daddydoodles Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Please forgive me for being completely obtuse, but I cannot figure out how to connect the Helix via USB to my Mac using Logix X and get sound out. I can see that I am getting a solid input signal, however NO sound out. I have tried resetting the Audio interface settings in System Preferences. I have used Internal Speakers, Helix, and Audiobox. Nothing seems to work. No sound out. I see folks using the Helix on YouTube where they playing through the computer. I am at a loss. Sorry for being so dumb. Can anyone provide a step by step walk through on how to make this work? I will be in your debt eternally. I have attached a .doc diagram showing what I am trying to achieve. Hoping that makes it clear for me and other confused souls. Helix to Computer.doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddydoodles Posted May 3, 2016 Author Share Posted May 3, 2016 OR I would like to just be able to connect the Helix via USB to my Mac and get sound. How? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasdadgad Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Turn on Helix, plug USB into Mac. Fire up Logic X. You have to set Preferences/Audio/Output Device and /Input Device to "Line 6 Helix" in Logic X. If you don't see "Line 6 Helix" as an option, you've got other problems. But, if all's working well, the Helix becomes your OUTPUT device so make sure you've got speakers or something hooked up to the Helix. There are some irregularities between the Helix and the Mac if you've got El Capitan and are connected via USB. There are work-arounds. Check back here if the above doesn't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasdadgad Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Oh yeah - have you installed the Mac driver? http://line6.com/support/topic/19809-helix-mac-driver-100-public-beta-now-available/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datacommando Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 There are some irregularities between the Helix and the Mac if you've got El Capitan and are connected via USB. There are work-arounds. Check back here if the above doesn't work. jasdadgad, For a newby user, that's really very helpful about having your monitor system (powered speakers, or at least a set of headphones) hooked up to the Helix audio outs. It would be real easy to overlook that and think that the sound would actually be sent out of the Mac. Maybe that's how he "lost" his output - he just misplaced it. Your other comment has me intrigued, though! If you're aware of the work around for the problems between Mac OS X El Cap and Helix USB, please advise ASAP, because frankly – I'm baffled! I have spent several weeks seeking a solution, all to no avail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasdadgad Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Hi Commando: I was referring to the intermittent disconnections we've all experienced between an El Capitan Mac and the Helix when using USB. Two things solved it for me: 1. Installing Line 6's Mac driver and 2. Using a USB 2.0 hub between the Mac and the Helix (someone here suggested this...Hamm?). I haven't lost connection since and the editor is well-worth working this all out. And it's really fun using Logic X with Helix! As to your well-documented MIDI/USB problems, I have no idea. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datacommando Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Hi Commando: I was referring to the intermittent disconnections we've all experienced between an El Capitan Mac and the Helix when using USB. Two things solved it for me: 1. Installing Line 6's Mac driver and 2. Using a USB 2.0 hub between the Mac and the Helix (someone here suggested this...Hamm?). I haven't lost connection since and the editor is well-worth working this all out. And it's really fun using Logic X with Helix! As to your well-documented MIDI/USB problems, I have no idea. Sorry. Hi jasdadgad, Thanks for the feedback. Strangely enough, I didn't suffer the intermittent USB disconnects. It seems that I got mine as one complete disaster area - it all collapsed at once. Yep, right up until then it had been real fun using Helix with Logic. Sadly - No more. Once again I've got to state, for my part, the new OS X driver was a total fail - everything totally worse. And wot da funk are those 4 audio streams about, I only get a stereo pair in LPX - Doh! Mmm, the USB 2 hub thing? Well Line 6 always stated that was a complete No!, No! - explicitly - Do not use a hub! IIRC, I seem to remember spotting the idea on this forum as thinking that anything is worth a try. Sadly, I got no joy with that trick either. As for the Editor - once again, I have to say this is all very strange, I have never had a moments trouble with it. The Editor has always worked great - perfect, I cannot fault it, so no issues there! I have been using computers and digital musical equipment for over 30 years, and this is the weirdest thing I've had to deal with. I guess this is one black box that will be heading back into the Twilight Zone", from whence it came! Oh, yeah. I hope the guy that started this thread got his speakers to function. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddydoodles Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 OK - I think figured out what I was doing wrong. When deciding to use the Helix as the "sound card", all I had to do is connect the speakers to the output of the Helix. At least that is what I need to do to get sound. However, I am not sure I was doing anything going through the Mac or was merely using the output of the Helix and bypassing the Mac. Probably not the solution I was looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datacommando Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 OK - I think figured out what I was doing wrong. When deciding to use the Helix as the "sound card", all I had to do is connect the speakers to the output of the Helix. At least that is what I need to do to get sound. However, I am not sure I was doing anything going through the Mac or was merely using the output of the Helix and bypassing the Mac. Probably not the solution I was looking for. Hi daddy doodles, I didn't see your .doc diagram on the first visit, but yes the monitor speakers should be hooked up to the Helix - (Audiobox not required). Now you have that set up, everything else should be straight forward. Whatever you play from your guitar into Helix will come out of your monitors fully processed. Also if you have armed a stereo track for record in LPX that fully processed audio can be captured via channels 1 & 2. The software input monitoring in Logic is not needed as you have the Helix doing that already - so you can turn that off. Then the recorded the sound can be played back as a faithful reproduction of whatever patch you just used. Furthermore any other audio samples, soft synths, drum tracks - whatever, it will play all back from the DAW on your Mac as pristine crystal clear sounds through your Helix and speakers. You could add even more effects to your guitar track inside Logic if you need. There are options to record the dry signal either mono or stereo from Helix into your DAW along with the wet sound, the dry signal will then be available for re-amping. This gives you the chance to record the perfect take and stick it though as many variations as you would like. I'm guess that is what your are wanting to achieve? Details of re-amping are documented in the Helix user manual (pages 44, 45 and 46) and, IIRC, there may well be a walk through video on UChoob! The above is a quick and dirty way of getting going with this stuff and that's basically how I use the Helix for DI recording. Hope it makes sense, and or, helps in some way. Regards - Enjoy your multi-tracking! Oh, yeah - late additional comment. I should have also said that you can playback stuff from iTunes, YouTube, or any other audio source from your Mac through Helix to your speakers. Easy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
line6picker Posted March 28, 2019 Share Posted March 28, 2019 (edited) Delete Edited March 29, 2019 by line6picker Resolved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tptptp Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 Been struggling with a similar issue for a couple of days. Turns out the issue was the Helix global settings -> USB in 1/2 destination. Had it set to XLR, but nothing connected to the XLR outputs. Changed it to multi and I started hearing output in my headphones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickrosmolen Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 hi guys, I've got a question about the helix tone i get from my DAW Logic. I run my helix into my studio monitors (KRK's) and via usb into my laptop straight into logic. So the problem is that the tone sounds different when it's recorded and I'm playing it back. When I am recording and playing my guitar parts, the tone sounds more lively then when i play it back from Logic. I can't really explain the difference in sound but it sounds less lively (full) with les high end (?) to me when it's recorded. I really hear difference in tone and obviously prefer the tone i get while i'm playing. Do you guys have any tips? Thanks! Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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