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Line 6 helix for bass?!

J

Joey Yang

Sep 1, 2015
15
7
32
#1
Hey guys! Im having trouble deciding if a helix would be beneficial for my rig for what i run. Hopefully you line 6 owners can help me out.

Im currently a bass player and would primarily use it for heavy compression (Is it any good), probably the distortion/ fuzz effects, and reverbs/delays mixed with the volume pedal to create ambience. But i also play guitar at home (not fulltime) creating/ writing music. I don't have a dedicated guitar rig so getting decent tones/ sounds in cubase elements is quite frustrating going DI. Another question is would i be able to use the amp cab simulator from the line 6, to run through my bass amp to kinda turn it into a guitar amp? Im trying to downsize having all my pedals and using this as an all round solution. Is it worth the investment?

Thanks!
Bass rig:
Microtubes 900
Orange OBC115 400w
Orange OBC115 400w

Guitar:
Legator ghost headless 7 modified to fishman tosin sets.
 
#2
I don't own the helix, so I can't tell you how much I personally like the sound of it for what you intend to do.

But based on what you listed it should work. Compression, distortion, fuzz, reverb and delay are not instrument specific, they work for whatever you plug into them. So if you like the effects built into the helix it should be good for your bass setup.

It's also designed specifically to work for your guitar so no problems there, just send the output to your interface and dial in your tone in the helix.

But the one thing you generally can't do is turn a bass amp or cab into a guitar amp or cab. Amp and cab manufacturers generally design their equipment to be specific to the instrument they're made for, so they do things like engineer a roll off of higher frequencies into the speaker design, amp design, and cabinet design, that makes anything but bass sound muffled through a bass cab. This is not something you can fix with an effect or something like that, it's built into the design of the equipment.

Although there are exceptions. Many people have begun turning to full range frequency response amps and cabs and just using something like the helix instead of buying instrument specific equipment. I'm not familiar with your setup, but if you have an instrument agnostic setup like I mentioned it will work fine.
 
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#4
I use the vst version of Helix sometimes - for recording. Honestly, I haven't been able to get a really good bass sound out of it, and I usually opt for different plugs for the bass amp sims. However, the modulation and spatial effects are amazing, and can be easily set to be controlled with a midi pedal. Even the pitch shifting sounds ok.
When it comes to using amp sims + bass amp for guitar, I've tried it, and it is not very optimal, but is ok for home playing.
 
#5
I own a Helix.

Based on what you're saying, you:

- Have an existing rig and want to use it
- Want the Helix for its effects, not its amp modelling
- May want to use the Helix with your guitar occasionally, but not for gigging

If you want to kind of try before you buy, buy Helix Native for $99. It's a DAW plugin that will work with your guitar in Cubase, and it'll work with bass as well, going direct into your interface. That way, you can get a sense for the effects (the same as Helix) and the routing, etc. If you later decide you want to buy the hardware, your Helix Native presets can be exported to the Helix so you don't have to recreate them.

IF you do like it, you might consider the HX stomp with an external expression pedal hooked up to it. It's a much less expensive investment and does pretty much everything that the Helix does (except you can't use as many blocks).

If you want to play guitar through the Helix, that's fine, but don't run it through a bass amp. Run it to a PA if you can.
 
#6
If you want "just" an effects unit, why not look at the Helix Effects (HX-FX)?

It has all of the effects found on a Helix, but none of the amp/cab models. Great if you just want top quality effects to use with your current amp & cab(s).
 
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#7
juggahnaught said:
I own a Helix.

Based on what you're saying, you:

- Have an existing rig and want to use it
- Want the Helix for its effects, not its amp modelling
- May want to use the Helix with your guitar occasionally, but not for gigging

If you want to kind of try before you buy, buy Helix Native for $99. It's a DAW plugin that will work with your guitar in Cubase, and it'll work with bass as well, going direct into your interface. That way, you can get a sense for the effects (the same as Helix) and the routing, etc. If you later decide you want to buy the hardware, your Helix Native presets can be exported to the Helix so you don't have to recreate them.

IF you do like it, you might consider the HX stomp with an external expression pedal hooked up to it. It's a much less expensive investment and does pretty much everything that the Helix does (except you can't use as many blocks).

If you want to play guitar through the Helix, that's fine, but don't run it through a bass amp. Run it to a PA if you can.
Click to expand...
Helix Native is $99 IF you also have a hardware Helix. It's $399 otherwise.

You can get a 15 day free trial, though.
 
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#9
I use a Helix, I wont play without it...my signature tone is highly processed and there isn't anything you cant do with a Helix...not a shameless plug but hearing with your ears is better than hearing with your eyes...if you really want to hear it in action, compression, distortion, cabs, pres, gates, and more...check out one of my bands songs, Haunted By Demons would be best (link in sig to YT channel)...the chorus' are very bass-centric.
Rock on.
 
#10
bass40hz said:
I use a Helix, I wont play without it...my signature tone is highly processed and there isn't anything you cant do with a Helix...not a shameless plug but hearing with your ears is better than hearing with your eyes...if you really want to hear it in action, compression, distortion, cabs, pres, gates, and more...check out one of my bands songs, Haunted By Demons would be best (link in sig to YT channel)...the chorus' are very bass-centric.
Rock on.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that.
I personally always run a minimum of 3 pedals as always on: multiband compressor, Two Notes CAB and a 10 band EQ. I use a Boss ES8 as my foot controller for 3 distortion pedals, reverb, delay, octaver and noise gate, so a Helix might make my gigging life easier. Not a lot of great youtube demos that put the Helix on bass in a band context so I am glad you shared a link.
 
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#11
I've since purchased the line 6 helix lt floorboard since making this thread and i gotta say it was totally worth it. Ive been selling off all my pedals on reverb. The interface is extremely user friendly, and sound very organic.
 
#12
BruceWane said:
Helix Native is $99 IF you also have a hardware Helix. It's $399 otherwise.

You can get a 15 day free trial, though.
Click to expand...

D'oh - good point! ,I forgot about that. Line 6 sometimes runs 30 percent off deals on their software, so it might be worth it to wait for that if you go this route.

Former Rogues said:
I am also interested in the Helix for bass. My pedalboard is expansive and HEAVY. Been thinking a Helix might make gigging/touring a bit easier.

Anyone with experience, how do you run it and has the Helix made gigging/recording simpler?
Click to expand...

I run to FOH if available, I run xlr to my Markbass line in if not. I like the range of effects that I can get (although I honestly really like my clean bass through the Markbass). I like the all in one solution - it saved me from pedal-hunting and signal chain issues.

I bought the Helix bag as well and so loudout is simple - cables in Helix bag; amp in one hand, Helix bag in the other, mono backpack.

For recording I actually just use Helix native - the Helix is a good audio interface, but I'm never inclined to hook it up and unhook it. Helix native is nice too because you can reamp without rerecording in your DAW, and the settings are transferable, so I feel it's the better option. That said, direct monitoring through Helix is much nicer since you get the direct wet signal, while Native requires software monitoring. Tradeoffs.
 
#13
I'm about to adventure into Helix for my bass rig land.. I've had the Helix a while; have not messed with it for bass much. I do use Helix Native quite extensively for bass plugins when recording bass DI, and it's nothing short of amazing and fantastic! I've also got an HX Stomp for my guitar rig, but thinking for bass, the floorboard Helix is perfect - bass wah, volume, fx blend, pretty much all of in one makes alot more sense for bass than my modular ever changing pedalboard style for guitar boards.

I don't know if I intend to create a direct to FOH amp modeled bass preset; but will see.

Definitely intend to run parallel clean-bass / fx-bass; not sure yet best way to set that up in Helix, but the options are plentiful; between band pass/low pass, to parallel paths, etc. Stick an amp/cab model at the end of a split, route the parallel signal blended to mono to the bass amp, and then hit that same signal into a bass/cab model, out via the other 1/4" with panning hard left/right, or use XLR, etc.

Quilter Bass Block 800 with Ampeg PF115LF + PF410HLF stack.
 
#14
Posting in this thread again - I know it's old, but I think it's worth saying this in case anyone runs across it.

Helix Native vs Helix - the tones should be the same, but the gain staging definitely isn't. Helix Native has an input gain slider and an output gain slider that should help control the processing - I've found that I'm either too loud on the input or too quiet, and so for a while I thought that the Helix bass amps sounded like poopie. They don't - my inputs were just really bad and everything was overdriven in a bad way. Helix on the other hand has a set input gain that you can change per patch, but it's easier to know what's going into it signal-wise.

As for Helix itself, if you use it as an audio interface, you can record the wet sound and the dry sound simultaneously; the wet comes in on input 1/2 (or 3/4, 5/6, whatever you're using) and inputs 7 and 8 are dedicated to the clean, unprocessed output. This means that you can reamp if you want to, or just record a dry signal just to have it. This also should assist in getting similar tones from Helix Native, so that you can A/B both. This also works well for direct monitoring; you can monitor your signal wet, record wet/dry to your DAW, and if something is off later you can either reamp through the Helix hardware itself or run the clean signal through Helix Native.

Hope this helps.
 
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