Line 6 HX Effects

[gregmon79]

Anyone considering this ou the full Helix, don't forget you can install a 15 day trial version of Helix Native on Mac/PC. I've been giving it a go myself and find the following so far:

Overdrives: The legacy ones are mostly lacklustre but the Teemah (Timmy), Compulsive Drive (OCD), and Obsidian (B7K) from the Helix set are all outstanding on bass. Definitely the best digital drive sounds I've heard, I would be happy using these for sure.

Octaver: No classic bass octave down in the standard range but the legacy Bass Octaver is excellent. Doesn't sound anything like an OC-2 but it's fat, sounds great blended with the dry signal, and tracks well with low latency. The simple/dual pitch from the Helix effects offer a decent POG-like effect.

Filters: The Tron Up / Tron Down from the legacy range are pretty good and walk all over the filters from the new FX selection. Still prefer my Fwonkbeta and Discombobulator though!

Phasers: There is a Script Phase 90 on offer, but unfortunately not my two favourites the Block Phase 90 and Small Stone.

Overall, not quite enough there to make me ditch my pedal board just yet!

This was sort of my initial line of thought as well. Not saying you wont change your mind. But I found the more I messed with the HX, the more I heard just how good it can be. Then I thought maybe my ears were just "getting used" to the sound of the pedal. That's when I A/B'ed a lot of stuff on my board with the HX. Kinda blew me away. So as of today, from a week ago when I got it, I wasn't sure if it would go on my board.....I slapped Velcro on it a couple days ago and it will be going on this weekend....

 

[smeet]

I just sold all my many effects pedals, because it was too much hassle for the few times I need effects. I tried a Zoom B3n. Something about the sound didn't gel with me, it felt weaker, like the ADA conversion was not quite there. I'll probably be playing 90% with no effects, so the quality of the bypass is actually the most important feature. I recorded A/B tests and could not hear the difference. But playing with it through an amp, I could feel the difference. Maybe processing lag? I don't know but I didn't like it.

You guys are giving me serious GAS for the HX. If the quality of the effects and the bypass is as good as everyone says, I gotta get one. And it's SO MUCH CHEAPER AND SMALLER than my old pedalboard. And no forest of patch cords to go bad.

Too bad I got laid off... I have some good job prospects in progress, but no formal offers yet. So I shouldn't buy it with the money stashed in my paypal from the effects I sold. Right? RIGHT? RIGHT??? The kids can always go to college another time, right? Grrrr.

 

[fivestringgecko]

Octaver: No classic bass octave down in the standard range but the legacy Bass Octaver is excellent. Doesn't sound anything like an OC-2 but it's fat, sounds great blended with the dry signal, and tracks well with low latency. The simple/dual pitch from the Helix effects offer a decent POG-like effect.

This is a pretty great summary of what I've been thinking about the Bass Octaver as well. My main HX patch actually has two programmed at the beginning of the chain. One for sub only, one for sub with dry, because I have an Octabvre that has the options and I've come to really appreciate having both!

Filters: The Tron Up / Tron Down from the legacy range are pretty good and walk all over the filters from the new FX selection. Still prefer my Fwonkbeta and Discombobulator though!

This is originally what I thought too, hearing that 2.50 included the Tron Up in Legacy effects was the final push for me to pull the trigger on an HX. But oh man, the Helix Auto Filter instantly became my favorite... rivaling my Proton in terms of all time favorite filters out of 36 I've tried/owned (before the HX). It sounded a little weird with the default settings, so you do have to get in and tweak the controls to your taste, but it gives you the most controls and allows the most tailoring by far (including making it sound like the Legacy Tron model). And you can assign an EXP to any parameter!

5sg.

 

[dannybuoy]

This is a pretty great summary of what I've been thinking about the Bass Octaver as well. My main HX patch actually has two programmed at the beginning of the chain. One for sub only, one for sub with dry, because I have an Octabvre that has the options and I've come to really appreciate having both!



This is originally what I thought too, hearing that 2.50 included the Tron Up in Legacy effects was the final push for me to pull the trigger on an HX. But oh man, the Helix Auto Filter instantly became my favorite... rivaling my Proton in terms of all time favorite filters out of 36 I've tried/owned (before the HX). It sounded a little weird with the default settings, so you do have to get in and tweak the controls to your taste, but it gives you the most controls and allows the most tailoring by far (including making it sound like the Legacy Tron model). And you can assign an EXP to any parameter!

5sg.

Just tried the Autofilter again and I agree! I was trying to get the Mutant one to sound good but it's just to sensitive and I can't get it to sweep right with my bass.

 

[Digital Igloo]

iPads and ForScore and Light control. Oh my!
The keyboard player for my band is a gear nut as well, so in conversation with him and the guitarist (who has a Helix Floor), we figured out that we could actually send MIDI controls from our iPads to our HX/Helix. We all use ForScore for charts, and our keys player has figured out that he can assign a MIDI send to a specific chart in ForScore, which then changes his keyboard patches for him. So in theory, we could do the same with the HX... pull up a chart in ForScore and it automatically sends patch change info to the HX.

One step further: get this... referring back to our discussion on controlling lights with the HX, we came to the consensus that by programming MIDI sends into HX presets, the HX could probably in turn send MIDI signals to control light changes.... all just by changing charts in ForScore. Still just currently a theory of course, because we haven't been able to try any of it to confirm.

I spent my first year in LA designing live automation systems for bands who want synced preset recall, lighting, and video. I think about this crap a lot.

Yes, HX Effects can do all of this. If you send it a PC message, HX will recall a preset and spit out up to 6 buffered commands over MIDI, USB MIDI, or Amp Control to your other effects, amps, DAW software, and MIDI-to-DMX controllers. If you send it a CC69 message (value 0-3), HX will recall a snapshot and spit out the same.

 

[fivestringgecko]

Just tried the Autofilter again and I agree! I was trying to get the Mutant one to sound good but it's just to sensitive and I can't get it to sweep right with my bass.

Excellent! That Auto Filter... Mmmmmmmmmmm.

I spent my first year in LA designing live automation systems for bands who want synced preset recall, lighting, and video. I think about this crap a lot.

Yes, HX Effects can do all of this. If you send it a PC message, HX will recall a preset and spit out up to 6 buffered commands over MIDI, USB MIDI, or Amp Control to your other effects, amps, DAW software, and MIDI-to-DMX controllers. If you send it a CC69 message (value 0-3), HX will recall a snapshot and spit out the same.

@Digital Igloo

Yeah, having that confirmed makes my brain kinda melty. Oh, the possibilities!!!

Eric, man... Thanks so much again for your time to come into the trenches and talk with us. It really means a lot to have that kind of connection with the people that create the gear. The Line 6 podcast also just popped in my feed yesterday, so I listened to the first episode... good stuff there too! I've got a couple tweaks I'm going to make to my Reverb Dreams patch I posted earlier in the thread and submit it! Looking forward to future episodes!

Do you guys have a BassBalls model in the works by chance? lol

5sg.

 

[gregmon79]

I just sold all my many effects pedals, because it was too much hassle for the few times I need effects. I tried a Zoom B3n. Something about the sound didn't gel with me, it felt weaker, like the ADA conversion was not quite there. I'll probably be playing 90% with no effects, so the quality of the bypass is actually the most important feature. I recorded A/B tests and could not hear the difference. But playing with it through an amp, I could feel the difference. Maybe processing lag? I don't know but I didn't like it.

You guys are giving me serious GAS for the HX. If the quality of the effects and the bypass is as good as everyone says, I gotta get one. And it's SO MUCH CHEAPER AND SMALLER than my old pedalboard. And no forest of patch cords to go bad.

Too bad I got laid off... I have some good job prospects in progress, but no formal offers yet. So I shouldn't buy it with the money stashed in my paypal from the effects I sold. Right? RIGHT? RIGHT??? The kids can always go to college another time, right? Grrrr.

Dude, @smeet, it’s really good. Far better than zoom in that the effects sound and just as good if not better in some cases than what they model. The trems sounds friggen beautiful. I actually like the trems on here more than any other trem I’ve tried. As an example.

And the bypasses both rule imo. I thought the analogue bypass was great. Then I tried the DSP bypass and was like wow. It’s even better. And remember this too, depending on what you put in the chain, if I read this correctly, it can effect the bypass too. So if you have a fuzz in there, it can effect the bypass. I can’t remember if that’s even bypassed or not.

Overall, it’s just rad man.

 

[Dave W]

Any tips on upgrading firmware?
Mine currently has 2.40 loaded.

 

[fivestringgecko]

Any tips on upgrading firmware?
Mine currently has 2.40 loaded.

This should work for you.

5sg.

 

[Basshappi]

My problem is that I NEED the HX Floor, and don’t have nearly enough stuff to sell to get it! Well there are the kids......

Sell 'em, you can make more later.

 

[Dave W]

This should work for you.

5sg.

It doesn't, that's why I asked

The updater doesn't recognize the HX when it's connected.

I tried installing HX Edit 2.51 (or 2.52, I forget) which also installs all of the drivers and updater, but it still didn't recognize.

I'm going to try rolling HX Edit back to v2.50 (or 2.40 if it exists) to see if matching the firmware helps. I had to stop for dinner though.

I'm getting flashbacks of when I had a POD and had to jump through hoops to get it updated as well. I hope it goes easier than that...

 

[76jazzbass]

I keep taking pedals off my board because this thing. Loving it, and still haven't scratched the surface it seems. I was able to add a second mini Dunlop expression in the empty space

 

[254 stringer]

Any tips on upgrading firmware?
Mine currently has 2.40 loaded.

Mine had issues. Not sure what yours is doing but mine would get to a certain point and say update error or something like that. I did factory reset didn’t help, I manually put it in update mode which I thought helped but then it got a boot error unless I put it in update mode. Finally after searching I found someone having a similar problem and he said he tried a different usb cable. I grabbed another cable and 2 minutes later I’m good to go with 2.50 firmware.

Also after you update the firmware do a factory reset or it leaves the old presets on there and they are corrupted in the HX edit. I couldn’t create a backup till I got the old presets off mine.

 

[smeet]

OK, just to torture myself a bit more - excellent bypass, good compression, good B7KU sim... Can it do a good approximation of the Broughton Low + High Pass filter?

 

[fivestringgecko]

It doesn't, that's why I asked

The updater doesn't recognize the HX when it's connected.

Sorry, I must have missed that in your post! lol

I guess I shouldn't joke, because that would frustrate me as well. I guess I can't be much help then... mine was okay. I actually didn't have to update mine. I thought it was strange when I opened the box, and the seals were already broken. Still, I went through the process of installing the Updater, drivers, etc as well, only to turn the HX on and see 2.50 at the boot screen. The only explanation I have is that Musician's Friend updated before they sent them out.

5sg.

 

[Johno Dunn]

Sell 'em, you can make more later.

No I can’t!

 

[escaraBAJO]

I have been following the thread from the beginning and I am almost sold on the helix system. The snapshots feature and routing is what attracts me the most.
I am interested in the Helix LT because of the expression pedal but I have read it breaks down easy.
Anybody has tried the HX Effects with an external expression pedal? How does it works?
Thanks again

 

[gregmon79]

I have been following the thread from the beginning and I am almost sold on the helix system. The snapshots feature and routing is what attracts me the most.
I am interested in the Helix LT because of the expression pedal but I have read it breaks down easy.
Anybody has tried the HX Effects with an external expression pedal? How does it works?
Thanks again

I’m not a big fan of the moog I’m using with it. But a couple guys here are using Ernie Ball and they said it works great. I see a lot of guys online and social media using the one made by mission engineering. They make one specifically designed to work with line 6 products like the helix family. That’s the one I’d like to get eventually but will most likely end up with an EB mini I think.

 

[CRich0205]

Got mine home this afternoon. I think I need to update the firmware but I’m a fan so far. I downloaded helix native to mess around with today and that was killer for guitar. The whole line seems
Like a win. Once I download the manual and really grasp what this will do I imagine it’s gonna blow my mind.

 

[fivestringgecko]

Anybody has tried the HX Effects with an external expression pedal? How does it works?
Thanks again

I've been giving my Dunlop Mini Volume X a try, since I had it before I got the HX. So far it's been pretty killer, no problems. The Aux port can be switched via internal control from Tuner to Expression out.

5sg.