DunedinDragon

Yep....I'm gonna place my bets on this being the problem as well. And I'll match that bet and raise it that he's never, ever read the Helix User Manual either!!!

This is a tough decision because there are so many variables. But just to give you the lay of the land. The thing that's most likely to sound similar to the FOH setup will be powered live PA speakers such as the L2M or Yamaha DBR/DXR. But your IEMs are likely going to sound closer to a good pair of headphones such as Beyerdynamic DT770 80 ohm or a set of studio speakers such as the Yamaha HS5 or HS7. But if you can get your patches to sound good on the powered PA type speakers, they're probably going to sound pretty decent in your IEMs. Bottom line you can probably do well with any of them, but it may give you more confidence to know what your FOH sound is regardless of what you are hearing in your IEMs. Just a thought.

Gee...I hope you don't start playing any funky jazz stuff (Stevie Wonder, Micheal McDonald, Kenny Loggins, etc.. There's not enough scribble strips for those progressions!!!

Apparently it can handle it as I do it all the time in numerous presets and have ever since snapshots became a feature. As phil_m points out it's more than likely an abrupt and overwhelming change that's not being handled well possibly on the output side from too wide a range of differences. I use a DXR12 as my stage speaker and QSC KLA12s on the FOH. Most of the time when I do this I'm using two different amp and cab/IR setups and they're smooth as silk and absolutely quiet.

It's not much of a stretch to assume the settings in deep parameters ARE normal. Deviations from the default settings by definition create "abnormal" responses in the amp's behaviors such as initial micro drops in voltage in response to higher initial inputs (SAG), and so forth. It's not so much a secret as it is obvious what the affect and not worth spending more than a second or two considering whether or not adjusting them will address a specific characteristic in the behavior you need to change in a given preset. Those changes are all relatively subtle and in over two years and almost 100 presets I've only felt the need to mess with them a handful of times. So I don't think you're going to be held back in any way moving forward and using them whenever necessary.

LOL...well...I see a phantom power blocker for your Helix in your near future!!!!

I guess the setup I have seems to fill that need and I didn't consider other ways of doing things. I have a preset specific to every song we do. As part of that preset I dial in the tempo so by simply selecting the preset/song the tempo light automatically reflects the correct tempo for myself or anyone else that needs it. That's part of the reason I approach it this way. It's also useful to me in practicing a song, or in easily setting up effects for that preset/song that may be tempo dependent. Although our drummer has his own click track which is set to the same tempo as mine, often I work with other drummers that don't have a click so they can easily use my tempo light as a reference. Even then it's not clear to me in your situation how the BPM display is useful. Without a visual representation of BPM such as a tempo light it's somewhat meaningless. If you tap it in I suppose you could maybe get it close to what you want the tempo to be, but what would the display of BPM offer you other than feedback telling you the tempo you tapped in was off and you need to tap it in again? Ultimately only the visual or audio feedback of the tempo is useful. So I still remain confused. EDIT: Okay...I re-read what you said and I think I understand. You tap in whatever beat they're playing and compare it to the BPM the song is SUPPOSED to be, right?

It's not uncommon at all in my experience to find fault with a preset from day to day while you're working on it. Mostly it's the well documented problem known as ear fatigue. You're ears are most fresh when you first start working on things and make adjustments over long periods of time where certain frequencies aren't heard as well. You tend to understand this and incorporate it into your technique when developing a patch. For example, just this week I specifically worked on three different presets I've used for quite some time feeling that I could make them better given some of the things I've learned recently. I made MAJOR renovations in them at the beginning of the week, then tweaked on them a little bit each day as the week went on while I was practicing. By Wednesday or Thursday I was doing less and less to them, and haven't really changed anything over the last two days. Mostly they were minor things like reduce drive and increase channel volume or selectively chop a bit on certain frequencies. But the changes I made on Tuesday were more significant than the ones I made on Wednesday and Thursday. This is pretty much the same process when I do recording and mixing. I tweak on it a little bit each day when my ears are fresh and within a few days I'm pretty happy with it. It's not the equipment, it's just the human condition. As far as deep parameters, my understanding is those are things that aren't directly controllable in the electronics of the amp and are more influenced by things like the deterioration of the power supply or tubes over time, or even the changing to different types or brands of tubes. So as far as the 5/10 I suspect it probably represents an generally perfect operating environment which we can age a bit with tweaking. At least that's the way I've always thought about it.

Just choose 140hz and tighten up the low Q so you're not affecting that wide a range of frequencies. Unless you playing for people with ears like bats I doubt they'll notice the difference. On the other hand, I'm just pointing out that you're notching for the specifics of the room so that notch only applies to that room and not to any other environments it may be played in. Assuming you're recording direct and not with mic's that frequency that's acting up in that room isn't being captured on the recording, but it's being replayed on the recording and is subject to the room acoustics. If you correct it, it may not sound right when played in a car, or in some other room. You might want to verify it with a good pair of headsets on the replay to see how that notch affects the actual recording outside of the acoustics of the room

For those that are "Helix manual challenged" .....page 53

Well....this is why you have those things hanging off the side of your head called "ears"...they don't work on numbers, they work on sound vibrations. When it sounds right...you're done.

I guess I'm not sure I understand the value of this when playing. The light is flashing the appropriate tempo. I don't need to know the BPM of the tempo, just a representation of the tempo. What does knowing the BPM do for me live?

I typically just use a single simple preset and adjust the volume of the jam track from the computer's volume output control, or the volume control of the online video.

First things first...TURN OFF YOUR GLOBAL EQ. Let's get that out of the way right now so it's not confusing the issue. If you don't know how to do it simply hold down the BYPASS button for a couple of seconds until the little rectangle graph next to the Snapshots icons disappears. This way you won't be worrying about global eq affecting your sound. Next get a DECENT pair of headsets and listen to your patch. If it still sounds thin, check some of the factory presets and see how they sound to you. If those are sounding okay through the headphones the issue is how you have the amp output setup. If the factory presets sound okay but your preset doesn't you've got something messed up in your preset. There's really no use going any further until you've figured out where the problem lies. There are some good recommendations here, but everyone is still guessing at how you have your sound routed so it's best to settle that first.

Oh I'm sure if you wanted to put together some spaghetti wiring to take the output from the Helix and route it back into an input through one of the signal chains you could come up with something if you wanted to tinker with it to get the i/o levelled out so the signal wouldn't get degraded or over saturated. You could pretend it's 1979 and you're making copies of cassette tapes!!! But it's probably not going to be as accurate, clean or as easy as simply importing and editing a digital copy of the music.

That's not really a function of the Helix. As an output device the Helix is simply playing the music and is no different than any sound card. From the internet it's simply streaming the bits being directed to the Helix as an audio output device. If you want to capture the sound it still needs to be downloaded as an .MP3 or .WAV file to the PC either directly or via some capture utility that's out there. From there you can simply import it into Sonar as a stereo track and do whatever you want with it. You don't have to play it to capture it. It's just digital bits.

Snapshots are doing exactly what they're supposed to do in this case with is switch with no delay. If you want to blend the two back and forth you'd probably be better off doing a split between the two amps or effects arrangement and manage the amount of the split between the two with your pedal if you want the changes to be more gradual.

I might have an answer for this if I knew what an NX editor was....

My guess is you don't have the appropriate driver selected in Cakewalk. I use Sonar Platinum but it's probably close to the same on regular Cakewalk. Under the Edit menu select Preferences. In the Audio category with Devices selected you should have ASIO Helix Input 1-2 through ASIO Helix Input 7-8 listed there for both Input and Output drivers. If not, then select the Audio and MIDI setup under Utilities and it will walk you through getting the right device driver in place. Again, things may be different for you depending on the version of Cakewalk you have. But the concept is the same. Configure the appropriate ASIO driver and all should be well.

I'm with Cruisinon2 on this one. Over the years I've owned a pretty wide range of audio interfaces, but they all do the same thing and I can't say any one of them was dramatically better than the other. However I can say they were ALL more inconvenient to use as far as the recording workflow than the Helix as my audio interface. For some background, I have a Helix floor dedicated to use with my DAW computer. It's my second Helix and serves as a backup to my primary Helix unit that's used for live performances, but it stays connected to my computer all the time. Certainly having my studio monitors connected to it simplifies things as far as my setup, but it also means I can sit down at my computer and simply jam on my Helix unit to jam tracks I have on my computer. It also makes it easy to watch instructional videos and play along...and we haven't even gotten to recording yet. As far as recording it has DRAMATICALLY simplified my workflow. First, I have all the instruments I'm going to need for recording plugged in which includes my vocal mic, guitar, acoustic, bass, and keyboard. Recording a track is simply a process of selecting the appropriate preset on the Helix for whichever instrument I plan on recording, arm the track, set the levels (generally they're already set and stay set), arm the track and record. I have the HXEdit up and running as well as my DAW so making adjustments to the source instruments couldn't be easier. If I were to want to record multiple tracks simultaneously I'd simply lay them out on the two paths in the Helix and assign one to USB 1/2 and the other to USB 3/4. If I want to simultaneously record a dry track it's always available on it's own USB channel assignment. I've never encountered any audio interface this convenient and easy to integrate into my system than the Helix for my purporses. I'm sure there are some cork-sniffers out there that will downplay the quality of the recording, but when they show me it somehow made a difference in how many CD's or tracks they sold, I might reconsider. Otherwise I count it as just cork-sniffing snuff....

I second the use of the 3Sigman IRs. I use them live all the time with my acoustic to give it a more "mic'd" guitar feel.

Press down HARD on the toe position until you feel or hear the click of the button.

I'm going to guess it may have something to do with their capacity handling setup. I've noticed I've been able to get through at lower volume times even with chrome, and I've lost my ability to connect at high traffic times using Edge. That would be in line with how long this problem has endured given they may have to wait for new equipment to arrive and get installed.

Yep....no doubt the problem is either in the DAW or background processes in the computer taking up too many cycles. I punch in all sorts of stuff through the Helix as it's my main audio interface including guitar, bass, keyboard and vocals. I've never had any kind of sync problem. I'm using Sonar Platinum which is a pretty hefty program. I'd check your available memory as well as background processes on your computer.

Well your signal chain isn't empty. You have an amp and a cab/ir. You can overdo gain with just those two components with the drive and master depending on the amp.