News for Line 6 Helix Users

[Craig Anderton]

I guess this falls into the "self promotion" folder, but the reaction has been so good, I thought any Cakewalkers using Helix native/floor/rack/LT might want to know about it. It's a set of multiband presets (2 to 4 bands) for all of the current Helix amps. I've written a lot about multiband presets with respect to Sonar and CbB, but even if you're not interested in the Helix, the video demo (sorry, can't figure out how to make it smaller...) illustrates the difference that multiband operation makes to distorted guitar sounds. 

 

[RBH]

Craig -  are the presets  processed with any additional panning assignments?  I can definitely hear the band separations and they clean up the drive and distortion signal nicely, I'm not seeing any blocks that are addressing panning specifically. Is the  widening achieved by different cab IR's ?  Nice trick either way and that looks like a lot of work ! Nice sounding for sure. I've just started re-building a pedal board / Rack  effects and multi amp set-up. Not fair pointing to a Helix at this stage !

 

Edited May 27, 2019 by RBH

[Craig Anderton]

The Volume blocks provide two different functions, some are set up as mute buttons, while the others are set up for Panning (the Vol block can be set to do panning). The widening is due mostly to panning the different bands in the stereo field; with four bands, it's bass and highs in the middle, with the low mids panned slightly left, and the high mids slightly right. The cabs are all stock Helix cabs.

You can of course apply these kinds of effects with TH3, which is one of the reasons I thought this was worth posting. The Sonitus multiband makes a great multiband crossover, but you need to either do a fair amount of busing, or copy tracks so you have one track for each band.

[Bapu]

Picked these up today. Enjoy your $2.99 royalty Craig. ?

[Craig Anderton]

Cool, thanks! Now I can go buy a new car !

I think you'll dig the presets. 

[Mesh]

For those of us that don't have Helix (yet), we can still set up multiband presets with the Sonitus Multiband + TH3?

as in your article here: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/sonar-th3-customise-your-guitar-tone

I haven't tried it, but it does look very interesting (in search of the holy grail of amp sim tone).

 

Craig, what are your thoughts on the Helix Native plugin?

[Craig Anderton]

1 hour ago, Mesh said:

For those of us that don't have Helix (yet), we can still set up multiband presets with the Sonitus Multiband + TH3?

as in your article here: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/sonar-th3-customise-your-guitar-tone

I haven't tried it, but it does look very interesting (in search of the holy grail of amp sim tone).

 

Craig, what are your thoughts on the Helix Native plugin?

First of all, here are some more links:

Overview of multiband distortion

Specific instructions for doing multiband distortion in Sonar

As to Helix Native, I took an instant liking to the Helix floor when it came out, and did a pro review of it for Harmony Central. There's a lot to like, to say the least...so when Helix Native came out, which duplicated the functionality in a plug-in, I was ecstatic. The ability to do multiband processing so effortlessly is one of the main reasons why. 

For non-multiband, Waves' Paul Reed Smith Supermodels, AmpliTube, Guitar Rig, TH3, and the amp sims in MOTU DP all have their place and I use them as well. However, the Helix Native multiband presets are my go-to these days. The preset pack grew out of the presets I had designed for my own use. Once I had 128 of them, I figured what the heck, I'll turn them into a product

[Mesh]

Thanks for the links and info Craig, it's sincerely appreciated. I'm going to read up on it a bit more....currently, I'm thinking of getting IK's Axe I/O guitar interface  as I need one badly (seems to be getting good reviews).

Cheers,

Mesh

[Randall Petty]

If your primary focus is playing live with a mono FOH system ( no panning/stereo ) or you simply don't have two PA channels available, does this do anything for you?