Recording - July 2018 - 42

REVISITED

Line 6

HX Effects
The mighty Helix in its most
approachable form yet
Review by Alex Hawley

Line 6 recently introduced the newest member of the
Helix family, HX Effects-a compact version of the flagship
Helix Floor model, powered by the same Helix processors.
It's a very approachable multi-effects unit, aimed for
musicians who want to combine the versatile digital effects
from the Helix with their own amp and pedalboard.
HX Effects can be used as the command center for your
entire rig, controlling your amp and other pedals, or it can
also be used as your entire pedalboard. By the way, the Helix
product line also includes a rack version, the more compact
Helix LT, and the Helix Native plug-in, which I've reviewed in
July 2016 and December 2017.

Overview

HX Effects has an intuitive interface, one that's well thought
out to capitalize on its compact design. It comes loaded with

RECORDING July 2018

over 190 effect models, and also supports custom impulse
responses (IRs). The effects include all of the necessities plus
some you have probably never imagined, including all of the
effects from the flagship Helix model as well as legacy effects
from the M-Series and Stompbox modeler pedals. The powerful
HX audio engine boasts enough DSP power to load up to nine
effects simultaneously, which can be run in series or parallel.
HX Effects also includes one of my favorite operational features
from the rest of the Helix family-capacitive touch footswitches
with color-coded rings. This makes it very easy to edit and navigate through menus. Touch to select and edit an effect, press down
to engage, or touch and hold to view all parameters for that effect.
The six main footswitches have customizable scribble strips.
The back panel, keeping pace with the rest of the Helix
family, offers flexible I/O options. There are two 1/4" jacks
for either expression pedal input or amp footswitch output,
two 1/4" send/return pairs, and stereo 1/4" inputs and outputs
(which can be toggled to line level for keyboards or studio
use). The back panel also includes MIDI In/Out/Thru, USB,
DC power, and a dedicated power switch. The USB connection
can be used to build and edit presets on the computer, update
firmware, load custom IR profiles, or to send remote messages
to control various software, but it doesn't act as an audio
interface like the ports on the pricier Helixes.

In use

After spending some time reviewing the other Helix products,
I had a pretty good idea of what to expect with HX Effects.
While the flagship Helix model is great to have all of your
effects and amp modeling in one, I really love combining the
array of digital effects with a tube amp. For this review, I used
a T-63 Nash Telecaster and a 65amps Ventura.
Once I was up and running, I quickly found myself gravitating
towards the lush reverbs and stereo modulation effects. True
stereo recording was easy to set up, and made for some
absolutely huge tones. For time-based effects, it's handy to
switch between milliseconds and
rhythmic subdivisions (which sync
to the tap tempo BPM). Beyond
the reverb and modulation effects,
there are plentiful choices for
compressors, overdrives, distortion, and full-on fuzz: loads of
digital models based on classic
hardware and pedals. (Most
are named similarly enough to
the originals so you're not left
guessing, but the online version
of the manual has a full list.)
The looper is a handy tool to
build into the signal chain;
when it's engaged, the scribble
strips display all of the controls
needed, and it's fairly intuitive
to dive right in.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2018