rd2rk

ARRRGH!!!!! I've now eliminated every other possibility. The unit IS experiencing audio dropouts using XLR straight to a powered speaker (2 different ones actually - so that's not the problem either). I still haven't isolated the S/PDIF noise, that COULD still be a problem with the Focusrite 18i20 interface (I doubt it, but have opened a support ticket with them), but I now suspect that the S/PDIF dropouts that I was experiencing might not have anything to do with the digital out. L6 is issuing an RMA. AARRRRGHHH!!!!!

After hours of re-wiring, re-flashing and reloading drivers, most of the problems seem to be gone, except for the noise thru the S/PDIF. When I had it set up to use the Helix as AI, I wasn't getting noise over USB, which may not mean anything. When I went back to using the Focusrite as AI, still noise over S/PDIF. Since that's the only AI that I have with S/PDIF, I can't really isolate the Helix to see if that's the problem. I've opened a support ticket with Focusrite, but you know how that goes. Unless it's a known problem, they'll blame the Helix. Only ONE of the four L6 service centers in the Denver area services the Helix, I'll try taking it there if Focusrite can't help.

I'd been taking a split off of 2A for the 3/4 Return with the 2nd laptops streaming feed. By setting up a separate 2B path with no input, just the 3/4 Return, that solved the problem.

GOT IT! I almost had it last night. Attached is the solution! Thanks guys!

So, tried this (see attached screenshot). Helix won't allow assigning USB 1/2 as an input, probably to avoid potential feedback problems. Assigning USB IN 1/2 to a Helix output allows me to HEAR the stream, but doesn't get it back into my DAW for recording.

I hear ya! It's lunch time here in Colorado. I'm hoping that food will revive the little grey cells...

Like I said, all painless with the Focusrite. I suspect that my needing to use 1A+2A for DSP is somehow overtaxing the Helix processor when I try to add the other inputs, which indicates that what I'm trying to do is either not possible or there's a better way.

Wait I misread that, but I think it's essentially what I already tried. Let me finish lunch and I'll try it again...

That would require being able to set Windows Audio Out to USB 1/2, not an option that I know of.

The patch didn't work, so I deleted it. It does appear that it should be do-able. It shouldn't be that difficult, but I'm not getting it. Any ideas?

To be able to record my playing along with whatever music/ streaming/backing tracks, from whatever source. YouTube and Music STREAMING services are not audio files that can be loaded into the DAW (unless they're downloaded first, BIG PITA!). Even then, downloaded/previously recorded backing tracks would have to be individually loaded in the DAW vs setting a player like WMP to play the files back randomly. Another big PITA. As stated, I don't mind using a separate laptop for playback. Less stress on the DAW laptop's CPU. If I can do all of this painlessly with my Focusrite, why can't it be done with Helix, "the heart of your home studio". Is it a mixer or not? I can set it up to work, but it seems to be stressing out the Helix's CPU, which indicates that either: The Helix is a poor excuse for a mixer, OR, I'm doing it wrong.

Thanks, but doesn't lend itself to live in the moment jamming. I'm OK with using the second laptop. I'm really more interested in being able to use the Helix to mix it all without it getting overwhelmed by it all. Not at all difficult using the Focusrite, and should work with the Helix. Is the Helix just not powerful enough? Or am I missing a routing trick?

If you know how to get a stream (not necessarily a file, could be YouTube or a music service) that's playing on a computer to record that stream into a DAW on that same computer, please share. But, please TEST your solution first. It SEEMS like it should work, but If it's possible, I'm missing it!

I'm trying to eliminate my interface (2nd gen focusrite Scarlett 18i20) as the source of my problems with odd crackling, dropouts (especially using S/PDIF) and just plain weird artifacts by using the Helix as interface and mixer. I need to get 3 things into my DAW thru the Helix: 1) Stereo from a second laptop for backing tracks. If somebody knows how to get it into Cakewalk without a second laptop (getting the audio from the same laptop that Cakewalk is running on), that would be even better. 2) Bass from my bass preamp/DI 3) Guitar from the Helix. My presets require 1A-2A for DSP. I ran the second laptop stereo output into RETURN 3/4 to a RETURN block at the end of 2A, pulled it down into an A/B split, routed all of the guitar signal to USB 1/2, then pulled down the output from the split and assigned it to USB 3/4. . So far, so good. I tried to do the same thing on 1A to get the bass from RETURN 2 to USB 5/6. As soon as I do that the signal over USB to my DAW starts sputtering and cutting out. Following the example of the 4ch Mixer Template, I tried totally separating a 1B path, same result. If anyone has any ideas to get around this, I'd love to hear. Guitar Input -> USB 1/2 Bass -> RETURN or AUX -> USB 3/4 or 5/6 Stereo from other laptop -> RETURN -> USB 3/4 or 5/6 (whichever's not being used for the bass) Any plan that gets 3 separate inputs into Cakewalk. Thanks!

I sure wish that Helix had a proper bulk editor. If you've ever worked with the FCB's UNO_ControlCenter Editor you know what I mean. Individually editing 128 presets to make a minor change is a BIG PITA! 10,000 mouse clicks later.... Anyhow....Here's an alternative to the setlist I uploaded yesterday. This one uses 10 switches instead of 8. I've also changed the CC range to 110-122 and activated the expression pedals. The reason I changed the CC range is that I use a Korg nanoKontrol for controlling amp and effect parameters. The default numbering on the nano starts at 1, and it just seemed easier when I originally set up my system using the FCB to do it this way. YMMV. GR5 Control-10switch.hls

As the problem seemed to be spreading to the analog outs, I suspected possibly something upstream? So I called support, and Jason suggested re-installing the 2.54 update and doing a 9+10 reset. I have done so, and will test further over the weekend. Jason said that if that doesn't work I may have to send it in for service to check out. Here's hoping that won't be necessary. I've become attached to this thing!

Why L6 does things the way they do is one of the great mysteries of (a musician's) life! Placing it BEFORE distortions/preamps can allow you to increase gain and volume at the same time. Before snapshots, that made a certain sense. Placing it AFTER preamps and BEFORE delays allows you to fade out volume without cutting trails or affecting gain. Placing it dead last can provide an overall volume boost/cut. Put it where you want it! As cruisinon2 said, no matter what they do, they'll never make everyone happy!

"I have a Cantabile rack that contains all of the aforementioned sims AND Helix AND synths AND EZDrummer. I like to think of it as "The World's Biggest Amp Simulator". Presently it takes up a lot of floor space, what with the Helix and the FCB, but if I DID decide to dedicate a Helix setlist, I COULD run the whole thing from the Helix (and a Korg nanoKontrol for rotaries/sliders/extraneous buttons)." OK, so I've been meaning to do it for a while. I don't really NEED the TEMPLATES setlist, so I backed it up and created a "general purpose amp sim controller setlist". It's labelled for use with GR5, but will work with any sim that uses the standard TOGGLING CC#127(>63)=ON, CC#000(<64)=OFF. If you want to use it with Amplitube, you'll need to either go into each preset and reverse the min (dim) and max (lit) values on each footswitch, or load Amplitube as a VST in a VST Host like Cantabile that allows filters to reverse the CC values automatically. The setlist sends PC#s 000-127 for general compatibility, but if your sim numbers presets from 001 (as GR5 does), it will call 001-128 in your sim. Remember that in GR5, you first have to select a TAG (BANK in most sims), so when you load GR5, remember to select your custom "MY PRESETS" TAG. You COULD modify the setlist to select your MY PRESETS TAG using the LSB value in the INSTANT COMMAND that sends the PC# (GR5 numbers it's TAGs from 0 starting at the top of the list). EDIT: I take that back. GR5 will accept the LSB value to select a TAG, but it won't select the preset within the TAG without a second press of the Preset footswitch! Sometimes MIDI is wonderful, other times it's a PITA! If you save all of your custom/modified presets there (MY PRESETS or whatever you've chosen to name it), you'll know exactly what each Helix preset calls. You can use the setlist to call presets in any TAG, just remember that TAGs can contain more that 128 presets, and you can only call the first 128. It also won't be possible to customize the footwitches for any old random selection in any TAG. Once you've saved a GR5 preset to MY PRESETS, call it using the corresponding Helix preset, then LEARN the Helix footswitches to the effects in the GR5 preset. If the preset loads with an effect ON, be sure to SAVE the Helix preset with that footswitch ON, and vice versa. Don't forget to SAVE the GR5 preset. Attached is the setlist. Any questions or problems, feel free to ask....

To the OP: I messed around with it a bit more and found a simpler way to do the BASIC Helix configuration. Matching it up to GR5 presets is still a PITA, but a little less so. To cruisinon2: I hear ya. But I also get where OP is coming from. In the end, it's all just sounds. GR was one of the first MIDI controllable amp sims, LONG before hardware sims. People actually made albums using GR. Still do, believe it or not. I started with GR2 and an FCB1010/UNO. Had Amplitube whatever version was out around the same time. I currently have both latest versions as well as BIAS AMP and FX, S-Gear, and TH3. I've had others too. Today I mostly use Helix, but I had/have favorite presets in all of those sims. It's not worth it to me to dedicate a setlist to sims, even if one were enough to cover all of the minor differences between them, but I still have the FCB and when I feel the need, I can load up whatever configuration I need and I'm ready to go! In fact, using Cantabile, I've set up MIDI filters that allow me to use one FCB configuration for all of the sims. I have a Cantabile rack that contains all of the aforementioned sims AND Helix AND synths AND EZDrummer. I like to think of it as "The World's Biggest Amp Simulator". Presently it takes up a lot of floor space, what with the Helix and the FCB, but if I DID decide to dedicate a Helix setlist, I COULD run the whole thing from the Helix (and a Korg nanoKontrol for rotaries/sliders/extraneous buttons). WHY would I want to do any of that? Because I CAN! Also, it's the kind of programming puzzle an ex-IT guy like me enjoys.

Here's the problem. Each Helix preset has to be custom configured to match the ON/OFF status of the specific effects in a corresponding GR5 preset. GR5 responds unpredictably (if at all) to CC#s sent with Program Changes (PC#s), which the Helix does by default (for any footswitch assigned a TOGGLING CC#) when PC SEND is ON in GLOBALS. Therefore, each Helix preset has to be totally custom created to match a SPECIFIC GR5 preset. You have ten buttons on the Helix to which you can assign a TOGGLING CC#. There are many dozens of effects in GR5. Therefore, either you: 1) decide on a maximum of ten GR5 effects to use in ALL of your presets, and assign them CC#s GLOBALLY (LOCKED) in GR5; or 2) in each GR5 preset you individually LEARN the CC# for whatever effects you want to use in that preset. The advantage of the first method is that you can create ONE Helix preset with most of the required settings, customize the scribble strips with the ten effect names, then copy it to all of the presets in that setlist. Then you assign a PC# INSTANT COMMAND to each preset in the setlist (Helix preset#01A=PC#000=GR5 Preset #001), since PC SEND must be set to OFF in GLOBALS/MIDI to prevent Helix from sending the assigned TOGGLING CCs by default, which can produce unpredictable results in GR5. BTW - this is only a problem in GR5. Amplitube, S-Gear and TH3 work fine with the default behavior, which simplifies this considerably. Each of the ten (or 8) footswitches in each Helix preset has to be saved ON or OFF to match the SPECIFIC GR5 preset to which it corresponds (so that it reflects the status of the effects and will be ready to TOGGLE the effects ON/OFF as required). Each footswitch needs to be assigned a TOGGLING CC# and the scribble strips customized with the name of the GR5 effect that it is assigned to. This is another thing that needs to be done individually if you use the second method (all GR5 effects available). In GR5, you need to set up a new TAG (MY PRESETS?). If you're planning to use more than one TAG in GR5 (requiring more than one setlist in Helix), you'll need to set the INSTANT COMMAND that calls the GR5 preset to also send MSB=OFF;LSB=GR5 TAG #. The GR5 Tags are numbered from 0. If one TAG is sufficient, you can do that in each Helix preset OR just remember to switch to your MY PRESETS TAG when you open GR5. I've probably forgotten something, but as you can see, using the Helix to control an amp sim is, at best a PITA! Should you choose to go down this particular rabbit hole, I'll be happy to answer any other questions that you WILL have! GOOD LUCK! *The Unnecessary step that I removed - (You need to assign a low DSP Helix effect to each of ten blocks (that can be saved and copied to all of the presets in that setlist). )

OH CRAP! It's worse than that! Now it's dropping out WITHOUT a digital suspect! I thought, "well maybe it's my G10?", so I swapped to a cable, no joy! Seems like the whole unit is dying!

Sometimes drops would be sudden and total, sometimes the dropouts would start with staticky in-n-out, then total silence. The latter is what happened this time. What's worrying is that I'd thought that it was fixed, as it hadn't happened since the update. I've also been having a (not new) problem with random static and pops, seemingly just on the 1/4" outs. So I'm back to using XLR to my interface/mixer. Not that I can hear all that much difference between analog and digital outs, but I want what I paid for, d## it!

I thought that, surely, OP must have misspelled frfr! But no! the term returns no search results! FORUM GUYS - better you should find out WHY the old forum was crashing and fix it, than continue with this ugly and minimally useful piece of junk! OH, WAIT! It shows the first letter of our names! NEVER MIND! What's functionality and readability compared to that? Aw, who cares anyway. The Helix Thread on the Gearpage forum actually gets read by real L6 people, who actually respond to users. Why should we expect ANYTHING from the OFFICIAL L6 Helix forum? END RANT EDIT: Oh yeah, organization of topics vs random posts. Reply by Triryche implies that they're working on it. Patience....

On the other hand, it hasn't totally crashed......yet!

NO, IT"S NOT FIXED!!! I'm reinstating my support ticket, will report back.