Naigewron

1 hour ago, slowTwitch said:

What's the deal with buying a used (registered) Stomp and then trying to get the reduced cost Native software. Doable?

Cheers,
Rich

If the previous owner has used the discount, you can't use it. One discount per physical unit.

I'm just sitting here hoping this will tank the used price of the HX line. I'm GASing for a Stomp XL as a backup/grab&go unit.

10 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

IME it makes no difference to the global settings whether I do a wipe and restore or not. Neither way has reinstated them for me. All it appears to do is add another 30 minutes onto what is already and overlong process, and the last time I did a complete wipe and restore on my Helix, it insisted on rebuilding all my Presets for a third time when I next powered up the device.

Always worked for me, not sure why it wouldn't for you. That's the intended design, at least

6 hours ago, BigRedX said:

And yet again my Global setting have reverted to the factory defaults

When the update starts, you're forced to make a backup  Did you reload that backup after the update was done?

That's how you're supposed to get your settings back after every update.

9 minutes ago, Schwartz said:

Gotta love those taxes aye? 🙃

I can come down a little, but not enough to warrant getting a new one at 25% imports. 😆

Yeah, and there's always the old trick of marking a lower price on the postage form. The problem there is of course that if the package is lost or destroyed, the postal service will only cover what was on the form 🫠

Then again, I don't know if most shipping companies cover much by default without extra insurance. I know the Norwegian postal service only covers up to NOK 10k (about £700)

Bah, looks like there's a 25% import VAT on used goods, even on private sales. That brings the price on this up towards £2k including shipping, which is getting close to the price of a new Dingwall

I'll get back to you if I figure something out 👍

4 minutes ago, Schwartz said:

Yes, that can be arranged. I have sent a bass guitar to the Netherlands previously, so some experience getting them out the U.K. to the new owner safely. 🙂

Very nice! I'll have to check our dumb-ass import rules to make sure that I'm not hit with a 25% import VAT on a private used sale, and then do some quick budgeting  

Would you consider sending this abroad (Norway) at all?

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

NeuralDSP have about 12 hours left on their 50% off plugins deal.

 

The Parallax is a particularly great bass plugin.

 

Free 14 day trial is available on their site, but the discounted price only lasts to tonight.

Good tip. I still use Helix Native for my bass tones, but I grabbed Archetype Rabea for my guitar this sale, and I already owned Archetype Nolly from a previous sale. Both are great plugins for sure.

I've used the trial version of Parallax, but I was too geared for modern distortion for my tastes. If they release an Alpha Omega plugin I'm all over it.

45 minutes ago, JPJ said:

So, having been a bit poorly this week, I’ve been doom scrolling on the couch and catching up on bass related podcasts vlogs etc. Both Janek Gwizdala and Ian Martin Allison rave about the HX Stomp, but in one vlog I saw Janek Gwizdala using the HX One that has piqued my interest.

My gigs rarely call for FX but it would be nice to have a bit of reverb/chorus/subharmonics available every now and again, and the small’ish form factor of the HX One could be squeezed onto my meagre little pedal board. I don’t need the complexity of the Stomp as I’m more than happy with my current preamp choice (EBS Stanley Clarke) so to my question - is anyone using the HX One and if so, what’s your opinion?

I don't use the HX One, but I had its predecessor the M5 for a while. It's really nice to have a device like that on the board for those effects that you will only need once in a while. For me, it eventually became too limiting because I ended up finding a lot of different cool effects in there, and I wanted to start stacking more than one of them together at the same time. For me, that meant that I later became an HX Stomp user, then the HX Effects, then the Helix LT, then the Helix Floor and now I'm using Helix Native (and other plugins) on a 100% laptop-based rig. But that sounds like it might be overkill for your needs 😄

I think the HX One is an excellent entry into the Helix ecosystem. You will either be happy with it because you only need one effect at a time, or you will find it limiting and eventually move up to the HX Stomp. If the latter happens, you will already be familiar with the effects of the Helix line, so you will have a much easier time dialing in the HX Stomp down the line.

14 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

I'll be blunt, my opinion of Jon Willis has plummeted over the years. I've known of him for a number of years since the Facebook Yamaha attitude owners group before the helix came along. 
 

He's somewhat crowned himself as the helix bass guru without credentials and most of his presets are variations of the same thing, mid-rangey, Sheehan-esque p bass type stuff. All dialled in with an RTA and headphones. Fine  for Sheehan style rock stuff, but not a lot else. I tried his synth pack and didn't find it useful at all tbh. 
 

I've been using the helix for at least 6 years and like you, I'm loathed to pay money for presets. I've dialled in my own and was generally happy, although synths are my Achilles heel. But over the last year I've been enamoured with Ian Alison's tones so I bit the bullet and bought his vintage synth pack.
 

Oh my! These are the real deal - they sound extraordinary. Genuinely useful, especially the mini moon preset. I enjoyed it so much I bought his signature pack too to see if I could learn anything and he improve my own. Needless to say a modified version of his signature amp preset forms the basis of my core tones. Organic, gritty, gooey goodness and very versatile. 
 

A while ago Jon and Ian had a rather public spat of social media where Jon "bought Ian's presets to review so you don't have to" and heavily criticised them for having round numbers in the settings. As if that's proof they haven't been dialled in and finessed over hundreds of gigs. He accused Ian of being nothing more than a used care salesman and then proceeded to tweak Ian's presets by 0.1 in each block and give them away for free. 
 

the community did not approve. I lost all respect for him at that point. 
 

honestly, IMA's presets appear costly, but they are the real deal and sound great, and dead easy to tweak if you need to shape to your taste and requirements. 
 

 

Well, I didn't want make that post, but you're 100% spot on.

5 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I think it is quite impressive, seeing as they don't have to add anything but they still do.

I mean, that was literally the next sentence of my comment that you quoted, yes 😄

Yeah, a bit of a disappointing update after the long wait, but I'm not going to complain about the effort. The fact that Line6 are still pumping out updates for a product line that's almost a decade old, still keeping it highly relevant, is incredible. Other comparable companies simply don't do this; they want to ship new products and abandon their old ones as fast as they can.

All that being said, I'm definitely trying out the EVH models for my guitar patches.

Keeping the thread alive with a live shot from last year. Always great when the gig photographer focuses on the bass

Since I'm new to the thread, here's my rig these days. No amp, although I'll use one if it's provided, because stage volume is always fun (I have a split to an FX send before any amp/cab blocks in the Helix).

Two gigbags and I'm all set, no more fridges to load and unload, and that includes my wireless setup, in-ear rig, spare DI, and any backups and tools I might need.

Undressed:

Dressed:

Just now, BigRedX said:

The problem with re-importing your settings is that it adds another complete rebuild of all the presets, and sometime the Helix does it again after the next power-up following a firmware update, which is the last thing anyone wants at a rehearsal or even worse a gig

Doing a firmware update right before a gig is a risky strategy regardless, in my book.

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

After I posted I did some additional reading and it seems to be related to the fact that after many firmware updates additional Global Setting options are added so the old settings can't be used. 

Might be. I've never had to redo any global settings, and I've been following all updates since about 2.40 now. But some of them have been on the HX Stomp, some on the HX Effects and some on the Helix Floor, since I've gone through phases of owning different units.

On 20/06/2024 at 17:01, BigRedX said:

Just done the latest firmware update and one thing is starting to annoy me about the Helix.

 

Each update resets a lot of things to their factory defaults.

 

Once agin I have had to reassign the following:

1. Volume control to affect the XLR output only.

2. Sample rate to 44.1 kHz.

3. Expression 1 Pedal position to be global.

4. Footswitch assignments to be 4 Presets on the top row and 4 Snapshots on the bottom row

5. Tuner display to Strobe.

6. Re-instate my Global EQ settings. After I lost these the first time I made sure to write them down as they are less easily remembered than the others.

 

Luckily my preferences coincide with the defaults some of the other important global settings like MIDI and clock/tempo assignments.

 

I would have thought by now that there would be some way to save all of these so they would be restored to the user settings following a firmware upgrade but either there isn't or I have something that would allow this disabled, although if that is the case, I can't see it.

When you start the update process, you're asked to make a backup and save it on your computer. After the update, you are asked to reload that backup, which should re-import all your old settings for you. Are you possibly skipping that step?

18 minutes ago, 2pods said:

Half price amp plugins at  Neural's Birthday Sale

 

I bought the Soldano SLO X, to go with the Cory Young (not upgraded to "X" standard yet, but it will be a free upgrade when they do) I already have.

 

Both sound excellent

Great sounding plugins, but it's so annoying that they're all completely separate. No way to mix & match drives, amps, delays, etc from different Neural plugins without setting up an increasingly complex chain of instances. I wish they had a universal loader pluging, where you could choose parts from all the Neural plugins you owned; I'm sure this would increase their sales and appeal drastically.

I've got a couple of Neural plugins, but I inevitably fall back to Helix Native for all my DAW guitar modelling needs, because it has everything in one package.

Tonocracy amp and effects modeler is now free!

https://tonocracy.com/

It uses Atomic's amp modeling. I haven't tested Tonocracy, but I've owned Atomic hardware modelers, and they sound and feel great.

New cover!

One of the absolute top bass riffs in rock history, and I'll fight anyone who disagrees (disclaimer: I won't actually fight anyone)

22 hours ago, ahpook said:

Good work! Particularly enjoyed Poker Face - nicely played.

Much appreciated. Yeah, I'm really enjoying pretending to play synth bass; it makes for some interesting tones and challenges.

Throught I'd just gather up all my bass covers and playthroughs in a single thread. I make these mostly for my own amusement, and to document where I'm at in terms of playing and ability. They might also serve as resources if I find myself wanting a gig and the band leader needs to see a sample of what I can do, who knows?

Here's my channel link where all my videos get posted: https://www.youtube.com/@eskilseter

I'll post new videos as they're uploaded, but here are some current highlights

My Cherry Sunburst and Tobacco Sunburst axes. Love burst finishes

7 hours ago, mike257 said:

Just got an Instagram ad for UAD giving away a new LA-2A plugin. Native too, doesn't need UAD hardware. 

Not free on their site as far as I can see. Is there a code or special URL?

Edit: Found it:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyOZ0OfIRUF/

49 minutes ago, TomWIC said:

 

Would love to see your settings for this one.

Absolutely

Stainless steel strings (DR Lo-Riders in my case) give me the high end zing I want. In addition, I keep my action fairly low and smack the crap out of my strings to get that real throaty attack. You can hear in the middle section from about 2:52 into the video how the aggressive attack completely goes away when I pick lightly.

Cab IR is the Shiftline Mesa RR215 from their free bass IR pack. Best IR I've ever tried for my tones.

Here's the Photon settings for my drive preset that you hear in the video.

Drive set to full Alpha side, distortion mode 1, about 60% drive and blend. Most importantly: Mids are definitely your friend: