What a great useful topic , I been playing over 30 Years and understood which part of amp is driven by gain and volume but didnt realize the effect of turning gain down and master up to push tubes more and the different tone that could be accomplished, very nice jason
The channel volume does effect the tone as it would do in real life. The reason is because how loud the overall tone is determines how much vibrations the cabinet, cone, and room generates. That's why some session players opt for open or closed back cabinets to add or remove reflections.
Fantastic video Jason. I have learned and am still learning so much from you, not just with Helix, but with guitar overall. THANK YOU for all you do and continue to do. Please keep up the great work!
Jason, thank you very much for this intuitive video. It is genuinely opening up some doors on tone experimentation for me. No more crank everything and hope for the best, I understand why it's important to either adjust, blend or lower either or and HEAR what sounds good.
This video is useful for me. I've read somewhere about preamp and power amp distortion and this video explains which knob do what. When using amp sim, I don't think too much about how real amp works in real life. I just use simple rule. Dialing anything on 10 rarely produce good tone. Especially with gain and master volume. So I dial every knob in moderation. Most of the time this simple rule works. In some amp sim model especially mesa, this doesn't work. Then I watch how to dial real mesa amp and apply this knowledge to the amp sim.
Thanks Jason for presenting this often overlooked topic that can offer some great options for molding your tone. You truly are the best out there and I look fwd to each topic.
Great explanation! I used to be the type that would dial in the "amount of distortion" exclusively with the gain control and then set my volume\output levels with the master section, and mostly with pretty decent results. However, Only in recent years have I really started to play around with the contrast between the two and have been able to really achieve "better" tones. This video, for me personally, simply accentuated and reinforced the idea that it's best to play around with both, therefore allowing me to really fine tune gain stage, overdrive characteristics etc. Great work as always! Cheers from western Massachusetts
Huge difference. Even though I've had my HX Stomp for a while, there are so many options/parameters that can be adjusted, it's easy to lose sight of how dramatic a difference certain ones can make. For example, I'm not in the habit of cranking the Master Volume all the way up, even though that's the overdriven tone I prefer. Thanks for the reminder. 👍
Hi Jason, new Helix user and new subscriber here. Great video! One thing that still has me baffled is why non-master volume amps (e.g. US Princess (aka Princeton Reverb)) have a Drive parameter. Really not sure what to do with that.
Hi Jason. As always I learned something new with your videos. Question: Does using a Helix Drive pedal in front of the amp have the same effect as the amp drive knob preamp distortion, versus master knob poweramp distortion? Is the expectation always a more compressed, saturated OD tone, versus poweramp ( master ) distortion? Thank you
Good video Jason. I had no idea what a huge difference in tone there was depending on how you run the master. I was under the impression that the master just added harmonics and a little more crunchy mojo. It explains why diming the gain with the master cranked on the high gain models gives lousy results. I have to rethink the way I create my presets.
I'm not sure if my question is relevant but it would be nice if the foot pedal could be used to control the master volume for "every" preset. (instead of bending down to manually turn the volume dial to adjust the output) Almost like a global override of the channel volume no matter what preset is selected. When you import 20 or 30 presets and the volume levels are all over the place it can be extremely tedious to adjust every preset. Isn't there some kind of macro to cascade all of the channel volumes to "10" by default? ...just feels like a basic function is missing.
Great video, I'm struggling to find good tones so I really appreciate this! But I HAVE to ask... I know the meter isn't in HX Edit, so how did you get it to show up there?? That would be SO helpful to keep patches at the same volume.
Helix is a powerhouse, I use it as an audio interface / 4CM / monitoring system / add my pedals so many options. Have you tried Amplitube 5 / Tonex through the return of your amp? It's crazy good
I haven't spent much time with the Marshall models, but that one in particular sounded a lot better to me with the master volume cranked. On a side note, I have a guitar that I love but the single coils are maybe a little bit anemic. I tried using just a plain volume block to boost it into the amp block but am still not really happy with the results. I've tried using the booster and overdrive pedal models. I've even tried real pedals in front of the Helix but that guitar just never sounds good through the Helix. It sounds great through an amp, though. You ever run into that?
On their own, I think I prefer the snapshots with high preamp gain, but I think if you tried them live with a band, they'd get lost in the mix compared to the ones with power amp gain. Having the master cranked up gives the sound a little more "balls".
What a great useful topic , I been playing over 30 Years and understood which part of amp is driven by gain and volume but didnt realize the effect of turning gain down and master up to push tubes more and the different tone that could be accomplished, very nice jason
The channel volume does effect the tone as it would do in real life. The reason is because how loud the overall tone is determines how much vibrations the cabinet, cone, and room generates. That's why some session players opt for open or closed back cabinets to add or remove reflections.
Fantastic video Jason. I have learned and am still learning so much from you, not just with Helix, but with guitar overall. THANK YOU for all you do and continue to do. Please keep up the great work!
Jason, thank you very much for this intuitive video. It is genuinely opening up some doors on tone experimentation for me. No more crank everything and hope for the best, I understand why it's important to either adjust, blend or lower either or and HEAR what sounds good.
This video is useful for me. I've read somewhere about preamp and power amp distortion and this video explains which knob do what. When using amp sim, I don't think too much about how real amp works in real life. I just use simple rule. Dialing anything on 10 rarely produce good tone. Especially with gain and master volume. So I dial every knob in moderation. Most of the time this simple rule works. In some amp sim model especially mesa, this doesn't work. Then I watch how to dial real mesa amp and apply this knowledge to the amp sim.
Thanks Jason for presenting this often overlooked topic that can offer some great options for molding your tone. You truly are the best out there and I look fwd to each topic.
Great explanation! I used to be the type that would dial in the "amount of distortion" exclusively with the gain control and then set my volume\output levels with the master section, and mostly with pretty decent results.
However, Only in recent years have I really started to play around with the contrast between the two and have been able to really achieve "better" tones.
This video, for me personally, simply accentuated and reinforced the idea that it's best to play around with both, therefore allowing me to really fine tune gain stage, overdrive characteristics etc.
Great work as always! Cheers from western Massachusetts
What an eye opener…this was a great vid…I definitely needed this one…thanks my man!!!!
Excellent comparison...thanks Jason!
My pleasure and thank you 😁
Huge difference. Even though I've had my HX Stomp for a while, there are so many options/parameters that can be adjusted, it's easy to lose sight of how dramatic a difference certain ones can make. For example, I'm not in the habit of cranking the Master Volume all the way up, even though that's the overdriven tone I prefer. Thanks for the reminder. 👍
Hi Jason, new Helix user and new subscriber here. Great video! One thing that still has me baffled is why non-master volume amps (e.g. US Princess (aka Princeton Reverb)) have a Drive parameter. Really not sure what to do with that.
Hi Jason. As always I learned something new with your videos. Question: Does using a Helix Drive pedal in front of the amp have the same effect as the amp drive knob preamp distortion, versus master knob poweramp distortion? Is the expectation always a more compressed, saturated OD tone, versus poweramp ( master ) distortion? Thank you
Good video Jason. I had no idea what a huge difference in tone there was depending on how you run the master. I was under the impression that the master just added harmonics and a little more crunchy mojo. It explains why diming the gain with the master cranked on the high gain models gives lousy results. I have to rethink the way I create my presets.
I'm not sure if my question is relevant but it would be nice if the foot pedal could be used to control the master volume for "every" preset. (instead of bending down to manually turn the volume dial to adjust the output) Almost like a global override of the channel volume no matter what preset is selected. When you import 20 or 30 presets and the volume levels are all over the place it can be extremely tedious to adjust every preset. Isn't there some kind of macro to cascade all of the channel volumes to "10" by default? ...just feels like a basic function is missing.
Great video, I'm struggling to find good tones so I really appreciate this! But I HAVE to ask... I know the meter isn't in HX Edit, so how did you get it to show up there?? That would be SO helpful to keep patches at the same volume.
same question for the tuner ;)
Thanks for clarifying this. This should have been in the manual
Helix is a powerhouse, I use it as an audio interface / 4CM / monitoring system / add my pedals so many options. Have you tried Amplitube 5 / Tonex through the return of your amp? It's crazy good
hi..amazing job.. but i have a question of display..what have you done to show the input and main level on the helix edit?
In the video I am using Helix Native.
Pretty good overview, sir!
Thanks for this vid. I always crank the master and it gets too muddy.
I haven't spent much time with the Marshall models, but that one in particular sounded a lot better to me with the master volume cranked. On a side note, I have a guitar that I love but the single coils are maybe a little bit anemic. I tried using just a plain volume block to boost it into the amp block but am still not really happy with the results. I've tried using the booster and overdrive pedal models. I've even tried real pedals in front of the Helix but that guitar just never sounds good through the Helix. It sounds great through an amp, though. You ever run into that?
Thanks!
My pleasure and thank you Jared 🙏🏻
wow i did not know this
On their own, I think I prefer the snapshots with high preamp gain, but I think if you tried them live with a band, they'd get lost in the mix compared to the ones with power amp gain. Having the master cranked up gives the sound a little more "balls".
A complete nonsequitur ... not sure why I seem to have noticed today that your humidifier changes colors.