (cab sims etc).
- Helix and FM3 into Genelec M040 studio monitors.
- Helix and FM3 into Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 ohm and Sennheiser HD6XX 300 ohm headphones.
- Helix and FM3 into PA/FRFR speakers.
Many pros who use Fractal use it for effects. Fractal has better modulation and reverb effects than the Helix. No contest there.
I don't agree about "fizzy and artificial". Or boomy for that matter. Many of these aspects will depend on the room and your output system. For example there's a big 130 Hz boost in the room I play in at home so I use global EQ to dial that out or else some notes will sound boomy. Likewise placement of speakers and if they emphasize low end will matter.
I don't do anything particularly special with my presets. I mostly use ML Sound Lab multi-mic IR mixes exported from the MIKKO cab sim plugin if I am using IRs but you might use something from say York Audio just as well. I add some low cut usually around 80-100 Hz, high cut to taste. The cab or IR block low cut is very helpful for avoiding any boominess. I don't like many of the default settings on Helix amp models so I dial my own. For high gain tones I often reduce sag a bit from the default setting to tighten up the feel. I might use a graphic or parametric EQ either in front or after the amp to tweak things a bit more.
My experience is that Fractal modeling is not in some sort of different echelon from the competition. There's plenty of videos you can find on YT where people have dialed various modelers to sound very very close regardless of what genre of music is being played. That aligns with my own experience. Using the same IRs will give you very similar results. If we were to compare with their respective cab sims then I would prefer Fractal because its vast IR library is just plain better than Helix's stock cab sims.
When comparing it's also important to pick a reference tone. It can be a real amp or whichever modeler's dialed in tone you prefer. Then you figure out how to make them sound and feel the same. Putting in the same values for knobs does not work. It's also useful to use a decibel meter to make sure what you are hearing is coming out at the same volume because usually we hear louder as better. That alone probably accounts for a lot of the "X sounds so much better than Y" hyperbole we read on the internet.
Note that I am not trying to put down Fractal here. It sounds stellar and has a huge feature set. But I feel that the Helix amp modeling is not the aspect that is holding your tones back.
I think Mr. Chase is on a whole different level. I mean when the creator comes on the forum and says (I'm paraphrasing) he's had an epiphany in the middle of the night and can't wait to share an update with the community of product owners ...man that's a pretty special type of relationship for a multi effects developer/creator to have with people that have bought his product. Do the Yamaha guys do that? Idk. Can you directly ask the Yamaha guys a question and have an in depth conversation with them within hours? Idk.
Idk cuz I also do not get along with their products. Owned an HD500 for a couple days and traded it for a cell phone. Lol