Poweramp Key

[Meinard Hartmann]

Soi have had my helix lt for a few months now and have been using it live almost every weekend. Had a sound i really liked dialed in but wasn't happy just using a monitor and my bands mixer board is one is always one short on running FOH so...it was time for a power amp and 2x12 cab

I can only answer from a HD500 perspective. A lot depends on the poweramp, with a tube poweramp I would use the Helix preamps, with a neutral poweramp I would use the full amp models. The 2x12 can only sound like it does, a closed 2x12 will never sound like an open 1x12. How loud do you play? Will the tube poweramp be cranked?

You will have to play around until you find a sound you like. The power amp and cabinet are definitely determining the general sound for your Helix. It's possible that your combo is neutral, but most likely you are limited to the range of amps your helix can sound like. It's roughly like connecting the output of your helix to the effects return on a good tube amp.

I face the same issues with my DT25. I'm leaning to towards using amp models with the DT now instead of just preamps because I still want to send my primary output to the FOH. It's still taking a while to dial everything in.

In My experience Marshall Style sounds work flawlessley and sound even better. But Mesa /Fender sounds lose some of their magic. still very usable but a Dual Rec doesn't have the Bass and Fenders lack high end Sparkle. But you can get an amazing Peavey 6534/ EVH 5150 El34 Sound using the Panama pre-amp.

I use a Seymour Duncan PS170 into a vertical 2X12 Two Rock cab (oval open back). I've gigged with this set up for over a year now. I've occasionally gone back to trying a FRFR or smaller cab + FRFR and it just doesn't sound as good to my ears.

The PS170 is great and seems to be transparent enough with the Bass/Mids/Treble set to noon, but it's nice to have the ability to adjust each for the room or when I change guitars between songs. The sound of a real guitar cab is still my preference and a vertical 2X12 seems to work best for me in smaller rooms (gets the sound up higher so I can hear better, while still being direct-to-the-stage-contact for better low end.

One thing that I do is to use a split output in all my presets. At the end of the signal chain - in which I have ZERO cabs or Its, I insert a split path. One goes straight out to the 1/4" outputs. the other path goes to the XLR outs. In this short split path, I insert an IR (or stock cab) block and an EQ block. This is my "FOH" path. 1/4" out goes to my PS170 and 2X12 Cab. The XLR goes direct to the PA. I spend a LOT of time getting the PA path to sound as close to the real cab as possible with HI/Lo cuts in the IR and using the 10-Band EQ block to tweak the tone. Works pretty well, and I don't have to mic my cab at all. I also set my globals so that ONLY the 1/4" output is affected by the Helix Volume. This way my FOH output never changes, except for volume pedal adjustments or differences between snapshots or presets. this way, I can adjust my on-stage volume if needed without impact the soundguy's settings at all. I typically set my Helix volume to about 2-3 O'Clock... this gives me just enough room to get a small increase in volume if needed but i can turn it down a good bit if asked. I rarely touch it at all, but sometimes going from a Les Paul to a Tele or Strat, i need a couple notches of stage volume to hear it better.

As for the difference, I rebuilt my patches from scratch. What is "good" through an FRFR can sound bland and flat through a cab. I noticed that I was using a lot of EQ adjustments in the low-mids when I was using an FRFR (one reason for the EQ block on the IR-Split output path).

For the Cab, there seems to be inherent mids there and I don't need to add them. I do need a bit more high-end frequencies with the cab, and I can reduce the Hi cut to compensate on the Split Output path. Also, I seem to use lower volume and lower gain settings through the cab. I suspect it's due to the speakers themselves, so each cab/speaker could be different for you, but these are my experiences.

Here is a very rough recording at a gig a couple months ago. You can hear both guitars clearly on the "harmony" Solo at 1:40. The other guitarist is using a 2X12 closed back cab with a Germino JTM45 Clone (100 watts) and a R9 Les Paul. My rig is the Helix / PS170 / 2X12 Open Back) on a Placater Preset, using a Heritage H535 (335 copy) with Wolfeton Dr V pickups. We are NOT mic'd or in the PA at all on this one. Club was just too small. So this is straight from the Cab.

to get the nuances you need.

If you have specific modeled tones with IR's already in the Helix, a FRFR like the PowerCab+ or a DXR10 or 12 will be better at amplifying the exact sound, but

may not have the tubey dynamics you're looking for until you get proficient at dialing that in.

Hi, I have been reading your posts from 2016 when you were using a SV head to power your Helix into the Mesa 212 cab. Now I see that you have switched to the Fryette PS-2. I am now making that exact comparison between the two power amps for my helix, so I would be very interested on hearing your comparison between the Fryette PS-2 and the SV power amp. Thanks! Pete

Fun fact, I emailed Fryette support about using the PS2 with Synergy modular preamp. Steven Fryette actually replied and said they originally used the PS2 as the reference amp to develop Synergy modules due to its neutral nature. Now they have the SYN50/50 amp.

Oh, and I ABd the SV100 and PS2 by running each through the PS2 reactive load and setting up an effects loop block in helix that I kicked in and out. Had headphones on too. The goal was to see if either one changed the sound at all when kicked their loops in and out of Helix. PS2 won the neutral shootout, but not by much. I was able to dial in the SV100 presence know to around 2 o'clock and be nearly transparent too.

So while the PS-2 was indeed more transparent when switched in and out of the loop, I still highly recommend Line 6 SV head for those that want to spend half the money. And the SV100 head just looks cool.

I wonder what your experiences are with this.

I compared two sets with the exact same rig setup to be played on a real cab:

- Kemper Player with Seymour Duncan Powerstage 200

- Powered Kemper Rack with internal poweramp.

I made sure that both have the pure cabinet settings set to 6 and EQ to 0.0 (or at noon on the powerstage).

Of course there is a difference in tone but that difference was waaay bigger than I expected.

I found out the Kemper poweramp gave way better results and sounded much more like a real amp.

At the other hand I expected the powerstage to act the same way but for some reason I could not even get close.

Especially in the high-mids and low-highs and highs the Kemper was superior

So in other words: even though I can have the exact same profile on the Player I could never get close to the sound of the same rig on a powered Kemper when playing over a cab.

I'm at the point that I'd say 'Please Kemper give us a Kemper Power Amp for use on a pedalboard' just like the powerstage.

Is there anyone out there that did a similar comparison and what are your thoughts about this?

But maybe it depends on the cabinet and the speakers used.

I did my tests using 1x12 speakers with Kemper Kone and with the excellent and underrated Celestion F12-X200. Studio profiles, no imprints.

So you are asking Kemper for a pedal power amp when they already do a power head, a power rack and and powerkab? I understand why but I think its unlikely as it would only be for users who want to use a stage or player but run through a regular cab which is porbably not the top use case, especially as cabs are becoming less important live. I take mine but invariably rely on the in house monitors - most venues expect digital direct guitar amps in my experience.

I did some more comparison and this time the results are better but still not the same.

The main reason I can think of is that the PowerRack has an EQ on each output (also monitor output).

The Player doens't have a EQ on the monitor out.

But this time it was way better

I'm having issues chrome casting Poweramp. I can chrome cast Spotify, Radioplayer just fine. It also works with VLC for local files on the cellphone. While using Poweramp I have the 2 following issues :

@Mathieu Grenier I would add that Poweramp casting works differently vs Spotify or other streaming/network radio players, as Poweramp commands Chromecast to stream from your device, while Spotify and others command Chromecast to connect to some internet server. VLC can do both, local playback is similar to Poweramp, but Poweramp uses custom Chromecast player "page" which supports non-compressed/hi-res audio.

No Chromecast icon means Google Services do not detect Chromecast on the network (all the Chromecast devices discovery/detection/etc. happens in Google Services). Or it's just disabled in Poweramp ("Chromecast Button" option).

Regarding connection issue, your saying that it's normal for VLC to access my local files while Poweramp is unable to chrome cast at all? (No chromecast Icon)? Both my apps are opened, VLC sees the chrome cast device, Poweramp doesn't. This would be because of the way VLC chrome casts? If so wouldn't the firewall rules apply to VLC as well?

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