Line 6 Helix guitar system - any tips for monitoring or FOH?

[pete.young]

We have a new guitarist joining the blues band who is a Line 6 Helix user and doesn't have a guitar amp. At home, he uses a couple of large studio monitors.

 

I'm guessing we can take a feed off the Helix system and run it into the PA , and put some of the signal into the vocal monitors. Surely it can't be that simple?

 

If anyone else is using a Helix system and has any advice I'd be glad of it. Do we use 2 mono or one stereo channel? Do we attempt to mix in stereo for FOH? (I hope not, I think it's mostly a waste of time having stereo FOH for the kind of gigs we do). What do we do about the other guitarist, who does use an amp on stage and for most of his FOH sound?

 

Not looking to go in-ears or anything like that, but if it can be a catalyst to reduce the on-stage volume that would help me control feedback with the upright bass.

[David Morison]

As long as the monitors you're currently using for vox are reasonably flat in their frequency response and have enough headroom to handle the extra content put through them, then yes, it should be as simple as you hope.

Ideally, you'd have at least one spare aux output available on your desk - that way the new guitarist gets a mix to themselves as they'll likely want more of themselves in their mix an anyone else will need.

 

For monitoring, mono should be fine and, as you note, for a lot of gigs that's all that's really needed for FOH too.

It can be nice to have stereo, and devices like the Helix will give plenty of opportunity to exploit that, but if you're a pub/small venue band then going mono shouldn't be a deal breaker.

 

The other guitarist should be able to carry on as normal; as I say if you're able to give the helix user their own mon mix that will help avoid having to have that guitar too loud in everyone else's monitor mix so you should be able to balance the 2 reasonable easily.

[fretmeister]

Helix can do 4 outputs at once. 2 balanced 1/4 inch and 2 XLR. Can be mono or stereo. It is remarkably simple and powerful. The outputs can even have some with cab sims (IR) and without for occasions where there might be a signal to the PA with a cabinet sound, but the monitoring is an old fashioned amp and cab. 

 

I would recommend a Technical Rehearsal or two as all PA systems are a bit different and his sounds might need a tweak. Sometimes it's as simple as changing the IR, sometimes it needs a bit more, but a few hours to just get the tones set will be well spent, especially making sure the monitoring works well for everyone.

 

One of the best bits about modern modelling units is their vast memory for sounds - so if you guys play some venues regularly he can actually save all the settings during the first soundcheck at a venue and name the patch(es) for that venue and just load them up again next visit. No need for a little black book anymore. The soundcheck process can get a lot faster.

[fretmeister]

If the PA Desk doesn't have individual channel control for Phantom Power then it's a good idea to put a Direct Box between the Helix and the desk. Phantom Power shouldn't harm the helix (but it might), but it will make a horrible sound like a screaming whale if the power gets turned on.