The controls you will actually use
Not all of them — the handful that account for nearly everything you will do, plus the gestures nothing on the chassis mentions.
03 · 7 min
Learn three things: how to change what the footswitches do (press FS6 on Helix Control), how to save (press SAVE twice), and how to reach more parameters than the knobs can show.
Click anything
Every control on the Helix Rack, and what each press, hold and turn does.
Helix Rack · Front panel · 3U · schematic, drawn from Line 6’s panel diagram
Joystick
The main navigation control on the rack's front panel. Moves, selects, changes models and opens the model list.
- Press ACTION, then move the joystick
- Moves the block rather than the selection. Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)
Worth knowingTurning it changes the model as you go. Press it if you want to browse a list without your sound changing under you.
Modes are the whole game
The footswitches do not have fixed jobs. What they do depends on the mode, and to change it you press FS6 on Helix Control.
This is worth internalising because almost every report of a Line 6 modeller “breaking” is a unit sitting in a mode the owner did not choose. Nothing is wrong with it.
Save, or lose it
Changes are not saved until you tell the device to save them — press SAVE twice. Until then, an “E” beside the preset name marks it as edited.
Change preset while that E is showing and your work is gone with no warning and no undo.
Get into the habit early. Losing an afternoon's work to a preset change is a rite of passage nobody needs.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)