The Ventoux is my favourite personal Helix amp. In your examples, to my ears I prefer the Ventoux samples more than the live amp recordings. Thanks Jason for sharing this.
Switching Mics in the Line 6 Helix Cab Block is a great way to make a dramatic change in the overall tone of a Preset. It's fast, easy, and quickly reversible. Auditioning the different Mics is done by moving the slider bar on the Mic Parameter - A really clever design. You can even use different Mics in different Snapshots of the same Preset. Thanks
@@Elassar72 The setting I find that makes the most difference in tone and feel, is changing the Cab High Cut to the Stock settings of the Real Speakers. The Line 6 Helix is set to a default of 8kHz for all the Cabs, but Real Cabs are often significantly lower. For example, a Real Greenback 25 has a High Cutoff at around 3.2 kHz. I play mostly through Monitoring Headphones, and the 8kHz High Cut leaves the Cab sounding too bright. But, the 3.2kHz sounds fantastic to my ears.
Very valuable...thanks! My early experience with the Helix is that if you don't get cabinet choice and mic type/placement correct right at the beginning of preset construction, you'll never fix it later.
Another excellent video Jason! Based on your previous videos I routinely use different mic/cab combos, often using an identical dual cab setup but with different mics on each cab (such as a 121 on one cab and an 87 condenser on another). In addition, I mix things up depending on which guitar (humbuckers vs single coil) I’m using.
Really good demo of the helix and the Mic options. Iv had helix 6 years (I think) and tried all the IR and came back to the mics. Listening on adams speakers. You’ve been great teaching it and I’ve used some of your presets. Tweaked them to taste but great lessons in how to do it. 👍🏼
The transducers are the most important part of any signal chain. That would be pickups, speakers, and microphones/mic position (and the studio monitors you listen to). Just moving a 57 around to different positions on a speaker makes a huge difference in tone. Change distance from the speaker to adjust the bass boost due to proximity effect. I'd rather experiment with different cabs and mics than get heavy handed with EQ (in the Helix or in the studio with a real amp/mic). I have decades of time in the studio working with real amps and a nicely stocked mic locker, so I just use the Helix like I would use the real thing to dial in tone. Maybe some day the Helix will support more mic position options than just distance from speaker.
Yup. It would just need few more positioning options (cap, edge cap, cone, edge tone, back) and off axis option. It seems they already selected few sweet spots themselves
Good video, thanks Jason. This is why I really love my Line 6 Helix Native which has way more DSP power because of my premium laptop that is still 6 years old. To me Helix is like having a Ford Mustang GT v6 $30k sports car compared to like a BMW M5 $100k car which would be the real deal of a top notch all tube amp, mic, cab, effects, etc. For me I'm satisfied with the Ford Mustang GT v6 but would prefer the BMW M5, although I do love and ultimately prefer the Helix better for the digital convenience. I don't want to hassle with the extremely loud volume of a real all tube amp head and 4x12 cab or even like the Fender 57 Custom Champ 5watt that I used to own which was still too loud for my bedroom jamming unless you just played it clean with the volume at 1.5 - 3.5 And as you all know, almost all guitar pedals sound best with the volume at near half or over half, which is too loud for bedroom jamming but it good for live playing which I have sung and player guitar on several live gigs.
Your video on dual cabs is the magic-mojo sauce my tones needed. I love using an 87 or a 67 on the stock cab to get the original (intended) flavor, and then also running another cab parallel with a 121. It sounds great. If you need a little fullness, add on the 4x10 Bassman cab. If you need some glass, add one of the cabs from Matchless or Vox patches.
It's impressive how much the different are becoming evident moving from clean to pushed tones :O It would be really interesting to go through the same exercise with distorted tones. I must say that, when it comes to clean to very light crunch tones I'm really happy with the stock cabs, while when moving from distortion to high gain, for studio work, 70% of times I end up using IRs, OK... firstly because my favorite cab for such tones is missing in the Helix (Mesa TRADITIONAL 4x12) , but for the remaining parts I'm still in trouble replicating the tone I have in mind, which is probably my fault (I must say it was 100% before, at least now I achieved a solid 30%, thanks to a more accurate mic distance + early reflections setting, especially with "heavy Brit" tones 😁)
It seems like we lost some low end every time you switched from the real mic to the modeled mic (some more than others) which could easily be added back with some post signal eq. Honestly though, I'd probably leave it out to help clean up the sound.
This reminds me of when the Philosopher Diogenes went into an Inn. "Hey Innkeeper, can you cook me this Fish?" "What? Just the Fish? Where is the Olive Oil? No Garlic? No Spices? What a about Potatoes? No Vegetables?" Diogenes said, "If I had all these things, I wouldn't need to eat the Fish." This is an good argument for Modeling in General.
Thanks for this. ( off topic: best way to move chord charts to NNS? -- I know you use a commercial tool for charting but don't remember which or if it facilitates this)
My pleasure! I usually use Guitar Pro 7, but I am not aware of an auto chords to Nashville system built in, but I could be wrong. Wish I could be more help 😪
First I'd like to thank you for sharing all your knowledge with us about the Line 6 products. I'll be pulling the trigger on one of these in a week or so and I have a question for you. I noticed that on the "preloaded" presets list it said no artist loads on the HX Stomp and yes on the Helix and Helix LT. Does this mean your contributions are not on the Stomp? Thanks for all that you do....
Thanks so much and really glad you enjoy what I do! I do have some presets that work for HX Stomp over in CustomTone. I also have HX Stomp presets available on the Line 6 Marketplace here: shop.line6.com/marketplace/?addon_vendor=125&marketplace_compatibility=134 Hope that helps!
@@JasonSadites I'm new to this so please forgive my stupidity. What I was looking for was I see you showing how to "sound like" certain artists like Eric Johnson or Andy Timmons as examples for HX Stomp. Do you sell artist packs or something like this? Thank you so much....
@@williamjasper6509 no need to apologize at all. I do sell presets and preset packs from the link I shared. I also have a LOT of presets up on CustomTone from my Dialing In... videos. Some of those presets only work on Helix and some will also work in HX Stomp. Hope that helps 😀
@@JasonSadites I went to the Line 6 store and bought a number of you "sound packs" for my Stomp. It's is on the way to me as I write this and I look forward to getting some of those great tones I've heard on your videos. The only question is will they make me play my guitar any better..., just kidding. Thanks again for the advise and the help you provide to us out here.
Most of these are nearly indistinguishable. And for the sake argument, yes it is easier to hear the differences with studio headphones... But honestly, how often are people listening to music through studio headphones vs casual listening through a stereo system or even their smart tv or Bluetooth speakers? Point being, just because one might be able to notice a subtle difference while listening through super hi-fi gear, are these factors really altering your listening experiences? Example, let's take 'Dark Side of the Moon'. Are you going to be upset when you're listening through your car stereo and not a set of high-end headphones? Probably not, because the quality of the music typically trumps the device you might be listening through (obviously a terrible sound system will kinda ruin the experience but how often is that really happening in real life?).
The Ventoux is my favourite personal Helix amp. In your examples, to my ears I prefer the Ventoux samples more than the live amp recordings. Thanks Jason for sharing this.
Switching Mics in the Line 6 Helix Cab Block is a great way to make a dramatic change in the overall tone of a Preset. It's fast, easy, and quickly reversible. Auditioning the different Mics is done by moving the slider bar on the Mic Parameter - A really clever design. You can even use different Mics in different Snapshots of the same Preset. Thanks
Unfortunately the cab remains the same, so the need to use a dual cab tweaking around it. This + mic positioning options are the only drawbacks IMHO
@@Elassar72 The setting I find that makes the most difference in tone and feel, is changing the Cab High Cut to the Stock settings of the Real Speakers. The Line 6 Helix is set to a default of 8kHz for all the Cabs, but Real Cabs are often significantly lower. For example, a Real Greenback 25 has a High Cutoff at around 3.2 kHz. I play mostly through Monitoring Headphones, and the 8kHz High Cut leaves the Cab sounding too bright. But, the 3.2kHz sounds fantastic to my ears.
Very valuable...thanks! My early experience with the Helix is that if you don't get cabinet choice and mic type/placement correct right at the beginning of preset construction, you'll never fix it later.
Another excellent video Jason! Based on your previous videos I routinely use different mic/cab combos, often using an identical dual cab setup but with different mics on each cab (such as a 121 on one cab and an 87 condenser on another). In addition, I mix things up depending on which guitar (humbuckers vs single coil) I’m using.
Really good demo of the helix and the Mic options. Iv had helix 6 years (I think) and tried all the IR and came back to the mics. Listening on adams speakers. You’ve been great teaching it and I’ve used some of your presets. Tweaked them to taste but great lessons in how to do it. 👍🏼
The transducers are the most important part of any signal chain. That would be pickups, speakers, and microphones/mic position (and the studio monitors you listen to). Just moving a 57 around to different positions on a speaker makes a huge difference in tone. Change distance from the speaker to adjust the bass boost due to proximity effect. I'd rather experiment with different cabs and mics than get heavy handed with EQ (in the Helix or in the studio with a real amp/mic). I have decades of time in the studio working with real amps and a nicely stocked mic locker, so I just use the Helix like I would use the real thing to dial in tone. Maybe some day the Helix will support more mic position options than just distance from speaker.
Yup. It would just need few more positioning options (cap, edge cap, cone, edge tone, back) and off axis option. It seems they already selected few sweet spots themselves
I've tried every Helix cab and I've bought 50 third party IRs but I end up using the same 3 IRs in various combinations (mix two of the three).
Good video, thanks Jason.
This is why I really love my Line 6 Helix Native which has way more DSP power because of my premium laptop that is still 6 years old. To me Helix is like having a Ford Mustang GT v6 $30k sports car compared to like a BMW M5 $100k car which would be the real deal of a top notch all tube amp, mic, cab, effects, etc. For me I'm satisfied with the Ford Mustang GT v6 but would prefer the BMW M5, although I do love and ultimately prefer the Helix better for the digital convenience. I don't want to hassle with the extremely loud volume of a real all tube amp head and 4x12 cab or even like the Fender 57 Custom Champ 5watt that I used to own which was still too loud for my bedroom jamming unless you just played it clean with the volume at 1.5 - 3.5
And as you all know, almost all guitar pedals sound best with the volume at near half or over half, which is too loud for bedroom jamming but it good for live playing which I have sung and player guitar on several live gigs.
Awesome demonstration. The Helix vs. real mic would be a toss up, such that I would be happy to use either.
Your video on dual cabs is the magic-mojo sauce my tones needed. I love using an 87 or a 67 on the stock cab to get the original (intended) flavor, and then also running another cab parallel with a 121. It sounds great. If you need a little fullness, add on the 4x10 Bassman cab. If you need some glass, add one of the cabs from Matchless or Vox patches.
It's impressive how much the different are becoming evident moving from clean to pushed tones :O
It would be really interesting to go through the same exercise with distorted tones. I must say that, when it comes to clean to very light crunch tones I'm really happy with the stock cabs, while when moving from distortion to high gain, for studio work, 70% of times I end up using IRs, OK... firstly because my favorite cab for such tones is missing in the Helix (Mesa TRADITIONAL 4x12) , but for the remaining parts I'm still in trouble replicating the tone I have in mind, which is probably my fault (I must say it was 100% before, at least now I achieved a solid 30%, thanks to a more accurate mic distance + early reflections setting, especially with "heavy Brit" tones 😁)
thanks - great interesting video - if it sounds good, it is good !!!!!!
It seems like we lost some low end every time you switched from the real mic to the modeled mic (some more than others) which could easily be added back with some post signal eq. Honestly though, I'd probably leave it out to help clean up the sound.
Closed my eyes and thought I heard Rick beato talking about a helix.
This reminds me of when the Philosopher Diogenes went into an Inn. "Hey Innkeeper, can you cook me this Fish?" "What? Just the Fish? Where is the Olive Oil? No Garlic? No Spices? What a about Potatoes? No Vegetables?" Diogenes said, "If I had all these things, I wouldn't need to eat the Fish."
This is an good argument for Modeling in General.
Thanks for this. ( off topic: best way to move chord charts to NNS? -- I know you use a commercial tool for charting but don't remember which or if it facilitates this)
My pleasure! I usually use Guitar Pro 7, but I am not aware of an auto chords to Nashville system built in, but I could be wrong. Wish I could be more help 😪
First I'd like to thank you for sharing all your knowledge with us about the Line 6 products. I'll be pulling the trigger on one of these in a week or so and I have a question for you. I noticed that on the "preloaded" presets list it said no artist loads on the HX Stomp and yes on the Helix and Helix LT. Does this mean your contributions are not on the Stomp? Thanks for all that you do....
Thanks so much and really glad you enjoy what I do! I do have some presets that work for HX Stomp over in CustomTone. I also have HX Stomp presets available on the Line 6 Marketplace here: shop.line6.com/marketplace/?addon_vendor=125&marketplace_compatibility=134
Hope that helps!
@@JasonSadites I'm new to this so please forgive my stupidity. What I was looking for was I see you showing how to "sound like" certain artists like Eric Johnson or Andy Timmons as examples for HX Stomp. Do you sell artist packs or something like this? Thank you so much....
@@williamjasper6509 no need to apologize at all. I do sell presets and preset packs from the link I shared. I also have a LOT of presets up on CustomTone from my Dialing In... videos. Some of those presets only work on Helix and some will also work in HX Stomp. Hope that helps 😀
@@JasonSadites I went to the Line 6 store and bought a number of you "sound packs" for my Stomp. It's is on the way to me as I write this and I look forward to getting some of those great tones I've heard on your videos. The only question is will they make me play my guitar any better..., just kidding. Thanks again for the advise and the help you provide to us out here.
Thank you so much William 🙏🏻 Much appreciated and I really hope you enjoy 😀
Most of these are nearly indistinguishable. And for the sake argument, yes it is easier to hear the differences with studio headphones... But honestly, how often are people listening to music through studio headphones vs casual listening through a stereo system or even their smart tv or Bluetooth speakers? Point being, just because one might be able to notice a subtle difference while listening through super hi-fi gear, are these factors really altering your listening experiences? Example, let's take 'Dark Side of the Moon'. Are you going to be upset when you're listening through your car stereo and not a set of high-end headphones? Probably not, because the quality of the music typically trumps the device you might be listening through (obviously a terrible sound system will kinda ruin the experience but how often is that really happening in real life?).