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 MODE — and hold it to see every mode, not just two), how to save (press Save twice), and how to reach more parameters than the knobs can show.
Click anything
Every control on the Helix Stadium Floor, and what each press, hold and turn does.
Helix Stadium Floor · Top panel · schematic, drawn from Line 6’s panel diagram
Touchscreen
The main interface. Blocks are objects you touch, not items you navigate to — which is the biggest single difference from every Helix before it.
- Tap a block
- Selects it. Its parameters appear in the Inspector strip below. Helix Stadium Floor Cheat Sheet (Rev A)
- Tap the selected block again
- Opens its actions — copy, paste, clear, add to Favorites, and the rest. Helix Stadium Floor Cheat Sheet (Rev A)
- Flick a block off the screen
- Clears it. There is no delete menu to find. Helix Stadium Floor Cheat Sheet (Rev A)
- Drag the Split down
- Creates a duplicate Input block, so path B can have its own input. Helix Stadium Floor Cheat Sheet (Rev A)
Worth knowingInput blocks glow green when signal is present and bright red when they clip. So do output blocks, and FX Loop blocks turn red when the Return clips. That colour is your entire metering — nothing else tells 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 MODE — and hold it to see every mode, not just two.
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 Stadium Owner's Manual 1.3.2