Line 6 Helix Rack Guitar Multi-effects Rack Processor Reviews

I'm old and usually set in my ways. So I've resisted this amp-modeling thing. My Mesa Triaxis, Mesa amp, and 4X12's were tone nirvana for a long, long time. But it's been time to downsize and lighten the load for a while now, so I finally got brave. I do not regret it even a little bit. The versatility of the Helix is almost overwhelming. I'm so used to having a limited pallet of sounds to work with, that I find myself gravitating to just one or two amp models in this vast array. But having that versatility is motivating me to explore sounds like never before, and I haven't been disappointed yet. Especially now that the version 3.5 firmware has updated the cabinet models. That was the miraculous game-changer I needed to make me 110% certain that I made the right choice. I've never used IR's, but I've seen lots of guys in social media groups who have, saying that with the new Helix 3.5 cab models, there is no longer a need for IR's, unless you simply want to experiment with them. I can get screaming, fat, chunky metal tones, awesome mid-rangy rock-n-roll tones, high-gain, low-gain, crisply clean and everything in between. Paired with a proper set of studio speakers or FRFR for live shows, there is no suffering from a feeling of something "missing" ie; "amp in the room". A 12" FRFR won't move air like a stack of 4X12"s, but the sound is fantastic, articulate, and consistent. Run straight to FoH, and your sound tech will love you. And I haven't even touched on the wide array of effects, many of them modeled on your favorite pedals.

Great unit. So many options. I found it easy to learn. It has so many hidden gems. So because new options from different companies come out all time, who do they take things from? The line6 helix for one. They change things around a bit but there's a reason they take things from this product. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Don't be so quick to let go of things because something new comes along. It's keeping it's price up pretty high too. Line6 updates every so often to make things sound better and add amps and effects. Recommend it.

The Helix is a great addition to my gear. Pretty much make any amp sound you want, especially with the ability to load your own IRs. Integrated with everything very nicely and gives you so much control. Still figuring everything out, but is already exceeding my expectations and they were quite high.

The best thing that has ever happened to the electric guitar ever ! I've had it all and nothing has ever even come close. The guys at Sweetwater are the most awesome ever ! Tonelives on YouTube see soon

I owned the the floor version of this when it came out, and to be honest, I didn't connect with it. I would work for a long time to get a usable tone and never really liked it. I recently got the rack version (shout out to Andrew R., who is a phenomenal sales rep!) and it is much better. I don't know if it's all of the updates that Line 6 gave the hardware over the years or what, but this thing just sings! Every amp model sounds great, I play metal, but I also love math/post rock and all the way from chiming cleans to heavy heavy distortion this thing delivers. I have owned them all, Kemper, Fractal, but for ease of use, and all around tone, this thing delivers, and at a great price!

There are a lot of ways to approach playing music. My approach is to replicate classic songs in every detail. This requires a lot of gear, because in many cases it's the gear that produced the signature sound in the songs.

In the days before modeling, I had to drag one amp, one guitar and a bunch of effects pedals to gigs and do the best I could to find a sound that would work for each song. Those days are over. The Helix provides nearly unlimited resources for reproducing the amps and effects in cover songs. Add a variax to the mix, and that provides a variety of modeled guitars.

The internet is full of info about what gear was used in every song imaginable. Armed with that information, the Helix and variax let me create custom patches for songs, using the same amp, cabinet, effects and guitar used in the original song.

It also lets me embed MIDI commands in my sequenced backing tracks so I can automatically call up everything I need for a song and execute changes at the right place in the song, without having to redirect my thinking from the song in order to stomp on foot pedals. All I need to do is call up the songs from a queue, and the sequence plus embedded MIDI tells the Helix what amp, effects and cabinet to use, and also tells the Variax what guitar model and tuning to use.

I still have to be a musician, but for the first time, technology is helping me focus on the part of performing that I enjoy, and stop focusing on all the areas that are technical, not musical. Its like having a personal sound guy who doesn't need to be paid.

Incredible piece of hardware! The interface is very user friendly. MIDI control makes patch changes during a live song very easy and removes extra hardware from crowding the stage. The sounds are perfect for our needs. I strongly suggest if your band runs a Daw on stage to trade in your floor unit for this one!

First of all I want to give a HUGE shout out to Johnathan My sales engineer. He is very Knowledgeable about musical gear,software,music production.I was on the fence about getting the rack but It is worth it. I am just diving into the world of Simulators and processors, but I love it! I have only had the chance to play through the presets but they are amazing right off the top. I chose the Rack because I didn't want my main CPU on the floor at gigs for damage reasons.Again Johnathan was very patient with me and answered all my questions and some!!! Thanks Johnathan

This rack unit has completely solved my tone search problems! It's so easy to dial in the amp sound I want and save it and program it pretty much any way I want, the possibilities with this are endless!

I've been using the Helix Rack for the majority of 2018 and I've had no bad experiences yet. I get constant compliments on my tone from the other bands every single night.

It replaced my Eleven Rack (which I still love) and the flexibility is just worlds better. I run the Helix direct to house with cab sims, but also send a pre-cab effect loop to a power amp for my on-stage guitar cab, and still have a second effect loop to use with external pedals. The clean sims sound great and the high gain amps could fool me for Fractal patches.

I know some folks (myself included) have been concerned about the lack of effect spillover in some guitar processors, but this often isn't possible without doubling the DSP hardware in the unit itself (very expensive). You can easily get effect spillover in the Helix by using the Snapshots function. It takes a bit of time to set up and configure your patches with it, but it works.

You might be able to get slightly (and subjectively) better sounds out of a Fractal unit, and you may be able to tweak a ton more parameters, but the usability of the Helix is worth its weight in gold (and more affordable to boot). I prefer simple a great sounding products when it comes to gear, and the Helix definitely delivers.

Literally the only thing I'd change would be to have a mic input and gain control on the front panel.

If faced with the hypothetical question " if you could only fill up one backpack of all your prize belongings what would you put in there" this would definitely be in there, LoL

With the ability to not only choose from a huge selection of amps and present, but cabs and third party Impulse responses, the Helix lets you customize things the way you want with little limitation. Amps sound unique and diverse and with all the dynamic qualities you can add you can achieve any tone you want. Having the helix also integrate your existing amps gives you the power to stay with what is comfortable and add all the power and expansion of the helix tools. This is the future of guitar rigs. Works well with my tube amp.

I wanted to get the main part of my peddle board off the floor. This unit did it perfectly couple with the Helix controller. It is replaceing my Helix LT with absolutely no proplems or issues. I have really grown to love the the Helix stuff from Line ^ Thank you Randy P. for your advice and help. Well done... :)

I"ll keep this as short as is prudent.

Of Tone: shaddup, and buy a Helix. No, it doesn"t "sound for sound", or "patch for patch", emulate the gear they claim to model, most of which I"ve never SEEN, much-less PLAYED. It's real close to everything I've tried, and I adore old stout tube amps with lots of Sag. Props!

But the sounds are STOUT, and nah, you don"t need to spend a fortune on third-party IR"s. Use whatcha got; it"s plenty… and they keep adding more. No gripes, and plenty of "beef" coming from the Helix system. I have never liked digital distortion, until now.

I bought the Helix Rack based on the SW catalog comments regarding "keeping the heart of your Tone in the rack", and "beating up your pedal night after night". These were prescient comments – in the time since I bought this, there have been 5+ incidents that would have trashed a $1400+ floor unit. So yeah, this works as advertised.

But, Young Jedi, you must consider Carefully:

1. Buying a Rack unit, means you have two items to schlep from the car – the rack (You"ll have this in an SKB case, right?!) and the pedal. More schleppage = diminished gig enjoyment, and delays in attending to your Groupie du Jour. Hah.
2. No expression pedal on the controller. That means more outlay to buy one or more pedals. I don"t use expression pedals, myself, so the point is moot with me. YMMV.
3. The case – you"ll need a rack case to transport this. Like ANY 19" gear, ears are prone to being bent, and (onstage) liquids (both organic and alcoholic) are apt to arrive from any vector, at any time, often with no warning. Be careful out there. A case is more money, but worth every penny.

Bottom Line: Silly little software workflow issues aside, I have ABSOLUTELY ZERO gripes with this unit. Within a week, it had become so ESSENTIAL to my studio work, I bolted it into my studio rack, and it isn"t leaving. I"m going to get another Floor unit for the stage work. I love this thing x 10^332 ("Golly! That"s a lot of zeroes, Mr. Sagan!").

It"s that Good.

I was originally going to get a used Axe-Fx II, but the option of having no interest payments for months was too good to pass up. I researched a lot for info comparing the Axe-Fx and the Helix and it's widely accepted that all top-of-the-line modern amp modelers are really, really good. REALLY good. The Axe-Fx comes with a few hundred more amps compared to the Helix, but was I really going to use even 20% of those?

I've only spent about 2 months with my Helix Rack Unit but I've gotten some really great tones using my personal favorites, models such as Mark IV and 5150 for distorted tones, Fender Twin Reverb for cleans. The quality of the delays and reverbs are on-par with Strymon pedals with a little bit of tweaking. I play mostly progressive metal and I was able to create a GREAT, fat, crunchy, brutal tone in a relatively short amount of time (compared to the months I spent spinning tires with BiasFX and getting mediocre/sub-par tones). I would say I've been most impressed by the clean tones with the Helix.

The only complaint I've had with the Helix is the stock cabs. They didn't sound good at all initially. Increasing the "Early Reflections" setting helped a lot, but I ended up buying an OwnHammer IR pack and haven't looked back.

I have a bunch of tracks I've recorded DI with BiasFX that I'm going back and reamping with the Helix to maintain consistency for when I release the finished album. Reamping is super simple with the Helix.

I had been struggling for maybe 8 months trying to find a great bass tone using BiasFx but everything sounded muddy, gross, and just "off" in the sense that I could never get a tone that would be suitable for a mix without having to slap on a bunch of other plugins. I caved and got new pickups (Nordstrand Big Singles) and that definitely helped, but still was not satisfied. Then I caved again and got a Darkglass Alpha Omega a couple weeks after I got my Helix Rack. I played around with it for a few days and found the low-end saturation too prominent and resulted in a flubby distorted tone. The Alpha Omega preamp is terrific for cleans, however.

Then I found that the most recent firmware update included a Darkglass B7k drive/preamp model which most (if not all) of my favorite bassists use. So I did some A-B comparisons and was able to get a very similar tone from the B7K but with more tweakability making it possible to get rid of the flubby low end saturation! I returned the Alpha Omega shortly after.

If you're split between the Helix and an Axe-Fx, I recommend the Helix through Sweetwater because you get financing options and Sweetwater's support. Great sounds, great UI, software is easy to use, CustomTone (Line 6's tone sharing hub) is great, and the rack unit looks great on a desk.

I am a bass player. I was on the fence a long time about getting a HELIX. I finally took the plunge a few months ago. The thing that kept me sitting on the fence were 1) Will it have enough sounds for bass, or just a guitarists impression of what a bass player needs 2) Do I really want $1400 sitting on the floor of perhaps a crowded bar. When I heard about the release of a firmware update with bass focused patches, I was sold. I decided to purchase the rack unit and the floor board. It has been a great decision. I am able to have the ultimate control of my tone, and I have now sold all of my other pedal units. All Helix all the time. On a side note, Line 6 support, and the user group on Facebook have made the user experience nothing short of amazing!!!

I've had many multi-effect processors starting back with the korg ax-1000g.

The Helix is the most user friendly, diverse piece of equipment I've ever owned. This is an amazing tool for the recording or gigging artist.

I had previously thought that the most beautiful sounds I ever found coming out an electronic device was from the Korg Kronos synthesizer, but this Helix Line 6 completely blows me away (when played with a Fender Strat.). The only flaw I have found with the Helix is: why do they feel compelled to have such an annoying blinking red light on the Tap/Tuner button? It's very distracting and annoying, like an all-night diner's blinking neon sign. I will have to put some kind of tape over it. But, other than that, this Helix provides stunning guitar and bass sounds. Best guitar unit I've ever had.

The Helix rack is an amazing piece of gear. Well worth the money. Very comfortable in the company of the Kemper profiler, Axe fx. The Helix rack actually sounds and feels like the amplifiers and effects that it emulates. I remember my very first effects processor in the late 80s early 90s was a DigiTech valve Fx and this thing is light-years beyond what processor is used to be. Very very satisfied and would definitely recommend coming from a professional musician. I also bought the Helix LT floor model. Buy with confidence you'll be glad you did. And it's always a big shout out to my salesman Doc, who always does an outstanding job and taking care of my needs always above par and top shelf.

Was worried a little bit pulling the trigger to buy this unit. I have a POD X3 Pro, HD500 Rack and HD500x pedal board. I wanted to get back to having a rack unit and when I read about how flexible this unit was with the 4 send return paths and the ability to have 3 expression pedals attached to it, I figured what the hell. Going from the POD computer editing to the Helix was a bit of stumbling point at first but now I love it. The tones I'm getting are much better than I was with the HD500x and the with the floor control I can have patches now that can comprise all the parts for a song that I need. No longer to I have to have a separate patch just for the acoustic part or the tuning change. The snapshot feature is wonderful. I like how you can even on the fly edit your pedal settings as you play. It is sweet being able to read the displays without my glasses and name the patches as well as the snapshots so they make sense, change the color of the buttons so you can quickly see what but it what just by the color. If you get one please take the time to read up on how to do the editing and get on the forum and read what everyone says about how to setup your patches so they will get the best tone for you. Oh yeah the IR's are so much fun to play with. Almost too many options at times, but very easy to find some patches built in or online and get playing quickly. I run mine through a 50w per channel tube power amp and love the harmonics I get out of it. Everything from sweet clean tones to the most heavy 7 string tones you could want.

I am a bass player. I was torn between the rack version and the pedal version. I am thrilled that I got the rack. The sounds are amazing, and while it is a little more to carry, it is very worth it for the peace of mind to not worry about having expensive hardware on a bar too floor.

An amazing piece of gear. I'm a 63 year old, long time player. Have used almost every amp imaginable trying to find "the" sound. Thing is, we all know you need much more than a single amp to provide the sounds you need. This gives me anything I want. It's very easy to use, great UI and feels great to play through.

I just bought an EVH 5150 III 50W with a 1/4 cab. I love the sound of the amplifier, and I bought a bunch of pedals. HoF reverb, mxr phase, boss digital delay, a few different chorus pedals. All of these were fun, but every single time I wanted to change my sound, it was back to the floor and changing all the dials. For over a decade I've used my DAW exclusively to create guitar cabs & tones. Playing through my monitors just stopped being satisfying when I moved from the city to the suburbs, for the first time I had some room to expand. I was reading reviews about Steve Vai's setup and like many were very interested in his rack he uses on tour. The Fractal Axe FXII was well reviewed by the pro's who got time of day from the company. However after reading many reviews on the company's website itself, I was amazed how belligerent the owner was towards customers having a hard time. I then came across a review about the helix, honestly I've been turned off by Line 6 for many years, as they went far away from modeling, and seem to focus on making subpar amps with digital fx.

I was surprised to find out how much innovation the company has put into this product, but it seems like they spared no expense to make this. The processor is out of this world, high end. Also, when I set up the Helix, the customer support at Line 6 was terrific.

The helix community of users who are sharing different sounds, IR's, and even some of the companies who are selling different patches are fantastic. I love pulling up the sound, and having all of the buttons on the pedal available to change different parameters of the sound. It's like having several panels on each patch, versus having physical pedals that you constantly have to change and rearrange.

Setting up the helix to the Mac is very easy, although I did run into some white noise, and that was corrected by using a Hum X. If you want to have the ability to edit directly from the computer and test the sounds this is the easiest route to go, you might not have the white noise, probably had more to do with my homes electrical wiring than anything.

The bottom line, the audio that comes out of my speakers is gorgeous. Helix just did another major update and added over 22 major upgrades. There are multimillion dollar amps from world class & exclusive studios that are being emulated into this community and it feels like I'm getting a multimillion dollar sound.

No I don't work for Line 6 but I did stay at a Holiday In Express last night!!

Most remarkable effects processor available. If you can't find your sound with this thing you don't know what you are looking for! I've had mine for a year and use it always. If it died I'd immediately buy another.
If you can come up with the cash this it is the Bomb!! Kemp/Fract are good but nowhere near as user friendly. You do need to buy the additional Floor Controller with this unit otherwise get the floor model. The Rack model has slightly more studio stuff and has a bit more connectivity.
++Plus++ if you have the time during daytime business hours Line 6 has live customer support who "live to help you!!

When I got my Helix I had some issues with it. But I was using it as a corner stone in my studio, but as any decent audio engineer would do, I adapted to the quirks of my new system. Some updates helped as well I think.

Coming from Digitech, Pod, Eleven Rack, and now the Helix...

The functionality of this unit far exceeds anything in its competition. It has a 8x8 USB audio interface, with premium DAC, 123db dynamic range on input, and other goodies that under the hood do all add up.
As far as user interface it is in a league of its own. The competition can give you tones on par, and "maybe" slightly better, but they can't touch the UI of Helix.

That out of the way talk tone. The Helix is meeting my expectations, and sometimes beyond each time it is really put to the challenge. Over the course of several months finishing up an album, I dialed in some really nice clean tones, some nice slight overdrive, lead, and rock tones with this unit. The best I have ever had. I was content with my Helix then, but not quite "blown away."

This remained until I ReAmped a metal track, where I had higher gain tones out of the helix I was pleased with, but not overjoyed with. In 15 minutes from a blank patch I dialed in the best high gain rhythm guitar tone I ever have for this track, with the front panel of the unit (not the pc editor) and without using any IRs. "So can it do metal?" It most certainly can!

The more time I spend with the Helix the more impressed I am with it, it covers anything I want. It is a ReAmping machine, and when Helix Native gets here it will be such a great expansion to this platform.

The only draw backs are it lacks stuff for Bass Guitar (but that is fixed with a bass guitar focused package that comes with a FW update near Feb 2017).... And the reverbs could be of better quality, they are ported HD, and Mseries reverbs. Line 6 has stated that HX reverbs are in the pipeline, but no time frame is given as to when they will be released.

They have released several amps, and quite a few FX for free in firmware updates.
The Helix platform keeps expanding, and I love it.

This rack unit is simply amazing. Im still messing with the presets but its rocks !!

Previous played a stereo mesa triaxis rack but its was so heavy and a pain to program everything.

The helix is amazing ! Just using headphones right now but sounds awesome. Cant wait for some monitors or FRFR cabs !!

Thanks to Ed Nystrom for the help again !!!

I was on the road for over twenty five years. I took two amps with me, a Fender Twin Reverb and a Highwatt 103 with 4 12's. Now, with the Helix Rack, I have a 4 space rack system that plugs into anything including a power amp and speakers, the PA, a Mixing board. You can never have too many effects, but what to bring? With the Helix Rack, I have every major effect type at my finger tips. This is almost too good to be true. Actuallym now, I have too many choices, so I revert back to the Twin, Plexi and AC30. I actually enjoy finding new sounds. I'm certain that I will keep finding new ideas for many years.

Bravo!!

Unbelievable amount of features for less money than its competitors. Tones are there. UI is the best in the business. Rugged and built strong. And it's a looker! You won't be disappointed.

Short And Sweet,IF You can buy the LINE 6 HELIX GUITAR AMP/MULTI-FX PROCESSOR,BREAK OUT YOUR DEBIT/CREDIT CARD AND GO FOR IT,YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT ! I've owned more than 1 and less than 100,lol,and this is By Far THE BEST Processor I have heard.
I WON'T Bore You with every single thing I Liked and thought was Awesome,or ,the tricks/shortcuts to make your own presets,because,alot will be wasted on the "USUAL" review entries regarding the Ups or downs with programming,besides the fact EVERYONE has their Own likes/dislikes as far as the factory presets needing to be "tweaked to be useful' and my Liking or Disliking the different amp,speaker cab,fx,etc. models,because,not everyone will agree with my tastes and will more than likely NOT be the same as mine .The IMPORTANT Things to me are the ability to edit,tailor the presets to MAKE THEM MINE. This unit has the capability to create nice,warm,Clean Patches,to some NASTY,Hi-Gain Lead patches,with REALISTIC ,Ambient, BELIEVEABLE Sounds that Bring a GRIN to my face!
From one guitar player to another who has been in cover bands,recorded demos,TRY IT,YOU'LL LIKE IT !! and GOOD LUCK Prying Yourself Away from the Helix,It is a LOT Of Fun when you Make Yourself a "HOLY GRAIL PRESET !!

Worth the money but doesn't play well with others!!! By that I mean other Line6 gear!! Not fully integrated with the DT series amps!! Despite the VDI only marginal interaction with your Variax (can't interface with Workbench?????????? Needs FRFR speaker to really get full audio value. Another piece of advise-- Don't buy this model (Rack) without the Helix Control foot controller. You really need this to get full function of the Rack unit.

I don't usually do reviews, but this deserves it. Had given up with the POD HD 500 and went back to using tube amps, kept reading the reviews and watching videos of the Helix so thought I'd try it.
OMG-Line 6...night and day from the POD HD stuff !! The Helix SOUNDS SOOOOOOO GOOD ! And is so very easy to adjust and program, THANK YOU Line 6-OUTSTANDING JOB. And for the price it can't be beat, for less than the price of just the "UNIT" of the competition, you have the Helix Rack and Control (which is also outstanding btw), so everyone complaining about it being expensive...just shut up and look at something else. Anyway, I AM VERY IMPRESSED !!!!!

Yes, 5 stars... that's right! I've been playing in several cover bands ranging from artists like Elvis to The Black Keys and have been continually searching for "The Perfect Tone". Prior to the Helix I was playing a Marshall JVM410h with 4x12 vintage 30's through a Boss GT100 via the 4 cable method. Was I disappointed... no, I mean its a Marshall tube amp so of course its great, but I was tired of lugging around all my gear and then spending another 30 minutes to set it up. So after much research I opted for the Helix Rack with floor controller and I'm now about ready to sell all my Marshall gear! The design and construction of this product is superb and the overall look is great. Initially I was not impressed with the factory tones and thought maybe I had made an expensive mistake, but after spending some time with my nose in the online manual and tweaking the dials I have found musical heaven. Never has my guitar sung so beautifully... the clarity... the tonality... the crispness are all wonderful. The Helix has renewed my vigor to shred and I am looking forward to watching jaws drop at the next gig! Get Yours... Period!

After watching tones of videos on this gear, it definitely lives up to the hype for me. First thing I tried was set up a Wet/Dry/Wet rig and it sounds AMAZING! I'm not familiar with everything they have modeled but from what I do know of they have nailed it. Like the Timmy OD pedal, according to Paul Cochran, you can set up the pedal a certain way to make it a clean boost and the Teemah! model does exactly that with the same settings as Paul says. I also wanted to get kind of a David Gilmour clean tone so I looked up how he normally sets his Hiwatt amp up and I applied those settings to the WhoWatt and it gives me amazing clean tone.

There are two reasons why I don't give it a 5 star is that on a rare occasion when I assign multiple parameters to one footswitch, one of those parameters will work backwards so I have to basically have to start at the beginning with that footswitch. It might be something that I'm doing so I just take a more methodical approach to it.

The second is that I do max out the DSP on both paths. I am trying to do a lot of things on there so I get it and I just have to think more creatively on how I can achieve what I want to do. Most people aren't trying to do what I'm doing so I don't think this may be an issue for most.

Bottom line, you will not be disappointed with this purchase at all. I play a lot of church gigs with different PA systems and how I plug in that having something like that gives me a consistent tone and be able to quickly make adjustments is a great assest.

See other positive reviews, copy and paste here. Setup to run straight to PA or cabs or through my Mark 35 head. All signals sound great, just be sure to adjust your settings according to how your amplifying the signal.

So, I bought this unit strictly to put in my studio rack as, Hopefully, a way to offer more amps and effects than I could possible afford to my customers. lets keep in mind I did this before with a Line 6 Pod HD Pro. The HD Pro got used for one metal record before I sold it due to the fact that even with 3rd part IR's in my DAW I couldn't get rid of the synthetic sound, Not good stuff... And of course I was never going to pay the sticker for an Axe FX and the Kemper is a one trick pony that isn't worth it to me. I had moved on from the Modeling idea and just kept recording real amps. When I heard of the Helix I was of course intrigued Yet hesitant. I finally, after a certain couple actually good Demo videos, took the plunge. It didn't hurt that my Sweetwater Sales engineer had good things to say. Right off the bat it has usable sounds. The internal cabs suck so I use 3rd party IR's. It actually sounds like a mic'd cabinet is in another room. You could shoot this thing out with a real amp and no one would know which was the real amp or which is the model. It responds like a real amp as far as dynamics and feel. My guitarist was blown away on the feel. I will say that the amps are not dead ringers right out of the box. It took me some time to get the JCM to sound like a JCM, but once I experimented and tweaked and tweaked I've got to say I'm 90% there. Close enough to where in a mix you'd never notice. I only gave it 4.5 cause I haven't dove in to it all the way yet and want to see how many amps I can actually tone match. great buy for a studio though!

The navigation and PC editor are great. Even the actual screen and controls on the unit are easy to use. The display is gorgeous!! I knew my way around this thing in a few hours.

It sucks that some people wont use it just because of the brands history. I say whatever sounds good use! who's gonna know unless you tell!

It offers a ton of effects. Easy to navigate.

I have owned a Helix rack unit for over a year now. I knew the amp models were OK when i bought it (the Ubershall amp model is awesome if you like heavy overdrive), the rest are OK if you tweak the bejezus out of em. I was really hoping that the effects would be much closer in quality to what Fractal has though. I was disappointed when i found that they are not much better than the HD Pod Pro X effects that i have in my Pro X rack unit. In fact, the Pod Pro X rack unit has a pair of high quality line input connections (low noise, transparent) to connect tube preamps (like my Mesa Triaxis / Engl E530) that the Helix does not have. The Helix has an extra set of Send / Receive lines that can be used for preamp input but they are nowhere near the quality of the Pod Pro X unit line inputs. The Helix inputs are noisy and skew the tone of the preamp outputs. I also noticed that the external effects i connected to the effects loops suffered from the same issue.

So....it's OK, but in my opinion not worth the money when you add the floor controller to the package. I love my Pod Pro X for connectivity, ease of use, and price...i wrote a really nice review about that piece of gear. The Helix amp models are the only real advantage over the Pod HD Pro X.

Line 6 is soooo... close on this. The interface, options, ability to arrange effects order, and sound quality are the best in the business. It great for recording, not so great live.

If they could solve the lack of delay and reverb spillover issue, it would be perfect. I've read all the forums and the emotional discourse on both side of the issue. I tried the workarounds. They didn't work well with my setup. (I have a RJG GT/22, which is awesome). I like smooth transitions between presets with nice "seamless" effects trails.

The amp sims are good, but I have limited need for the amp/cab simulators (currently running a Triaxis and various other Boogies). I would like to see an effects-only version, perhaps a HELIX RACK-FX , that has spillover and near-zero preset change latency. With no amp sims in the chain, the original signal should not have to be silenced during program changes. Fix the spillover and it will easily get 5 Stars.

For me the preset change issue was the deal breaker, so I sent it back. Sweetwater was its usual excellent in customer support. Don't buy from anywhere except Sweetwater!

I bought this thinking it could downsize my current rig. My current live rig is a 65 Princeton for cleans and a Engl powerball for distortion. This thing doesn't capture either in a live setting. At best it sounds comparable to those amplitude amps on the iRig app I used to use when I practiced in college. This thing is a steaming pile, and the manufacturer tech support is non-existent. If you're looking for live use, KEEP LOOKING. As a recording interface, it has serious latency, had to run it into my scarlett 2i2 just so it could be usable, which would be hilarious if I hadn't spent so much on it.