Indianrock2020

Chiming in on an old thread because I'm considering upgrading my Youlean loudness app to the pro version. When our rehearsals start, just after the last member arrives, we go quickly through all of the songs and then go home. THERE IS ZERO time to tweak patch levels with the band present. Often, the sound guy isn't even there on rehearsal nights. The leader might break for 20 seconds to let you adjust if a specific patch is way off , level wise, but that's it. And that's why I use my ears and meters at home.

I'm playing a few hours per week using Jamkazam ( online jamming). Latency is key. I just wanted to see if removing the audio interface and running Helix direct to laptop would be better ( seems logical, remove something and there's less overhead, exactly why I always remove the headers and mufflers on my cars). Unfortunately, that's not the case.

I set up two patches, both with usb 3/4 input and usb 1/2 output. Best latency on the empty patch was 9.1ms at 96 khz and 64 buffer size On a normal patch with my usual blocks, with usb 3/4 input and 1/2 output, best was 11.5ms at 48khz/64 My audio interface reports about 6ms

Reinstalled the drivers. Now cakewalk sees inputs 1,3,5,7 ( usb) not the even numbered ones. When I ran RTL it now sees the Helix asio and shows 8 inputs and 8 outputs so I selected all of them. Cable from 1/4 to guitar 1/4 input

When I updated to 3.01 a few days ago, it didn't require a new version of HXedit. but it is suspicious that the Helix driver shows May 2019 and not more recent. Will deleting and reinstalling the latest hxedit update the drivers?

Went ahead and tried it. Well neither RTL nor Cakewalk recognize the Helix ASIO driver. I do see HX Stomp in RTL but otherwise no recognition. It's there in the control panel (Helix Control Panel) as well as under devices. Audacity recognizes it. Helix edit runs fine and everything is up to date to 3.01 with the Helix driver date shows May 2020. Rebooted/restarted everything. Not too impressed with this driver.

I'd just like to hear from others who have tested Helix latency by running a 1/4 inch cable from 1/4 out to guitar input. I'll be using the RTL utility and just want to make sure it's safe to use a patch cable like that. I'd guess testing should be done on a blank preset as well as on one typically used.

What driver are you talking about? if it's not the Helix driver what other one works with helix

For RTL did you just run a 1/4 inch cable from 1/4 out to guitar input?

I tried using my Helix today as an interface to my laptop running Jam Kazam for online music.... I used helix USB channels one and two for the guitar and channel 8 for the microphone ...the latency showing in jamkazam was about 12 milliseconds ....this is the local gear related latency, I wasn't connected to anyone on the internet.... my regular audio interface gets about 5.7 milliseconds so unless I'm missing something using the Helix in this way makes no sense. I verified the audio interface latency that jamkazam shows by running the RTL utility... how would you safely route a patch cable on the helix to run RTL against that?

I followed all of qwerty42's advice but was still getting record errors. I know I've had recent Windows updates......actually I see now that I had the microphone (the built-in microphone on the laptop) disabled because I wasn't using it... I'm going to re-enable that and see what works now. The windows updates don't seem to have affected the microphone privacy settings. 9999 Unanticipated host error: this means means "something is wrong". And appears to most often be due to either: A lost connection to a USB audio device. Recent Windows / Mac update requiring that user gives permission for Audacity to access the microphone.

Some people like to use the output block on a preset basis so that all of their presets in a given set or performance are volume balanced rather than doing what I've been doing and changing the volume there on a snapshot basis.... the only problem with the amp channel gain exclusively is that in some of the early fender models there just isn't enough gain available with that control in certain circumstances

Yes I never had this issue before at lower wet effects levels. Due to Covid, we're recording our parts at home and not playing live so I've found you need or can get away with considerably more reverb. That's when the glitch raised it's ugly head. It's also possible I changed the reverb decay parameter on a snapshot basis, not realizing the risk..

I ran into some reverb or delay artifacts when switching snapshots. ( half way through the 20 second clip below ). On another forum the advice was that it's ok to use the output block to set overall patch volume, but do not use that on a snapshot basis ( instead, change snapshot levels prior to any time-based effects ). Changing levels per snapshot in the output block has been a standard practice for me, especially if amp channel gain couldn't get it done. I don't recall if delay or reverb tails were on but at the moment of the artifact I had a fair amount of delay and Glitz reverb running, going from a slightly higher gain passage to a milder passage when snapshots were switched. It was also suggested that delay feedback/mix and reverb decay should not get adjusted snapshot to snapshot. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1svJDxpEzmKiRnRH7jaW-5NII4-KB9K93/view?usp=sharing

Have you found the problem in Mono? Any idea if it's related to sampling rate differences between sonic port and garageband? I have a friend with the same problem. It started last week when he got a new Ipad. It's been updated to the very latest IOS but on his Gen 4 he didn't have the problem of pitch variations. Like his guitar was going out of tune every ten seconds for a bit.