DunedinDragon

You can run directly out of your XLR L/Mono into the XLR Input on the Tech 21 then plug a separate XLR cable out of the XLR out on the Tech 21 into the XLR Input on the 2nd Tech 21. That's not a "crossover" it's simply daisy chaining the two Tech 21's. That will send the same signal out to both but you still have to adjust the volume and settings independently on each Tech 21. If you want to send a stereo signal to the two speakers such as if you were to use a ping pong delay in your preset you would use your XLR Left Out on the Helix to one and XLR Right Output to the other.

It's also important to know the Firmware your Helix is on. If it's not the most current version you might want to make sure it is so you have the full range of effects, amps and cabs available to you. When these units hit the stores they don't automatically keep them updated

What signal level are you sending and what signal level is expected in your amp?

To each their own but this runs counter-intuitive to the notion that the audience should hear the same tone and mix that you're producing on stage.

There are a number of us that came to the Helix from the POD HD when it was first released. I would say that technology jump was not exactly a sea change in capabilities. It solved a few aggravations we had with the POD HD, but the Helix is now a VERY different animal. In my estimation it's only just now beginning to show it's true potential after the last few firmware updates. That's why even were your biggest fear of a new "Helix" to come to pass you wouldn't have really lost much because the features and capabilities in the Helix these days are so numerous and extraordinary over the POD HD, its still money well spent I would say. I honestly don't think this is about having the newest, shiniest object as much as it is a system capable of allowing you to achieve the current state of the art in modeling especially comparing it to the POD HD. More DSP? Not even a consideration for me as I rarely run into that problem. Built-in WiFi or Bluetooth, been there and done that and had to have lose my whole unit for maintenance when they broke and I'm fine with using a workaround if I have to as long as my unit remains available. Touch screen? I have touch screen on my laptop I don't use, and touch screen on my QSC TM30 mixer I barely make use of preferring the real dials and buttons, touch screen on my tablet that's absolutely aggravating and annoying to have to use. Even touch screen on my new car, which is literally dangerous to try and use if you're driving. They may sound cool but I've yet to run into an instance that makes me more productive than a keyboard and a mouse. But I'll admit it's good marketing fluff for people that like shiny, new objects. Personally I think the whole "shiny new object" innovations are more based on the fact that the DSP chips being used today in the Helix are just as capable as anything newer, and that's likely to be the case for a while. So until that happens (which would REALLY be a sea change), I'll be fine with this unit.

Since I have no idea what or how your PX8 works I'll just refer you to the key Helix MIDI reference in the Helixhelp web site. This has a separate section on the Stomp but read through it all as this will give you a complete understanding of how to control your Helix via MIDI interactions. https://helixhelp.com/tips-and-guides/universal/midi

It's called JSON and it's a standard scripting language used throughout the industry. It will allow you to deconstruct and possibly change stored presets and such, but it's not going to allow you to change/create/modify blocks or re-arrange signal chain behaviors because no one outside of Line 6 development has that capability for very good reasons. You can, of course, write automation procedures in whatever language or scripting scenarios that use MIDI commands to change behaviors in a Helix of course.

I'm not sure this is as much about sound quality as it is reducing latency. Although A/D to D/A conversions are pretty efficient these days, why go through 2 of them (one out of the Helix, one when it goes into the DAW) when you can go through none of them?

Although what you're attempting to do is interesting I'm not so sure it's going to be as accurate or easy as simply creating a small (one beat) MIDI segment that contains the activation sequence for each of the Helix footswitches and store those as separate small files that you can drag and precisely paste into a single MIDI Out track at the appropriate point in your song. No need to draw them again and you can position them very precisely. That's how I do it and it only takes moments to setup an entire song.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

I don't see any link on my account that allows me to download this new version. What am I missing?

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.

Maybe the 3 note generator or 4 oscillator combined with other effects to give it more of an "atmosphere" feel?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.