Updated the firmware today; finally I can tune the low G on my bass with the HX! Thanks for listening, @Digital Igloo 
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Line 6 HX Effects
- Thread starter ChubbyJerk
- Start date
I downloaded some IRs last night - The free Allure ones , and bought the 3 Sigma Precision, Strat and MegaBass collection. That's 47 IRs in all. My quick reaction reviews on bass:
Allure: Meh.
Precision: Mostly boomy and icky, but one standout that I'll have to try with a band.
Strat: (On pitch shifted signal) Kinda meh. But a couple give a nice ambience.
MegaBass: Out of 20 variants, I starred 5 for future exploration.
So, all in all, for $27 I possibly have 8 IRs that show some promise. Not too bad.
From the short sample I heard, the OwnHammer SVT 810 sounded really good, better to my ear than the 3 Sigma stuff. I might drop the $29 for that in a bit. If it's really good, it's not much money.
Does anybody make bass amp IRs? I'll try with my Fender Super Bassman 300 and Reiner amps, but I don't have great mics.
Allure: Meh.
Precision: Mostly boomy and icky, but one standout that I'll have to try with a band.
Strat: (On pitch shifted signal) Kinda meh. But a couple give a nice ambience.
MegaBass: Out of 20 variants, I starred 5 for future exploration.
So, all in all, for $27 I possibly have 8 IRs that show some promise. Not too bad.
From the short sample I heard, the OwnHammer SVT 810 sounded really good, better to my ear than the 3 Sigma stuff. I might drop the $29 for that in a bit. If it's really good, it's not much money.
Does anybody make bass amp IRs? I'll try with my Fender Super Bassman 300 and Reiner amps, but I don't have great mics.
I few posts before I wrote some things about customizing IRs. You could salvage some of those IRs by recording something in a DAW, loading the IR in an impulse loader and then EQing the hell out of it and capturing the modified response again. The best thing is you can do it for free!
You can find some free DAWs, these usually have some built in parametric EQs.
Here is a free IR loader plugin:
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The demo version of Voxengo Deconvolver works great for generating sine sweeps and making IRs.
Since IRs are just complex EQ curves, you won't lose anything and some boomy IRs can be fixed this way.
Why go the tube amp hassle when you could just use an IR into an active pa speaker? At the moment I'm using a KME QS 2082, but have used several others. The real problem with the guitar speakers is the massive beam they produce which makes a good dispersion of tone nearly impossible. Then you'd have to mic that one...
With the HX I just split the signal somewhere in the beginning and the path B only contains of a compressor and a send block which then goes into the clean head and cab. Path B then contains all the funny stuff including an IR to make the full range speaker shine.
This is what it looks like with the Helix Rack:
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The IR/PA speaker thing is a possibility, but I’m not sure how it’s saving me any labor. I’m currently considering a modeling amp like the Boss Katana to handle the guitar signal. Or, I could have more outboard gear to further process the octave up signal before sending it to a PA speaker.
The guitar amp is for me a signal processor. I don’t have enough blocks in the HX to make a convincing guitar tone and still have enough for my bass. Also, can a simple IR really reproduce the non-linear complexities of a guitar amp and speaker, with distortion and reverb etc?
I have a couple of EV powered PA cabinets, maybe I’ll do some experimentation.
No, it can't.
A Stomp can, but you'll use up all the blocks.
I currently have a Stomp for my quick Bass rig, just got an LT for Guitar and still have an HX FX that I was going to sell.
Now I am thinking about hanging onto the FX and using i with the Stomp when I need a 'full rig'.
Just to add....if you are thinking about buying a second amp, I would definitely consider upgrading to an LT or adding a Stomp instead.
Using the Stomp just as your amps with the separate HX FX is actually a nice setup.
This is sounding interesting... Sounds like a complete system would be the LT or FX+Stomp.
Here's the breakdown as I see it:
LT has 12 blocks and 8 switches for $1000
FX has 9 blocks and 6 switches for $600
Stomp has 6 blocks and 3 switches for $600
FX+Stomp has 15 blocks and 9 switches for $1200.
So, for $200 you get 3 extra blocks, and an extra footswitch.
Also, you could leave the stomp at home or bring it depending on the gig.
Would there be a way to use the stomp to provide both a guitar amp and a bass amp sim, with separate outputs for each?
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Hey so the only difference between the helix and the LT is no scribble strips???
Aside from less ins and outs and such. Does it have the headphone amp in it still?
Aside from less ins and outs and such. Does it have the headphone amp in it still?
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I have a 2 part question. I miss having a wah, and don't really want to bring a pedal as it would be my only pedal and I'd need another plug. So, I want to use an expression pedal since it's unpowered.
Question 1 - is there a way to set the wah/expression so heel-down completely bypasses the effect, and once you move from that position the wah starts to engage? So, functionally, exactly like a Dunlop bass wah? Reason I'm asking is that sometimes the wah needs to be engaged/disengaged immediately, and tapping the 'wah' block then moving my foot to the expression (then undoing it in reverse) takes more time that I want. If heel-down was essentially 'off', then I could tap the footswitch anytime before of after the wah part comes on - or I could just leave the switch on for the entire song, bringing the wah in an out whenever.
Question 2 - I seem to remember seeing a small expression pedal that's compatible with the HXFX, but can't find it now. No bigger than the Mini Dunlop bass wah.
edit - I'm thinking the small one I saw was the Dunlop DVP4, but not sure. Is it compatible and/or any good?
Help!
Question 1 - is there a way to set the wah/expression so heel-down completely bypasses the effect, and once you move from that position the wah starts to engage? So, functionally, exactly like a Dunlop bass wah? Reason I'm asking is that sometimes the wah needs to be engaged/disengaged immediately, and tapping the 'wah' block then moving my foot to the expression (then undoing it in reverse) takes more time that I want. If heel-down was essentially 'off', then I could tap the footswitch anytime before of after the wah part comes on - or I could just leave the switch on for the entire song, bringing the wah in an out whenever.
Question 2 - I seem to remember seeing a small expression pedal that's compatible with the HXFX, but can't find it now. No bigger than the Mini Dunlop bass wah.
edit - I'm thinking the small one I saw was the Dunlop DVP4, but not sure. Is it compatible and/or any good?
Help!
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Yes. Works great.
I use Dunlop Mini exp
Wah is off when heel down and you can set a delay time in ms for fast you want it to come on or bypass.
And there is A MIX CONTROL.
I have presets where my expression engages a Fuzz and then Wah comes on in the back third of the pedal travel.
You can set multiple effects to be controlled that way.
I have even had presets where as the gain of the fuzz came up, I adjusted the Amp settings (or EQ/Obsidian on the FX) to optimize the fuzz tone without messing with my clean settings.
The LT is pretty big. I also play GTR.
I do some Bass work where an LT wouldn't be overkill.
But I also do lots of bass work with NO effects (expected of me at least).
The HX FX scribble strips are pretty great. I especially like them when I am playing music that I don't know well. I can keep a normal assortment of FX on hand and go for it on the fly.
And yes, you can split GTR and Bass amps left and right or you can use block to a Send.
It looks like you’re able to set the LCD screen up to be a map of what you’re seeing though right?
Two questions:
1) Is it possible to quickly switch snapshots while in stomp mode?
2) What's a good cheap MIDI footswitch to send CC commands so I can toggle more than just 6 things?
1) Is it possible to quickly switch snapshots while in stomp mode?
2) What's a good cheap MIDI footswitch to send CC commands so I can toggle more than just 6 things?
From Stomp mode, you have to step on Mode3 and then step on Bank Up and Down at the same time to get to Snapshot mode.
I haven't warmed up to Snapshot yet. If I was touring the same music all the time I would be more likely to use it. But on bass, Stomp mode does it for me.
You can do a lot by using two expression pedals.
You can also make one footswitch control multiple blocks.
you can also set a block to toggle between two (or two GROUPS) of blocks.
I still haven't decided if I am keeping my HX Effects.
But my strategy would be to keep big general pedalboard presets set up on it.
On the Stomp, I have some more elaborate Compressor/Amp/ Two IR's/Room/ EQ presets.
And then on the Stomp, I also have preset with simpler amp/cab comb blocks and a couple of effects at a time which I will use for portable live gigs when I don't need a ton of effects.
One issue with jumping between the two COULD be with my Expression pedals. I had to flip an internal switch to use them (Dunlop Mini) with the Stomp. Haven't tried them again on the HX FX as I have two more EXP pedals.
Here is a size comparison between LT, HX Effects and Stomp
You can see that an Effects and a Stomp is still smaller than an LT.
But the LT has more internal routing options.
But the HX FX plus a Stomp gives you too many external routing options
This is on a Pedaltrain 1
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