Line 6 Helix

gibsongretschfan

Cabicular said:

John_A said:

Cabicular said:

John_A said:

Haven't had the chance to upgrade yet, but looking forward to it, some great stuff in there.  Would be nice to A-B the same patch on different firmware and see if there's any audible difference, may record a few bits before I upgrade.

That’s an interesting idea
I haven’t updated my floor yet but I have the rack
I might A/B my patches if I have time
Paul H from Line 6 is coming round tonight and tomorrow to do some recording so I might do it then if we have time 

That would be great if you could.  Would save me the time and you play better than I do

Paul plays better than us both ...

I seen Paul on FB saying he was going to a friends studio in edinburgh for some Helix fun... don't get too drunk

Digital_Igloo

Cabicular said:
The standard response is ‘we are constantly improving the algorithms’

They will never tell us what that means (probably a smart move as the internet has a tendency to backlash against changes)

Pretty much. When Helix rebuilds presets, it may tweak some slightly to compensate for any under-the-hood improvements we make. Don't want any surprises.

handsomerik

Cosmos delay is my new favourite delay. Tons of usable great delay sounds to be had. 

Can anyone confirm what the ramp and splice parameters do. I'm assuming that splice is kind of like random tape crinkle on a strymon tape algo. What about ramp?

sgosden

The cosmos is a thing of beauty. Also interested in how to manipulate it better!
I love the random oscillations, and spent ages early trying to work out how to trigger them, but to no avail

Cabicular

Didn’t get a chance to do comparisons 
ran out of time wiring up some of my amps
I always learn new things with Paul

RandallFlagg

Just re-joined the Helix clan with my 2nd one! Having problems with S/PDIF output though.

I had a Helix earlier in the year and it ran fine though S/PDIF into Focusrite Saffire PRO14.

This new unit is troublesome though:

I have connected Helix SPDIF out to my Focusrite Saffire Pro 14, set Helix to Digital out  = SPDIF and sample rate is 48KHz. When I set the Saffire pro to Sync Source SPDIF and sample rate to 48KHz I get no sound but the meters are jumping about as though there is a loud signal passing through but I hear nothing, the Sync light doesn't illuminate on the Focusrite.

If I tun the Helix volume knob down to zero I get sync lock but no sound and the Focusrite meters show no activity

I tried a difference S/PDIF cable and got intermittent sound a for a few seconds then nothing, meters jumping about but no sound.

The Focusrite is connected to monitors and an iMac running MacOS High Sierra.

Helix sound output through 1/4 jacks an headphones is fine.

I have re-installed Helic FW 3.20 and reinstalled Focusrite Saffire Mixcontrol 3.7 again. The Saffire is working fine with all other audio sources.

Could the Helix digital path be faulty or have a bad S/PDIF out socket?

Cabicular

Are you 100% the output is digital out?
sorry but simple stuff first

guitarfishbay

I decided to pick up Native in the recent sale. I had used podfarm for years in the past so got some additional discount.

I’m not looking to switch from my Axe FX but for recording Native has some really cool stuff in it.

Prrimarily I want to use it for bass sounds, which I think it does fantastically well for my tastes, especially the more driven bass sounds. Also I think the delay models, particularly the Adriatic and Elephant, sound great and I would use those on non guitar sources too. The reverbs have a very different vibe to the Fractal or other plugin reverbs I have, they sound like nice guitar pedal reverbs if that makes sense, and that’s actually pretty useful as sometimes a less hifi reverb winds up sitting better in a recording. Again it’d be easy to chuck non guitar sources through the reverbs as necessary which is also handy.

With the way I record guitar I never record my post amp effects, as I prefer the flexibility of tweaking delays/reverbs/post amp modulations etc as plugins in the DAW. So Native does add quite a bit of stuff for me even if I don’t always use the amp modelling.

I’m probably not going to spend much time A/Bing between Native and the Axe FX as I like them for different things and I try to just go on instinct rather than spend forever tweaking things. The only overlap for me are the delays (though it’s more practical for me to use Natives the way I record) and the AC30 models, which I like on both though they each have a different vibe. For most guitar tones I go for I prefer the Axe FX models, and for most bass stuff I prefer Native. There are good effects sounds in both, just for practicality I’m likely to use Axe FX for all pre-distortion effects and Native or other plugins for post.

RandallFlagg

Cabicular said:

Are you 100% the output is digital out?
sorry but simple stuff first

Yes - just testing with factory patches out is Multi but makes no difference if I set it to digital only. Global digital out is set to SPDIF

RandallFlagg

RandallFlagg said:

Just re-joined the Helix clan with my 2nd one! Having problems with S/PDIF output though.

I had a Helix earlier in the year and it ran fine though S/PDIF into Focusrite Saffire PRO14.

This new unit is troublesome though:

I have connected Helix SPDIF out to my Focusrite Saffire Pro 14, set Helix to Digital out  = SPDIF and sample rate is 48KHz. When I set the Saffire pro to Sync Source SPDIF and sample rate to 48KHz I get no sound but the meters are jumping about as though there is a loud signal passing through but I hear nothing, the Sync light doesn't illuminate on the Focusrite.

If I tun the Helix volume knob down to zero I get sync lock but no sound and the Focusrite meters show no activity

I tried a difference S/PDIF cable and got intermittent sound a for a few seconds then nothing, meters jumping about but no sound.

The Focusrite is connected to monitors and an iMac running MacOS High Sierra.

Helix sound output through 1/4 jacks an headphones is fine.

I have re-installed Helic FW 3.20 and reinstalled Focusrite Saffire Mixcontrol 3.7 again. The Saffire is working fine with all other audio sources.

Could the Helix digital path be faulty or have a bad S/PDIF out socket?

@Digital_Igloo Have you seen this before, issues with Digital out?

Cabicular

There have been a lot of reports with drop outs but I have not seen anything where you are getting no audio at all

Cabicular

Logically it does look to me like an input monitoring issue on the focusrite
if you are getting meter jumps and no audio
do you have another digital output you can put into the focus rite to eliminate it?

RandallFlagg

I don't have another device with digital out unfortunate, but the Saffire worked fine with the last Helix less than a year ago.

Why would the meters stop activity when I turn the volume on the Helix down? I thought the volume knob didn't affect the digital output? Also, the activity is not sound, could it be digital noise?

Cabicular

I don’t have a helix in front of me just now but is the volume knob set to multi in global setting?
the activity could just be amp and pedal hiss 
what ever it is, if you are seeing it on the meters shouldn’t you be hearing it from the speakers
does it spike when you run a signal through it?

Cabicular

Are you saying you are getting no sync lock with the Saffire?
are you able to make it the master and slave the helix to it?

RandallFlagg

The volume knob is set to multi but when I set it to digital I get sync lock when I turn it to zero but no sound and when I turn it up sync lock is lost and the meters start jumping but there is no sound. It is not audio signal making the meters jump there is no sound whatsover.

When I set the Helix and Saffire to 96KHz the meters stop moving but there is no sync lock and no sound!

Weird huh?

RandallFlagg

Cabicular said:

Are you saying you are getting no sync lock with the Saffire?
are you able to make it the master and slave the helix to it?

Not sure what that means or how to do that

Cabicular

RandallFlagg said:

Cabicular said:

Are you saying you are getting no sync lock with the Saffire?
are you able to make it the master and slave the helix to it?

Not sure what that means or how to do that

In every digital signal you must have a master and a slave
This ensures the packets that are sent from one device are in sync with the others. At the moment you have the Focusrite set as the master (clock source internal) and the helix as the slave (clock external)
Can you set the Helix to be the master (internal) and the Focusrite to be the slave (external)?
without the devices in front of me I’m speaking in general terms so it may not be possible but it’s what I would try next (before just using the analogue outs)

Cabicular

From the manual it looks like you can’t change this on the helix
sorry that’s as far as I can go with you just now
You’ll have to raise a ticket

RandallFlagg

Or send it back for a new one