lbro

Well, 3 days in, IR's in the box and getting a heck of a lot out of the Helix in a very short period of time... pretty impressive

Thanks - 1500' is out there a bit. It would seem the 20' for this application should be an acceptable length. I will see if Google has the specs or answer for this one. By the way I have had all 3 of my Adat devices humming away today without the Helix on the AES link. Nary one glitch. Looks like I have to do what I had hoped to do via AES with an analog cable run. If it is not the cable and it likely is not. Then I hope a future firmware update will lead to better stability in the Helix master clock so the AES connection is more solid. LB

Yes this is a DMX cable and could be used for lighting too. Do you happen to know the length in question? in other words how long of a cable is "too long"? I am using a 20' DMX cable. Thanks, LB

Yes I realize I could monitor direct from the Helix output latency free, but I was attempting to monitor the "wet" track at or on the DAW to ensure my recorded guitar tone being laid down sounded as I expected it should. How can one for instance be sure there are no pops and crackles as tracks are recorded unless they monitor the actual tracks? I can easily do this with the RME device by "manually" setting up for a reamp situation and not using the USB built in reamping feature. In fact I am now doing that. I can use a buffer setting of 256k there and it works well with no perceptible latency delay to my ear. It seems the reason it works better as an ASIO driven interface than the Helix ASIO driver/interface. I think is due to the fact there are more buffer setting choices and you can dial in the best setting to reduce both latency and the dreaded pops & crackles. Would it be that hard to make a programing change to the ASIO Helix driver to allow more choices for the buffer settings? I am not a programer so I don't know the answer to that question. But I feel it should be looked at. At present the Healix ASIO driver simply makes too big of a jump between the 2 lowest buffer settings. This issue has been reported to technical support with a request it be taken under consideration. My hope in posting here was that others who might have experienced this would chime in and add weight to this point. I could set up the USB reamp method again using the Helix ASIO driver to try and determine the actual latency lag in ms but not sure that is helpful information. Also, if the wet track(s) being recorded (both the initial one and the later reamped ones) are latent by too big of an amount then the user should be moving the recorded guitar tracks to line up with the drums for instance. Otherwise the recorded tracks are going to offset and latent in relation to other recorded tracks. One could attempt to make a compensation adjustment in the DAW for the Helix wet tracks to overcome this. But if the suggested changes were made to the ASIO driver it may or should not be necessary. In parting I will say I measured the latency for the reamped wet track vs the original dry guitar track using the RME interface ASIO driver and it is in the range of 1.5-2ms. The helix interface will be much greater than this in the latency round trip. I would guess it to be a fair amount over 10ms on setting 2 from the left in the Helix ASIO driver settings. Hope that clears things up. If not let me know and I will attempt to clarify. LB

2.01 Firmware Win 7 ASIO Buffer issue High end desktop DAW ISSUE DETAILS: I bought the Helix being excited to use the USB reamping feature. I set it up and gave it a try. I found the lowest ASIO buffer setting produced pops and crackles. Adjustment made to the right selecting the very next buffer setting produce unusable latency results. Simply put one could not monitor the guitar track and play to tracked drums due to the excessive latency as it throws off your timing. SUGGESTION: Add more buffer position settings. At the very least add one that is between the 2 far left setting adjustment increments. Additionally it would be nice to know what the buffer settings actually are. I suggest adding values to each buffer setting location so the user knows the buffer value. Thanks, LB

2.01 Firmware Win 7 High end desktop DAW Other equipment: RME 802 FireFace Interface set to slave. ISSUE: AES/EBU Helix port channels. New cable installed, Helix set to master and connected to the RME 802. On average of about one incident per every 2 hours of continuous signal running over the AES channels I get an audio dropout. Then the sync lights go out on the RME. The RME then looks for the master clock, renegotiates the session and I get a solid sync again. Pulling the Helix out of the loop and setting the RME 802 back to being master clock with other Adat equipment installed is rock solid and has been for about 2 years. Not one dropout in that time. I will try a replacement cable but at this point it may be my Helix is not doing well as a master clock source via the AES port on the Helix. I will update once I test with the new cable. Thanks, LB

Well I wanted to get back on and let folks know this thing is not finished yet. I was playing and rocking away with my guitar and the Helix as Master Clock. I heard an audio glitch in my headphones. So I quickly look up to my rack and see the RME flashing away, indicating it lost sync on the ADAT and AES links. My other gear has NEVER had a sync issue, EVER. It could be the new AES cable I bought or another port extender I recently got. So I am going to pull the Helix out of the loop and see if I am stable. If so I will put the Helix back in the loop and see if I lose lock again. My fear is the Helix may not be steady enough to be the Master clock source. Sigh, I really thought I had this licked. Stay tuned, LB

Ok, Just got back to the Helix AES project. I set my RME 802 interface from being Master clock to AES. AES = Helix. I now have a solid LOCK on all 4 of my digital devices as follows: AES - (Helix) RME 802 - (Interface) Adat 1 & 2 - (I/O Port expanders) Tis a good day as I had almost written off the Helix AES port. This is great as it gives me back 2 expensive high quality front panel mic pre/instrument ports. In addition there might be a speed improvement in the all digital pipe from the Helix to the Interface. That in turn might help cut my latency in the reamping signal chain. All the above are big plusses! Now, all that needs to happen for a complete fix is for the Helix to prove itself worthy of being the Master clock. I believe this is highly possible since the chips are cheap today for higher end ones and they are much better than in days of old. Now all I have to do is find out where I saw the "resolved" button and so mark this one as completed. If anyone is into reamping and wants a simple flowchart diagram on it I made one and will post it for you. Just let me know. Take care and thanks to all that helped. LB

Yes your much better off with the 110 Ohm cable as it meets spec for AES/EBU. You don't want to be wondering where the heck a future pop or click came from! Good Luck, LB

Hi again, Turns out that you were onto something here. RME support said this should be rather straight forward. The Helix only has a one way street out port. As your saying it has to be master. The RME 802 up to this point has been my Master of 3 devices. The Helix became the 4th device and simply HAS to be set in the RME 802 software to be a slave to the Helix. RME support said not to worry too much about SYNC on all equipment as it has a good comprehensive clock. It will negotiate with the Helix to establish clock there. Then it will provide good clock to all other equipment connected to it. So pardon the pun, but a setting change and I should be all set! As soon as I get back to the Helix I will give it a shot and hopefully be able to post this one as resolved. LB

Right, I bought a nice 110 ohm cable just for this purpose... Thanks, LB

To me, if this is the case it would be bad news. I want the RME 802 Interface to continue to be my master. Also,Jitter enters the AES\EBU equation anyway if you have no Sync Lock. That is why I am trying to figure out why I have no lock. I get what sounds like good audio using the connection now between the Helix and the RME 802, but SYNC is the way to go I would think.. Thanks, LB

That is a good point. I am pretty sure I did. I will double check when I get back to the Helix and have it in front of me. Thanks! LB

Thanks for the quick responce! Hum, that is to this old guy rather misleading. Why even call it an AES/EBU compatible port then as the manual does: 31. AES/EBU, L6 LINK L6 LINK provides easy digital audio connectivity between Helix and Line 6 StageSource monitors and/or DT-Series amplifiers. Alternatively, digitally connect Helix to your studio equipment via an AES/EBU (110Ω XLR) cable. See "L6 LINK Output"??? I had a HD500x and it clearly stated this port (Same XLR style Connector) was for Line 6 gear only. Not so on the Helix as shown above. I could really use this port as long as I can get a "sync lock". LB

Working on doing some reamping here with the Helix. I find little information on the AES/EBU port specifications in the documentation for the Helix or even in this forum. Specifically what I want to know is when I interface the Helix via the AES/EBU port to my RME 802 I get an indictor light on the RME device that tells me "NO SYNC" or "lock". Anyone know why? I have all sorts of specs for the RME AES/EBU port and next to nothing on the Helix. So I am trying to narrow down what the issue is and I suspect it is the Helix. I am using a 110 ohm cable and the RME specs for the port to achieve sync is a Lock range of: 27 kHz – 200 kHz. So a further question is this. Does the Helix fall in the Lock Range??? That is a pretty wide frequency range and I would think the Helix "should" be able to do that. But can it? Thanks for any help you can give. LB