Helix Floor/LT/HX/Stomp/PodGo/Stadium/XL owners' Club - Tips, Ideas & Patches

[Woodinblack]

31 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

If you look at it one way, Isn’t it v2 of a MOD dwarf with added Darkglass? 

 

Well, that wasn't their product so it doesn't count!

 

[Jack]

Shame they are still so big. IME both the Stomp and the HXFX are a little too limited, but the full size ones are too huge to go on a board. I should probably try the Stomp XL...

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

From what I saw in the presentation, there's a DAW-like view for song stems that you can freely mix as you see fit. I think I saw a separate mixer feature as well for all the ins and outs. I assume you would be able to assign stem tracks to different outputs to make this feature truly useful.

 

I've been looking at what little information is available about the more esoteric features of the Stadium and it looks as though if you want enough outputs to do packing playback seriously you will probably need the expansion box.

 

The following will be important for me:

 

1. The ability the playback 4 channels of synchronised audio and send them to separate outputs.

2. The ability to synchronise Preset, Snapshot and parameter changes to the audio playback.

3. The ability to send MIDI program change, CC messages, and MTC/MIDI clock to external devices synchronised with the audio.

4. How quickly it loads a new "song" - ideally less than 5 seconds and is linked to Preset selection and Setlist order. So selecting a Preset also loads the corresponding audio and MIDI for playback, and the set order can be quickly changed using the Setlist function.

5. That it has sufficient memory to hold 4 channels of 24 bit audio for at least 1 hour of playback.

6. How easy it is to load all this information into the device from whatever DAW it has been created on. In the past I had a system that used standard MIDI files to control racks of synths and samplers as well as the guitar bass and vocal effects processors in order for my band to play live. While the playback worked really well, getting the information from the DAW into a format that the MIDI file player could use was massively convoluted, and once it had been done required me to run the "live" system to check that everything had transferred as I had intended. Also it then limited us to 16 channels of MIDI control rather than the potential 128 channels that a DAW plus MIDI interface could support. Ease of transfer (or not) could be the deal-breaker.

[BigRedX]

16 minutes ago, Jack said:

Shame they are still so big. IME both the Stomp and the HXFX are a little too limited, but the full size ones are too huge to go on a board. I should probably try the Stomp XL...

 

I think the idea is that they replace your board completely, which is why the larger HX/Helix devices all have built-in PSUs. I simply take my Helix out of its bag and place it on the stage. Plug in the Main cable, MIDI, wireless receiver and output to the PA and I'm ready to go.

Edited yesterday at 13:56 by BigRedX

[Jack]

16 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

I think the idea is that they replace your board completely, which is why the larger HX/Helix devices all have built-in PSUs. I simply take my Helix out of its bag and place it on the stage. Plug in the Main cable, MIDI, wireless receiver and output to the PA and I'm ready to go.

Yeah and I was able to do that when I had the rack helix as the wireless and DI and stuff were also in the rack. I guess the floor units would work for me if I went to a bug-style wireless system instead of the Shure pedal-style.

 

Super minor stuff, as Dood pointed out it's a great time to be a bass player and for me to be quibbling over something so incredibly minor. I just wish the Helix stuff was QC size so it could fit on a sensibly-sized board with a all of the other accoutrements that one simply couldn't possibly gig without like a wireless unit, DI/isolator, usb power socket ... 😁

[Greg Edwards69]

28 minutes ago, Jack said:

Yeah and I was able to do that when I had the rack helix as the wireless and DI and stuff were also in the rack. I guess the floor units would work for me if I went to a bug-style wireless system instead of the Shure pedal-style.

I sold my G10s wireless and replaced it with a far cheaper Lekato unit for this reason.  I don't need anything more advanced for the gigs I do.

[BigRedX]

I've got the NUX 5G for exactly this reason works brilliantly for me and is far more reliable than the Sony 2.4G it replaced.

 

I've played some fairly big stages using it without any problems.

 

If I wanted something better I'd be looking at a seriously pro system.

[Jack]

Well I am looking forward to hearing more about these, and hopefully there might be a Stomp Stadium or something to follow. I like my QC but there's plenty I miss about the Helix ecosystem and I certainly wouldn't mind going back.

[Russ]

5 minutes ago, Jack said:

Well I am looking forward to hearing more about these, and hopefully there might be a Stomp Stadium or something to follow. I like my QC but there's plenty I miss about the Helix ecosystem and I certainly wouldn't mind going back.

I still want them to put the guts of the current HX Stomp into the case of the POD Go Wireless, so you have a proper, small one-box gigging solution that's more usable than the current HX Stomp and less of a compromise than the current POD Go, and has the built-in expression pedal, wireless system, etc. They could rename it the HX Go.

It could stand to gain an XLR output too, perhaps. 

[tauzero]

As Line 6 have kept the Helix nomenclature, I would make the (perhaps rash) assumption that HX Edit will also be used for the Stadium, which means an updated version will be coming on the Stadium's release. Also, the release of the Stadium might mean a firmware update to the older members of the family.

 

Presumably Line 6 don't think that this announcement will cause sales of the top end Helices to drop off while people wait for this, as there's such a pricing gulf. Of course, if they've got a few Stadium Junior devices lined up to replace the Stomp sub-family, they won't want to announce that until they're ready for release.

[fretmeister]

34 minutes ago, Russ said:

I still want them to put the guts of the current HX Stomp into the case of the POD Go Wireless, so you have a proper, small one-box gigging solution that's more usable than the current HX Stomp and less of a compromise than the current POD Go, and has the built-in expression pedal, wireless system, etc. They could rename it the HX Go.

It could stand to gain an XLR output too, perhaps. 

 

 

Doesn't really need an XLR. The jack outputs are balanced already. Electrically identical.

[LukeFRC]

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

Doesn't really need an XLR. The jack outputs are balanced already. Electrically identical.

Except the sound guy has a XLR cable 

[MartinB]

They've said that any new effects that they add to the Stadium will also be added to the rest of the Helix line where possible:

 

 

[tauzero]

46 minutes ago, MartinB said:

They've said that any new effects that they add to the Stadium will also be added to the rest of the Helix line where possible:

 

I hope "possible" =/= "we could be arsed".

[MartinB]

 

Quote

The notion of Stadium having forty new effects that you don't get in HX doesn't really make sense, because HX should have those effects as well. So no, there aren't any new effects in 1.0 for Helix Stadium. There clearly WILL be more effects, and the goal is, the plan is, is that those effects, if appropriate, if they're not completely insane DSP-wise, those would also end up in existing Helix and HX products as well.
 

We're building the effects library not to somehow sunset Helix - that's never been the plan. But we've been building this effects library so that we have a platform to build off of with Stadium

Obviously he'd be mad to say "everythng is definitely being added to the old Helixes forever, 100% guaranteed". But given their track record, I'd personally be surprised if they immediately started acting like the current models no longer exist. Whereas I'll be _very_ surprised if the Darkglass Anagram is still getting updates 10 years down the line...

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, MartinB said:

Obviously he'd be mad to say "everythng is definitely being added to the old Helixes forever, 100% guaranteed". But given their track record, I'd personally be surprised if they immediately started acting like the current models no longer exist. Whereas I'll be _very_ surprised if the Darkglass Anagram is still getting updates 10 years down the line...

 

Their track record includes Variaxes, and those of us owning them weren't exactly inundated with updates once they were taken out of production.

[BigRedX]

I'm not keen on built-in XLR outputs unless they are guaranteed to be protected from phantom power voltages. I always use my own passive EMO DI box with my Helix for connecting it to the PA.

[DaleASmith]

19 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

I hope "possible" =/= "we could be arsed".

I’m guessing it will rely on processing power. HX stomp/XL and One might miss out..