Line 6 Helix 102: Effects Order and Signal Chain

#helix #preset #tutorial
Donate: paypal.me/CHADHUSKEY
Marketplace patches: shop.line6.com/marketplace/?addon_vendor=140
Complete playlist for my getting started with Helix series:
kzbin.info/aero/PL71hgl7VkBa3xcCRrOp1MfAt43FaWxePU
Split Dynamics Tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/opWXl3Wgor6hobM

[@JimHoy-Rockstar]

Here it is 18 months later and this is still so relevant and informative! Just what I needed Chad! Thank you!!

[@chadnikolaus8793]

Parallel Effects: The greatest thing I never knew I needed.

[@peeweesherman]

This is incredible. Many light bulb moments had watching. I took notes like a class.

[@rickherrera5230]

Same here

[@bflo5210]

I'm watching all your videos for the helix.....thank you for these "courses" 🤘🤘🤘

[@Ulli_Hof]

A big thanks for this. I have recently bought a Helix and tutorials like this make it much easier for me to learn how the thing works

[@bitesizeguitarac]

Thanks for the video - I have the Helix a couple of years and I just have very basic signal paths set up - great sounds - this helps me to go exploring now 🎸🎸👌👌

[@Boombergtastic]

Thanks again for this. I learned something about the volume pedal. I had it first in the chain which isn't the way I wanted to use it. Now it's in the back where it makes sense for me as a simple volume pedal!

[@professorkaos62]

Thank you so much for this. I just picked up a Floor and it is a lot to take in right away. This is a great explanation on how to set everything up, the rest is just setting up tones. Great video.

[@PaulBoehning]

Great stuff, Chad! Man, I wish I would have found you earlier. You are such a tremendous help and opened up a bunch of new doors for me. Thanks again.

[@SickaSurfin]

Great video, cleared up a lot for me. I am an old player trying to adapt to the new tools

[@sjsphotog]

Great tips and tutorial here Chad. Keep em coming. Its been a bit since I saw anything new from you. All the best. you rock!!

[@bryceallyn5307]

Thanks for this! I'm digging the parallel effects .

[@taokichavez9319]

Very nice tutorial dude, thanks for sharing, it's helping to get familiar with the helix

[@Thrasher1601]

you are a godsend chad! been struggling to quite understand this concept for weeks 😝

[@hockeyman2274]

This was a great tutorial- helped me a bunch. THANKS

[@planetside11]

That helped a ton, Chad. Thanks for uncorking this beast for us.

[@michaelgass497]

Great video. Very easy to follow. Thank You

[@henrydrehergrosch6098]

Thanks for this tutorial 👍🏻

[@thezooportugalbanda]

Excelent Video ! Regards from Portugal

[@donciseau]

Great video!

[@rajeshpereirawildlifephoto3571]

amazing tutorial

[@FanHalen]

Again, awesome stuff. And I'm sure you will agree this one is a rabbit hole that doesn't end. Or should I say a black hole? LOL And whoever that guy is that hit the dislike button sucks!

[@cmdrefstathiusplacidus9003]

I need to back up and figure out where and how I'm supposed to save these things you're showing me how to create

[@LDBecker]

Again, really helpful way to urge us to jump into the edit process - glad you're addressing the Variax integration. Can you ALSO get into PowerCab 112/212+ integration with Helix? Would using the, in my case, 212+ as the amp/cab mean that it would always come at the end of the chain? Thanks!

[@ChadHuskey]

At some point I'll try to get around to Powercab integration. That's something I've been putting off for too long ;)

[@desnewman4166]

As always, equal measures of interesting and informative vid. When you spilt the first path at the distortion block, the first thing that came to mind was stacking gain pedals, particularly heir, sovereign, minotaur, scream etc. In terms of authenticity, interaction, flexibility etc, what's your take on comparing Helix with actual pedalboard layouts? Worth another vid...or is it covered elsewhere? Thanks as usual. Cheers.

[@ChadHuskey]

Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed the video! While it's been YEARS since I've built a traditional pedalboard, and I hope I never do have to build another one ;), to me the Helix does a great job in recreating the authenticity of stacking pedals. In my live patches I generally have at least 3 OD pedals in the chain stacked. I turn them on in various combinations depending on the tone I need at the movement. As in the real world you get different results by the placing the pedals in different order. It just comes down to your own personal preference. I would just suggest starting with a patch you know you like the sound of, then add the drive pedals you like. Experiment with pedal order and which ones sound good when stacked. Since you can so easily drag and drop the pedal order it doesn't take very long at all to see what you like and don't like. As with anything there is no one "right" way to do it. As I said in the video, if it sounds good it is good. Sometimes breaking the rules can lead to some really cool tones. Hope that adds some helpful info :)

[@olakarlstrom8833]

Thank you for an incredibly informative video! 🙏🏼 Is the same thinking regarding the order of effects and signal chain applicable to bass as well?

[@ChadHuskey]

Glad you liked the video! Yes pretty much the same principles apply with bass as well.

[@olakarlstrom8833]

@@ChadHuskey Thank you Chad! Keep up the good work! 🙏🏼🤟🏼

[@jfroines]

For a future vid, something I'm interested in is finding the best practice to monitor my playing while recording. Not sure if I should run helix to my daw with cab simulation and monitor guitar solely via my main FFR monitor speakers where my full daw mix is coming out of including live guitar, or maybe somehow send without cab simulation to my cab (I could also use cab simulation from helix to the cab since my cab is a powercab that I could choose to run as FFR) while also sending with cab simulation to my daw, turning off monitoring of the guitar track in my daw while recording. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but a general "using helix with your daw" vid would be very cool. Appreciate your vids!

[@ChadHuskey]

That's a good idea about doing a video about setting up Helix with a DAW for sure. Thanks for the suggestion. To your question, the way I do it is to monitor everything through FRFR speakers. Actually because my favorite times to play coincide with the time others in the house like to sleep, I pretty much use my headphones 99% of the time. But it's the same concept of using FRFR speakers. Running the guitar out to a separate cab would be a more complex setup and you'd have to get the volume of the cab and what's coming out of your FRFR speakers balanced in the room. To me personally it's just much easier to monitor with one source.

[@kevsty311]

New to the helix and just wanted to say these 101 and 102 are very helpful! I have one question. If I am going to bring this helix over to a buddy’s basement and plug it in to a blackstar tube combo amp to jam with him, do I want to make sure all of my presets don’t have an amp and cab setting or can I just put it on the clean channel and add amps to it. There are also several output effects loop and foot switch line availabilities in the back of my blackstar. Does anybody know the best way for sound from the blackstar to hook this helix up when I bring the helix over to jam with him?

[@ChadHuskey]

Sorry for the late reply. You've probably already worked it out by now, but I would run the output of the Helix into the effects return of the Blackstar with amp model on, but no cab model on. You can also google 4 cable method if you want to try and incorporate the preamp of the Blackstar into your patch.

[@SjaakShirly6559]

Thanks again Chad! Great lesson again. I imitate your actions from this tutorial in my own Helix Edit and Helix Floor. I noticed when I tried the step "adding fuzz to path A" that I couldn't choose ANY effect at all. I deleted the mod. block but even then I couldn't add the fuzz. You explained about DSP yesterday. Am I doing something wrong? Is it something in my global settings? Thanks in advance. These lessons are very helpful for a lot of beginners like me.

[@ChadHuskey]

Sounds like you're definitely running into dsp issues. Originally I had the dynamic hall reverb on, but switched to one of the legacy reverbs to free up dsp. You can also set the output block to send to path 2A and but some of the effects on the 2nd path to free up dsp. Probably the next video I'll talk about chaining the paths together for dsp, among other, options.

[@SjaakShirly6559]

@@ChadHuskey thank you! Can't wait!

[@TrevHau5]

Great video! I have an HX Stomp with pedals, kind of on the fence about going full Helix Floor. My biggest question is: Can the Helix Floor act as a pseudo interface/mixer for Guitars, Mics and Keyboards? HX Stomp has a dedicated AUX IN setting for the Returns 1/2, and doesn’t take any DSP to process it (unaffected by Blocks) Seems Floor has to have a dedicated Block/Path for any Send/Return involvement (e.g. Return 1/2 is Keys, output to Multi Output, USB 3/4, etc). What’s your take on using Helix Floor with external gear? Worth it or just use a mixer and/or Audio Interface?

[@ChadHuskey]

Good question, and thanks! In my opinion the Helix can work as a mixer, at least to a degree. I've done live solo shows where I have a path for guitar and a path for Vocals. I send one out the left output and one out the right to the mixer. I also recorded it over USB to my laptop which worked great. Also I think the Helix makes for a great audio interface. If I'm doing guitar I use it 100% of the time for recording and mixing. If I need multiple mic inputs then I'll use my audio interface, but otherwise I love using Helix. Honestly I've never used the aux input, so I'm not sure if it can work as a pass through. I know on the Helix floor the mic preamp can work as a passthrough over USB. The dry signal gets sent to USB output 8. But for using it live my experience is everything needs to go through a path. Again, aux could be an exception. As I've not used the aux input I'd have to test that. You can certainly use it to process multiple instruments by breaking up the paths though. I did a pair of videos last year that go into detail about this. Might be worth you checking them out. Lots more detail than I can fit into the comment section :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWeWk6KXfKeZh7c kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKOmk6agarWGg8U

[@TrevHau5]

@@ChadHuskey Thank you for the reply and I will definitely check those videos out! Subscribed!

[@vphathom]

I am using a Marshall DSL 40 amp is there a way to use the Marshall effects loop and spliting the effects from the helix that some of the effect go through the front of the amp and the other effects go the the Marshall effects loop. Right now i am going through the front of the amp and keeping the amp on the clean channel . is there a way to use the crunch the marshall produces with out over driving the pre-amp tubes

[@ChadHuskey]

Yes absolutely. It's what's called the 4 cable method. If you Google it you'll see plenty of articles and diagrams. It's pretty straightforward though. Guitar plugs into helix input. Helix fx loop send goes to the input of the Marshall. Fx loop send from the Marchand goes to the fx loop return of the helix. Helix output goes to the fx of loop return of the Marshall. Whichever fx loop from the helix you used just place that block in your signal chain and that block is how you bring in the sound of your amps preamp into helix. You can put helix effects before and after it.

[@steveandrushko75]

I have the Helix Floor had it for only a few weeks then yesterday I got the Line 6 212 Plus power cab I don't know if I should add a cab (S) to the chain or not in Flat stereo mode any suggestions Chaf?

[@ChadHuskey]

If you are going to run the PC 212 in flat mode then yes add a cab block(s) to your signal chain. The time you want to take them off is if you run the PC 212 with speaker emulations on. Hope this helps!

[@artytoney2057]

Mr Chad im new to helix and im having a problem in hx edit when trying to import ir's from files ive down loaded in my laptop im getting a , no path found prompt , when i hit import , is there any way you know tomfix this thank you

[@ChadHuskey]

When you load an IR try dragging and dropping the IR into hx edit instead of using the import feature in hx edit. Just make sure that the IR list is visible in hx edit when you do this. Both methods work, but trying an alternate method could eliminate some error possibilities.

[@BobBerardjr772]

I ha e an iPad. Could I get into a helix floor with this? I have a new helix coming soon. Thank you so much

[@ChadHuskey]

There isn't a mobile app to edit helix with unfortunately. Only the desktop version.

[@BobBerardjr772]

@@ChadHuskey or a small laptop if this is going to be the only thing I use it for?

[@BobBerardjr772]

@@ChadHuskey Thank you so much for your help Chat!

[@ChadHuskey]

@@BobBerardjr772 Any laptop running Windows or Mac OS would work great.

[@BobBerardjr772]

@@ChadHuskey Thank you buddy

[@mrblues1981]

i bought helix last week ,find it very difficult to set the tones with right way , im copyin people tones from youtube ,

[@stevensurovik2180]

240lain 6

[@bryceallyn5307]

Thanks for this! I'm digging the parallel effects .

[@stevensurovik2180]

240 hz lin6