3 HIDDEN Reasons Your Helix Tone Sucks That EVERY Helix Owner Should Know
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Here are 3 somewhat confusing "features" in the Helix that I sort of think should default to off....But they don't...
00:00 Intro
1:27 The cost of "accuracy"
2:15 HUM
4:14 HEADROOM
7:06 Input Impedance
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Great video, thank you! There's a channel called "Hey Worship Leader" who also has a great video from about 2 years ago about what Sag, Hum, Ripple, and Bias all are which goes into a little more depth about those things. I was always annoyed by the impedance thing you mentioned, so that was a great callout. I had no idea what was causing what I was seeing with some pedals being in the line, but disabled and still changing the tone. I also had no idea what the headroom thing was, so loved that you explained it.
Time to clean those pots big boy.
😂😂😂😂
Excellent advice and demo of how those settings can significantly affect tone in the Line 6 Helix world. Thickening up the Highs in particular has always been a challenge. Setting the Impedance to "Enabled" has a significant and beneficial effect. Some of my were fine/better with a change in this setting, and some needed me to about ".4" to the Treble Parameter in the Amp Block to get them back to where I liked. The added benefit is that the tones are thicker sounding.
There is also something about how our ears/hearing responds to different frequencies when the sound is at a different loudness. It is called the "Fletcher Munson" curve, and explains how/why louder often sounds better. Thanks
I max the Headroom for post-amp effects, but it can sound vibey with lower headroom when used BEFORE the amp or cab block - on the tape delays in particular, it gets that saturated/old-tape sound. The clipping introduced just needs an amp or cabinet to smooth out the rough edges; that's why it sounds bad with low headroom towards the END of the chain
Also, another way around the input impedance issue that isn't a global change like Auto Enabled is to set up a FS controller or Snapshot (whatever is engaging the effect in question) to toggle the input impedance selection to "1meg" (or your desired bypassed impedance) when the effect is bypassed and "auto" when it's engaged
I do the same thing, especially for rockabilly style slap back.
Very helpful and timely. I was just going through all of my presets last night and was messing around with hum and was wondering about the headroom setting.
Great video. I’ve had hum at my last two gigs. Did not know about the “hum” control!
I learned a lot from such a short video. The Stomp is easy to understand on the surface but there's so much complexity buried inside. On the other hand, Boss multi effects require an engineering degree to get a usable tone.
I revisited my helix native this evening and was blown away how good the tones I got were. Sometimes you gotta take a bit of an ear break to realize how good your old gear can be plus I hadn’t really exploring helix since some of the big updates
I just discovered the input impedance parameter when building a preset for a very low output acoustic piezo pickup. It didn't occur to me how much it would affect my electric sound as well. This is great content!
If you don't like the default settings, simply change them and resave as your user defaults for that model.
Thanks for this, Jonathan. I’m going to get into that impedance solution ASAP.
Thx for the suggestions! I've been going down a Buffer rabbit hole on my regular pedalboard (non-Helix) and feel like your impedance settings is similar to controlling the drop off in signal as it goes thru the efx chain before it gets to the amp. Super helpful (and timely for me!)
Wow, I'd never know that the Red Squeeze messes with the impedance that much!
extremely info here! thank you sooo much!
I didn't expect the "true bypass" discussion to be relevant in the modeller world, but it seems it is!
the "real world" equivalents of fuzz pedals and treble boosters typically are true bypass and that's what I expect a modeller to model as well!
Hey man, love the stuff and everything is always really informative! I had a question, could you demo using your helix floor going to an actual amp for what would be a live bar gig? I have a deluxe reverb so I only use the line 6 for drives, effects, etc w/o amp modeling but I rarely can get a good tone. Even with nothing on, I’ve noticed that my signal sounds different than direct to amp. Typically louder, and maybe high end roll off.
Very helpful! Thanks John.
Very informative video... but really AWESOME playing! (It's the fingers; here, there & everywhere.)
Great info JNC. Keep it up
Excellent information thanks JNC
Great content!
Headroom and Hum I knew about but wow i did not lnow the impedance stuff :O thanks for the video :)
snap! same here...
Great tips, John!
Thanks for pointing these out. Completely agree. I have noticed these previously and avoid them.
Super helpful video John! One non-Helix thing to consider; it was a game changer for me. Put a treble bleed circuit in your guitar(s). Either do it yourself or if you're all thumbs with a soldering iron like me have it done by your local shop. In combination with setting the In-Z parameter of the Stomp to your liking it's a killer combo. Volume up full - no "drag" from effects (thanks In-Z!) and when you roll back the volume on your guitar, the top end stays sparkly (thanks treble bleed!).
The volume control rolling off highs is a feature not a bug.
Really good! Will try those
Does the Quad cortex have these "hidden" parameters that affect tone? I know endless tweak ability is desirable for some people, but I'm looking for simple. Seriously considering getting rid of my Helix because of things like this. Thoughts on uad Cortex?
I typically leave Hum at 5, but you are right. There should be a global parameter to just eliminate amp hum.
I always like the headroom all the way down on delays. In fact I wish it could go a bit lower when I'm using a lower-output guitar.
The saturation on the delay helps create space between your dry signal and the repeats.
I hope they add a dynamic spring reverb in the future and that includes a headroom parameter. Distorting spring reverb is one of my favorite sounds.
For impedance, I typically keep it set to 1M ohm so that my effect choices don't mess with it at all.
Great video!
While the Litigator is still probably my favorite amp native to the Helix, it is a little noisy. I've messed with the Hum but feel like at 0, it does take away a little of the "body" from the sound. I think I just left it at 5 as that's where I dialed in the sound but I'd like to mess with it to get it a little cleaner. It's obviously not noticeable when playing but if I use a patch with the Litigator at church or something and not playing, I can hear the slight hum in my in-ears. I'd assume for recording purposes it would be annoying as well. Agree 100% about the Headroom thing as well!
If you don't mind, can you tell us which patch you are using in the intro of this video, please?
I bought your Plug and Play bundle, and a couple of other things. The patches sound very good on your TH-cam channel, I am finding that I need to tweak them fairly heavily to get them to sound good on my rig. Maybe that's normal? Frankly I haven't spent this much time tweaking something to get it to sound good.. ever, now that I think about it. Yeah, I've spent weeks tweaking a million variables, trying to get that high-end buzzy, crinkly sound out. Also, the distortion on the low end sounds phony, like a dying hi-fi, nothing like a tube amp to me. I really want to make this thing work, it would be great to have a modeling rig that would plug straight into the front of the house, and be done with amps and mic up to cabinets and things like that. But so far, after weeks of tweaking, I still only have one or two sounds that I would play in front of the public. But somehow your stuff sounds fantastic on this channel. Baffling to me with the difference might be..
Brilliant explanation!! Thanks
I’m using the HXSTOMP at the end of my chain with drive pedals in front of it. What impedance should I use?
These are super helpful! One issue that I’ve experienced is ice-picky highs - I think you had a video on global EQ settings to address this?
In my opinion it's more effective to use High Cut at the Cabinet level in each preset. Start at 5.5 kHz and go down from there. Most real guitar speakers don't amplify anything interesting over 5 kHz anyway. My main preset in my Stomp XL has HighCut set at 4 kHz. In my opinion, cutting things using Global EQ risks making sparkly clean tones sound like they're partially covered in a blanket. For my squeaky clean tones, I leave HighCut off.
@@jnh73 Do you know where the global sits in the chain (I’m guessing that very end) and is there any info regarding Q? Thanks
That input impedance tip it s a game changer. I never understood why the tone is affected when i put another pedals on the chain even when they are off. It’s ok to have that option always enabled?
Helpful video, epic title though
Hum is pretty self explanitory. Ripple does add some interesting overtones to the sound as is very noticable on VOX amps. Not saying you'll like it, but it is something that real amps do and should be considered in how it interacts with your playing. You'll notice it more when playing around the twelth fret and higher. Almost like a out of tune ghost note being played underneath your actual played note. So while it has some effect on the "hum", really it has more of an effect on the higher notes you play.
It may not always, infact maybe never, "sound good", but it is a realistic dynamic of a real amp and turning it of may cause the amp to sound more sterile when compared to the real thing , or maybe you'll think its just fixing an unavoidable flaw with real
amps and love it turned off.
Geeze your tone is RIDICULOUS 😭
Right?!
another one is global EQ....I almost always turn that off. Only using it when its totally necessary. It's turned on by default btw.
Hi John, do you have the guitar pad on or off on your presets?
Off for single coils and on for humbuckers I think is how that works?
But when you're sculpting a preset, you are dialing in the tone under the condition of auto impedance, so you will have balanced out what top end is lost by not being at 1 M. Right?
This video should have been made like 5 years ago lol, but hey thank you anyways, some of these i figred out a couple on my own but still learned something
do you usually keep your master volume know at 12 o clock? does that make any difference?
It makes zero difference. The Stomp's master volume is only for the overall output level of the unit. It has no effect on tone.
Thanks for this.
Are you using AI generated titles?
awesome info
1 hidden reason why my helix tone doesn’t suck -> I bought John’s 😭 💀
Bro record a video with the Tonex One in the return/send of the helix floor to see the tone and the effect of the helix how they feels with it
I just got my One and stayed up late to set this exact scenario up, but with the stomp. I can’t wait to get home tonight.
@@DoubleDguitar awesome!! 👏 let me know the results.
@@Riflex04 will do 🤘🏻
@@DoubleDguitarcommenting so I can see the update😊
@@DoubleDguitarlol, just was at the pedal exhibit berlin., ik was there, had two tonex ones running into an hx stomp… i do it with an uafx ruby, freeing the hx up for what it excells at: 8 blocks of pitchy glitchy delays … great box still. against hx fizziness i tend to roll down the highs above 8000khz… youll find not much coming out of a plexistack with a thick carpet in front, with a mic lying on the floor, rip steve albiniy
John for president!
If I could chose to play like any guitarist, I would choose to play like J.N.C.
Thanks!
Input Impedance!!! exactly!
I must be crazy, but I heard some of Whitney Houston's lines from her version of "I'll Always Love You" from 0:11 to 0:20, and then John falls in a different chord and my epiphany ended, lol
Does this even apply to helix floor?
Yes, everything John talks about is also in the Helix Floor.
Hum is a caveat of tube amps
To much focus on pure emulation,
Particularly with noise floors
I think they should be solving issues not emulating them.
It is nice that you can dial out a bit of hum,
But theres still noise that would exist in a high voltage circuit that doesn’t need to exist in a digital world.
Terrific tips, thanks. On a related topic, I'd be interested to see how the Helix impedance settings can best support the method for reduced guitar volume into Germanium fuzz first in the toolchain, described succinctly here in Pete Thorn's video th-cam.com/video/puisIlr6Jqc/w-d-xo.html
Many of your Helix tones highlight a glassy top end, and it would be interesting to compare and contrast the tone character of this method, and which Helix fuzz and amp model combinations can best elicit the effect. It may be interesting to players including those not using modelers if the Germanium effect can even be replicated in Helix with the modeled fuzz positioned later in the effect chain through the use of clever impedance settings.
You're releasing too many video with great topics in too short a time frame for your own good, John, there's no way I'll have time to watch all of them in a timely manner!
Nr 1 my PLAYING sucks
Nr. 2 it still sucks.
Nr.3 it wont get any better as i dont practice.
L.O.L
I always set ripple and hum to 0 one of the first tricks i learned to get better tone in Helix back in 2016 i used to do that aswell with the sag parameter but recently i added some sag in my amptone as i think the tone need some sag.
Bit of a scratchy selector switch there man..
What do you want? Accuracy or perfection? An AC30 model doesn't sound right without the inherent hum; likewise with tweed Deluxes. Is this a ding? If it bothers you, you can dial it out. By the title, I thought I was being alerted to an HX defect. There's no such thing, if you've read the manual and know what you're about. Clickbait to the rescue, eh, mate? Nice playing, thanks for that.
Reason #1 no guitar Amplifier
Second !
FIRST!!!!