Line 6 Helix

stratman3142

Digital_Igloo said:

gibsongretschfan said:

digitalscream said:

Just in case anyone's considering getting Native because of the sale they announced today...the sale code only works if you don't already have the discount from owning a Helix in the first place. So, for example, if you have a Helix LT, you're entitled to Native at $299, but you can't have another 30% off that in the sale (unlike the Black Friday sale, when you could).

Love it when companies reward their existing customers...

It should be working now

Yeah, you should be able to stack discounts. Frank said everything is fixed. If it still doesn't work, send me a PM.

Sorted and I decided to take the plunge.

stonevibe

Any thoughts on Helix Native? I got a copy the other week and haven't had any time to check it out properly yet.

guitarfishbay

stonevibe said:

Any thoughts on Helix Native? I got a copy the other week and haven't had any time to check it out properly yet.

Pretty cool. I’ve got the delays on some of my Auxes, they’re a nice alternative to my usual suspects.

With the latest update there’s a huge amount of general use FX that’d work on many sources.

stratman3142

stonevibe said:

Any thoughts on Helix Native? I got a copy the other week and haven't had any time to check it out properly yet.

I'm very happy with the sounds which are the same as my Helix LT.

There are a couple of things that I'm puzzed by.

The licence seems to work through association with the network interface. It didn't play nice with my motherboard wired LAN connection and needed a constant internet connection to work. After a lot of head scratching, I got around that by plugging in a USB wireless LAN then activated the licence through that.

I expect this is a problem specific to my wired LAN connection, but now I need to have a USB WLAN plugged in, to effectively work as a dongle for Helix Native. Fortunately my computer is resilient to LAN and WLAN so they don't disrupt audio, which I checked with Resplendence LatencyMon. On previous computers I've had to disable the network interface to avoid audio disruption, which (I think) would have killed the licence association.

Tagging the Helix Native licence to a network interface seems a perverse approach, given that the network connection can cause audio disruption on some computers and might need to be disabled.

The second thing I notice is that VST3 reports some latency through the plugin itself within Reaper, whereas VST2 doesn't. I'm not sure what's going on there and whether it's a Reaper thing or a Helix Native thing.

meltedbuzzbox

I can't say that I have ever seen a network port disrupt audio. 

gibsongretschfan

So what is a Lonestar and why am I enjoying it so much when I’m not really a Mesa guy? Sounds great with my B.B. Preamp ramming it. Is this the Andy Timmons trick? I mixed a 1/4 and dotted 1/8 tape delay in parallel into some Glitz and got all guitar god sounding with some single coils 

stratman3142

meltedbuzzbox said:

I can't say that I have ever seen a network port disrupt audio. 

It was some time ago, back in the days of XP, on two previous laptops I had to disable the wireless to avoid audio glitches. At the time I used DPC latency checker to diagnose that the cause was the wireless.
http://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml

Also, see link below regarding the comment on Network cards, which suggests it's a potential issue with some computers, even with Windows 10:
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10

Incidentally (as background info) below is a very helpful link that led me to a work-around for my wired LAN issue regarding the Helix Native licence activation, which was to use a WLAN for the activation so it's now effectively a dongle for Helix Native.
http://line6.com/support/topic/29053-helix-native-internet-dependency/

Fortunately, the WLAN doesn't give any audio gliches on my Windows 10 computer which I've checked with Resplendence LatencyMon
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Cabicular

meltedbuzzbox said:

I can't say that I have ever seen a network port disrupt audio. 

Back in the old days you get get dma interrupts with your FireWireor USB ports if they shared a bus
network cards have a high dma priority
usually you can just move it to another slot but it does happen

stratman3142

stonevibe said:

Any thoughts on Helix Native? I got a copy the other week and haven't had any time to check it out properly yet.

Just in case my above posts come across as a bit negative regarding the licencing, I've now I've played with Helix Native a lot more I have to say I'm very happy with the sounds (including the bass sounds).

I'd go so far as to say, for me, it's on a par with S-Gear 2 (which I also own) but with much more stuff, which is about the highest accolade that I can give to an ampsim.

hubobulous

gibsongretschfan said:

So what is a Lonestar and why am I enjoying it so much when I’m not really a Mesa guy? Sounds great with my B.B. Preamp ramming it. Is this the Andy Timmons trick? I mixed a 1/4 and dotted 1/8 tape delay in parallel into some Glitz and got all guitar god sounding with some single coils 

Yeah, the Lonestar is Andy's amp of choice and hitting with a BB is pretty much his sound from everything but the most recent output.

He also uses the DMM so his overall tone is available in the Helix and there are plenty of videos on the settings he used. 

gibsongretschfan

hubobulous said:

gibsongretschfan said:

So what is a Lonestar and why am I enjoying it so much when I’m not really a Mesa guy? Sounds great with my B.B. Preamp ramming it. Is this the Andy Timmons trick? I mixed a 1/4 and dotted 1/8 tape delay in parallel into some Glitz and got all guitar god sounding with some single coils 

Yeah, the Lonestar is Andy's amp of choice and hitting with a BB is pretty much his sound from everything but the most recent output.

He also uses the DMM so his overall tone is available in the Helix and there are plenty of videos on the settings he used. 

Yeah that’s the trick, sounds good with the DMM’s. To be honest I was a little disappointed in the Helix DMM but seems to play well in this situation

gibsongretschfan

That Palcaters alright ain’t it? It’s close enough to the Stealer in S-Gear 2 that I’m not sure I’ll bother loading up my Mainstage patch containing it anymore. Tasty. 

meltedbuzzbox

Cabicular said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

I can't say that I have ever seen a network port disrupt audio. 

Back in the old days you get get dma interrupts with your FireWireor USB ports if they shared a bus
network cards have a high dma priority
usually you can just move it to another slot but it does happen

You're talking ages ago if you are on about dma.
I seem to recall it was ISA specific. Pci got rid of the issue/massively helped

Cabicular

meltedbuzzbox said:

Cabicular said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

I can't say that I have ever seen a network port disrupt audio. 

Back in the old days you get get dma interrupts with your FireWireor USB ports if they shared a bus
network cards have a high dma priority
usually you can just move it to another slot but it does happen

You're talking ages ago if you are on about dma.
I seem to recall it was ISA specific. Pci got rid of the issue/massively helped

I’m not it was just hidden from you later on
pci cards shared a couple of DMA channels
the difficulty is working out which a lot was on which channel

gibsongretschfan

So the Dimension Chorus has replaced the 70’s Chorus on my main gigging patch. It still sounds really very good. We will see if it stays the duration.

im also using the double tank reverb with decay on 1 for a “a bit of reverb” reverb.

rich75

I've just seen that the Helix firmware has been updated to version 2.52. No new toys, but there are a few bug fixes:

• External Amp commands could not be transmitted when changing snapshots - FIXED
• In rare cases, Helix Rack could freeze when updating Helix Control - FIXED
• In some cases, an External Amp command (Tip only) could change the internal expression pedal from EXP 1 to EXP 2 (or vice versa) on Helix LT - FIXED
• In some cases, attempting to swap footswitch assignments when one switch was unassigned could cause Helix to freeze - FIXED
• Other bug fixes and optimizations

gibsongretschfan

rich75 said:

I've just seen that the Helix firmware has been updated to version 2.52. No new toys, but there are a few bug fixes:

• External Amp commands could not be transmitted when changing snapshots - FIXED
• In rare cases, Helix Rack could freeze when updating Helix Control - FIXED
• In some cases, an External Amp command (Tip only) could change the internal expression pedal from EXP 1 to EXP 2 (or vice versa) on Helix LT - FIXED
• In some cases, attempting to swap footswitch assignments when one switch was unassigned could cause Helix to freeze - FIXED
• Other bug fixes and optimizations

Its been pulled because it bricked a few Helices

SteveF

Not sure whether to put this here or in the Studio/Rec forum, so please move if needs be. 

I've just ordered a Helix (yay).  For my home studio, I currently have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface which I have connected to some PreSonus Eris 4.5 studio monitors.  

Would I be better plugging the 1/4" outs from the Helix into the Focusrite and using it as is, or just using the Helix as my audio interface and plugging the monitors directly into the helix?  Presumably (as long as it is switched on) I can route all audio from my MacBook via the Helix (e.g. when watching youtube videos etc)? 

If using the Helix, I have a secondary question; the 1/4" outs on the Helix are unbalanced.  The 1/4" inputs on my monitors are balanced.  Would I get a benefit from getting some XLR to balanced TRS jack cables over just running unbalanced 1/4" cables to the monitors?

horse

I'm in a similar position. In theory you can use both together as an 'aggregate device', but I didn't get that working. So I use the helix as my interface when working on guitar parts then switch back to my focusrite for other stuff and mixing as I've got other kit hooked up to it.

Connecting the helix via USB has a massive advantage in that you can capture a dry signal at the same time as your processed one, and then send that dry signal back to the helix to experiment with different amps and settings etc - it makes it really easy to do via usb

SteveF

I don't really have anything else connected to the Focusrite other than my monitors and a mic.  I guess the only questions are whether there is any latency issues when recording via USB on the Helix - I quite like that I can direct monitor on the Saffire (can the Helix do this too?) and can I actually route all system audio from the Mac via the Helix to the monitors as I described above?  

And I guess, is the Helix as good a quality mic preamp as the Saffire?