Do I go Modeler or Not

Aahzz said:
I did Helix LT, then Pod Go, then back to the Helix LT. This was with 2 bands over the past couple years, though both dissolved in early stages so it's rehearsals rather than gigging, much to my frustration. I loved them, until we auditioned another guitar player who came in with a tube amp and suddenly mine just didn't sound up to snuff - and he was using a Bugera!! I went back to tubes, the band definitely noticed the difference. The modelers were nice, and convenient, but at the end of the day I just prefer tubes. Now that I've landed on the VHT D50 for my amp needs, it's still not a big deal to cart. It's a lightweight head, and I have 2 lightweight 112 cabs, that sound great. HX Effects for my pedalboard, and it's not a big deal of a rig to transport. Now, I just need to find a new band....
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I used to like Helix HXFX a lot. Such a great delays, best tape delay I heard in modelers / digital stuff ever. I said that before and I will say it again - if they ever do HXFX in Eventide H9 format, I will be all over this. Right now, I just cannot justify it's footprint
 
dmatthews said:
Uh oh... It's a digital slippery slope my friend...
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I've used Eventide studio gear since '92, and it's always been digital. I had Lexicon and TC effects boxes when they were actually expensive studio gear in the early '90s as well. The H9s are familiar territory. so if the slope is slippery, I've sure been on it a long time!

But no worries.

I will not compromise on the most important facet of electric guitar sound, and that's the amp. There's no reason to compromise, there's no desire to compromise, and if I were to compromise I would have to ask you to shoot me to put me out of my misery.

If you obliged, you would probably go to jail, or worse!

So to keep you out of jail, I'm going to stick with real tube amplifiers.

It's quite the sacrifice, I know. But someone's gotta have their friends' backs. :p
 
LSchefman said:
I've used Eventide studio gear since '92, and it's always been digital. I had Lexicon and TC effects boxes when they were actually expensive studio gear in the early '90s as well. The H9s are familiar territory. so if the slope is slippery, I've sure been on it a long time!

But no worries.

I will not compromise on the most important facet of electric guitar sound, and that's the amp. There's no reason to compromise, there's no desire to compromise, and if I were to compromise I would have to ask you to shoot me to put me out of my misery.

If you obliged, you would probably go to jail, or worse!

So to keep you out of jail, I'm going to stick with real tube amplifiers.

It's quite the sacrifice, I know. But someone's gotta have their friends' backs. :p
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We do indeed appreciate the sacrifices you make on our behalf! So noble.... :D
 
Okay, I kinda caved in on this one. I was able to find a Helix HX Stomp XL for a good price used on Reverb and it's on it's way. Out of the gate I know I'm going to be dealing with a learning curve getting useable tones, but on the bright side, I'm a pretty simple kind of guy. All I really need is a clean amp sound that has some reverb and delay, a crunchy rhythm tone, a saturated rhythm tone and a saturated lead tone with some reverb and delay on it. I figure that should be doable with one patch and four snap shots without running out of DSP.

If I'm able to get good results wit just the modeler after spending some time with it, I'll start looking into more elaborate setups, like maybe building out a small fly rig with it. In that case, I think I would go with the HX Stomp XL, and then use its effects loops for reverb and delay since the interwebs seem to infer that those particular effects eat up a lot of DSP and then I may also use an external OD. Even a board built out like that would be immensely easier to manage than my analog rig. That said though, I won't be dumping any of that gear anytime soon. Hopefully I'll have a new toy to play with this weekend.
 
MarcWink said:
Okay, I kinda caved in on this one. I was able to find a Helix HX Stomp XL for a good price used on Reverb and it's on it's way. Out of the gate I know I'm going to be dealing with a learning curve getting useable tones, but on the bright side, I'm a pretty simple kind of guy. All I really need is a clean amp sound that has some reverb and delay, a crunchy rhythm tone, a saturated rhythm tone and a saturated lead tone with some reverb and delay on it. I figure that should be doable with one patch and four snap shots without running out of DSP.

If I'm able to get good results wit just the modeler after spending some time with it, I'll start looking into more elaborate setups, like maybe building out a small fly rig with it. In that case, I think I would go with the HX Stomp XL, and then use its effects loops for reverb and delay since the interwebs seem to infer that those particular effects eat up a lot of DSP and then I may also use an external OD. Even a board built out like that would be immensely easier to manage than my analog rig. That said though, I won't be dumping any of that gear anytime soon. Hopefully I'll have a new toy to play with this weekend.
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Cool. If you want, drop me a PM when you get it. If you're interested I'll send you a few of my favorite patches for you to try. If you dig the overall feel. You can use them as templates for creating your own. I've been Helix since they first were released. I had a stomp, too, so I know how to make the most out of 6 blocks.
 
That would be super! As a bonus, it looks like the current firmware for HX Stomp and XL allows for up to 8 blocks...but still the same amount of DSP, so those extra two blocks are going to be tricky. Probably best to just stick an external OD in front to begin with.
 
Well, got the HX Stomp on Friday and was able to build a decent, though not great sounding first preset...it's definitely more complicated to get a tone from it than it is just twisting knobs on my analog gear. Almost like I have options overload
 
MarcWink said:
Well, got the HX Stomp on Friday and was able to build a decent, though not great sounding first preset...it's definitely more complicated to get a tone from it than it is just twisting knobs on my analog gear. Almost like I have options overload
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That can happen.
I have a Kemper and I learned early to find profiles that sounded awesome out of the box and build from there.
 
dmatthews said:
That can happen.
I have a Kemper and I learned early to find profiles that sounded awesome out of the box and build from there.
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I don't think Helix has any 'Awesome' presets - which lets them down when your looking for inspiration or testing to buy. Everything needs tweaking, dialling in etc. Its almost as if they turn things up too much to be so apparent instead of being more nuanced and subtle.

Often its easier to start from a scratch as if you walked into a music store and given the opportunity to build your own rig from all the amps, cabs and pedals in the room. You wouldn't 'start' with a set-up already made and then tweak all the parameters. You'd probably start with the Amp/Cab, dial that in to get the 'base' sound you want first and then add in any pedals, dialling 'each' in as you build your 'sound' - and I think that's the 'easier' way to go with modellers too. It can be more option overload when you start with a pre-built patch with multiple blocks that all need tweaking so building up a patch from scratch can be a lot easier.
 
Mozzi said:
I don't think Helix has any 'Awesome' presets - which lets them down when your looking for inspiration or testing to buy. Everything needs tweaking, dialling in etc. Its almost as if they turn things up too much to be so apparent instead of being more nuanced and subtle.

Often its easier to start from a scratch as if you walked into a music store and given the opportunity to build your own rig from all the amps, cabs and pedals in the room. You wouldn't 'start' with a set-up already made and then tweak all the parameters. You'd probably start with the Amp/Cab, dial that in to get the 'base' sound you want first and then add in any pedals, dialling 'each' in as you build your 'sound' - and I think that's the 'easier' way to go with modellers too. It can be more option overload when you start with a pre-built patch with multiple blocks that all need tweaking so building up a patch from scratch can be a lot easier.
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That's basically what I did, picked an amp model I was familiar with (their models of the Rockerverb and BE 100), got a decent base sound, and then started adjusting parameters to taste. Added reverb and delay after the amp and tweaked those a bit to taste, and then added a cab model and did likewise. The patch that was built sounds okay but will definitely need to be tweaked with some EQ somewhere in the chain.
 
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