Can you edit a Line 6 Helix preset without HX Edit?

Everything marked for the browser runs on a phone, an iPad or any desktop, signed out, with the file never leaving your machine. Helrig for Mac, Windows and Linux, the desktop appthe desktop app, and Helrig for Android do all of it too, and add the pedal:

Use Helrig when you want to:

• edit presets without the pedal connected, on any computer, phone or iPad;
• find a block by the pedal or amp it’s based on;
• see DSP use per path as a percentage;
• keep the presets from all your pedals in one library, and convert between Helix, HX Stomp and HX Effects;
• connect to your pedal from an Android phone or tablet (Helrig for Android);
• work on Linux.

Use HX Edit when you need:

• firmware updates (with Line 6 Updater);
• global settings;
• full device backups and restores;
• official Line 6 support.

Plenty of players use both.

Helrig’s website does not talk to your Helix or HX unit. On the website, the two ends of the journey, getting a preset off the device and putting an edited one back, happen the way they always did: export or back up from the hardware or HX Edit, edit in Helrig, then load the exported .hlx back on.

Helrig’s appsHelrig’s apps close that gap. With Helrig Connect, they connect to the pedal over USB, read presets off it, save them back and edit the pedal live, on macOS, Windows, Linux and Android. An iPad app is planned; there’s no date yet. Without the app, Helrig is a better place to edit a preset than to manage the hardware itself.

• You are not at the computer HX Edit is installed on — a phone or tablet is enough to open a preset and change it.
• You want to read a preset someone sent you without installing anything to look at it.
• You want to see where your DSP is going before you run out of it, estimated per path from each block’s real mono or stereo width.
• You want to find a block by the pedal or amp it is based on, not by Line 6’s name for it.
• You want a named history of every change that you can jump back through.
• You want to move a preset between a Helix and an HX Stomp and see exactly what had to change on the way.
• You use Linux.

And when you do need the hardware side — backups, restores, firmware — HX Edit is the tool for it. The two work well side by side.

HX Edit runs only on Windows and macOS. On a Linux machine, Helrig covers the editing side in two ways:

• The website runs in any modern browser on Linux: open, edit, convert and export presets, and pull presets out of a .hxb backup or a .hls setlist.
• Helrig’s desktop appHelrig’s desktop app has a Linux build (x86_64, as .deb, .rpm or AppImage) that connects to the pedal over USB, like the Windows and Mac builds.

Firmware updates and the pedal’s global settings need Line 6’s own tools, which means a Windows or Mac computer for those.

Presets are parsed and edited entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded to be opened, converted or rendered, and nothing leaves your device unless you sign in and choose to save a preset to your own library. An account is optional and changes only where a preset can be stored. See the privacy page for the full description.

Helrig is made by a long-time Helix player who loves the platform. It only exists because Line 6 built something worth building on.

Helrig is an independent, one-person project. It isn’t built by, affiliated with, or endorsed by Line 6 or Yamaha — “Line 6”, “Helix”, “HX” and “HX Edit” are their trademarks.