Unpopular opinion: Helix Native isn’t as good as contemporaries

Plugins
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Is it just me that thinks the Helix Native is nowhere near as good as contemporaries? I’m comparing against the following:

  • Positive Grid Bias FX 2
  • Native Instruments Guitar Rig 6
  • IK Multimedia Amplitube 5
  • Neural DSP Gojira

In my opinion there’s very little to redeem the Helix Native, other than interop with the hardware (which I don’t have), but I find the sounds it produces to be fizzy and synthetic sounding.

That’s not to say that that the others are perfect, but I can’t think of anything good to say about this one. Does anyone else agree?

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I like TH-U and Bias over Helix. Generally the factory presets are garbage in all of them and you have to spend time building/tweaking your own sounds. But the basic building blocks of just an amp and speaker do sound better in the first two I mentioned in my opinion as well. Not much of a fan of guitar rig either.

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I have no problem at all with Helix Native, and would use it before reaching for Amplitube every time. I tend to use an external IR loader and other post effects, which means that I am usually only using the pedals and amp from Native.

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Thank you for sharing your experience. I appreciate that tone and plugin choice is highly subjective, but I feel like I’m missing something with Helix Native, and I’m reading the signal that there are things here that I can learn.

Can you tell me more about the IR loader and post effects you’re using?

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With my rackspaces, I’m all over the place with IRs and loaders. I’ll switch from using something like the Celestion SpeakerMix Pro (by realising I hate the UI and workflow) and go to the other extreme of the free Melda MConvolutionEZ and a single mix IR.

Of late I’m using the ProConvolver in S-Gear (even if not using the S-Gear amp) as I find the impedance curve setting (“Z” control) adds something really nice. IR’s are pretty much all York Audio.

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I’m liking what I hear of Celestion SpeakerMix Pro. Thank you for the tips.

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I like the sound I get with Waves. PRS amp emulation - although I discovered it is not compatible w predictive loading in gigperformer.

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Too bad, the predictive loading in GP seems like black magic to me!

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What happens?

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Gee it’s been a while since I tried it. I think it lost its settings. I wound up putting the prs plug-in into MainStage and sending a midi signal from gigperformer to MainStage to select the desired preset.
Now with global rackspace I could try again since those seem to be held in memory constantly even while the rest could be predictive loading.

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Hi:
I’ve had the Floor Model Helix and Loved that. Now I use Helix Native almost exclusively.
I bought a ton of good IR’s (OwnHammer, Celestion, etc) from reputable vendors and have downloaded and gone through a lot of users shared tones (on Helix forum) and man, they really help bringing it all up a notch.
As for dialing in a quick tone, I think, based on my familiarity with it, I can get some great stuff going in under a few minutes. And that makes enjoying my guitar playing all the more fun and productive.
I’d keep after it, it’s so intuitive and I think you’ve got something misfiring.
Cheers,
Wick

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Thank you for adding your insight. I’m very much in the space of exploring IR options right now, based on the input I’ve received from this community, and I’m very grateful for that advice.

I can see with the Helix Native that I need to spend more time learning it and how best to incorporate it into my signal chain. I will keep at it!

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Chris: Try the “John Mayerish” preset. For me, it’s one of the best presets to start with. I’m assuming it’s a guitar tone your after…then fiddle with Cabs and speakers, dial the amp mids up to 9 and the treble and bass down to 2 or 3. I’ve heard a lot of guys who play Dumbles dial in their amps like that. It’s all just a start. Wick

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@Wick ,

My guitar player uses a Helix SE floor unit. Do you know if I could port his tones into Helix Native and get a reasonably close output? I’m thinking of adding it to my plugin arsenal, particularly if he and I can share tones.

X

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Sure you could. It’s very simple, once you learn how (3 minutes) to “Import Presets” and “IR’s”.
So if he was willing to EXPORT his Tone Presets to a card and hand them to you, you could simply “Import” them and then they’d be in your arsenal of tones, too.

You might also look at Gig Performer. I love that for the ease of use AND the fact you need no DAW to use it. Tons of great players are using it now.

And finally, I’m unsure it’s still a “deal”, but get UAudio’s FREE plugins and their app called “Audio Connect”. They are giving away one of the very best VOICE preamp/EQ’s modeled by them off the NEVE 1073.

I may sound like I know what I’m talking about, but it’s taken me 2 years to go completely- and happily!- digital. It won’t take you more than a week or two I’m betting.

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My 2c having used or tried more or less all of the major guitar plugin suites over the years…

They can all produce sounds anywhere from fantastic to garbage, depending on how adept you are at figuring out what it is about the sound you’re hearing you do or don’t like, how to change it, and what your personal taste is.

I settled on TH-U primarily because I liked how the VST parameter interface worked with GP better than the others. Specifically, let’s say I build a TH-U rackspace with an amp, chorus, and distortion; then I link widgets to Amp Gain, Amp Bass/Mid/Treble, Overdrive Tone, Overdrive Gain, etc. In that rack I have Marshall JCM800 and a Tube Screamer. I have all my widgets set up and they’re working.

Now I copy that rackspace to a new one. I swap the Marshal amp for a Fender Twin and swap the Tube Screamer for an SD-1. All my widgets are still properly attached to their parameters. I don’t have to reconnect everything.

That’s not how most of the other guitar plugin suites worked historically, although some seem to be picking up on that ability. With most of them, if you change your Amp you need to re-connect all your widgets. (Although I think some are starting to get better about keeping parameters linked.)

At various times in the past I’d tell myself “just pick one amp, one distortion, one chorus, one reverb, and get on with playing. Stop messing around with endless combinations.” But I’ve come to accept that I seem to enjoy messing with endless combinations. I picked TH-U largely because it makes that easier and faster for me.

That aside, with all of them I’ve found presets that sound awesome with one guitar and total garbage with another. I go back and forth between a Strat and a PRS and generally use different racks/variations for them. That reinforces my desire to copy rackspaces, swap amps and fx, and not have to re-link every widget every time.

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A great product, indeed! :slight_smile:

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@Wick , thanks for the reply. I think it likely I’ll end up getting Helix native, but will probably wait for a significant sale. I’ve been using GP for over 4 years now and am an evangelist. Thanks also for the tip on UAudio’s plugins. I’ll check that out!

X