Hillman1312

Would be nice to have indeed. I use Ableton rather than Logic on a mac M1. I don't do anything crazy like lot's of CPU heavy plugins so can run HXN with low enough latency. Same is true for Mainstage which also works great with HXN. Perhaps an option (workaround) is to disengage your CPU heavy plugins when recording your guitar tracks and only use a high buffer size in the mixing stage. In Ableton there is a "Freeze" option that you can use, not sure if anything similar is available in Logic. It essentially produces a temporary wave-file from the tracks with your plugins so that they don't eat away your available CPU. Although at present I din't need it that also works great. Alternatively, why not use one of the built-in amps in Logic when recording? They may not sound as good as HXN, but once you have recorded the guitar DI signal it's pretty easy to replace the Logic amp with the Helix amp. just some thoughts .. hope it helps

Hello forum, Ableton Live has just released version 11.1 of their DAW software which supports M1 Macs. I'm currently running 11.0 under Rosetta 2 and can use Helix Native without any issues. Anyone here that has already upgraded to 11.1? If so, did you encounter any issues with HX Native? thanks ! EDIT::: Problem solved by the 3.15 update!

Don't mix up snapshot behaviour with stomp behaviour. The snapshot setting will mean that your snapshot, when selected, returns to the state in which it was originally programmed. This setting will only apply to "snapshot enabled" settings and stomps. However, you can also disable "snapshot control" (or whatever it is called exactly) by right clicking on the block and deselecting the same. This will allow you to control individual blocks regardless of which snapshot you are using. So, by way of example, in my use case I have a poly-capo that allows me go to 1 semitone down. Once engaged I don't want this to reset itself (i.e. bypassed) once I change a snapshot within a preset. To accomplish that I turn of the "snapshot control" of the block. If I would not do that I would start the song in Eb for a rhythm tone and then all of a sudden move back to E when switching to my lead snapshot.... the audience and my band mates won't like that :-) I hope this makes sense..... a bit difficult to explain in writing.

If you want a unit with built-in expression pedal then go for the LT or the Pod Go. If you're not sure about that you may also consider the Stomp. It's a small box that fits on your desk nicely, has all the connections you need and acts (just as all the other products) as an audio interface. I guess that in your situation I would probably pick up the Pod Go. Same sound quality as the Helix, but some limitations in signal path. I have an LT myself and love it, but for most of my use a Pod Go would also do the job. (But, when I bought the LT the Pod Go didn't exist...) As for amplification, indeed you can get some studio monitors (or just one if stereo is not a requirement for you). Another option (and this may generate a lot of comments ;-)) is to connect the modeler to a good HIFI system. Think of it like this: If your CD's sound good over hifi, then why would your modeler not ?? I've heard a Kemper profiler over a hifi system (pretty old one actually) and it sounded amazing, contrary to what I expected; This shouldn't be different for a Helix/ Pod Go. Now before this thread explodes with comments on this suggestion please understand that I would prefer and recommend a studio monitor or an FRFR speaker. I'm just saying that your existing hifi system may also be an option to explore.

I run the top 4 buttons for selecting presets and the lower 4 for snapshots within each preset (this is a global setting). I play in cover-bands and this setup gets me through pretty much all of the songs. However, there are situations where I may need to switch on/off certain blocks or need to have access to further snapshots. This is where command center comes in and it is a great tool to have and actually very easy to program using the HX Edit software (I don't know if/how it works from the unit itself). To give you an example, I have one preset with 4 snapshots: Clean, Drive, Gain, Lead. These snapshots can be selected using the bottom four switches of the Helix (well... the LT in my case). If I engage stomp mode however I get 4 additional snapshots at the bottom row "CleanFX, Drive+, Gain+, Lead+ and in addition some specific stomps on the upper foot-switches. In particular I I have a stomp for the polycapo effect that allows me drop one (or two) semitones. I may also have an additional effect that I can turn on/off (e.g. 2nd delay, or a filter) I've tried experimenting using command center to select the next/previous preset (yes, you can do that !!!), but for me that creates too much complexity and anyhow 95% of the time my standard snapshots are sufficient to get me through the songs. Hope this helps a bit. Don't be afraid of experimenting. Just select an empty preset and have a go at it. You won't break the Helix nor will your other presets suffer from what you are doing.... just experiment, make mistakes and fix them.... and if you completely messed up... Copy an empty preset over what you did and start over again

This is very interesting, thanks for sharing !!! What goes into the mixer, the XLR or the 1/4" jacks? And, do you also use the mixer to control what's being sent to FOH, or do they get an XLR directly from the Helix and you use the mixer only for your monitor and/or onstage Yamaha speaker?

Not fully sure I understand what you want to do, but if you connect both the HX Stomp and the 4i4 I think that Ableton allows you to route the incoming signal (through USB 1&2) from the stomp to a stereo out on the 4i4. That way you can easily connect further devices to your 4i4. If you work like this you can use the DI signal (USB 5/6 on the HX stomp ??), run that through an AmpSim in Ableton and combine it in your Ableton mix. Alternatively you can connect the HX Stomp via line inputs 3 and 4 on the 4i4 and use direct monitoring to listen to the stomp. You can blend in whatever is coming from Ableton if so desired. This doesn't allow you to blend the HX Stomp with an AmpSim though because you will need to connect your guitar to an input on the 4i4.

I wasn't able to figure it out myself and believe it is not possible, but just in case: Is it possible to make presets In HX Native that work on a Helix (LT) including stomp setting? Snapshots work perfectly fine, but I haven't seen a way to also edit stomps. Anyone else tried this? If so, how does it work? Thank you!

Did you download the latest version? I just transferred from El Capitan (I know .... ancient) on an old Mac to Big Sur on a Mac mini M1. Runs perfectly fine, as does Helix Native (in Ableton; Rosetta)

Thanks !! Yes, I've seen many reviews/ demo's of the Zoom, but most if not all of them do not address this specific use case. I may just end up ordering one and see if it works. If it doesn't I may return it. The Livetrack would be a bit overkill in terms of inputs at the moment, but like I said hopefully in the near future we'll be able to gout to play again and then this mixer might become very handy (also because at least two of us will transition to IEMs). Good to know the latency will improve. If it can get to around 5 ms, that would be perfect. Need to say that I personally don't experience any issues at the moment with the +/- 7ms, at least for my current use as a locked-down-amateur (I'm not that great of a player anyhow ;-))

Hello forum, I'll soon update my current computer (old Mac) and with that I will lose support for my just-as-old USB 1 sound card (Focusrite Safire 6 USB, the USB 1.1 version). My dilemma is whether I'll buy a new USB sound card or if I'll go for a mixer with interface functionality, such as the Behringer Flow 8 or the Zoom Livetrack (I know, these are two very different products). What I'm not sure about though is whether these USB "Mixerfaces" will work with Native in the way I'm used to and will give a reasonable latency (I'm currently at around 7 ms, which is acceptable). Thus, guitar to the board -> PC with Native -> back to the board into monitors/ headphones. Anyone have experience with these kind of products? Apart from the obvious, any pros/ cons versus a dedicated sound card? I particularly like the Zoom Livetrack 12 as it will allow me to also connect some external synths/ keyboards and (hopefully one day again) can be used for my bands. Thank you !!

I understand that Ableton Live works reasonably well on the M1 Macs even though it needs Rosetta. Would that make a difference for Native? In other words, I understand that Native has issues when running in Logic or Garageband which is designed for the M1 platform. But what about of you run Native as a plugin in a program that runs on Rosetta? Anyone have experience with that? I'm currently running Native on a long-retired 2009 MacBook pro in Ableton 10. It works fine for just using the plugin, designing presets and perhaps some simple recording. But any more complex project will run out of CPU (and generate sound pops/ dropouts) quite fast unless I increase buffer size. Thus, I'm considering to buy a new M1 Mac.... but reading all of this I may need to be patient for a bit longer.

Going back to the original question... I use some OH IRs and love them. Yes, you get hundreds or even thousands of files, but just use the summary folder and you should be fine. My favorite is the GNR pack. Might not be the best choice for metal but combined with the 2204, Placater Dirty or Plexit Brt model (with a tubescreamer in front) it gives me very nice high gain sounds, which would be sufficient for a lot of metal songs in my opinion. I also have the OH V30 pack and the 412 Modern IRs sounds killer as well. Does that mean the stock cabs are worse? No, not at all and I also have quite a few presets using those.

Not sure to be honest; I don't have a Powercab. Probably you'll want to start higher (maybe 7 - 8) and then go lower if the sound is too bright/harsh. Just like the stock cabs, IRs come in many different types. Some of them are pretty dark by whereas others are very bright. Reason I'm starting around 5 is because this works at gig volume levels in combination with my Alto speaker (TS308) or the PA's in the rehearsal rooms. I do need to mention that the Alto sounds different from both PA's I play over and each PA also sounds different. The Alto seems to be on the brighter side which may explain why I cut to around 5KHz. Anyway, trust your ears but be careful not to go too high in volume for too long time; you want to avoid tinnitus and/or hearing loss.

As DiD said it does not matter where you put it; all depends on what you want to achieve. My approach (at present at least ..) is to add an EQ at the very end of my signal chain in order to tweak quickly if so needed. Another reason is that I prefer my presets in mono and I use a mono EQ block (I prefer the Cali EQ by the way) to achieve that (but there are other ways as well). I dial in my presets using the amp and IR (or cab) controls to get the sound I want and most of the time all EQ settings are at "0", i.e. the EQ is not really used. Just my 2 cts...

Thank you !! Amazing how you keep updating and improving this device. Good job Line 6.

Maybe I misunderstood, but how can you measure the characteristics of a cab with a dirac impulse? That's pretty much just a very (very, very) short spike ?

There's a small bit of extra work to be done. Since I'm using a Mac the M4L exports only as an AIF file. I import into Audacity to convert to WAV. The trimming is not bad, but in Audacity I manually trim to the sample just before the curve starts. This is only a few samples (about 20-30 or so). I don't care about the tail of the file as Helix anyhow takes care of that.

Interesting ... I moved away from using the EQ-block cuts at the end of the chain to using cuts in the IR block. My thought was that because the cutoff indeed is less steep I can get rid of the unwanted frequencies, yet can use the amp to dial in the "cut" to how I like it/ need it. My starting points are 100 Hz low and 5 kHz high cut on the IR-block. At lower volumes this sounds a bit dull, but it usually works pretty well at gig levels. For the EQ block cuts this would more or less be close to a low cut at 80-100 (difficult to hear) and for the high cut it would be around 10 kHz. I guess there is no wrong or right .... BTW, I like the idea of re-IR-ing; I have done it in Helix (Native) to capture combinations of the stock-cabs + EQ's, but indeed it will work for existing IRs in exactly the same way. I use Ableton and the M4L IR Measurement Device. Easy and very fast.

Just curious, if you would use these IRs live, where would you put the high cuts (on the IR block)? Obviously depends a bit on the amp you'll use, but let's say this would be the 2204 (JCM800) model. If you already built a live patch, would you mind sharing?

Thank you for sharing, very nice IRs, in particular the "smooth" version. Using it with the 2204 and Placater dirty models (admitting these are anyhow my goto amp models).

I'm not a POD Go user, but have experienced the same with my Helix LT. It has nothing to do with the unit itself. Try lowering the high cut on your cab or IR block to somewhere between 5 and 6 KHz. You may even go lower if you're using a SM57 mic on your cab. In addition, use the treble and presence controls of the amp to get the optimal tone. Attaching a couple of IRs for you to try and experiment with; start with cutting at around 7 KHz and then work your way down at gig volume to get rid of the harshness. The 412 files work great with the Marshall amps, the 212 with Fender or Vox models. HXIR_212_Voxy.wav HXIR_412_4Cabs.wav HXIR_412_V30_3Cabs.wav

And here's one more. This time I include also the full Helix preset where you can see the actual cab models. I called it Whorse V30 as the majority of the cabinet models are based on V30 speakers. The preset contains 8 snapshots. Also uploaded to Customtone. The IR was captured by simply switching off all the blocks except for the cabs and the EQs. Hope you like it.... HM_WhorseV30.hlx HM_WhorseV30c.hlx HXIR_412_V30_3Cabs.wav

Here's another one that sounds pretty good to my old ears, now also including a preset for demonstrating the possible sound you can get. The IR was made from 2 parallel dual-cab blocks and an EQ (so, effectively this means 4 cabs in parallel). Cab 1: 4x12 Greenback 25/ 30 Dynamic/ 1"/ 11% reflections Cab 2: 4x12 Cali V30/ 160 Ribbon/ 3"/ 50% reflections Cab 3: 4x12 1960 T75/ 57 Dynamic/ 2"/ 34% reflections Cab 4: 4x12 Mandarin/ 87 Condensor/ 7"/ 71 % reflections After joining the paths the combined signal was sent through a Cali EQ: 80Hz + 1.5 240 Hz +1 2200 Hz -0.6 6600 Hz -1 dB All other settings for the cabs and EQ were stock. The preset is based on the Plexi Brt model with some modulation pedals if needed. The chorus after the cab works pretty well to get somewhat close to sound of the STP song Plush (not saying it is the same, just brings you close ... feel free to disagree). Tones were dialed in with my Epi LP so if you are using a single coil guitar or a superstat with bright pickups you may need some tweaking either on the amp or on the EQ block. I left the high cut on the IR block at 7KHz. You may want to lower or higher this depending on your application. For live sounds probably you want to cut a little more. I'll post the tone on Customtone as well. Have a nice weekend and let me know what you think. HXIR_412_4Cabs.wav HM_Plexi.hlx

Try making the split an A/B split. For your cleans set the mix in the center so each path gets the same amount of signal; then, for your rhythm tone set it to 100% A so that no signal is sent to the parallel path. You can snapshot enable this split block. Should work ...