Line6 HX Effects instead of a pedalboard?

[Micha84]

Hey everybody,

I recently started playing around with effects because of a new band. I don't have any special needs: I need a good compressor and a good drive (to bring the bass up front during guitar solos), a decent octave and some kind of modulation and/or reverb. I built a cheap pedalboard to try it out, and while I will absolutely continue to use effects from now on, I am not at all happy with the sound of my current board. The compressor isn't to my taste (UAFX 1176), the drive muddies the sound (Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff), the chorus is honky (cheap Behringer), only the octaver is half decent but lacks definition (TC Electronics Nether)

Now I am looking at two options: Buy better individual pedals, which will be fun, result in a great board, but very possibly end up expensive. Or get the Line6 HX Effects, which in theory has everything I need and a few things more that would be nice to have but I wouldn't necessarily pay for, it will be a lot more flexible and it will probably be less expensive than individual pedals. I have heard great things about the quality of the Helix in general, but I have also seen people using Line6 products and still having individual compressor or drive pedals.

So, my questions: Does anybody use only the HX Effects and nothing more as effect board? How are the compressors and drives especially? What are your general experiences?

Thanks!

 

[Daniel B5]

I'm pretty close to where you are, except I already have an HX Effects unit that I picked up used for a good price. My thinking was very much like yours: why pay $100-$200 per pedal, plus a separate power supply and pedal board, when you can theoretically consolidate it all in a multi-effects unit and save money and physical clutter?

What I've found so far is that there's an upfront learning curve that can be daunting if you don't have a lot of time to dig into the individual effects. Which overdrive? Which compressor? How do you want to set the parameters for each effect? And after all that: is it actually the result you're looking for, or are you settling for the best that the multi-FX unit can offer?

It's a lot like shopping for a new pedal and adding it to your setup, I guess. If you take that mindset and add one effect at a time to your virtual pedalboard, it should help avoid the choice paralysis / being overwhelmed feeling that I ran into.

The HX Effects doesn't have a DI, so you'll either have to rely on your amp for that or have a separate DI pedal. Because I already have some antique pedals from the 80s (hello Rat!) that I want to keep close at hand, I'm moving towards a mix of including the HX Effects on a pedal board with a separate DI, the Rat, and a few other pedals. Kind of the best of / worst of both worlds, I guess.

To complicate matters I've also ordered a Pi-Stomp, which might replace the HX Effects or (to really make a mess) join it on the pedal board.

Very long way of saying that I understand your situation and hope you do a better job than I have of keeping things simple and inexpensive

 

[midichlorine]

PortaStomp V3 - Pedalnetics

Grab-and-go! Run your HXStomp like a portable battery-powered system. 7.8" wide, 6.8" deep, 2.25" tall.

pedalnetics.com

This would get you an all in one setup with DI.
Hx stomp is the one thing I won't get rid of.
Comps are fine and the drives work well.
It's really a matter of how much you wanna tweak on either side.
I love pedals but the stomp is extremely practical.

For instance I have a basic pedalboard preset with 4 different effects and a tuner and use just that mostly.
Lots of fun with useable "real world" effects

 

[JonathanPDX]

Hey everybody,

I recently started playing around with effects because of a new band. I don't have any special needs: I need a good compressor and a good drive (to bring the bass up front during guitar solos), a decent octave and some kind of modulation and/or reverb. I built a cheap pedalboard to try it out, and while I will absolutely continue to use effects from now on, I am not at all happy with the sound of my current board. The compressor isn't to my taste (UAFX 1176), the drive muddies the sound (Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff), the chorus is honky (cheap Behringer), only the octaver is half decent but lacks definition (TC Electronics Nether)

Now I am looking at two options: Buy better individual pedals, which will be fun, result in a great board, but very possibly end up expensive. Or get the Line6 HX Effects, which in theory has everything I need and a few things more that would be nice to have but I wouldn't necessarily pay for, it will be a lot more flexible and it will probably be less expensive than individual pedals. I have heard great things about the quality of the Helix in general, but I have also seen people using Line6 products and still having individual compressor or drive pedals.

So, my questions: Does anybody use only the HX Effects and nothing more as effect board? How are the compressors and drives especially? What are your general experiences?

Thanks!

I was in a similar situation and have both options. I have a big complex board with lots of niche pedals, as well as a HX Effects unit. On gigs the feedback was that one setup wasn't significantly better or different than the other. My go-to setup is pretty similar to yours: overdrive, chorus, octave-down, envelope filter. I like having a reverb or echo option for sparkly stuff, a Freeze pedal can be really handy for certain solo situations, and a dedicated synth pedal is a nice tool to have as well. I have a looper but I don't keep it on my pedalboard since it only comes out for solo gigs.

The HX Effects does not have an effect that can duplicate the Freeze pedal, which is a drag. It's looping capabilities are also very basic, too. I have a TC Electronic Flashback pedal on my board and it can make really silly spaceship sounds, which the HX Effects can't duplicate either.

However, the HX Effects can do pretty much everything else, plus a hell of a lot more. Programming it is the hard part. I found it easiest to plug it into the PC and tweak settings on the screen. There are so many options and settings, you will literally spend hours on your sounds and can get stuck in a loop of endlessly tweaking the parameters trying to find the perfect setup. You can also mess up after all that tweaking and forget to save it correctly.

I think that if I really dedicated the time to dialing in the HX Effects I could get even more out of it and replace my board (though not having a DI would be another problem to solve.) Each bank can hold 6 effects, and you have up/down switches to toggle between banks. You can combine them in pretty much any combination, though, again, that requires some work to program them so they blend well together. It's really handy that you can change the color and name on the display so on stage it's very easy to see which button does what.

One long-term goal I haven't done yet with the HX is to set up two banks of pad tones. I had trouble finding the right settings and gain level, but it's possible to set it up so you have a tone of each note you could hold down with your foot, which could be really handy in certain settings.

Lastly, if you do go with the HX Effects, absolutely get an expression pedal! You can use it to adjust ANY setting on any effect, which gives you a ton of control when adjusting things like overdrive or how much dry mix blends in with your octave. You can even plug in two expression pedals, if you want to give yourself even more options.

Overall, if I really committed to the HX I think it could do 90% of what my fancy board does and add some additional cool stuff as well. But if you just want a "grab and go" option without a lot of prep work you will probably find individual pedals easier to manage.

 

[Dbassmon]

I live in Helix-land for my bass processing. Amp emulation, virtual mics and cabinets, studio-quality compression & EQ, balanced, low-impedance direct-to-front-of-house. FOH engineers will love you.

BTW, Line 6 has released Helix Stadium (Helix Gen 2) so all of the Gen 1 Helix products are going on sale. Good time to pick one up.

 

[prndltech]

Yup. Similar route here, went with the HX stomp myself.

 

[tom once dead]

I've got both. The big pedal board with individually selected pedals and a small board with HX stomp/tuner/DI. Overall I think the compressors and drives in the HX are the weak point. You can get them sounding great for sure, but not with a lot of tweaking and setting up a wet/dry signal chain in the HX to blend the drives. However the HX has a lot of awesome effects and having everything available to you is pretty amazing. The HX bass octave is excellent and there are great reverb and modulation effects too.

Now if you have specific wants and needs that you can only get from certain individual pedals I would recommend that route. But that also requires doing a fair ammount of research and testing to find out what's gonna do the job for you. And it'll probably end up costing more than a HX too. But you'll have all the controls at your fingertips instead of the endless menu diving that building patches on a HX requires.

 

[BrianVengeance]

Definitely doable. My main board for years was a HXFX with outboard dirts and compression, but in a pinch I could have gone all onboard with the Helix. No amp sims, but it does load IRs. It's mostly intuitive, but there is a learning curve.

 

[brocket]

Not quite as my only pedal (I do have a preamp pedal) but my bass signal chain in my HXFX is something like (in no particular order) HPF, Compressor, drive, delay, octave reverb, chorus, octave down… maybe something else too? Not feeling something? There's a long list to pick from to change it. I like that each switch has a scribble strip so I know what's on the board at all times. Like others have said, it'll get you 95% of the way there for a fraction of the cost of buying things individually. I think it's one of the best pieces of gear I've ever had and have no plans of replacing it anytime soon.

 

[Mastiff_5]

I have used multiple different multi-effects over the years in my bass rigs, and as a sound man/ production tech. However, for Bass, I far prefer curating a pedalboard rather than utilizing a multifx. Effects are a whole additional portion of our rigs, of our sound, and getting to know the different effects by buying, trying, selling and trading effects becomes its own thing.
I will say, if you don't like the 1176, and you've put it through its paces, then you have at LEAST a somewhat discerning ear. You might never be happy with the "almost perfect" sounds you get from multifx units.
Or, you might love it.
I say start building a better board and enjoy the ride

 

[dvdtlsn]

Go for it. I would consider it overkill for Bass in my situation, but it would be nice to have for the effects and IRs,

One of the best guitarists I know uses it. I learned a bunch from him about going ampless. As I am a bass player primarily, I ended up with a Boss ME90 as it was a bit cheaper. I have used it for (electric guitar) at church and on recordings and have no other pedals.

 

[groove pump]

Hey everybody,

I recently started playing around with effects because of a new band. I don't have any special needs: I need a good compressor and a good drive (to bring the bass up front during guitar solos), a decent octave and some kind of modulation and/or reverb. I built a cheap pedalboard to try it out, and while I will absolutely continue to use effects from now on, I am not at all happy with the sound of my current board. The compressor isn't to my taste (UAFX 1176), the drive muddies the sound (Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff), the chorus is honky (cheap Behringer), only the octaver is half decent but lacks definition (TC Electronics Nether)

Now I am looking at two options: Buy better individual pedals, which will be fun, result in a great board, but very possibly end up expensive. Or get the Line6 HX Effects, which in theory has everything I need and a few things more that would be nice to have but I wouldn't necessarily pay for, it will be a lot more flexible and it will probably be less expensive than individual pedals. I have heard great things about the quality of the Helix in general, but I have also seen people using Line6 products and still having individual compressor or drive pedals.

So, my questions: Does anybody use only the HX Effects and nothing more as effect board? How are the compressors and drives especially? What are your general experiences?

Thanks!

I dipped my toe into the HX realm when I recently spotted a nice deal on a used HX One at Guitar Center. Not a terribly overwhelming pedal just because there's not all that much to tweak with it - the HX One essentially only does one "thing" at a time. I won't waste your time with listing all of those "things", but this seemed like a smart box for me to grab just to save me from eventually getting into buying a certain pedal for just one song we do, then another pedal for that one other song, and so on.

I'm not any sort of effects lunatic, but this pedal sounds really nice. If I was up for the learning curve of perhaps an HX Stomp I'd be shopping for one, but I'm not, at least not for now. I took a run at the POD Go a while back and although it seemed like a quality build with a similar vast array of sounds and functions to choose from, I just couldn't get into it... at all... even trying some guitar noodling that I sometimes do at home.

The multi that I do have is a Zoom B6. It's so user friendly for a knucklehead like me that I used a few sounds in it at a gig only a few days after I picked it up. The touch screen, lighted footswitches, and utility knobs have made my adventures with getting around this gizmo and cooking up sounds/patches very straightforward and frustration free. While I was ready for some of the effects in the B6 to sound a little cheesy, tinny, and sort of cheap, they really haven't disappointed me at all. And I'm still quite a long way from really digging into every aspect of what this item has to offer.

My lesson so far with the multi units is that I'm much better off having ease of use with a competent option that won't keep me sidelined while learning how to dial up this, access that, yaddah-yaddah. An HX Stomp could be a game changer for you, but you might also want to check out what a B6 has to offer (including four emulated DI's). At least on paper, the Zoom checks all of your boxes.

 

[Bonecat]

I've been ampless for several years now. When I first made that change I used an HX Stomp as the nucleus of my pedalboard. I added a couple pedals I really liked in an effects loop, an additional two button switch for some more control options, and a Pinstripe ISO box for a clean solid XLR DI. Used this for about three years, maybe 150 shows. Grew a bit fatigued with the limited bass-specific options, and ultimately replaced the HX with a Bergantino Super Pre, which I've used ever since. They show up here used occasionally and I heartily recommend it. Super flexible, sounds amazing, has a useful drive, distortion, and fuzz, and the FX loop works really well. And nobody does customer service like Jim does.

 

[EliasA]

I'll be the odd one out here in advocating for pedals. There is something the perfectionist in me loves about pedals - I can be satisfied that I made the right choice instead of wondering like with plugin/modeled digital modulation like the HX Stomp. Obviously I could do what I want to do with the HX Stomp, but something about pedals scratches an irrational itch for me. Oh, did you ask for recommendations? Of course! Empress Effects Bass Compressor, drive of your choice, MXR Bass Octave Deluxe, and maybe an EHX Oceans 11 reverb if you don't want to shell out for an Empress Echosystem which includes every delay and reverb under the sun. Thanks? You're welcome!

 

[vvvmmm]

I hate the Zoom MS thing, never could get a good bypass sound through it and the FX were just OK.

I have the Vox thing (the 6"x9" one comes with a wah pedal or not) and a few of the older Zoom multi's because they were OK in cans in my office back in the daze I hadda office and were costing under US$50 at the time.

And I have the HX One because someone here sold it for a good price. It's OK,, but a PITA to navigate quickly or even remember how to, and it to me it sounds ... "digital".

I also have a few pedals (yes, some digital, of course, but the best ain't sound like it), and am not askeered to say I prefer individual pedals every time for all of the afore-mentioned reasons; same on guitar.

 

[Micha84]

Thanks everybody for your insights, that was really helpful!
I forgot to mention that one thing I appreciate in the HX Effects is that I have a lot of foot switches and can turn single effects on and off spontaneously in a jam or to try out ideas without having to switch through presets. So the Stomp isn't really an option for me - still, thanks for your input regarding the Stomp, at the end they do have the same effects.

I don't mind fiddling a bit, and I am not generally new to effects. I am a music producer, just haven't used effects in a live situation as a bass player yet.
I guess I will have to find a way to try an HX Effects to make up my mind in the end. As always

 

[logdrum]

I have many times tried to buy an HX stomp or HX LT but they still hold their value and you are still out at least 400 - 500 at least where I live and what they go for on reverb the LT being higher. So I went the cheaper route Zoom MS 60B. At lest it's okay. The Zoom effects are not full featured in parameters like a Line 6 is, but sound wise they are decent maybe a little compressed but good for live use for a weekend warrior and also pretty compact.

For creative stuff, I already have a pedal board with dedicated pedals. I do find the Eventide H90, Meris EnzoX and Ottobit and some Source Audio pedals are just irreplaceable and the effects just do things that you can't do with a Line 6 or Zoom or Nux. I did buy the PiStomp OpenSource Multi Effect Kit which ay 289 but won't know how it really sounds until the end of the month as I ordered mine with a MIDI board as well.

I know my standlone pedals quite well and they are tweakable on stage ( the Source Audio are with a caveat - need some pre planning on the presets - but I curated what I need ) The H90 and the Meris are sound design jewels and I have not even tapped to what they can do but already my experimental band is blown away with what they are capable of with the defaults and 20 or so I created or tweak

TLDR:

If all I had was my compressor , envelop filter, octaver, chorus and mild drive + a delay/reverb combo - I am in many ways golden. It's like basic food groups. I feel like the Multi's are like Protein Superfood powders that promise complete nourishment but sometimes you just want the salad, the entree/protein, soup and the grains served separately.

 

[pb9717]

I'm living this right now. I have a trad pedalboard with exceptional boxes ( Whirwind Bass Ten, Panda MIDI Future Impact synth pedal) amongst several others. I've grown tired of lugging a 30lb+ aluminum case with the board. I picked up an HX stomp and am attempting to eliminate as many outboard boxes as possible. I've succeeded in not needing the Bass Ten EQ, the Darkglass Vintage Ultra DI, the ZOOM B3 (chorus/amp sim/Octaver) the Broughton Low pass, and the MXR compressor. But I cannot get an envelope filter or synth tone out of the HX to rival the MXR Env Fltr and Panda MIDI synth. So, I've cut down my pedals, but cannot eliminate all of them. AND dont get me started on the frustration of learning to setup a Stomp to your taste. Hours of watching tutorial videos, and working with the PC interface. My first attempt to try and use the HX as a pedal was disastrous . So, it is an excellent idea, and the abilities of the HX are more than you will likely need, but its a tedious process. From a sound perspective, the majority of the HX tones are outstanding. Just as good as many of the individual boxes you'd be replacing….just not all of em'.

 

[meisi]

Yes. Get one.

It can be like buying a Swiss Army knife when you just need tweezers but it's a lot of fun just remember to play bass between knob turning.

The big units are like space ships. I prefer to keep it simple.

 

[pineweasel]

I went from using pedals to just a HX Stomp and I really like it, but my current needs are particular tones for specific songs. It wouldn't work for more spontaneous situations where control of individual effects is needed, but as you've identified, the HX Effects would be much better for that. Tweaking individual parameters would still be a chore compared to individual pedals, of course.

While the compressors and drives in the HX are pretty good, I don't find the octaver options to be very satisfying. They are OK in the context of creating a synth like tone in conjunction with other effects, but pale in comparison to any of the classic analog octave pedals I've used, so if that's an important part of your sound the HX may disappoint.