rd2rk

I'm leaning toward interference by space aliens, but you could be right about the curse. In case it's something more mundane, I'm sending it back to L6 to figure it out. IF they ever get around to sending the RMA!

Are you using S/PDIF out?

You could go onto the Cakewalk forum and ask in the Bandlab thread. At least one of the old time Cakewalk guys was picked up by Bandlab, and is very active there. I'll bet he'd know!

If they were compatible with Cakewalk Sonar (or X3) they should be compatible with the new Bandlab version, they haven't really changed anything yet, just new branding.

Today I found out what was causing the noise over S/PDIF. Unplug G10 wireless, connect by old-fashioned cable, no noise! I was overjoyed! played for an hour, no dropouts, no weird noises. It kinda sucks, but I can live without the G10. BUT THEN... I went to dinner, came back 2 hours later, every light on the Helix was flashing like crazy. Waiting for the RMA..... AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

Bandlab bought the "intellectual property" - the code. They did NOT buy the company, and have no responsibility, legal or otherwise, to those of us who bought the "lifetime upgrades" that Gibson sold us (yep, I bought into it too!). That said, as near as I can tell from reading the twenty+ pages of posts about it on the Cakewalk forum, Bandlab is serious about keeping Cakewalk FREE and continuing to improve it, making it a key component of their shared music production concept/platform. My hope is that, before they start adding features and integrating the shared production thing, that they FIX the many long running bugs that have plagued the program since Gibson owned it. Though mostly minor annoyances with well known work-arounds, it's the little things that will convince me to buy into a new version, should they choose to monetize it in the future. Meantime, for new users, getting the product we paid for, for FREE, is the deal of the decade!

Thumbs up on TDFKAS (the DAW formerly known as Sonar). I've used it for years and, while not without (minor) problems, it's one of the best! We longtime users are hoping that the problems of the past, caused, we like to believe, by TIAG (the idiots at Gibson) will be fixed promptly by the new owners, who seem to be honestly interested in making Cakewalk the best that it can be!

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....