The Watering Hole

just some Helix dickery - (lose it quite a bit here and there, but hey ho)

nice! the trem effect sounds pretty cool.

Thanks. Yes, the tremolo is a particularly good model and works well.  Don't know how I managed to screw up two thirds through the backing track but it all went wrong (snare and kick in reversed places.  I played to a click and added the bass and drums after.

Sounds good here, Jon.  Shook me pretty hard there!

It does sound good. Maybe better tban I ever expected from L6.

If it feels right and can get that connection, for lack of a better word, that you get with amp then it is a winner. I am sure how you monitor makes a difference?

Pete Thorn has a good demo of different ways to leverage it in the studio. That said I appreciate hearing your opinions and tracks more. You always call 'em like you hear 'em.
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As ever with line6, the built in cabs stink. They just don't sound or feel right at all, but thankfully you can load up your own impulses direct into the helix which makes it sound passable.

It does feel 'real' when playing. The amp sims have a nice juicy feel to them in the way that a good tube amp does, so that's a big thumbs up from me. The effects are all very good but the most important thing for me is the routing possibilities with the send and receives.

I did try reamping a few months ago which suffered from a lot of hiss but I've found the fix for that. I was recording di at 16bit 44.1. I now record at 24 bit 96khz and the hiss noise issue when reamping has gone away.  My favourite thing at the moment is using the helix as the audio interface and recording a di directly over usb whilst playing with amp sims and all effects etc and then reamping out a send socket into a real amp and then micing that and the room etc.  Initial testing with this is yielding great results and I will post some examples of this soon.

Reamping never worked for me before but as I said the key fix for me was simply by recording at highest resolution possible to remove any noise generated by reamping.

I've had the helix a while now and it's great, still feel the same way about it when I first bought it.  I still prefer the sound of a real amp, there will never be a 100% substitute for that in my opinion (depending on the sounds that you want of course), but as a super clean DI recording tool with full wet monitoring for reamping after the recording session or as a rehearsal tool it's great.  Having said that, I have used it "live" a couple of times, but I switch off the cab sims and then run the helix into an FET power amp and then into a real guitar cab with real guitar speakers....standing next to a real guitar cab as you play is a must, or at least it is for me !

More clips coming soon with reamping, meanwhile here's another little ditty (tele and Helix as before)

I'd love to hear it without so much reverb and delay. It sounds very far away. That said, I wouldn't know it was a modeler. And I like the sound, ideas and space on the second recording.