Line 6 Helix

review
LINE 6 HELIX
112
Guitarist may 2016
by a clever multi-function joystick control.
Six soft knobs under the display let you
quickly adjust parameters displayed above
them and things are made even easier by
the fact that the footswitches are all touch
sensitive; you can use that to assign effects
to footswitches or instantly get the assigned
effect’s parameters to appear in the display.
There’s even a pedal edit mode so you
can select parameters with your foot and
edit them using the expression pedal. It’s
all really intuitive and caters for mid-gig
adjustments, as well as building up sounds
from scratch at home.
While the Helix may have enough sounds
to work as a complete closed system for
many players, it also has four send/return
loops to allow the incorporation of external
effects in the signal chain, should you want
to add some favourite pedals and use them
as part of a preset. The Helix can, in fact, be
In regular use, there
are two modes for
the footswitches,
Preset and Stomp,
so you can recall
presets or toggle
effects on and off
Line 6’s Variax connection. Versatility
in signal routing is aided by analogue
connections (XLR and jack) to send two
versions of the output signal (same or
different) to two different destinations as
well as digital connections. A USB socket
allows the Helix to be used as an 8-in/8-out
audio interface for DAW recording and
re-amping of recorded sounds. The Helix’s
mic and aux sockets, and the guitar input,
will allow you to record a variety of sources,
all monitored via its headphone output.
In regular use, there are two modes for
the footswitches, Preset and Stomp, so you
can recall presets or toggle effects on and
off. You can swap instantly between these
two modes and can even have presets on
the bottom footswitch row and effects on
the top. There’s tap tempo, too, and the
expression pedal has a toe switch to toggle
two expression parameters. Should you
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integrated with other gear in many ways
and used as a master controller for the
whole system, with various tasks assigned
to footswitches. There is all the MIDI
implementation you’d need, sockets for
external amp switching duties and to
send CV data to an analogue synth, plus
GIT406.rev_helix.indd 112 3/16/16 11:52 AM