The HARD truth about Helix

    @PhilUK84


    The forum member ASG did the first first-hand review of the Helix here for this blog.The fact that he seemed "very enthusiastic" about the Helix before he bought it makes this review at least somehow worthy in my eyes.If he says that it sounds not good I guess we should take this as his honest opinion;



    The second point is that it is also my decision if I read and take this first hand review serious and add to this my own expiriences with L6-sounds.So dear @PhilUk84..here you have two opinions based on first hand expiriences of this product/developer.Neither ASG nor me ever claimed that it is the "absolute truth".


    greetings

    @PhilUK84


    Aye Sir!


    But I will tell you some thing you should take into account."Bad expiriences" are something you wont change in some ones mind.And I have made some very bad expiriences with L6 ie guitar sounds(most of all many of my students with their L6 gear) and Behringer ie recording.I will NEVER recommend these companies and will be never surprised when I hear that the next person "fell into their trap".I can do as you order me and find a shop soem where to play a Helix but I will do it with to much sceptcism.I would say even better if I dont try it. ;)


    greetings

    Quote from timo


    What are you missing with the MIDI implementation?


    In the feature request here in the forum there is a request for things like effects control via Expression pedal that apparently is not implemented yet and some things like this? Is this incorrect?


    Quote from DamianGreda


    KPA has very complex midi implementation - allmost every parameter can be controlled via MIDI - just some things are undocumented.


    In the feature request here in the forum there is a request for things like effects control via Expression pedal that apparently is not implemented yet and some things like this? Is this incorrect?


    Quote from Nikos

    ASG


    I am sad to hear this.You seemed verys enthusiastic about the Helix.I dont want to sound like a "smartass" but L6 had never a good rock sound neither did their FX ever came close to professional standards.


    They said a complete 5 year rewrite from the ground up and Yamaha have been big investors in Line 6 for more than a year now. Based on this two facts I expected some radical change but sadly it sounds like a Line 6 product.... not a valve amp. The price point is in semi-pro land ... Axe is coming out at the same price point next month, albeit with one amp and cab but I would take a single good sounding amp over ten crap ones anyway and FA are supporting the whole huge fractal library with the AX 8


    Quote from PhilUK84

    Nah. A new product is a new product. It's been reviewed well across the board. You can't lose anything from trying one when you go into a store. I try and keep an open mind.


    It actually hasn't been reviewed well across the board ... it has been demo'd well by Paul Hindmarsh and Sean and the rest are suck up "reviews" by sellers like Andertons and that Chad guy on youtube and Line 6 forums, who whilst he might be a nice guy is clearly a beginner guitarist and never done a pro gig in his life.


    The fact I had a hardon for a Helix, and bought, it shows I really wanted it to be great!
    I am even reticent to be slagging it off because I probably need to sell it but the fact remains when you listen to the amps on their own they sound pretty crap.


    I have been using GREAT valve amps for decades I had one of the first Boogie Mark iiB's and then bought a brand new Mk IIC when it came out. Even thought that is supposedly the most renowned Boogie ever I took it straight back to the store. The IIB owned it hard in terms of tonal body, character & harmonic richness, it was slightly flawed ... pop in the channel switching etc. but a great sound with no EQ or effects. The reason I say this is there are a lot of guys that don't even know what a good valve overdrive is. Witness countless youtube demos buy stores playing guitars and pedals through PRS amps with the most crap buzzy OD I have ever heard and they and all the readers/listeners think it's great! Matchless ... we I am open to hearing a great one but never have yet! OK on clean but OD or crunch? Yuck.


    I have heard a Kemper profile a valve amp ... basically without EQ or tweaking it sounded basically the same ... with the same resolution detail. the fact the Kemper has an EQ slot and you may want to EQ it is irrelevant to the basic amp sound..... think blowing up a font in Photoshop if you will ..... the edges get jagged right ... this is a Line 6 model.... with the Kemper profile its still smooth because there is higher resolution and detail there. Is the Line 6 the same font? does it have the same character? Yeah. It has a similar shape, but if you listen closer it's ugly or jagged.


    You sound like you might be a Line 6 dealer or have some other agenda Phil ... I have none .. in fact I have money invest in a Helix and speaking the truth about it hurts my resale value!


    Even though I think it's a waste of time I will persist a little more.... I am downloading Redwirez IR collection as we speak and will convert them into Helix format. Paul Hindmarsh is meant to be emailing me a SYSex dump of his tweaked patches sometime soon... will report back.


    If someone wants to tempt me to Kemper with a few insane amp profiles Hit me up via PM or something. I have a mate who had a Kemper but he sold it before I knew he had it ... he complained the sounds were that great! I told him he must have had mediocre profiles. I have a pro mic collection and am sure I could reciprocate with some creamy Boogie profiles. I doubt the Triaxis ones out there have the extra cream of a 395 power amp overdriven in class A mode added to the singing tone.

    Quote from AlienSexGod

    In the feature request here in the forum there is a request for things like effects control via Expression pedal that apparently is not implemented yet and some things like this? Is this incorrect?



    In the feature request here in the forum there is a request for things like effects control via Expression pedal that apparently is not implemented yet and some things like this? Is this incorrect?


    What this has to do with MIDI implementation? You can control every parameter in fx sections with sysex or CC messages. So if you have good programmable MIDI controller you can control this parameters with expression pedal via your MIDI pedalboard.


    The expresion pedal ports in KPA is a different thing.

    Quote from DamianGreda


    What this has to do with MIDI implementation? You can control every parameter in fx sections with sysex or CC messages. So if you have good programmable MIDI controller you can control this parameters with expression pedal via your MIDI pedalboard.


    The expresion pedal ports in KPA is a different thing.


    OK Thanks for the clarification.
    I have an original Lake Butler Midi Mitigator and whilst being ancient it pretty much does everything. Crazy the Kemper remote and box don't support such expression!

    Quote from AlienSexGod


    All you've done is say you don't like it. Jagged, rough. These words don't relate to sound, it's a subjective and undefined description to something that you feel. I've played it and I liked it, I'm telling people to make their own mind up and not base their judgement on what you, or I say.


    Go and look at nearly every Youtube video about it, and every thread, it's being reviewed well by nearly everyone who plays it. It's undeniable.


    A Line 6 dealer? What are you talking about? Why don't you stop making threads with stupid titles like this one, see if you can change your lame username and stop talking crap all the time.

    Edited 10 times, last by PhilUK84 ().

    Quote from PhilUK84

    All you've done is say you don't like it. Jagged, rough. These words don't relate to sound, it's a subjective and undefined description to something that you feel. I've played it and I liked it, I'm telling people to make their own mind up and not base their judgement on what you, or I say.


    Go and look at nearly every Youtube video about it, and every thread, it's being reviewed well by nearly everyone who plays it. It's undeniable.


    A Line 6 dealer? What are you talking about? Why don't you stop making threads with stupid titles like this one, see if you can change your lame username and stop talking crap all the time.


    Phil I see you edited this post TEN times in TWO hours so God knows what unreasonable abuse it contained before you edited it? As it stands I find it unreasonable, nonfactual and obnoxious. If you don't like my username that's fine but please lay off the judgmental and baseless name calling thanks! "stop talking crap all the time." IN FACT it's you looking in a mirror because I didn't talk crap once yet you say I did which is crap! I gave an extensive hands on insight into aspects of the unit that clearly you don't have the perception to hear. You like it? If you have do not have an allegiance to Line 6 why do you appeal to forum users and TELL them to go out and try one? Why would you care?


    Also playing for an hour or so at a demo or a trade show its easy to get caught up in the WoW factor, all the snazzy lights, cool UI and wanting it to be great compared to owning it, spending hours with it in a studio, tearing it down into its bits and listening in detail as I have done. Why do you see the need to attack me and make out my review and experience is invalid and "crap"? Seriously?


    As for the initial title of this thread if you bother to read what I wrote the purpose was posing the question of possible unfair censorship and I have accepted and thanked the official explanation that there was NOT unfair censorship. Furthermore clearly I started out here and in another thread very enthusiastic about the Helix so I actually do not have an unreasonable bias if you are attacking me on that basis.

    Quote from Monkey_Man

    Thank you for the review, ASG. Much appreciated, especially your frankness.


    Hey Monkey you are cool! I spent to time to share the unadulterated truth free of hype but now one guy thinks I am"crap" and I can't PM anyone here WTF.


    Quote from Nikos

    @PhilUK84


    The forum member ASG did the first first-hand review of the Helix here for this blog.The fact that he seemed "very enthusiastic" about the Helix before he bought it makes this review at least somehow worthy in my eyes.If he says that it sounds not good I guess we should take this as his honest opinion;


    Thanks for the support Niko. My intentions are always good. I only criticise when I can point out a better direction for us to improve.

    LOL that's funny, Phil - 7 edits and you ended up with "Never mind."


    Obviously the exchange has proved frustrating for you; I do empathise and have reduced detailed explorations of various subjects to similar 2 or 3-word sentences in the past. Perhaps, once things have distilled in your mind a little you'll be able to find the appropriate words in due course. Been there. I feel ya.


    Quote from PhilUK84

    Why don't you stop making threads with stupid titles like this one, see if you can change your lame username and stop talking crap all the time.


    I'd like to believe this was borne out of frustration, ASG, and I suspect Phil's last post is indicative of this.


    Thank you for your kind words, BTW; I meant what I said, ASG. Hopefully anyone looking to buy your unit won't see this thread!

    Quote from DonPetersen


    there is no censorship here, all we do is trying to keep the tone of posts above a certain (although somewhat subjective) level and to protect our members from verbal abuse.


    best
    Don


    Excuse me Don but I can't PM you, any user or click on their profile to see what other posts or background they may have. When I click I get "Kemper Profiler User Forum» Access denied. You’re not authorized to view this page."


    Am I restricted somehow because I am outrageous?


    Quote from Monkey_Man

    LOL that's funny, Phil - 7 edits and you ended up with "Never mind."


    Obviously the exchange has proved frustrating for you; I do empathise and have reduced detailed explorations of various subjects to similar 2 or 3-word sentences in the past. Perhaps, once things have distilled in your mind a little you'll be able to find the appropriate words in due course. Been there. I feel ya.


    Thank you for your kind words, BTW; I meant what I said, ASG. Hopefully anyone looking to buy your unit won't see this thread!


    Yeah that's hilarious. 10 then 7 edits!
    Why he would be frustrated with me is beyond me ... hence my questioning of his allegiance to Line 6. My review was designed to SAVE frustration of others and is the only honest Helix review out there... the rest are from retailers or people that played for 30 mins or so in a store/tradeshow demo stunned like a deer by the bright lights, visual and physical sexiness with amp sounds clouded by effects or newbs like that Chad guy who admitted e's only been playing guitar 5 years, never did a paid gig and never owned a good sounding valve amp in his life. Who knows Phil's previous experience ... he hasn't shared it and I am not allows to look at his previous posts!


    I must have been a bad boy however since I am no longer allowed to PM anyone ... not even a moderator!?
    Someone send a hot girl to spank me please!


    Cheers ASG!

    Just so you know, the issue is with the iPhone. You often can't see the text you are writing so you are almost posting blind. The edits are (mostly) merely corrections of spaces and punctuation that don't seem to be entered at times.


    He's entitled to his review, even though I think it's poor and overly subjective, which had nothing to do with my comment. Accusing the board of censorship and accusing people of having agendas, all in 30 posts? And with that name? Seriously. I told him what I thought of him, and he's doing nothing to change my mind.


    I still stand by my statement that we should all try gear out for ourselves and not take the words of strangers. That's all I was saying, I don't get what the problem with that was, yet I was told I have an agenda. What a load of nonsense.

    Quote from AlienSexGod

    Excuse me Don but I can't PM you, any user or click on their profile to see what other posts or background they may have. When I click I get "Kemper Profiler User Forum» Access denied. You’re not authorized to view this page."
    Am I restricted somehow because I am outrageous?


    like Timo said, you need to register your Profiler to gain access to these functions of the board.
    also, if we would try to micro-manage our members as you suggest, we wouldn't get much else done.
    sorry to disappoint you ;)

    Quote from PhilUK84

    Just so you know, the issue is with the iPhone. You often can't see the text you are writing so you are almost posting blind. The edits are (mostly) merely corrections of spaces and punctuation that don't seem to be entered at times.


    He's entitled to his review, even though I think it's poor and overly subjective, which had nothing to do with my comment. Accusing the board of censorship and accusing people of having agendas, all in 30 posts? And with that name? Seriously. I told him what I thought of him, and he's doing nothing to change my mind.


    I still stand by my statement that we should all try gear out for ourselves and not take the words of strangers. That's all I was saying, I don't get what the problem with that was, yet I was told I have an agenda. What a load of nonsense.


    Ah... I'm kinda obsessive about editing spelling and grammar errors, Phil, so I can relate to that. Also, I'm used to the PHPBB format for forums, so my posts get messed up quite a bit using this one, further exacerbating the phenomenon. I imagine using a 'phone would make it even clunkier.


    Your position makes perfect sense, of course. Obviously I tried to "make excuses" for your dig at ASG; I hope you don't mind. I like to assume the best about folks, and it takes an awful lot of misbehavin' to tempt me to leap to judgement, after which point, as you might imagine, it takes even more "data" to sway be back the other way.


    I respect ASG's no-nonsense review based upon his personal experience, but as you implied, this sort of thing ultimately comes down to personal preference and a real-life audition can't be beaten.

    Quote from PhilUK84

    Just so you know, the issue is with the iPhone. You often can't see the text you are writing so you are almost posting blind. The edits are (mostly) merely corrections of spaces and punctuation that don't seem to be entered at times.


    He's entitled to his review, even though I think it's poor and overly subjective, which had nothing to do with my comment. Accusing the board of censorship and accusing people of having agendas, all in 30 posts? And with that name? Seriously. I told him what I thought of him, and he's doing nothing to change my mind.


    I still stand by my statement that we should all try gear out for ourselves and not take the words of strangers. That's all I was saying, I don't get what the problem with that was, yet I was told I have an agenda. What a load of nonsense.


    On the contrary my review is actually the opposite of "poor" and "overly subjective" I went into my background experience, my neutrality wanting it to work for me and actually buying it ... the lengths I went to test the Helix including listening to the amp models alone which no one else does. You continue to disparage me and misrepresent what I said I see no integrity in anything you have said! "nonsense", I made a lot of sense! "I was told I have an agenda" Questioning is far different to telling someone they have an agenda! etc .... really go jump in the lake man...


    It's ironic that you disrespect me and disparage me not because of the substance of my review but because of my name, appearance, my fresh off the boat newness and my earlier questioning if there was some unfairness going on.. all the hallmarks of a superficially judgemental person which your review clearly mirrored.


    I wrote what I wrote with honesty openness (and I thought some entertainment?) as a Kemper community service and to get to know some of the guys using Kemper as I am looking at maybe making the jump. Thanks so much for the support! I am all warm and fuzzy!