LINE 6 HELIX 3.15 OUT NOW!!!!

Started by BROCKSTAR, November 19, 2020, 10:17:33 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

BROCKSTAR


germanicus

Yep, some cool features in it. Been twiddling with it.
Some of the new features are heavy on the dsp, but really nice.

Poly features are impressive.

I hope a new Variax is on the horizon.


My albums done with modeling/guitar synth at http://music.steamtheory.com

JTV69/59P/Godin LGXT/Multiac ACS/Variax 700 AC
Helix/FTP/GP10/VG99/SY1000
Traynor k4

arkieboy

This is the kind of update I was hoping for when I decided not to sell my LT having found out I could do everything with my SY.  Some of these are really nice and unexpected - the boss acoustic simulator is dead neat.


With the addition of resource-hogging polyphonic effects to the sim library we also have a clear reason for a refresh of the hardware units too.


I wonder if spillover will wean me off snapshots ...
Main rig: Barden Hexacaster and Brian Moore i2.13 controllers
Boss SY1000/Boss GKC-AD/Boss GM-800/Laney LFR112

Other relevant gear: Line 6 Helix LT, Roland GR-33, Axon AX100 MkII
Oberheim Matrix 6R, Supernova IIR, EMu E5000, Apple Mainstage, Apple Logic, MOTU M4

admin

Time to dust off the Helix and give it one more try

BROCKSTAR

Having some ambient fun with some new features from 3.0 (sorry just tablet recording while trying to hold it with my fat chin and play guitar at the same time ahaha!) :D

PRS Guitar into glitch delay -> poly sustain -> shuffling looper -> ganymede reverb.

Hit the arrow on right side of pic to go to the video.


mchad


Some of those new effects look compelling. "Shuffling Looper"? hmmmm....

BROCKSTAR

I was having fun with the new features tonight and built a new brockotronics preset 😀

Guitar -> into helix with sy-1000 fx loop block -> glitch delay -> poly sustain (ehx freeze type clone) on first path and that goes into 2nd path which has another poly sustain (ehx freeze type clone) -> fx loop block with my ZOIA and real ehx freeze pedal -> shuffling looper -> ganymede reverb

So much fun, it's a work in progress.

Kevin M

The folks at Line6 really show a commitment to the platform...pretty darn impressive set of features in this update. Given the comments about how much resources the poly stuff consumes, I wonder if new hardware will be introduced next year.

HecticArt

I'm looking forward to installing  it!
It'll probably take me till Christmas break before I have the time to do it though.

Smash

Finally - it's got a freeze!

Very interested to see what new hardware follows. The acknowledgements of limiting DSP really do feel like a signal of impending Helix 2.

Makes the little HX quite enticing too.

They really do look after their owners....5 years after release still knocking it out the park.


Antonuzzo

I was this close to selling my Helix; but this changes everything. The freeze and acoustic simulator alone are two things that it's been screaming out for - but one change that's not been documented is that it can finally run HX Edit and work as a USB audio interface at the same time. On my Mac at least, it was either one or the other previously. Being able to make edits and preview them in Logic is a huge game changer for me.

Vaultnaemsae

Maybe this is lame but I'm just so happy that Native now has a tuner!  ;D
Vaultnaemsae's SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/vaultnaemsae

BROCKSTAR

"Helix Floor on FW 3.00.0 now boots up under 13 seconds ( much faster than a year ago)"

Yes that has been fixed last update earlier this year!

Also I'm not sure they're ready for a new hardware / helix 2. I don't think we'll see that until at least 2022 or little later. With all they have done for this in the last 5 years and all the little products in the helix family, it would be a shame just to throw it all away and start over again on something new. I think we'll get to at least firmware 5.0 before anything. I always heard they had enough DSP for years but then again this poly stuff is taking a lot right now. Also Igor a helix dev said he doesn't get breaks or something like that in one of his posts and that he's hard at work on next firmware etc.. Which will probably come march or april of 2021 the way firmwares have been dropping.

Anyway, this is how you manage a product and run a company and be friends with your buyers and what not. Other companies should really look up to line 6 and see how they're making things that can give us new stuff years later via firmwares and how they treat their customers and stuff.

aliensporebomb

#14
Some of the freeze presets I've heard on the Helix 3.0 youtube demos sounds a lot like the VG-99 poly freeze type sounds.  Pretty impressive for quarter inch jack functionality.  "They finally caught up to 2007".   I kid, I kid.

What's really nice though is that Line6 is dedicated to updating and improving the product incrementally feature by feature which is more than I can say for certain companies whose updates don't reach this level.

Roland/Boss is taking steps in that direction with the GT-1000 but Line6 is doing what I'd call major functionality updates
on existing hardware.   It's like (example) a major Windows operating system update or MacOS.   But some of their other products it's just little bugfixes for existing items.

Basically Line6 and Fractal are the biggies for improving products more than just a little bit beyond their initial release.   



My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Smash

Quote from: BROCKSTAR on November 20, 2020, 04:44:00 AM
"Helix Floor on FW 3.00.0 now boots up under 13 seconds ( much faster than a year ago)"

Yes that has been fixed last update earlier this year!

Also I'm not sure they're ready for a new hardware / helix 2. I don't think we'll see that until at least 2022 or little later. With all they have done for this in the last 5 years and all the little products in the helix family, it would be a shame just to throw it all away and start over again on something new. I think we'll get to at least firmware 5.0 before anything. I always heard they had enough DSP for years but then again this poly stuff is taking a lot right now. Also Igor a helix dev said he doesn't get breaks or something like that in one of his posts and that he's hard at work on next firmware etc.. Which will probably come march or april of 2021 the way firmwares have been dropping.

Anyway, this is how you manage a product and run a company and be friends with your buyers and what not. Other companies should really look up to line 6 and see how they're making things that can give us new stuff years later via firmwares and how they treat their customers and stuff.


You seem to be assuming no backwards compatibility? Helix 2 or Helix Pro maybe could happily live alongside Helix classic.

Double up the DSP and add a feature not available in Helix classic I.e. tone match and you're off and running. Let it load all pre existing Helix patches but give it some HD amps only for Helix 2 plus aforementioned tone match. No need to redesign the case or anything.

Demarque with graphics. Jobs a goodun.

Plus they have previous form of sorts with HD500 and HD500X.

2022 is too late

aliensporebomb

What are the items still on the wish list for existing helix?
is it something technically non-feasible with current hardware?
They likely have prototypes of the next generation in the lab.

I know when I worked for a company doing software testing they would buy competitors products to tear apart and analyze
their products for weaknesses to exploit.  I have no doubt Line6 does much the same.

I noticed at my local stores the price of the big helix board that used to be $1300 is now closer to $1599.
Helix LT that was $999 is now a little more.

The Pandemic has made things harder to get so the prices have gone up a bit. 
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

BROCKSTAR

Helix started out at $1,499 I believe and then the price jumps on it and their other products was because of tariffs and such lately.

admin

#18
Quote from: BROCKSTAR on November 20, 2020, 08:24:52 AM
Helix started out at $1,499 I believe and then the price jumps on it and their other products was because of tariffs and such lately.
That was in 2016 - many got theirs for $1199 delivered
Got mine 3 months after release -gently used from a disgruntled former owner for $900.

I've never gelled with it, (hard to read without glasses, poor off axis display and its only been after FW 2.00 the Amps were remotely playable for my needs- today even after FW 3.00.0 , I still prefer the tone, feel, response of Amp modeling on GT-1000 or AXE-FX II by a large margin.

arkieboy

I've just enabled "true preset spillover" and I have to say I am now officially torn.


I got really comfortable with designing a virtual rig, and then configuring snapshots to give me a set of rhythm and lead sounds I would need in a set.  But the spillover really works - you lose half the processing power, but while I needed both paths in series to cope with an entire virtual rig, on a per sound basis I can easily cope with one signal path.


Hmmm.
Main rig: Barden Hexacaster and Brian Moore i2.13 controllers
Boss SY1000/Boss GKC-AD/Boss GM-800/Laney LFR112

Other relevant gear: Line 6 Helix LT, Roland GR-33, Axon AX100 MkII
Oberheim Matrix 6R, Supernova IIR, EMu E5000, Apple Mainstage, Apple Logic, MOTU M4

BROCKSTAR

Quote from: arkieboy on November 20, 2020, 09:30:17 AM
I've just enabled "true preset spillover" and I have to say I am now officially torn.


I got really comfortable with designing a virtual rig, and then configuring snapshots to give me a set of rhythm and lead sounds I would need in a set.  But the spillover really works - you lose half the processing power, but while I needed both paths in series to cope with an entire virtual rig, on a per sound basis I can easily cope with one signal path.


Hmmm.

Sadly if you're going to use any polyphonic stuff, it's best to have both paths. I'm rebuilding my ambient preset in helix and you can't have 2 poly sustain blocks on one path but you can have one on path 1 and another on path 2 etc...

JiveTurkey

Quote from: admin on November 20, 2020, 08:40:16 AM
That was in 2016 - many got theirs for $1199 delivered
Got mine 3 months after release -gently used from a disgruntled former owner for $900.

I've never gelled with it, (hard to read without glasses, poor off axis display and its only been after FW 2.00 the Amps were remotely playable for my needs- today even after FW 3.00.0 , I still prefer the tone, feel, response of Amp modeling on GT-1000 or AXE-FX II by a large margin.
...add the FW3 Mustang GT to this list as well.

sixeight

Well, the poly effects are nice, but I still prefer the VG-99 for open tunings. They are more stable. The combo of Helix and VG99 is still my main rig and 3.0 does bring a lot of useful new features.

This Christmas I may treat myself to an Sy-1000. I  have been curious about its capabilities, though I doubt if it will replace the VG99. But it should be fun.

BROCKSTAR

Hey all, this is just a quick test with helix poly pitch vs my boss sy-1000 (sorry for tablet audio/video). However I find both pretty much performs the same and sounds good!

I have my S2 switch on my roland gk-2a pickup set for +2 interval and I have helix momentary footswitch set for +2 interval as well and will go back and forth with them.

Helix poly pitch settings:

+2 interval
0.00 cents
600ms shift time
start fast 5 shift curve
500ms return time
start fast 5 return curve
x fast trackin
5.0 auto eq
mix 100%


admin

SY-1000 with Hex PU is superior  to either