Roughly ten years ago, one of the guitar players in Blue Öyster Cult purchased a Line 6 Helix amplifier and effects processor. The reasoning behind his decision was the fact that we play far more fly dates than ground dates using our own gear. At any given show (depending upon the backline provider), we could be graced with some amazing guitar amps — but more often than not, we’d encounter amps that were beat up, in dire need of a tune-up — or worse — in downright disrepair. The lack of consistency was frustrating, to say the least.
When we incorporated the Helix into our show, those issues disappeared, though initially dialing in the Helix sounds took quite of bit of time over a long series of sound checks. We found that sounds prepared at home didn’t always translate well through the P.A. Fortunately both the guitar player and myself were patient enough to work through the process of fine-tuning his sounds so that they’d work in the context of a band playing through a large-format P.A. system.
The payoff was huge: we now have consistent guitar tone no matter where we play, regardless of the condition of the backline. It takes almost no time to get his rig up and running, which is a great benefit when we play festivals or are in a situation where there’s little time for a proper sound check. I have the benefit of using a DI for his guitar, which eliminates a microphone on the stage and totally isolates his guitar from leakage, and that has helped reduce our stage volume.
It’s a game-changer for any engineer who has ever dealt with blazing guitar amps on a stage. I remember when we played Hellfest in 2017, the writing was on the wall: even the heaviest of bands were using the Helix or Kemper Profiler™ amp simulators. The stacks of Marshall 4x12s were basically for show.
A New Line (6) Up
This week, Line 6 announced Helix Stadium, their new series of amplifier and effects processors. Judging by the looks of their capabilities, Line 6 is again changing the game. The series debuts with two processors reminiscent of the Helix Floor: Helix Stadium XL Floor, and Helix Stadium Floor (see Fig. 1). Both devices model a wide variety of guitar and bass amplifiers and cabinets, as well as microphones with placements at various distances from the speaker cone or cabinet. They can also generate just about any effect you can imagine from distortion to tape echo to phasing, and third-party impulse responses can be loaded into the processors for adding models of speakers or cabinets not already in the library.
Specs for the Helix Stadium are impressive. The unit employs increased DSP over previous Helix models, dedicated GPU, and a 64-bit floating-point architecture. All the analog inputs feature patented, high dynamic range circuits: 126 dB for the two variable impedance instrument inputs; 120 dB for the FX returns and aux ins; 128 dB for the onboard mic preamp (locking XLR with phantom power).
The UI features an 8-inch, high-res touch screen that enables (among other things) moving microphone position on a cabinet simply by dragging the mic onscreen. Most amplifiers and effects feature five touch zones with descriptive terms, enabling the user to become familiar with the device simply by moving a finger between these zones to discover what the device can do (and then you can fine-tune using the controls). An EtherCON jack facilitates Line 6 Nexus networking, which can be used to expand the I/O capabilities, or for interfacing the unit with Line 6 legacy products such as Powercab Plus and Variax. Line 6 has already announced the first expansion unit, the Expand D10, which adds Variax, L6 Link and AES/EBU ports, as well as an 8-channel optical output that can be connected to an audio interface. Audio audition clips are included so that presets can be edited without the need to switch between playing your instrument and editing parameters, and you can record custom audition clips using your own instrument. The unit also provides up to four drum trigger inputs, though it’s not clear what these can accomplish (possibly to trigger MIDI program changes?).
Dive Dive Dive
Helix Stadium marks the debut of Line 6’s “Agora” amplifier modeling technology, which the company touts as a new standard for authentic amplifier simulation and effects modeling. Agora dives deeper into modeling amplifiers and cabinets by employing sub-component behavioral modeling — they’re not just modeling amplifier heads and cabinets, but drilling down to the component level by modeling the behavior of the tubes, the power output stages and power supplies of the amps, allowing the models to simulate the interaction between audio signal and power supply — the effect of which can never be underestimated.
Line 6 engineers have even worked out the interaction between amp head and speaker cabinet emulation processing blocks, enabling (for example) a cabinet emulation block to “report” back to an amp head with dynamic speaker impedance curves(!). Agora reportedly models circuit feedback more accurately than previous modeling technology, and even accounts for changes in capacitance due to length of the wire runs inside the chassis of an amplifier.
The results of this new modeling technology is reportedly a new standard of authenticity of modeled sounds. Next year Line 6 plans to introduce Proxy, a cloud-based processing system which can be used to “clone” (capture) the sound of physical amplifiers, cabinets, effects or signal chains (see Fig. 2).
The Showcase Engine
Things get really interesting when you look at the Showcase Engine, an automation engine for live shows, which allows the Helix Stadium to automate control over an entire stage. As you’d expect, it can execute internal patch and preset changes, but it can also program and send MIDI patch changes and DMX lighting cues, recall snapshots and play back eight discrete audio tracks. Not surprisingly, the Showcase Engine also enables a user to load songs into the unit for playing along. A song can be saved with processing presets so that anytime it’s recalled, the amp/cabinet/effects settings are also recalled, and time-based effects can be sync’d to song tempo.
What’s really exciting is that songs can be deconstructed into stems, which can be muted or remixed, allowing you to (for example) mute the original guitar track in a song and replace it with your own live performance. Think about this for a second: you import a song, deconstruct the mix, mute the guitar and vocal, and play the guitar and vocal parts live — along with the remainder of the original backing track. That’s a heck of a way to do a coffee house gig, and the only other gear you’d need is a powered speaker or two. (There’s potentially a legal can of worms regarding who gets paid for the performance, but that’s a discussion for another time).
This feature also enables a Helix Stadium to act as the source for backing tracks, eliminating the need to run a computer with DAW software. The song timeline accepts drag and drop “flags” for a variety of events such as MIDI program changes that can be sent to synths, looper functions, channel switching, preset changes or lighting events, etc. Very clever.
Clearly, the Helix Stadium is aimed at guitar and bass players, but the technology Line 6 has developed is extremely powerful and useful in a live context. It would be very interesting to see this technology incorporated at the component level into a digital mixing console.
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is the tour manager and front of house engineer for Blue Öyster Cult and for Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks. He can be reached via email at [email protected].
