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DunedinDragon

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Everything posted by DunedinDragon

  1. As I said above, I use the Poly Capo all the time, but mostly on an acoustic guitar with no amp block. You don't get any cleaner than that and I have no problems with it.
  2. I use the Poly Capo all the time with no problems such as those you refer to. I've used it both on acoustic as well as electric, but it's pretty much always at the very beginning of my signal chain before any amps or effects. I never had much luck with Simple Pitch which just has too many audio artifacts.
  3. Yeah...that's why it's a "dream" configuration. Certainly there are plenty of examples of live standalone VST libraries being run on processors with low latency, so it's not like an impossibility. And those technologies are becoming better and faster every day. But the current version of HN wouldn't probably be a good choice for it. It would probably look more like Native Instruments Kontakt where each block is a plug-in and routing is done through the plug-in manager. But you marry that with the design ideas being used by Mini PCs such that you incorporate the audio interface for 1/4" or XLR outs and inputs, USB, etc. and you've effectively got a Helix unit housed in a Mini PC type unit.
  4. Actually, this is about the right size for me. In fact, I hadn't thought about it until your post. Just use a MINI PC loaded with Helix Native in a standalone mode where it can be housed in a small stage box and controlled by a Morningstar MC8. Maybe a separate expression pedal. Perfect for my use!!!
  5. I don't see any link on my account that allows me to download this new version. What am I missing?
  6. I control everything on stage including my Helix and potentially any other MIDI device through Ableton 11 and have for several years now. In my case I use a Morningstar MC8 MIDI controller as the central controller attached to the laptop running Ableton Live. In my case each Helix preset is a song and equates to a Bank on the MC8. By selecting the song bank on the MC8 it synchronizes the MC8 Bank with the appropriate Helix Preset. I decided to use the MC8 rather than the Helix as a controller because it's much more powerful and flexible than the Helix as a MIDI controller. I run Ableton in Session mode with each row representing a song and the various columns within that song representing the various instruments in the backing track for that song as well as the MIDI Out column for sending MIDI sync commands as well as a column for STOP commands. I select the song and then press the Start button defined on the MC8 which starts the appropriate song tracks playing. Among the song tracks I have a MIDI Out track which sends the individual synchronized command to the MC8 which then can translate that into any number of multiple MIDI commands to other devices that need to trigger during the song at that point. The song files play in session mode and I have one MIDI Stop command at the end that loops the stop signal back to Ableton to trigger the stop playing action. I then use the Next or Previous button on my MC8 to move to the next or previous song in the set, press the Start button and the process repeats. My laptop has one USB MIDI connection to the MC8 for controlling these actions and a separate USB Audio connection to an Audio interface that sends the stereo backing tracks to the mixing board. I've been using this setup for about 3 or 4 years ever week and it's never failed. FYI the MIDI commands to control Snapshot selection is a different MIDI sequence than those used to activate/deactivate a footswitch. Refer to THIS for more information on how this is done.
  7. Maybe the 3 note generator or 4 oscillator combined with other effects to give it more of an "atmosphere" feel?
  8. Then have OnSong send the MIDI command to the Helix to load the preset for that song which has the BPM set correctly. That change is immediate. There are literally hundreds of ways to handle this kind of stuff that falls under the category of stage automation. I do it every week at our church and have for years, but a good resource on the subject is Will Doggett's From Studio To Stage website. Maybe you can get some ideas from his videos.
  9. The easiest way to do this is to have each song as a preset set to the appropriate BPM of the song. Change the preset, the BPM changes on OnSong and everything stays in sync, as long as you maintain that strict BPM for the duration of the song. That's how most people do it, but that means everyone must be in sync via a click track or something similar.
  10. This gets into some really complex stuff and I'm not sure I can do it justice in a simple response. First and foremost you have to understand that MIDI, as it relates to actual music, are just the definition of notes to be played, i.e. C, C#, D, D#....and how hard to play them (velocity), how long they're held (8th note, 1/4 note) as well as some other playing attributes. How those notes are actually played depends on what kind of virtual instrument it's being played on. For drums the D might be a kick drum but on a piano or organ or trumpet it will be interpreted to that instrument's sound. Beyond that there are MIDI commands that can be thought of as instructions to an external piece of equipment such as a command to "play a loop" on an external piece of gear. To do what you're wanting to do most of the time you'd use an external DAW or recording software that has a sequence of MIDI notes on a track that will play those notes through a specific instrument attached to that track containing that sequence of notes. So in essence you would construct the MIDI note sequence (instructions) on a track and attach that sequence to a virtual instrument plugin such as a trumpet, all of that housed on a DAW on a laptop and connected via MIDI to your controller (Helix). Then at the appropriate time you'd send the MIDI command to that DAW to play the sequence. That's a very rudimentary portrayal of what happens and there's a lot more complexity to it than that, and a world of different options of how you might do it. But matching that kind of operation to a live performance means both the MIDI sequence and the live band must be in absolute sync with the same tempo. That's not hard to do, but it is an absolute requirement to make sure they sync up, and there is no room for deviation. That's about as far as I'd care to go in this discussion as you really need to do some of your own study as there are plenty of YouTube lessons on all of the technology components involved in this subject. I just don't think it would be worth the time and investment it would take to undertake this kind of thing just for one small piece of one show because it's really not a simple nor cheap thing to setup.
  11. You can trigger anything from the Helix via MIDI, but getting it in sync with the BPM's your band is playing might be a challenge. If you all have a click track with the tempo that would make it easier. But of course a MIDI loop doesn't have any instruments in it. Just the information for playing the instrument. For that you'd need a VST and other software.
  12. Try it on an empty preset. It will always show as greyed out if the preset you're using it on doesn't have enough available DSP for it.
  13. It's the same on all Helix units. That's because the Helix is a guitar modeler, not a mixer. The reason is due to the old saying you've heard all your life, "Jack of all trades and master of none". I play in different bands and different venues as well and have for 50 years and I have no problem allowing the mixing board to be a mixing board and do what it does best, and my guitar rig being my guitar rig and doing what it does best...and that gets me the best and most predictable/manageable results from both. Your best bet is to concentrate on producing the best guitar performance you can with the Helix and have some minimal level of understanding about what you can expect from the FOH mixer and communicate your needs effectively to whoever is running it. The mixing board has MUCH greater abilities to take your finished guitar sound and send it (along with an appropriate customized mix of all other channels) to the various people that need it (audience, band members, monitors, in ears, etc), in the manner in which they need it. THAT is it's specialty. There's no reason in the world to try and re-invent that.
  14. Agree with @codamedia. Tell your soundman you have MUCH more ability to adjust your signal than he does at this board. Tell him it's 2023 and not 1993 and he just needs to let you know what he needs from your sound. You can adjust it for all your presets in globals. He'll be chasing it on every song.
  15. One of the limitations you'll quickly encounter on the Helix's implementation of MIDI is there's some limitations with the number of MIDI commands you can send from a single footswitch press. Add to that there's no way in the current spec of MIDI to inquire about the settings of another device to determine what needs to be changed. Eventually we'll have the long promised MIDI 2 spec formalized, but who knows how long that will be. My personal approach because of these limitations is to use a Morningstar MC8 as my central MIDI controller for both the Helix and all other devices I want to control because it has much more robust capabilities for complex MIDI interactions with other devices. The MC8 is perfectly capable of sending a preset change along with all necessary initialization sequences to any other devices along with selecting the appropriate startup settings to them. I can also send snapshot changes to the Heilx with other MIDI commands tp other devices so that my Helix settings and external devices act in unison.
  16. The only thing Helix can provide you is a signal output level meter because there's no physical amplification as far as actual volume, just a Line, Instrument or Mic signal level. If you select the output block you'll see the built-in signal meter displayed at the bottom right of the Helix display on the physical device. You can use that display to even out the signal levels being output by the Helix. That will give you a decent start toward getting consistent levels going to whatever your output device is. As @cruisinon2mentioned the actual volume varies based on how your ears perceive it, but I use a volume meter app in my phone to get a good rough idea of what my actual SPL is and tweak it by ear from there. Because I go direct to the mixing board it's very easy for me to use my guitar channel meter on my mixer to gain stage my levels on my presets. Because the signal is never actually sent to HX Edit there's no way to incorporate a signal meter there, but I agree it would be nice to have some form of color coding or marking on the signal meter display on the Helix unit to help in equalizing your signal levels. With a lot of venues now having sound level requirements for live music, these are all very handy tools to keep you out of trouble at gigs.
  17. I use the poly capo all the time on both electric and acoustic setups and I've never had any issues. I suspect it may be an artifact from hearing the originating string sound as the volume fades.
  18. I'm not exactly sure how this update went south but I've never had any problems on any update until now. To be honest it very well could be a physical issue with my Helix since this is the Floor unit I use in my studio and it's been exhibiting some odd behaviors related to the USB and audio interface recently. After updating and restoring my old presets, I rebooted and got a failed message and the Helix was in update mode. I finally got it to boot by manually rebooting it a couple of times but it hung up during the rebuilding of the presets. One thing that differs on this unit from my live performance Helix Floor is this one is powered on via Alexa which turns on the Helix as well as the studio monitors and some other items like my electronic piano and a desk lamp. I re-did the update via Line 6 Central and got it working, but I'm not confident it's going to be stable yet. I'll just manually power up and down the Helix individually and see where it takes me.
  19. I think you're overstating or not understanding what AI is about. It's not a cure-all for developing presets because each person and each rig configuration varies and that entails a certain level of subjectivity about what works best in any given situation. AI in this type of scenario is more about learning personal preferences and the environment in which a preset would need to operate. Taking an AI "picture" of a sound doesn't have enough information to adequately create through AI the same behaviors across all possible configurations given the various things that might have happened in creating that sound in a studio. I'm not saying it couldn't be a helpful tool in aiding people in developing presets, but it requires at least as much of your time in teaching an AI system what best fits you as it would in learning how to do it yourself. Without a personalized approach to teaching AI, you'll get what someone else thinks is best, and it may not match what you envision or how it will sound in your unique situation and it may or may not be that close to what you think it should be. I could see using something like that in providing a bare bones preset that I could tweak to make it more to what I need. But that will still require the user's expertise.
  20. I'm not shocked at all because modeling is all about digitally replicating the features and behaviors of the existing circuits in specific amps, not modifying them. Line 6 does create their own modified versions under a different name sometimes, but it's really based on the level of interest in the user community for such things. I keep a fairly close eye on IdeaScale every week and I don't think I've ever even seen a request there for the bright cap modification. It may be the end all, be all to you, but to me it's kind of irrelevant. The tools in the Helix are more than adequate to get the sound I need regardless of the style of song or the guitar I choose to play on it. That's why I don't get too excited about it. And quite frankly I could care less about what Fractal is doing. I don't own one and have no need for one. I've already got what I need.
  21. I'm really confused!!! How is it I've had my Helix since it came out in 2015 and there has not been a single situation in the thousands of presets I've created where I had to ask this question???
  22. Since I don't use Reaper I'm lost on his description of entering the values, but it's one of two things happening here. You may not be sending MIDI like you think you are and that really depends on the configuration of your DAW in how those things get enabled. Your best bet is to get you a MIDI monitor program that will allow you to capture the values being sent out from Reaper on you computer. There are any number of these available for free downloads, but that will at least tell you whether or not the MIDI values are being actually sent. The other problem is making sure that if they are being sent they are the correct values. Here's a link to a very complete description of the PC and CC values need to be to do MIDI operations on the Helix. It's a long read but it's worth it to understand how it all works. Helix Help MIDI
  23. Any of those type of approaches will give you the live cabinet feel, but only the powercab would have the ability to modify the cab sound a bit more similar to what's done with the Helix cabs. The rest will all be static. However any approach using a physical cabinet will lose that "feel" once it's mic'd and sent to the mixing board. That's just physics and it applies no matter what your system consists of.
  24. In a nutshell the "ultimate" Helix experience has a large range of what different people deem as "ultimate". Many of us that frequent these pages have had our share of different variations, but each have their limitations. But each limitation may not be that important on an individual basis. For example getting a traditional sound like you would out of a cabinet setup isn't all that important to some of us. How could that be you might ask? To put it simply, the only one that hears that particular sound are the people standing in the vacinity of that kind of setup. That can never be the actual production sound you hear in a live performance or on a professional recording because it has to be captured by a mic, which will change the sound. Add to that in a sound reinforcement practical sense no stage setup can ever compete volume-wise with a PA, and you wouldn't want it to because it messes up the overall mix the audience hears. That's why many people using modelers target creating a great production sound, the same as would be done in a studio which the Helix is perfectly capable of right out of the box and going direct to the mixing board. But what a person needs for inspiration as a stage or studio musician actually performing that music may be different, and that's where the configurations can make yet another turn using a stage setup similar to what you're describing, but purely for on stage or in studio performance. But of course that comes with the limitation that you won't be hearing the same thing as the audience will be hearing including the mix with the other instruments. The thing that's important is that modeling, by it's very nature, changes and expands on the lessons we learned from playing in a traditional setup. That's why you see so many variations in how people use their Helix.
  25. Well start with a Les Paul Custom or you won't have the same basis for the sound. Beyond that there are plenty of various pedals that would do the kind of things he did. Compression tends to be the best friend for long sustains given enough drive on the amp model.
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