My Helix Rack has no footswitches
Helix Control is a separate product
Working as designedIt is not included with the Rack. Until you add one, the rack is driven from its front panel and from HX Edit.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)Indexed by what you notice, not by what the subsystem is called — because when something is wrong you know there's no sound, not that it's a routing problem.
14 of the 18 problems below are not faults. They are documented behaviour that looks like a fault, and they are marked working as designed. “Your unit is fine” is a useful answer and nobody publishes it.
It is not included with the Rack. Until you add one, the rack is driven from its front panel and from HX Edit.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)Two identical RJ45 sockets sit next to each other on the rear. The footboard goes in the one marked HELIX CONTROL, into its HOST port at the other end.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)Over long distances the rack may not power the board reliably. Helix Control has a DC IN jack for that, using a Line 6 DC-3 adapter.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)Press FS6 on the footboard.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)Helix Control's switches are touch-sensitive. Touching one selects its block on screen without changing the sound. Nothing is wrong.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)Press the GND/LIFT switch on the rear panel, beside the XLR outputs.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)The LEFT/MONO jack of each pair is the one that sums to mono. Move the cable.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)Two speakers stacked. Bypass the Cab block, or use an Amp model rather than Amp+Cab.
Helix 3.80 Owner's ManualFour amps per preset, two per path. One looper per preset. One poly effect per path. Free DSP does not unlock any of them.
Helix 3.80 Owner's ManualMake a stereo block mono, swap a Legacy cab for the newer IR-based one, or replace two amps with one amp into a Dual cab.
Helix 3.80 Owner's ManualIf the Helix is the last device in the wordclock chain, switch the terminator on. If it is not, switch it off.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)An “E” beside the preset name means edited and unsaved. Press SAVE twice.
Helix Rack and Control Cheat Sheet (Rev C)Global Settings > Preferences > Snapshot Edits decides this. Recall (the default) keeps your changes as you left them. Discard returns the snapshot to its last-saved state — which is the behaviour you want live, and the behaviour that eats your work while you are building. Hold BYPASS and press SAVE to flip it at any time; the camera icon on the Home screen is grey for Recall and red for Discard.
Helix Rack and Control 3.80 Owner's ManualThat is exactly what an unedited snapshot does — it carries the state you arrived with. It only becomes its own thing the moment you change something in it. Nothing is broken; you have simply not written it yet.
Helix Rack and Control 3.80 Owner's ManualSaving a preset stores all of its snapshots and remembers which one you were on. If a song should always start on the intro sound, select that snapshot and then save — the choice is made at save time, not at load time.
Helix Rack and Control 3.80 Owner's ManualSet Global Settings > Footswitches > Snapshot Mode Switches to Manual Return and it stays in snapshot mode until you press CANCEL. Auto Return is right when snapshots are an occasional visit; Manual Return is right when they are how you play the set.
Helix Rack and Control 3.80 Owner's ManualNot the same problem as tails cutting off at a preset change, and it has a different answer — this one is a setting inside the block.
Trails Off mutes repeats and decays the moment the block is bypassed. Trails On lets them ring out naturally, through a bypass and through a snapshot change. It is set per block, so one delay left wrong is enough to make a whole rig feel abrupt.
Helix Rack and Control 3.80 Owner's ManualA tempo-synced delay re-syncs its trails to the incoming preset's BPM, so the tail you are still hearing shifts under you. If you want the trails to hold their speed across a change, set that delay in milliseconds rather than to a note value.
Helix Rack and Control 3.80 Owner's ManualThis one is worth reading before it is a problem rather than after.
Never connect these XLR outputs to a device whose XLR inputs have 48V phantom power enabled. On a desk, that means switching phantom off for those channels before you plug in, not after.
Helix Rack and Control 3.80 Owner's ManualS/PDIF and AES/EBU are a choice, not a pair — pick one in Global Settings > Ins/Outs. And connecting an L6 LINK device disables the S/PDIF output automatically, which is the version of this that catches people who have just added a Powercab.
Helix Rack and Control 3.80 Owner's ManualGlobal Settings > Ins/Outs page 3, Volume Knob Controls, decides which outputs the knob touches. Set to Digital it controls nothing at all and both output pairs sit at unity — which is deliberate, for rigs where front of house sets the level and a stray knob would be a disaster.
Helix Rack and Control 3.80 Owner's Manual