Change the FEEL Of Your Helix - Bias and SAG

For my Presets visit: johnnathancordy.gumroad.com/ I got asked by Jeremy if I had any thoughts on the Bias and Sag parameters, and truthfully, the answer was no. So I decided to do some experimenting and see what I felt was the difference, then some research.
I'm pretty blown away by how much of a difference BIAS can make.
Once I'd done the experimenting, I checked out Craig Anderton's article www.sweetwater.com/insync/und... and it's pretty helpful.
www.buymeacoffee.com/johnnath... - if you like what I do and
only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!
Get my PADs bundle here: www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr... (this folder will grow, and I'd encourage you to ask for different keys/songs and stuff that might suit this type of preset?)
I've decided to make it possible to grab both my Helix/HX Stomp bundles (the expression bundle with freeze presets has always been separate) together for £5 - www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr... - I will then email you a link to both bundles!
Try my general patches for Helix or HX Stomp in this bundle for £3 using this link - I will then send out the patches! www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
You can get my EXPRESSION patches in this bundle using this link - I will then send out the patches! www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
Try my patches for Pod GO for £3 using this link - I will then send out the patches! www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
/ johnnathancordy get my backing tracks here
www.buymeacoffee.com/johnnath... - if you like what I do and
only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

[@zach-jj8pc]

This man is doing wonders for the Helix community. I wish the manual would have explained it better from the start.

[@OneNidim]

I wish mine had a manual

[@MoveUpMedia]

Totally agree on turning down Sag. I’ve found that I prefer the response when I pull that down.

[@williamnichols6253]

I think this is the most helpful helix video I've ever seen. Thanks man.

[@jbonillaguitar]

I love these Chord-(y) demos a lot. it's hard to distinguish these subtle difference in lead playing. Would love to see/hear more demos like this

[@mattbrillhart2922]

THANKS! This broke it down much easier to digest. I have the Pod Go--I’ve messed with bias a bit, but not sag. I feel this will help me immensely on some presets.

[@jacobseal]

Great video. These controls are so powerful. The first step i do is up the master to about 6 or higher depending on the amp to get the power section cooking a bit. Then use the sag, bias, and bias x to finish up.

[@bartdebruyne618]

Great video. Same problem here. 1 loose cable. My 2015 Helix knob is fixed. No need for parts here. Thanks man. Saved myself from buying more new stuff.

[@Andreas_Straub]

Well, these two controls behave like on a real tube amp. SAG means that the power supply cannot deliver enough voltage to fully support the power the amplifier wants to generate. This means the maximum output is capped and the sound gets compressed depending on output power. Bias on the other hand means how "hot" the tube is driven. High Bias limits the power of the tube stage and usually makes it sound cleaner. If the tube is using not enough Bias it is amplifying "wild" - which will lead to high distortion and a short tube life. (This is for example what makes the VOX sound unique - even though the tubes will usually not be living long in such amplifiers). Each power tube has a specified max. power it can generate without fast aging and this in turn defines the optimum bias setting. These effects in real amps are being modelled in the virtual schematics of the amp models.

[@Rrrrichy]

Excelent explaination sir

[@guitarinventions]

John I have a tip for you. Listen very carefully using headphones as you change the Sag setting. It will not be linear. You will find some positions not next to each other, increase clarity and definition etc. I suspect this is due to the modeling capture process. This is the key to dialing in Sag and Bias.

[@serpensnovus9869]

Thanks John, great illustration of how useful these settings could be, how each amp model responds differently and, in some cases, quite dramatically. Revisit amp models I've not got on with before to see if I can get more out of them. It seems Bias and Sag could be quite powerful tools for tailoring an amp model to a particular guitar or playing style. Particularly interested in that overlap between clean and breakup tones and sweetening jangly guitar from harsh to expansive. You mentioned Bias having a more pronounced effect on higher gain tones and so I've been playing around with master and channel volumes. I'm getting the impression that Bias and Sag seem to have a greater effect when power amp gains are higher. p.s. great tip to use looper at the start of a preset to try out settings. Easier to listen objectively.

[@eds4754]

Great video as usual John. Bias makes a huge difference on the Helix, and I really love that they included it. Much easier to fine tune and adjust than on a real amp with no risk of destroying your valves. I think most of the differences in behaviour can be attributed to whether the amp modelled is class A or class A/B. I think the Class A amps like being run at 100%. Class A/B ones have that crossover distortion and muck at lower settings and get a bit flubby and saturated at higher ones. Love the AC30 tones here with the bias up!

[@boimesa8190]

What's the difference between A/B?

[@nick.raptis]

@@boimesa8190 "Difference between A/B" does not make sense, really :) A and A/B are both amp categories. So the question should be what's the difference between A and A/B. Your guitar's signal vibrates from negative to positive voltages. Tubes are however one way, so they can't amplify the negative part. In A design amps, you add some constant voltage to your signal (that's the bias) so that it's always positive and amplify that. That means that when you crank the amp the positive part of the signal is the only one that will overdrive, the negative is now near zero and safe. This gets you asymmetric overdrive. In an A/B design you use two tubes, one for the positive and one for the negative part of the signal. The bias then is adding some constant voltage again to each half of the signal so that you get the tube to overdrive faster.

[@johnong2655]

Funny when you mentioned this. Jason Sadites just posted a video about, the channel vs master volume yesterday. That which also affects the power amp and feeling of the sag too

[@planzed463]

The Bias is interesting in the Stops Vox, sounds more authentic with the bias up for sure 👌🏼

[@marcdwonn9772]

Genius! I gotta review my go-to sounds, there's probably room for improvement in these parameters (i used the defaults until now).

[@tonystartup3817]

I'm surprised you've missed this. We're always being told to check our biases these days. Isn't this what they mean?

[@CitizenOfEverywhere]

I asked my guitar which personal pronoun she preferred. Turns out he finds being called "Lucille" demeaning.

[@thesmallnotesduo]

Guitarists against woke? Yeah count me in.

[@StratsRUs]

@@thesmallnotesduo Anti-Woke is what ?

[@thesmallnotesduo]

@@StratsRUs Anything with lots of common sense and no virtue signalling.

[@JosePineda-jn8jk]

The right is always complaining about things being politicized and here we are again 🤦🏽‍♂️

[@diegocamilo1122]

Super useful

[@ludlow555]

I’ve been messing with the Sag and Ripple controls for a while. I love the “old amp about to explode” tones you can get. Bias still baffles me. I hear the differences when moving them from their stock positions, but they never sound better, just “blown out.”

[@jacobseal]

Can you tell me what to listen for with ripple??? I have tried it on a few amps and whatever it is I just can't hear or feel it. I normally just leave it stock or turn it to 0. Hum also always at 0. Who wants hum in their sound?? I use Sag, Bias, and Bias X extensively. They are really powerful. Ripple and hum are more esoteric to me.

[@johnnytwo-shoes9798]

Mystery shrouded in an enigma....Wrapped up in a musical

[@pwhite102]

The first riff at 1:20 almost sounds like bruce springstein's "woahs" in a song I can't remember right now. It sounds awesome!

[@gregguz88]

I’m not sure this is 100% correct but I got this from Line 6 support way back. They said that Sag is essentially increasing the voltage to the power amp which is why things get more distorted and “clamp down’ like a compressor as that is what would be happening to the power tubes as the as the voltage demands overwork the B+ on the plates giving the “sag”.

[@redxxfour]

I've heard in a Jason Sadites video that it's about the amount of voltage drop you get when you get a high electric load (like a really heavy strum), resulting in compression. Not really well versed enough to speak on it, but just wanted to share that bit

[@nick.raptis]

@@redxxfour Something like that. Ever see lights loose brightness when you start a motor or something? When you ask a power supply to give you more power than it can, then the voltage will drop, or sag. Pushing sound, especially through the power section, takes, well, power. In fact, bass frequencies need even more power to push. So what happens in tube amps is that when you are pushing a lot of volume, the power amp overpowers the supply and the voltage drops everywhere in the amp, including the preamp section as well, leading to more distortion everywhere. Two funny things from that One, the attack of the note is loudest so the result of the sag is compression of the attack transients, changing the feel Two, Since bass frequencies are more power hungry, you know that because bass amps need all the watts, taking bass off your signal means that you now need less power to amplify the remaining mids and highs, so you can get more volume from the amp that was sagging before. And that's exactly what trebleboosters and tubescreamers are meant to do.

[@neilanderson9151]

Cool riffs

[@intenzityd3181]

Low sag sounds good on cleaner tones for the clarity. High sag better on high gain for smoother sustain and less ice pick attack modellers are famous for.

[@planzed463]

Yea man I think it’s the same in BOSS products too, would be interesting to hear the same kinda comparison in your Boss units.. I find this control can totally change a tone in the Boss & definitely worth tweaking but in a Boss we have resonance control too & balancing the two with the amps gain, presence & bass controls seems to be a key.

[@johnnathancordy]

Nice - so resonance I presume is something like a "deep" control right? Or the bass version of presence?

[@planzed463]

@@johnnathancordy honestly I don’t know for sure as in typical Boss fashion they’re a bit vague but it definitely shapes mids & highs in the drives/gains etc... I’m finding commonly I settle around 5 for resonance

[@philjobbins2325]

Fender seemed to build the mustang gtx presets with these on compressed, so when compared to boss katana it sounded boxed in and weak !

[@eddieftw]

Just here to learn about biased and sagging amplifiers.

[@NadaSurfinAB]

I've been experimenting with these parameters. I still haven't figured out what Bias-X does. The Sweetwater article is brilliant, but I still don't understand Bias-X.

[@boimesa8190]

what amp + settings are u having at the start??

[@GS-uy4xo]

Maybe a good idea to find out what normal bias is set to for a specific amp and what tweaks are appropriate for that amp - in most cases we’d never think of going in and changing the bias ourselves or even know about it; these modelers are making me think too much - and then at the gig it’s all different 😂

[@johnnathancordy]

The normal bias is where the model defaults to!

[@GS-uy4xo]

That’s a good very good thing to know. Thanks! @@johnnathancordy

[@robgroden]

I would love to see 2 patches (Ch 1 and Ch 2) that could be used as a 2 channel amp 😊

[@robgroden]

One of biggest struggles is getting clean and dirty tones that “go together”

[@UTAH100]

I found the truly best way to change the feel of a Helix. Buy a Fractal. Sorry JNC, couldn't resist.

[@johnnathancordy]

Buy two!!

[@BobbyCulpepper.srv3fender]

taking the master down lower then 4 really changes the sound too

[@jasonkucharski7411]

Quick Question, How I do I find the new location for the folder with the uploaded presets? I understand they were switched over when the channel got hacked. Thanks in Advance.

[@johnnathancordy]

Hey Jason! Shoot me an email - and anyone else reading Jason's email. Just don't do it all at the same time....

[@BurntMcgurnt]

You should do this with the Axe Fx too man ! would be cool to see that

[@johnnathancordy]

Where would I start in the Axe though - there's like 100 of these type of parameters!!

[@BurntMcgurnt]

@@johnnathancordy ya haha I would start with supply sag and bias excursion that's probably the closest to what you're doing here

[@jakestewartmusic]

I tend to run the Sag about 1.0-1.5 lower than stock on most amps and the Bias 0.5-1.5 higher than stock. I also prefer a little less Ripple and Hum. I find that the sound is more immediate, a bit more bold, and has less artifacts when sustaining when doing so. Is it as vintage accurate sounding? Probably not. But it's my preference.

[@Newnodrogbob]

I am going to try this immediately, because one of my big pet peeves with all of the sounds I've dialed in is that I get a lot of artifacts when sustaining.

[@jakestewartmusic]

@@Newnodrogbob Definitely recommend turning down Ripple and Hum, and utilizing the high cut on the Cab or IR block as well. I tend to cut at 8k most of the time. Also helps to really spend time dialing in the noise gate, and turn around 360 degrees in your room until you find a node where you get less hum. Should see a dramatic decrease in noise if you're not doing those things after applying them

[@john808welk]

Is this any way you could make this video into a $30 preset so I don't have to turn any knobs myself?

[@johnnathancordy]

I'm just setting up the backend for this

[@picksalot1]

If I change the Sag and Bias Parameters, it is typically towards the end of dialing in a Preset. But, I rarely use them, as by that time I have "Parameter Fatigue" and echoic memory is so short (2-4 seconds) that I can't really trust what I'm hearing. When I'm dialing in, I'd like to start with something that sounds good and is very close to what I want, so I can then dial in the finishing touches. This is why I think "Tone Matching" is the better approach.

[@johnnathancordy]

Do you mean tonematching in the real sense or in the latest craze and way to monetise Helix attention?

[@picksalot1]

@@johnnathancordy In the real sense, but not sure if there's a difference. 🤭

[@christianboddum8783]

I'm OK with the sag and Bias now, but find it hard to hear the effect of the Bias X. Low sag (tight) for rhythm, high sag for leads (loose), High Bias for top end. FWIW

[@johnnathancordy]

The Bias X (according to other sources) seems to do something like the Sag thing but for tube shape? "Determines how the power amp tubes' voicing reacts when pushed hard, controlling how much the bias changes when the amp is driven hard. Bias X is a bit like Sag, except it controls change in a tube's operating point due to change in the tube bias when the amp is driven hard. Set low for a tighter feel. Set high for more tube compression. This parameter is highly reactive with the Drive and Master settings."

[@ksharpe10]

@@johnnathancordy Wow and I heard Fractal get even more like as if you are an Amp. Builder, turning you into Ken Fischer or Alex. DARE I say it D U m, well you know???

[@david.petrey]

Is a tube amp sag more like clipping or compression? kzbin.info/www/bejne/enbLgImQaMukj6c

[@Deep_Jimpact]

Too easy. No sport in titles like that