1. Familiarizing yourself with the physical controls (knobs, buttons, expression pedal)
Let’s get to know the Helix’s physical controls:
- Large, central rotary encoder: Your trusty sidekick for scrolling through menus, selecting items, and adjusting parameters.
- Smaller knobs: Use these to fine-tune the parameters of the selected effect or block.
- Navigation buttons (Home, Save, Edit, etc.): These helpful buttons offer quick access to key functions and menus.
- Footswitches: Your feet’s new best friends for selecting presets, activating effects, and controlling other functions like tap tempo or tuner.
- Expression pedal (if applicable): The built-in pedal that lets you control volume, wah, and other parameters like a boss.
2. Understanding the display and menu structure
The Helix’s display is your window into its world, showing the signal chain, presets, and effect parameters. The menu structure is straightforward:
- Home screen: Shows the signal chain, with blocks representing each effect or device in the chain.
- Preset screen: The place to find all your presets.
- Edit screen: Dive in here to tweak parameters and settings for the selected effect or block.
- Global settings: Your one-stop shop for overall device configuration, like input/output levels and MIDI settings.
3. Browsing and selecting presets, effects, and parameters
To browse and select presets, effects, and parameters, just follow these steps:
- Use the large rotary encoder to scroll through the list of presets, effects, or parameters.
- Press the encoder to select the highlighted item.
- Adjust the parameters of the selected effect or block using the smaller knobs below the display.
- Press the ‘Save’ button to store any changes you’ve made to the preset.
4. Using footswitches and assigning functions
The Helix’s footswitches are versatile and can be used for various functions:
- Selecting presets: In ‘Preset’ mode, just tap a footswitch to select a preset.
- Activating effects: In ‘Stomp’ mode, press the footswitches to turn individual effects on and off.
- Tap tempo: Set the tempo for time-based effects with a quick tap.
- Tuner: Press and hold the ‘Tap/Tuner’ footswitch to access the tuner.
To assign a function to a footswitch:
- Enter ‘Footswitch Assign’ mode (check your specific model’s manual for instructions).
- Select the desired effect or function using the large rotary encoder.
- Press the footswitch you want to assign the function to.
- Press ‘Save’ to store the assignment.