gunpointmetal

Yeah, I don't think this inherently a Helix issue. I reamp stuff with a mono DI track and it sounds the same as it did going in. At least you figured out how to fix it for your situation.

No EQ/FX on the guitar channel in Reaper? If everything is setup properly as you've noted, you should have a more or less 1:1 tone on playback with the exception that the playback volume might be slightly higher or lower than your monitoring volume. 

11 minutes ago, Hillman1312 said:

Thanks good to know! @gunpointmetal Is it correct that you can plug the guitar straight into the mixer? This is what I currently do with my (very) old Focusrite USB soundcard and it works good enough. Latency in Ableton running Helix Native as a plugin is about 8 ms; not bad for a USB 1.1 soundcard running on a Mac of 2009. But, time to upgrade as my old Mac is ready for retirement :-) and the newer Macs (or better newer OSX) no longer support this soundcard.

BTW, it is not my intention to use Native live, just for home practice and maybe some basic recording.  

Yep, the 1/4" input on channels 1 and 2 are made for guitars. 

As long as you're using the XR18 for input and output you should be fine with the Mac. I haven't tried it in a long time or with Native specifically, but I had no problem having usable latency for jamming at home with mine through various amp sims. I don't remember ever measuring it, but it wasn't enough to be a bother or really notice even. 

I've not tried that particular pack, however I have the Halloween pack and the Zilla pack and scooped/thin would not be words I would describe either of those. The "DJENT" tone is pretty much all midrange, so scooped really doesn't make sense. Are you dropping them into already crafted tones?

Is one-button preset changes necessary, or just a preference? Like if you fill a preset to DSP, are you needing a second preset in one song, or more than 8 snapshots? It seems like a solution looking for a problem. 

ML Sound Labs. (big period)

21 hours ago, themetallikid said:

ok, excuse my 'newb-ness' with this.  So I connect the Xair to my laptop via USB....     Im still new what is complicated about the 1/2 to 17/18 thing?  And I assume I have to download the driver from the xair site? or will it search/install when connected automatically.

You'll need to download it. It's a specialized ASIO driver so Windows doesn't find it on it's own. As far as assigning the tracks, in order to hear the playback from the daw through the mixer you need to send the DAW output to a mixer channel. YouTube has a lot of really good videos on how to set up the XR-18 for recording. 

15 minutes ago, DunedinDragon said:

I'm not sure the XR has the same facility, but I'm pretty sure it does.  On my QSC Touchmix I just record the whole band to a USB memory stick which captures all the instruments in individual WAV files which can then be individually imported in your DAW to create a standard multitrack recording so it can be mixed, edited and output to a stereo track (minus the guitar track if you choose) from your DAW.  It's pretty simple process and I think I heard it's pretty much the same process on the XR.  This allows you to capture autonomously from the DAW so it simplifies the capture process.

Xr16 and Xr12 have the usb drive recording. Xr18 connects to a daw for multitrack recording. 
 

@themetallikid - the only “complicated”part is assigned usb 1/2 to mixer channels 17/18 for playback from the daw and installing the driver. 

If you have an XR 18, use that as your USB audio interface and connect everything to that. You can track everything to its own channel without any workarounds. I have the XR18 in both of my bands' racks for IEM mixers and they make excellent audio interfaces. It's no more complicated than using the Helix except your get 16 channels of XLR and you don't have to do anything weird to get it to sound right or do any routing adjustments or anything.

1 hour ago, 52dmk said:

I had similar problems a while ago.

I use Logic X on MBPro, with Helix floor. I also use an RME babyface interface. In Logic my input device was Helix and output Babyface, as I just prefer using the volume control on the Babyface for monitors and headphones (the dim function is really useful).

I was having a similar issue as you, where initially everything would be great, then after an arbitrary amount of time, a huge amount of latency (2-3 seconds) would appear out of nowhere. Unplugging/rebooting either interface fixed the problem, but only temporarily.

 

The fix, for me anyway, was to create an aggregate device, with Helix in and Babyface out. Since using this, I've not had a single repeat of the problem!

Apple likes to tell people that their audio drivers are perfect and you should be able to use aggregate devices without issue, but its just not true. Once you start using multiple I/O devices you're asking for trouble. 

In regards to the OP - are you monitoring off the Helix outputs or through the laptop headphone output or a different interface. If you're monitoring off the LT, you shouldn't get any latency on your guitar signal because the signal is not passing through the computer unless you have track monitoring enabled in Logic. If you're only getting it after awhile on playback tracks, but your guitar is still in time, you may be out of RAM or your HDD might be on its way out. 

I know people don't like to hear it, but Apple doesn't want you to use your computer for 8 years, and their newer OS's aren't going to be built with the older machines in mind.

You could automate the HP/LP of the cab or IR to narrow the frequency band on a snapshot, or use a multiband EQ and pull down all the bands except for the middle ones.

This is probably a dumb question, but I like to ask dumb questions when troubleshooting. Is it letting you load ANY IR into slot 1 and only slot 1, or a specific IR? Are all of the IRs you're loading WAV format?

I'm kind curious as to how these bugs seem to pop up on some devices and not others. Aside from my globals being defaulted, all my patches reloaded fine, tuner works fine, volume knob works fine, etc and I didn't even do a reset/restore after the update. 

Ideally, you choose one device for I/O. I know Apple lets you aggregate audio hardware, but if you want to maintain as much consistency as possible, you should have all your I/O on one piece of hardware. 

They probably didn't put numbers on them so people don't start trying to level everything to a certain dB and then wondering why everything doesn't sound the same volume. All I need to know is if I'm clipping or not at the I/O and the compressor meters work just fine for noting where/when the device is working. I do think they should be in the Edit app, though. Having it hooked up to my computer to build patches and I have to keep sliding my tray in and out to see the meters on the floor is a PITA.

The Dry guitar level out of Helix is exactly what most software amp modeling is expecting to see without adjusting it all. 0dB in digital is NOT 0dB in the analog realm, so the metering is different as well. 

It's really hard to point to specific FX for specific things unless you have an exact tone you're chasing, and even harder for someone without your ears/gear to tell you what is going to work. 

10 hours ago, Ilya-V said:

EDIT:

I have to be clearer here.

The Helix has infinitely more useful amp models than the JCM800 or Plexi,, but new users will usually go to these amps to benchmark the modeling quality, so they have to be as accurate as possible.

I don't think that's really true. Lots of people could care less about marshall sounds. Most of the user's I know went straight for Boogies/5150 or the L6 originals. 

If you NEED a subwoofer, I don't know if you'll find too many studio monitor options, as those usually require going source->sub->stereo speakers and there aren't too many subs with multiple inputs. Tannoy Reveal monitors have a 3.5mm audio input that works along with the XLR inputs so you can have your computer line out connected and have your Helix cables as well. I have the 502 pair and use the 3.5mm input for my bluetooth receiver, works great. I don't think you'd be able to integrate a sub with that setup though. 

9 minutes ago, hideout said:

I mentioned absolutely nothing about the complexity of the “signal”. Read my post again.  
 

The signal is dead simple. The psychoacoustic effects are not. 

And I'm saying you can't recreate sound pressure levels without sound pressure levels. Which is independent of the modeling. You're saying modeling can't recreate the "psychoacoustics" (not sure that term even applies to this), which has nothing to with modeling. 

9 hours ago, hideout said:

The mic'd studio sound of two amps and two cabs in a room is nowhere near as dramatic as the sound of being in the room with those two amps is my point.

Ok, but that has nothing to with the "complexity" of the signal, and everything to do with the amplification method and sound pressure levels is my point. Even if you could recreate the exact spatial sound of two cabs in a room, which one probably could by shooting their own "head placement" IRs with neutral mics, its not going to be the same without all the air moving. The sound of two amps moving air in a room is different in every room, because the sound depends on the source (guitar cab) interacting with the room. The sound of two cabs in a room in a 15x15 rehearsal space is going to be dramatically different than those two cabs interacting with the room in a full 300 person venue.

Run some regular old music through the speaker to make sure everything sounds right. 

17 hours ago, hideout said:

Nope.  Even when you run it in stereo, you're not getting the full effect of two real amps together in a room. The psycho-acoustic effects are very complex. Likely too complex for modelers.

Where's @Digital_Igloo when we need to do a shot for someone conflating playback source for modeling? The only way to achieve the "psycho-acoustic" of two cabs at volume in a room is two cabs...at volume...in a room. Now, if you want to get the mic'd studio sound of two amps and two cabs in a room and play it back in high fidelity through a stereo PA system, its definitely NOT too complex for modeling.  

38 minutes ago, phil_m said:

 

These forums don’t get nearly enough traffic to justify hiring someone to watch over them and respond to things. If anything, more and more companies are doing away with these types of forums because they don’t get used enough. I saw that Fender decided to shut theirs down recently.

With as angrily as some people seem to get confused by the purpose of this forum (users helping other users solve problems before they submit a ticket) it's probably fine if it goes away anyways. I get more useful information a lot of the time from the big FB group or SSO without it dissolving into some sort of pissing match like it can here. It seems the longer a thread gets the more likely it is someone will ruin the conversation. It's still miles better than TGP, but so are dog farts, so.....