rd2rk

In my DAW (Sonar), when I select ASIO HELIX OUTPUT 3-4, where exactly is that going to? Any other AI I'd take the signal from LINE OUT 3-4. Where do I get it on my Helix?

Septicide - "...was never good at sales, technical is what I do, thats why I'm a mechanic." I can dig it. I used to be a database programmer, loved the work, the intellectual challenge, but I'm not a team player and talking to people in suits more often than not just pisses me off. Now I drive a truck, and smile more.

Septicide- I appreciate your taking the time to fill in some of the details about the subject of LINUX for musical applications. It's also obvious that, like many LINUX folk (aka Penguins :) ), you really like the technical and creative aspects of working with that OS. That said (uhoh, here it comes) - "if you just want an audio only distro thats already set up with jack and the kernel etc and just want to plug in and get recording try AV Linux http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/ or http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/" Everything up to the above quoted section of your post goes directly to my point. Most people just want to play and/or record music. They really don't give a rat's patootie about all the technical crap. Plug it in, turn it on and ROCK OUT! There's no shame in that, artists aren't necessarily techies, and techies aren't necessarily artists. To each his own. Most of us are happy with our MS or Apple systems, and when we have problems we come to forums like this for solutions. We try to be nice to one another but, well, some people suck at being nice. Concerning the above quoted section. I went to the AVLINUX site to check it out. The last time I looked into this there were no music specific "appliance" style distros. The latest release of AVLINUX was March 2016, and users had been waiting over a year. That's because it's a one man operation. Very impressive (assuming it's a good system), but what if he gets tired of the project, or worse, ceases to exist. I don't want MY studio dependent on one guy, I want a product with a development team that will carry on and be able to support me down the road. Paragraph two on the page is titled "RTFM". The FM is 84 pages. All in LINUX geek-speak. And that's just to get the system up and running. He makes it a point that he makes no guarantees that, even if you can find LINUX equivalents to the massive quantity of applications and VSTs available in the MS/Apple world, they'll run on his platform, or that he feels required to provide any level of support for anything other than the system itself. At least he's honest, unlike in our world where you PAY for support and get (too often) screwed. Bottom line: LINUX is simply NOT ready for prime time. It's a hobbyists platform with lots of devoted adherents, but it's nowhere near being a serious challenger to the established platforms. When LINUX people come onto forums like this and spout the kind of BS you laid out in your opening post, if we were less than human we'd just shake our heads and move on. But we humans, the nice ones, find that it's so much more fun to laugh and goof on you and jerk your chain and laugh some more. The not nice ones are taking themselves too seriously. I wish you the best of luck in your travels through Penguin Land, and I sincerely hope that, along the way, you find time to make some really good music. ROCK ON!

If it's never happened to you, then there's no problem. For the rest of us who've had it lock up, stall out, crash and burn (if you happen to be performing), no, it's not an exaggeration or our imaginations. The frustration arises from the apparent randomness of the problems. The first thing support needs to know is, can it be reproduced? Even if you can remember exactly what you were doing - for instance, "I was playing my guitar in xyz factory preset" (has happened to me more than once, not often, but never in the same preset) - that's not very helpful if it doesn't happen every time. Here's a good one for ya - I use the Helix as audio interface, which allows me to use both the Helix amps/presets and the excellent sounds from S-Gear, BIAS and TH3. So one time I'm jamming along with an S-Gear preset when suddenly the helix goes silent! Nothing in the Helix preset, just a blank signal chain. There's still signal going into the DAW, levels are registering in Sonar and S-Gear, so the interface portion of the Helix OUTGOING is still functional. If there were (much requested) signal level meters on the Helix I'd be able to tell if the return from the DAW is working but, in any case, no sound out of the Helix. A week later, it happened in a TH3 preset. I no longer have a separate interface, but before Helix, before POD HD, with an ancient M-Audio Fast Track Pro, NEVER had that happen. Yes, my friend, Helix glitches are real! As to people being frightened away by the truth, that's life in the digital world. An A/B box to a backup basic analog pedalboard saves the day!

Device Manager/Universal Serial Bus Controllers Check each Root Hub/Properties/ PowerManagement Uncheck Allow computer to turn off this device to save power Make sure that all of your system level devices have the latest drivers. Make sure that in ControlCenter under Power Management nothing allows the computer to go to sleep.

No more global warming, Linux already runs on tap water! Penguins to the rescue!

This started as an opinion poll on whether or not we need more amps. It's turned into a wish list. Isn't there a thread dedicated to that? Or maybe it's called Ideascale or some such?

Amsdenj said: "Going forward, I'd also prefer to see more new Line6 amp models like Litigator with more options for distortion voicing we can change. This is tube rather than transistor stomp distortion. Its time to move beyond reproducing the compromises of the past and start building for the digital future." For those of us who've been using S-Gear in parallel with the POD, then the Helix, we know (we hope) that the Helix has the potential to be our live performance perfect solution!

Windows 10 beer - can looks great, they open automatically whether you want them to or not. Your choice WILL be reported. Cans still occasionally explode. If you call for support, after reading a boiler-plate response you get an honest reply - "No hablo ingles". FREE for life exploding updates!

Polyphonic tracking!!! If only I'd waited, I could'a had that great new tuner!

+1 on core functionality - multiple splits/merges per path, IR management, update process.

+1 me too also

Septicide - how about posting a "HOW TO" guide? Hopefully, you could do it without all the vituperous foul mouth sexist language? In the kind of non-technical terms that would allow those of us who'd rather spend our time playing music than learning the technical details of 15 different Linux distros to get it done on whatever audio (and don't forget MIDI) hardware we happen to own? My Windows pro allows me to run Linux side by side with Windows, and many of us would try it. My guess is that you won't because you're all talk and mostly full of lollipop.

+1 Fremen.

Is it compatible with my C64? Does it come with one of those cool musical modem thingies? I need to be able to connect to CompuServe for social networking....

You should've done more research, or upgraded your PC. I'm running an ancient Core2 Duo with 8 MB, and a 128GB SSD. No problems with VSTs, DAW (Sonar, Ableton) or anything else for that matter, and it runs BETTER under Windows 10. Now that you've drunk the LINUX Kool-Aid, all I can say is GOOD LUCK! As far as people moving away from Microsoft to LINUX and OSX being the wave of the future, that's nonsense. I've looked into it and, for AVERAGE USERS (as opposed to sound production professionals and studios), while OSX has some attractions, LINUX doesn't get it. Not enough money (or musically talented socialists) in it to make it work. Also, I support the death penalty for hackers. I might change my opinion on that if, instead of just talking about it, some of the brilliant LINUX hackers out there would actually write some of these drivers. I've been having this discussion with y'all for several years, but still nothing of substance from the Penguin Isles. Lastly, there's LOTS of action on the OSX front, especially in the mobile area, but it's STILL a tiny fraction of the market and, like it or not, most of us who work do it for money.

Using the "Instant" Commands in Command Center, you can send PCs to devices on separate channels, and change banks, too. I set up a simple test preset, and it sends the proper messages, as verified in MIDIOX. Though I don't have any hardware to test it on, it should work.

Alex - Thanks, never thought of that - usually just thinking "SMASH! KILL! DESTROY!" When it happens. I'll try that next time.

It's random, I'm never looking at the display when it happens.

Even better...today I was playing and the volume cut out. Hitting the volume pedal didn't fix it. Had to switch presets and back to fix it. Don't know if it's the same problem getting worse or a new one. Being a random problem it's pointless calling tech support. They must know about this, enough people are seeing it. Sure hope they fix it soon!

That is a very annoying bug that L6 is aware of, and HOPEFULLY it'll be fixed SOON.

That's why I posted about the A/B test I did. I had a preset that was a bit dull sounding, and it sounded much better using the G10 XLR Out. A preset that was fine sounded too bright. So the XLR and an A/B box can provide another tone option, maybe to help cut thu a mix, or?

I haven't tried what you're describing, but I did A/B the two outs. There's no level difference, but there's a definite tone diff between the two. As I understand it, because of the 10' cable emulation on the 1/4" there's a slight HiFreq attenuation that's not present on the XLR. That makes the level sound slightly higher on the XLR, but running through a freq analyzer the overall levels are the same, just slightly different frequencies.

Thru the stereo is easiest, unless you want to use headphones. Tho, in that case, you could run the backing tracks AND the Helix thru the stereo...I use a small mixer, run the music I'm jamming to and the Helix into it, then to headphones OR monitors as circumstances require.

You'll need to run the backing tracks from your computer, connected to the Helix via USB, and set the the Helix as the computer's default sound card.