Pete Thorn did a demo of the Helix, I must say I'm impressed now.

    Quote from viabcroce

    Weird, I had exactly the opposite impression :huh:


    :D


    By different, I meant that one is a rack/amp style processor that's prime selling point is its amp profiling, while also being capable of doing most or all of your your effects.
    Whereas the Helix flips that on its head. It is built with the idea of being a complete solution, but a complete solution with good modeling. But without a powered option. That's why they led their advertising campaign with the floor model, not the rack and controller.


    Thus their design concepts are different. Their overlap is that both are capable of being an entire solution to a guitarist's amp/effect/routing needs, minus a speaker and power for the Helix and unpowered Kempers. Both are great products with the Kemper being king of amp tone and Helix being king of routing and the only one offering a floor-only option.


    Put another way. Suppose you owned both? Would you put the Kemper with it's amazing profiles in a Helix loop and control with Helix's midi? Or would you put the Helix in the Kemper's loop and control with Kemper's midi, opting to using all of Kemper's effects with the Helix's amp models? Obviously the first option.

    Quote from Grooguit

    By different, I meant that one is a rack/amp style processor that's prime selling point is its amp profiling, while also being capable of doing most or all of your your effects.
    Whereas the Helix flips that on its head. It is built with the idea of being a complete solution, but a complete solution with good modeling. But without a powered option. That's why they led their advertising campaign with the floor model, not the rack and controller.


    Thus their design concepts are different. Their overlap is that both are capable of being an entire solution to a guitarist's amp/effect/routing needs, minus a speaker and power for the Helix and unpowered Kempers. Both are great products with the Kemper being king of amp tone and Helix being king of routing and the only one offering a floor-only option.


    Put another way. Suppose you owned both? Would you put the Kemper with it's amazing profiles in a Helix loop and control with Helix's midi? Or would you put the Helix in the Kemper's loop and control with Kemper's midi, opting to using all of Kemper's effects with the Helix's amp models? Obviously the first option.


    I wonder what those "awfully nice" folks at Fractal (version whatever) have to say on this issue... ^^:D

    Quote from lonestargtr

    Any Kemper folks out there got a Helix yet? Want to compare thoughts.


    My thoughts:

    • Overall, the quality of the basic amp tones is equivalent to the Kemper. There are a few extra-special MBritt and TAF profiles that I'll probably never be able to replicate in the Helix, but that's ok. It's too bad there's no Pure Cab and almost no far-field IRs on the market.
    • The wahs, distortions, delays and modulations are equivalent to the Kemper's to my ears. I like the Univibe and fuzzes more than the Kemper's, but the Kemper's pitch FX are way better than the Helix'. No user scales, no formant control, no Pure Tuning. The compression and reverb sound quality is equivalent, but I like the subcategories on the Helix more than the presets on the Kemper. I'm talking pre-v4.0, obviously.
    • Editing is easy but, for me, still not quite as easy as on a Kemper. Part of it is because the joystick is too easy to mis-twist and part of it is just a function of the additional routing flexibility. The Kemper can have all of its easy-access buttons and knobs because of its inherent routing limitations. On the other hand, selecting amp models on the Helix is a little easier since the selection is clearly much more limited compared to the Kemper, and there aren't any submenus to navigate.
    • The additional routing options and parallel amp capabilities aren't a huge deal for me except that the routing enables gapless switching among totally different sounds,with delay/reverb spillover, within a single patch. I still prefer the gapless and spillover-enabled switching between rigs on the Kemper, though.
    • The capacitative footswitches are awesome.
    • The LED switch rings and scribble strips are incredibly helpful for gigging.
    • Somehow the Helix' 14.6 lbs feels a lot heavier than the Kemper lunchbox' 11 lbs, maybe because of the larger size. The size of it was kind of daunting at first. But it's well-designed. The curved sides make it very easy to pick up. And when you take into account the weight of the expression pedal and footswitch I use with my Kemper, the weight difference is only about a pound.
    • Being able to process both my guitar and vocals in parallel is awesome.
    • Being able to assign the expression pedal to any parameter(s) on a patch-by-patch basis is huge for me, although Kemper has now announced that feature for v4.0.
    • USB audio.
    • Pedalboard form factor.
    • Variax integration.
    • Synth.
    • Variable rotary speaker speed, not just fast/slow.

    I did a clip comparison here:


    http://www.thegearpage.net/boa…-comfortably-numb.1633530


    and decided to keep my Helix and sell my Kemper. Happy to discuss in more detail.

    Quote from burningyen

    I did a clip comparison here:


    thegearpage.net/board/index.ph…-comfortably-numb.1633530


    and decided to keep my Helix and sell my Kemper. Happy to discuss in more detail.


    Nice, I got it right and I liked the Kemper sound slightly better (mostly in the lower registers) but they are really close and as you say I could live with either and be fine. Also I agree that I liked your actual playing on the helix clip better.