Eclipse612

Small update. As I suspected, Arturia doesn't provide support for it. This is their answer: Hello, Unfortunately, MIDI DIN alone cannot directly handle DAW scripts. DAW scripts generally require a more advanced data protocol to interpret specific commands or macros (like those for launching clips, adjusting DAW controls, or automating complex functions) and are typically designed to work over USB MIDI, not MIDI DIN. MIDI DIN is limited to traditional MIDI messages like note on/off, CC (Control Change), pitch bend, and program changes, which are typically used for playing instruments and basic control functions. DAW scripts, however, often involve more complex programming which DIN doesn’t support. I'm really sorry for not having better news, but unfortunately in this case the best way is using the USB cable in order to use all the features included with your midi controller. Do you guys agree this is a limitation in the MIDI cable, and there is no way of making it work? I would have thought something like that would be indicated in the product documentation, since they provide a MIDI OUT port. Also, aren't "play" , "stop" and "record", or adjusting a slider setting, fairly basic control functions? I don't understand if it was my mistake to not consider this when buying the unit, or if it's indeed strange that they provide an output port which cannot carry the signal sent by half of the keys on the unit.

Hi folks, I searched in the forums but did not find a topic specifically addressing this, feel free to point me to one if there is such a discussion. I have an Arturia KeyLab Essential 61 Mk3, connected via its MIDI OUT port to the MIDI IN port of the Helix. I use the Helix as an audio interface for my Mac. With this setup, I am able to use the keyboard to play both in Arturia's Analog Lab V software (this includes using knobs and faders to control the effects of each sound patch) and while recording in Logic Pro. However, I cannot get the keyboard's playback/recording control keys to work, nor the knobs and faders, in Logic Pro. Arturia's instructions talk about configuring it as a "control surface" for Logic Pro, which I did, but when doing this configuration the "input port" and "output port" parameters do not list the "Arturia KeyLab Essential 61" option which the instructions say should be chosen. I am still in talk with Arturia support, but their first reaction was to ask me to connect the keyboard directly to my laptop via USB, which I would really like to avoid as it does not sit well with my setup. I tried anyway for testing purposes, and things work that way. I have inquired for more information, but in their first email they seemed to be blaming their Lua scripts for Logic integration, which would require a direct USB connection for the DAW controls to work. A couple of questions: - Do you see any reason why plugging the keyboard into the Helix could prevent this feature from working? As far as I understand, Helix just forwards the MIDI messages to the laptop USB port, so it should be transparent? I have never looked at the MIDI protocol though so I am not sure. - If the reason is indeed missing support in their scripts, am I crazy for thinking this is unreasonable? I don't recall ever buying a product whose set of features depended on which physical port you used on it, in such a hidden way. If anyone has any ideas on how to make this work, feel free to shoot - I have of course asked the same from Arturia support. Thanks in advance!

Thanks @lou-kash! I have noticed the same. Most of my playing causes the input and output levels on HX Native to be around -30 / -24 Dbs, but if I try to play especially hard I can reach around -6 dB level. When you say "give it more gain when dialing your sound in", which parameters are you referring to? I interpreted "dialing your sound in" as basically configuring your Helix / Helix native patch. Is that what you are referring to? If that is the case, how do I avoid the original poster's problem of distortion happening in the plugin (and what should I look for to measure what I am doing - keeping in mind of course that my ear is the main measurement tool, but I would like to also see something on the screen to help my ear get better over time)?

Hi folks! First of all, thanks for the very good pointers above! I am the newbiest of newbies in music production (I am following an online series of videos as an introduction and trying to put in practice what they say). Using HX floor as audio interface, and USB to the laptop where I am running Garageband (the course I'm following uses Logic Pro so it's already a bit frustrating to miss the options they show there...). I have purchased HX Native a week ago and started to play a bit with it, thought it would be nice to be able to switch and tweak presets after recording. So for the most part I am keeping the physical helix "blank" and applying blocks in the plugin version. Though of course by no means I know what I am doing, so I might change approach. On to my question: I have also noticed my recorded waveforms are very small in amplitude, though I am not sure this actually affects the sound, the volume seems to be adequate if I compared to e.g. MIDI tracks or samples I downloaded. But I would like to get my process for setting input volumes right, to make sure I learn to do things the right way from the beginning. This discussion seems to have a lot of good info, plus I found this link in another thread which seems to be trying to teach how to set the inputs to the right level. However, I am probably misunderstanding some terms and I haven't fully understood what I have to do in practice to get my tracks to have normalized volumes and an average which is around -18dBFS. For example, in the article I linked, they use the mvmeter2 plugin to set the average, but they don't say where this is controlled in the plugin GUI, and I'm not sure I've figured it out correctly. I've also played with the input/output level "faders" in the Helix Native preset view, to get the levels around the "green area" on both sides, but I'm not exactly sure what I am doing and how that relates to what the mvmeter2 plugin does. Would anybody be kind enough to point me in the right direction, or explain in simple steps how to check and set one's input level before recording? Also as a side question... should I strive to get waveforms that fill the displayed track space in amplitude, or is it ok to live with "faint waveforms" as long as they sound good? The guy on the course I'm following just plugs in his guitar and seems to get the same amplitude as e.g. samples he uses. Thanks in advance, and advance apologies if these are stupid questions, or questions that have been answered a thousand times...being a beginner, I am not sure exactly what to look for either!

I actually have realized one thing today. While the problem still exists, it is definitely less disastrous if I am playing without a backing track. So I am starting to believe that only half of my problem is how to render the Helix tones through the Headrush in my room, while the other half is probably how to hear them when something else is playing in the background. I guess this is a similar problem, if not the same, to being able to "cut through the mix" when playing in a band (not sure if a backing track vs. a real band makes a difference frequency-wise when it comes to affecting what can be heard from the guitar). Any pointers for where to look at for good input on this topic?

Good point. I wasn't thinking of doing that, but more trying out if the Global EQ helps, if not then resetting it to flat and working on the presets. But good you mentioned this so I try to stay away from the error. Just because adjusting the global EQ probably takes less time than looking through all presets. Agree they sound great (in my headphones at least :-) ). I play a 2002 Strat with custom single coil pickups made by an Italian luthier who makes a David Gilmour "black strat" like pickup set. Also have the infamous switch to use the bridge and neck pickups together, though I haven't found a good use for it yet (and I think Gilmour himself doesn't really use it a whole lot). I play a lot of Floyd and that's why I also have the Fremen presets: the example I was making above that is driving me nuts is his preset for Time. It sounds amazing in the headphones, then on the Headrush I need to turn up the volume to hear just a little of the crunch in the intro and verse tones, so when I switch to the solo it just explodes with noise.

Thanks @Paulzx for the advice, sounds wise :-) I am going to start by trying some volume adjustment between Headrush and Helix master and see if I can at least hear the cleans better, without breaking any window when I switch to "solo" snapshots. Then will try some settings on the Global EQ. If these don't work I will start playing with the presets, I guess I will need to have two versions of each preset (unless those which sound good on the Headrush would also sound good on headphones). On the topic of Global EQ, I am also singing and playing backing tracks through the Headrush (vocals via the Helix Mic IN and backing tracks via USB, using the Helix as soundcard). Is there any rule of thumb on what I should not cut to still hear those clearly? Some examples to start from would be great, then of course I need to adapt to my room and my setup.

Hi! One more unhappy home Headrush FRFR 108 user...I have to admit due to family needs I really haven't put in the time to learn the ins and outs of making the Helix sound great, I know many here have documented how it takes time and you get rewarded by learning from other users, trial and error...however my setup is: - Headrush FRFR 108 connected to XLR mono output of the helix. No contour enabled and the speaker is raised about 1.5 m from the ground via stand - A pair of wireless (RF) standard consumer Sennheiser headphones in the phones output - I have purchased some presets from well known preset-makers (Fremen, MBritt) to make sure I have something generally considered good to try with - I am a "bedroom guitarist", playing in my small home office (about 3m x 5m, 2.5m ceiling height). The Headrush stand is in one corner of the room and I am standing about in the middle of it. As the original poster, I enjoy playing with headphones and am disgusted by the sound emitted by the Headrush :-). I keep the Headrush low (about 1-2 out of 11 on their volume scale, not 1-2 hours) to not be evicted from the apartment, and play with the Helix and guitar volume when needed. Some recurring characteristics I see: - as the original poster mentioned, the sound is generally muddy and lacks clarity - "clean" presets are almost inaudible if I don't crank the volume up on the guitar or on the Helix right to maximum - "distorted" presets, or even just solo snapshots of the same presets which add gain and a bit of distortion suddenly become way too loud, so much that I feel the urge to soften my pick attack and start playing extremely quiet, which messes up my technique... Where I get confused is that it's not really a constant effect I get, but it seems like clean and distorted presets are affected in opposite ways. A change in snapshots which is absolutely smooth on the headphones results in disaster with the speaker. I have also just purchased a pair of IK Multimedia iLoud monitors to compare with the Headrush, I don't have much room but I thought I could find space for those small thingies at least. Still need to try them. I will also consider @roscoe5's advice above with using some textiles. Based on the above, I guess I also need to play with the global EQ and trying to raise the Headrush volume and lower the Helix one. Sadly switching to a bigger room is not an option here. Thought I'd summarize my situation to see if there's any further advice out there :-) Otherwise, retroactive thanks for the advice already given above!

He's less than 2 years old so I haven't reached that boiling point yet, I guess...:-D Jokes aside, I hope he'll be playing guitar with me sooner than later, but I'd like my equipment to survive in the meantime! He already likes to turn and pull the Helix knobs when he gets to it.

Yeah I used to use a blanket, but now the new use case is my son who wasn't there before :-) So it would be nice to have something that is resistant to moderate hits and can't be removed so easily.

Seems like someone has built exactly what I was after, maybe 100 or so times sturdier than I need it to be, but the idea is pretty much that: https://www.gearbyceba.com/line6-family-international/helix-sun-shield-splash-guards-int Even though it was thought as a sun shield, it looks like it does what I am after too. The only thing is the price tag, if one includes shipping costs to Europe it is quite high. Not sure I want to invest that much...

Thanks for the suggestions! I am not at all familiar with how normal pedalboard cases look like, what would the woodwork needed to fit these connectors look like? Can one carve their way through the back of the case? The other doubt I have is whether these products could replicate the flexibility of Helix's I/O panel. At the moment I would need power, guitar in, phones, two 1/4" outs, XLR out, XLR mic in and USB. Then I wonder if I change my setup, will I miss something. It would be cool to be able to directly expose the Helix back panel. Not ruling out this solution of course, just trying to assess if it's feasible and if it would help me.

Hi all! I'm looking around for a case for my Helix, but it seems like my use case is different from most and I can't find exactly what I need. The case would actually not be needed so much for travelling (I mostly play at home), as for protecting the unit from a kid who likes to poke around. :-) Given the main use case, I'd like the case to have an opening in the back, thus allowing me to keep everything connected while still closing the top lid and making the Helix footswitches and knobs inaccessible. Have you ever seen something like this? I am considering building one from wood pieces, but would gladly save myself the hassle if someone has already done it. Thanks in advance !

Hi! Sorry for the late reply, just saw this. According to the Yamaha service center I was speaking to, they had to swap the mainboard. They also demonstrated though that they knew very little about Line6 products so I don't know if you should take this for granted. I also had to constantly put them in touch with the European Line6 customer support in Germany as they wouldn't speak with each other otherwise. After they fixed the problem, they even forgot to reset the security chip so I had to bring it back. It was expensive and I only did it because I found out I had an insurance which covered most of the costs. After all this though, it worked - so at a very minimum, I can confirm that changing the mainboard works.

I guess you're right, luck also plays a big part! Anyway, forgot to say thanks a lot for all your advice! I have now found a local Yamaha repair center (I hand't noticed that Line 6 was bought by Yamaha :-)) and they offered to take a look at it before taking it in for official service, so I'll see what they say.