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Rhysyrhys · Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 4:09 am Post subject: NMD! Helix LT

Got me a Helix LT!

Sorry for the shite picture just using the cam on my laptop because I am sans-phone for the moment as I left it in Wales like a dickhead. I (like do from time to time) put in a really low bid on Reverb.com for it and got it for 790USD shipped, I was kinda staggered because it just came out a few weeks ago at 999USD and this guy had barely unpacked it.

This thing is super dope man, I've just been messing around with making a small pedalboard patch in it and it's fucking sweet. So you have a big colour screen and you navigate around with a joystick knob, which is pretty decent to use. I think I made the mistake of sitting on a chair and leaning down to it to twiddle, I should have just sat on the floor because I kept pressing in the joystick instead of left and righting it. The footswitches are touch sensitive, and so you just twiddle to your effect, and then touch the switch for a bit and it assigns it to the pedal - no menus. There's all sorts of crazy routing stuff you can seem to do, parametric chaining of digital effects, two FX loops you can do all sorts of crazy crap with.

Only thing I don't like about the UI is that for some reason, if I put say, one of every type of effect on each block in one of the signal chains then I can seem to add a 7th or 8th effect unit, but if I put a bunch of distortions on it seems totally fine. It feels like the unit only has so much processing power because of this, but it's weird, you can then put a bunch of DSP heavy effects (Synths, Octave Generators, Chorus, Reverb etc.) on the other signal chain and run them at the same time and apparently you can do crazy midi stuff at the same time too - so there must be something that I'm missing.

It sounds great. Genuinely. I am an all pedals guy, but this really does do a genuinely indistinguishable job of emulating things. In fact I would go as far to say that I like it's Fuzz Factory better than any of the ones I've owned. The amp models are really great, I want to hear it through a PA or something before I gush about them like people see to be - but they are highly enjoyable and extremely responsive you can do the whole volume knob thing with the AC30 with Bright Boost thing and the Rangemaster clone and it just genuinely made me want to Rory Gallagher for the next 40 or so minutes. Delays are great, but you would expect it, people have always liked the DL4 and the MM4 too for modulation - this is just those but with x100 more processing power. I will say the Electric Mistress is a bit odd, it doesn't sound like one at all (I've owned two of these suckers, best flanger ever).

I don't like the pitch shift modes, none of them can handle polyphony, they've tried to basically make a Whammy IV and an Eventide "80s widdly widdly woo" harmonizer and done a fair job at that. Playing the "Like A Stone" solo sounded fucking great through JCM800 model. But this thing won't do anything near what a POG can or a HOG can and that's a real shame because that's a sound that I really would love to have. The looper is just OK, you get 60 seconds, you can overdub as many tracks is it takes to fill that up - again, it's 2017 I feel this thing for it's 999USD MSRP should have a few minutes of time or an SD slot or something - the Helix Floor (bigger brother) is just the same too. Bit of a let down. Maybe I'm just being picky.

All in all I think this thing is cracking. I certainly will not be buying any pedals for a good while, the only thing I might do is grab some professional IRs from a 3rd party and see what the hype is all about. It's just crazy, I have spent my life refuting all that is multiFX - homogeneous, limited, hard to program, practical etc. I really do feel that this is doing a really solid job of changing my mind and sticking with this sort of lifestyle. Much as I like a flash pedalboard with all the cool rare pedals on, this thing does 10x anything that I've put together before and I've barely scratched the surface.

8/10 at least. That's being harsh probably.
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Rhysyrhys · Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 4:16 am Post subject:

I am figuring out how to record multiple channels of USB input on Windows at the moment so I can do a demo and talk at the same time and sync that up to some video. Once I find software that's decent enough I'll make a demo video and do an zonds for you guys.

This also gives me a little time to make up a few patches, other than "Lol here's the Jimi Hendrix sound! Look you can be Tom Morello lololol" because there is a lot of interesting stuff to show off.
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gusman2x · Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 5:43 am Post subject:

Kinda dying for one of these at the moment. Gets such good reviews off everyone that's had one. Looking forward to the demo that you what will do an.
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Bacchus · Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 11:28 am Post subject:

Sweet, what other games are out for it?

It looks cool. I have an M5 that I'm thinking of upgrading to n M9 (it'll still have too many effects for me) and I'm hoping that there will be enough people upgrading from M9 to Helix that I'll see prices drop.
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Gabriel · . Joined: 11 Apr 2010 Posts: 3141 Location: NYC

I'd love one of these. I recently got a Zoom G5n to how I could get on with a modeller and it's totally changed my opinion, so I'd be interested to hear what one of these sounds like.
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NickS · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2017 11:50 am Post subject:

Gabriel · . Joined: 11 Apr 2010 Posts: 3141 Location: NYC

Nick · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:25 pm Post subject:

Nmd? New Multifx Day?

I can't keep up anymore.

Congrats on new toy tho.
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Rhysyrhys · Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:46 pm Post subject: