When Tony Camponovo stopped by Chuck Levin’s to spend some time with the all-new Helix Stadium XL from Line 6, we got a firsthand look at just how quick, intuitive, and wildly flexible this next-generation modeler really is. If you're familiar with the original Helix Floor, Stadium will feel instantly comfortable—but with a touchscreen workflow and new sound-shaping tools that make dialing in a tone faster than ever.
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A Completely Fresh Workflow with the Stadium Touchscreen
Tony starts from the simplest place possible: an empty preset.
With the Stadium XL’s full-color touchscreen, picking an amp is as simple as swiping through a list. For this demo, he grabs the US Lux Black, and just like that, the amp and cab automatically load onto the chain. Tap the block, and the full set of familiar Helix controls appears—gain, EQ, presence, all laid out for quick adjustments.
But the real magic happens in Focus View.
One tap brings up a graphic version of the amp with a draggable icon you can pull toward settings labeled “Classic,” “Noon,” “Shaky,” and more. They’re playful names, but they instantly change clusters of parameters behind the scenes, making it dead-easy to land on a great tone using your ears rather than menus.
Cabinets & Mics: Move It With Your Fingertip
Switching to the cab block, Tony browses through mic choices—ribbons, dynamics, condensers—again using the touchscreen. He’s fond of the 121 ribbon, but the 160 and 57 get love later in the video.
Focus View also works here, letting you drag the microphone around the speaker cone just like a real mic on a real cab. You see the position and you hear the changes immediately. Zero guesswork.
Building a Tone in Seconds
Effects are just as fast to drop in. Tony scrolls through reverbs, grabs a Dynamic Plate, then bumps the amp level, then dives back into the reverb to try the “Hallelujah” preset. From there, he tosses in a Kinky Boost, trims the reverb mix, and you instantly hear the Fender-leaning clean tone fatten up.
With Stadium XL, the whole tone-building process is tactile and fast—you’re swiping, dragging, tapping, and refining on the fly.
Stacking Drives, Exploring Presets, and Making It Sing
Tony adds another distortion (the Minitar) and uses Focus View again to jump between gain profiles like “Mid Gain Dry.” It’s a reminder of how Stadium encourages experimentation—everything is so easy to access that you end up trying more than you normally would.
And for the first time on a Helix, newly added effects automatically map to footswitches in order, with names already assigned. No setup. No customizing. You add the block, and it appears on the board.
Agoura Amp Models: Brand-New Engines for Stadium XL
The Stadium XL introduces a new generation of amp modeling under the Agoura banner—rebuilt from the ground up for realism, dimension, and responsiveness.
Tony walks through several:
US Lux — Classic American Clean
A straightforward amp+cab setup with just a hint of Dynamic Room reverb to create that “amp in the room” feel. Swap between ribbon and dynamic mics and the character changes immediately—from darker and smokier to crisp and stage-ready.
Brit 2203 MV — Fierce British Crunch
Perfect for that Marshall-esque bite. Tony pairs it with a 67 condenser and a touch of Dynamic Ambience, then adds the Tima drive and a simple delay for a massive lead tone. With Focus View, he drags into the “Simple Slap” zone to shape the delay, then lets it rip.
Essex TB30CC — Sparkly Class A Chime
This Vox-style model responds beautifully with single coils. Tony keeps it mostly clean at first, then layers subtle ambience, then Dynamic Plate, then a simple slapback for a country-leaning vibe. Finally, he adds the Compulsive Drive for gritty breakup, tests the presets in Focus View, and dials in a sweet spot.
When noise creeps in from his Telecaster single coils, Tony flips on the Input Gate—and the hiss disappears without changing the tone.
Dual-Cab Magic: More Mic and Cab Options Than Ever
Stadium XL lets you run two cabs simultaneously. When Tony loads a US Tweed Man amp, he taps the “No Cab” slot, swaps it for a 1x12 Fullerton, and now has two different mic’d cabinets running in parallel. He leaves a 7 Dynamic mic on the new cab and adds some spring reverb for flavor.
Mix, match, blend, pan—this opens a huge new dimension of tonal shaping without complexity.
Final Takeaway
Throughout the entire demo, Tony shows the same thing again and again: Helix Stadium XL is all about speed, clarity, and feel. The touchscreen workflow, Focus View parameter presets, new Agoura amp models, auto-mapped footswitches, and cabinet flexibility give you a massive palette without slowing down your creativity.
Whether you're building a bare-bones tube vibe, an ambient landscape, or an arena-ready lead tone, Stadium XL gets you there fast—and makes it fun along the way.