rd2rk

Personally, I'd prefer a coffeemaker, but I'd settle for an HX sandwich. Many of us are still waiting for our free pony.....you can still vote for it on Ideascale...

Just do the reset. It either works or it doesn't. If it doesn't, you've already done what the support tech is going to tell you to do when you call. It really is troubleshooting 101. Just do it. DON'T FORGET TO BACKUP FIRST!

SO TRUE! Every word. Even the made up ones! :-) Here's some more (made up) statistics: 40% of musicians have permanent hearing damage and THINK they have "Golden Ears". They hang out on TGP. 40% of musicians never had good ears to begin with and THINK they have "Golden Ears". They hang out on TGP. 20% of musicians have at least "Silver Ears". This is the 20% who are out there rockin' and rarely if ever waste their time on TGP. Yngvie believes that he's the only musician in the world who HAS ears. I like to think that I once had "Silver Ears", but after all these years of rock'n'roll and at my age, I'm just happy that I still HAVE ears! I spend WAY too much time at TGP.....

Ouch! Thankfully I have no such problem. If you ever figure out how it happened, do come back and tell us!

In Global Settings/Preferences, if SNAPSHOT EDITS is set to discard, when you're done editing a Snapshot, you must SAVE the Preset before moving to another Snapshot. If SNAPSHOT EDITS is set to RECALL, you can edit all of your Snapshots and SAVE the preset when you're done. I always SAVE the Preset as soon as I'm done with a Snapshot regardless, just to be safe.

What @zappazapper said. Reason being that a recent update added a "wait" period to prevent this problem. If the Rack doesn't have the latest FW, updating could be the solution.

Running one in the loop of the other allows for some interesting routing/parallel processing options on the up-side, while adding (a small bit of) latency due to the additional AD/DA conversion on the down-side. As @silverhead said, there's no "best" here. Experiment.

It's a computer. It glitches. Do a factory reset.

I bought a Helix to ELIMINATE all the pedals - the ultimate all-in-one. But there's lots of guys (from my observations while hanging out on TGP) who just HAVE to have this that or the other external pedal, or pedals, and they end up with a Helix surrounded by pedals. For those guys, I can see the attraction. If I was going to go that way, I'd definitely want the switcher that allowed me to put whatever combination I wanted in whatever order. Ever watch TPS (That Pedal Show)? It's really cool how they configure a dozen pedals and amps to work in any combination imaginable with the press of a switch. If I had that kind of stuff at my disposal.....I'd NEVER actually PLAY guitar...... :-)

I didn't look at his manual, but an output with no input? What's the point of having memories for configurations if you can't call them with MIDI? I guess I was fooled by the "PRO" in the product name. ANYHOW... for the OP - You'll need to RTM for the details, but it looks like the Parameter C1 (or C2) is the CC#, N1 (or N2) is the Value. C1=69 + N1=3 would call Snapshot 2.

The only way I can see to set (or UN-set) the color of a button in a snapshot is in CommandCenter. And, although the setting is in there, it doesn't seem to work, which IIRC, is a known bug. Even if it DID work, I can't see why that one button is red in ALL of your presets, unless you've been using a template preset? And since it doesn't work, how did the button get red in the first place? VERY strange, indeed! IDK, do a backup and reset. That's where I'd start.

A high end dedicated Loop Switcher has at least two Main Loops (Input to Output), and effects can be placed in multiple sub loops, which can be assigned in any order within the main loops, and the configurations saved to memory slots, which can then be recalled via MIDI from Helix with CommandCenter. If you use InstantCommands, each time you load a Preset and subsequently when you load a Snapshot within that preset, the InstantCommands for that Snapshot are sent - the Default Snapshot when the Preset is loaded and the others when called. Since you can place the two (up to four on the full Helix) Loops from your Loop Switcher anywhere in a Preset and toggle them On/Off, it makes for a very powerful system.

To select a Snapshot you need to send CC#69 plus a value of 0 (Snapshot 1) to 7 (Snapshot 8). Use a regular CC message , not a Toggling CC.

Exactly. We THINK we're on top. Dogs know better. Cats laugh at all of us.

It sounds like you're trying to have both the NDSP STANDALONE version AND Reaper open at the same time. Not only is there no purpose in doing that, but you can only have ONE ASIO app open at a time. THAT's why you're getting that error! Use the PLUGIN within Reaper to record. Use the STANDALONE by itself when you're NOT recording.

We humans like to believe we're top of the food chain, but we have so much in common with our canine friends.

WHO ARE YOU? What did you do with the Sascha we know and love? :-)

Regarding latency - @SaschaFranckis correct that, as AIs go, Helix has crappy latency. At 128spls with ONLY the NDSP plugin in the project, I get 20.2ms RT Latency reported by Reaper. If I use a lower Sample Rate I get glitches. This is on a 7th gen i7 with 16gb Ram. A better PC would allow a lower sample rate for lower glitch-free latency, but it's all relative Running Helix into my 2nd gen Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 I can use 64spls for 7.6ms RT Latency, glitch free. That's fairly accurate, as I'm using S/PDIF, which cuts another 2ms off what would otherwise be 9.6ms using an analog connection. @SaschaFranckwill now jump in to contest everything I just said and tell you how much better his AI is than mine, but my point is that the generally accepted threshold for "hearing" latency is 10ms (less for vocals). "Feeling" latency is totally subjective. Steve Vai claims he can "feel" 2ms (yet he uses digital FX - go figure). Even if you have a top of the line i9 totally optimized for audio, Helix latency will still never be a match for even a decent quality external AI with S/PDIF. BUT... can YOU feel it? Only YOU can answer that question.

Other good things to keep in mind - If you currently own a Fender Deluxe, your Helix/Powercab will NEVER sound EXACTLY like it. Similar, but NEVER EXACT! If you're trying to make the Helix/Powercab sound EXACTLY like the Fender Deluxe you had in High School, you're on a fool's errand. Scientifically speaking, accurate memory of a given sound lasts (IIRC) approximately 13 seconds. No, I don't know where I read that. Google it! If you're trying to make the Helix/Powercab sound EXACTLY like the Fender Deluxe that your favorite musical star used on their Greatest Hits album, again, a fool's errand. That was done in a recording studio with an engineer who processed the sound with a million dollars worth of audio gear. The best we can ever do, even if we have the RW amp for comparison, is to get a pleasant sound that's "close enough". Be happy! Play music!

The reason that I didn't suggest using USB 7 as input to Reaper is BECAUSE it is your DIRECT signal, unprocessed by anything you might choose to put in either path. For instance - WAH, Poly Capo, Helix ODs or Mods. The NDSP plugins have a VERY limited selection of these. Also, as I said, none of that matters if the plugin is crashing the Helix ASIO drivers. If iLok is not set up properly or you've gone past the 14 day TRIAL period (the NDSP FREE plugins are NOT FREE!), that could be causing the crashes. All the rest is academic if you can't get the plugin to run in the first place!

Most Presets have a Cab. PC212+ should be on Preset 000 Flat Stereo. If it's on that Preset, you should be good. Check that it's on the latest FW v2.00.1. Do a Factory reset - hold the home button until the Global Settings display, turn the edit knob till you get to Factory Reset, press the knob, turn to select YES, press again. If it still sounds muffled , make sure that your presets are loud enough to cause the Input LED to flash YELLOW, occasionally RED when you dig in. Also keep in mind that you need to turn the amp up enough to get over the Fletcher-Munson effect (GOOGLE it) - that's AT LEAST 70db (80-90 is better), which is pretty loud if you're trying not to annoy the neighbors. It's not really a bedroom amp. Make sure the Global EQ isn't on or, if you're trying to keep it down, use the EQ to counter the aforementioned F-M effect. If, after all that, it still sounds muffled, you either: Don't like the PC212+ (mine sounds great, not muffled at all). OR It's defective.

I DL'd the Fortin pack and, after the usual fight with iLOK (I HATE iLOK) I got it running. First time I ran it I got an "Expiration Notice" with the date the trial will expire. I didn't get it again on subsequent starts of Reaper, so I'm guessing it's a once a day thing. Otherwise, no problems, either with Helix as AI or my Scarlett as AI. In both cases, all I did was load a blank preset in Helix and set the Output to USB 1/2 (Helix) or XLR (Scarlett). Reaper track input was 1/2, output 1/2.

I see that these require iLock (EEWWW!). Is the latest version (5.4.1 if PC) installed and running? AND are you sure that you're not past the 14 day trial period?

OK, I see the free trials. Which ones are you using?

Also, do try what I suggested - load some other free sims and try them to eliminate your system as the culprit.