HonestOpinion

Bump. Anyone able to get TracktionT6 automation or MIDI footswitch commands from the Helix working with Native? They seem to work with other plugins.

I read an interview in I believe Guitar Player magazine many years ago with Jackson Browne. Hardly my go-to guitar authority but what he said stuck with me. He mentioned that most people don't bring their best instruments to the performance or on tour because they fear them getting damaged or stolen. He felt that ironically this was exactly when you wanted to have your best axe with you. Which is true. If I remember correctly he went on to say he did indeed bring his best guitars on the road with him. I can see what he means but I remember thinking "yeah, easy for a millionaire rock star to say, insured to the hilt, with endorsements".

Not disputing that you can get a great blend when your guitar monitor is in the backline but there are a couple of advantages as well to having it set up in front of you like a vocal monitor. A side placement can even be beneficial, particularly if it makes it easier for the band to hear you or if you are using Bose column type speakers which may be placed essentially in the backline and might experience some degree of phase cancellation if your monitor is facing them. Front monitor placement does make it easier to generate feedback (the good kind, or bad if you are playing acoustic) and it can be easier for the entire band to hear your guitar depending on where they and you are situated on the stage. Front placement can also make it easier to mix for FOH as you don't have as much additive sound from your monitor mixing with the FOH. Some people are also using their vocal monitor to serve double-duty and provide both guitar and vocals. Why not? Even less equipment to drag to the show. Lastly if you play a festival you may have to deal with whatever their soundman provides and you may not want to mic up your monitor. In all cases you need to make sure that your guitar is sounding good at the FOH because as you point out, the placement of your guitar monitor may make a difference in what the audience is hearing. I find all methods (back, front, or even side monitor) have different merits depending on where the guitarist is situated (center, stage right, stage left, behind another player [shudder], etc.), the stage setup, space available, and PA equipment being used.

Yes, you can use HX Edit 2.30 to backup your Helix LT if it is already on the 2.21 firmware. Make sure you create a backup with the "Create Backup" command in the "File" menu after downloading and installing HX Edit 2.30 (DO NOT upgrade your firmware until you get a backup). It does not hurt to additionally backup your setlists separately and even your presets which can be highlighted all at once and exported singly as a large batch. The separate presets can be a lifesaver if you end up with a setlist with corrupt presets that won't allow the entire setlist to load. You will be using the Line 6 Updater to update the firmware. After you download and install HX Edit 2.30 and have a successful backup, then use the Updater to update the firmware, after that you will do a restore. Also one note, if you want the latest factory presets that come with the Helix firmware 2.30 update make sure when you use the "Restore Backup" command in the "File" menu that you first go down and expand the arrow that shows you the separate setlists. You can then uncheck the "FACTORY 1", "FACTORY 2" and "TEMPLATES" setlists so you don't overwrite the new factory ones with your old ones (unless you want to). Make sure you restart your Helix LT one more time after your "Restore Backup" completes to allow the final rebuild of your restored presets. Line6 2.30 Firmware release notes: http://line6.com/support/topic/18284-latest-helix-firmware-230—nov-21-2017/?p=135735

You need to download the Helix application that matches your firmware version 2.21.0. I would highly encourage instead that you get Helix Edit 2.30 and after backing up, upgrade your firmware. That way you can take advantage of all of the new models as well as the far simpler upgrade process to the new 2.30 including better IR management. There are some fairly substantial changes to the new editor including the fact that it looks like Native. By upgrading now you will be learning on a similar interface to Native right from the jump should you decide to use it. Particularly since you just got the Helix you might as well learn and design your presets on the latest greatest version of the firmware and software.

This video is from fairly late in David Lee Roth's career. Although this appears at first blush to be a problem with the guitar I suppose another reason this can happen is as lead singers get older they tend to lose part of their ability to hit notes in the higher register of their vocal range. Bands will then transpose hits they have been doing for a long time to a lower key. If someone in the band forgets to make this adjustment to the lower key out of long habit, you can get results like this with a player fumbling live to adjust or different players in different keys - for example, one player in the original key and others in the lowered key. Once that happens things can get really messy as singer and players attempt to adjust to each other further exacerbating the issue.

I did follow the instructions for assigning parameters to a knob or switch. I am either missing something or it is not working with T6. Glad to hear it is working with Logic though. I will keep at it. Thanks for the response.

Thx for the kind words and your observations on firmware update file sizes. That pretty much answers any speculation about Method 1. They are definitely not doing it that way, never sounded plausible to me anyway. Not sure exactly how they are doing it, it remains a mystery. From the few clues they have provided it seems like it may be either a modified .wav or other format file that provides additional cues or markers to the cab/IR engine on how to process the parameters or it could be straight up post processing on a (neutral?) IR. Could be some other entirely different approach though. Maybe they will offer us some additional details on how they pull off their custom cabs at some time in the future although I am not holding my breath on that. Any IR experts on the forum who can chime in about how IRs or proprietary cabs gain additional parameter processing?

Have you gotten automation working with Native? I have had no luck in getting it operating with Tracktion T6 yet.

Thanks for the heads up. That was an incredible band, might have to pick up tix for that. I have seen Morse over the years solo, with Kansas, Deep Purple, and with Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin but never with the original Dregs. Every player in that band was a virtuoso.

Sounds very interesting, more details please.

No clue but your comment definitely feeds into the potential for an evolving industry standard that would combine the innovations from multiple manufacturers into a robust and flexible IR format that allows many parameters to be easily modified across diverse devices and does not require wading through so many files. I realize there is big competition and constant innovation in music production but other industries have managed to come up with common protocols and standards although it feels a bit like a pipe dream right now in the audio world. If only...

Great reference article, thx! Doesn't exactly tell you how their parameters are being rendered nor would I expect that but sheds a little light on the subject nonetheless.

Thanks and I agree, at no point am I expecting Line6 to chime in with the family recipe. I would be fascinated though to know more of the nuts and bolts of how different manufacturers are handling IRs.

LOL, man that is heinous! A fine reminder of why you need a decent and fast tuner on stage. This is the kinda thing that gets a guitar tech or soundman summarily fired without references. Somehow strangely reassuring though that a trainwreck can still happen to a band of that caliber and level of fame. No offence intended as I am a fan but I wonder if Eddie was still in his cups at the time because I am fairly confident he can tune better by ear than most of us can with mechanical assistance.

Folks here are correct, the tuner still needs a more stable setting for live use. Alternate tuner is still the easiest solution unfortunately. Either that or I need a guitar tech to hand me a freshly tuned guitar every few songs and that is not happening.

Did it get posted somewhere as to exactly how Helix cabs were implemented? I am not sure from Jbuhajla's comment exactly how the native cabs operate. If I remember correctly I have seen comments from Line6 saying the native cabs are optimized, not sure what that means. Here are a few ways that have been speculated on that Line6 could have used to implement their cabs - methods which allow mic type, mic distance, and early reflections changes. Maybe they used some other technique that Line6 has not detailed or that has not been speculated on anywhere I have seen. Method 1 - Helix cabs are identical to other IRs, The mic type, mic distance, and early reflections parameters are wrappers for the end user that actually transparently cycle through separate IRs under the covers for each possible combination of mic-type, distance, and early reflections. Each cab is actually a collection of hundreds(thousands) of IRs that take into account every possible parameter permutation and changing parameters simply selects the corresponding IR. This method seems highly unlikely and implausible to me. That is a lot of permutations and a lot of IRs that would have to be stored. I would say there is little to no chance this is the way things are being done but anything is possible - this method, not so much. Implications: This would require substantial memory dedicated to many IRs. Each cab added in an update would cumulatively add up to potentially significant additional storage space. Seems unlikely and inefficient and would limit the number of cabs that could be added to the Helix without devoting a lot of valuable memory. I think there is zero chance that the Helix cabs use this methodology. Method 2 - I suppose a likely hybrid method could be used where, for example, there was a different IR for each mic type, and mic distance and early reflections was an applied effect after the fact. In this hybrid example, hidden from the user, a different IR would be selected for each mic type and then the mic distance and early reflections would be applied as "effects" after the fact to that IR. Implications: This method would reduce the number of IRs required as the number of permutations dictated by mic-type would be far less then if you required a different IR for every possible combination of mic-type, mic distance, and early reflections. Every IR gets treated with the same mic distance and early reflections simulation algorithm. Method 3 - Helix cabs are modified "optimized" IRs with some hooks that respond appropriately to external processing algorithms such as the ones that change mic type, distance, or early reflections. Again, this seems unlikely to me as an approach. It would require taking a .wav file and customizing it into something else but who knows. Implications: You are now dealing with a file that is different from the conventional .wav file used for IRs which is strictly an audio format and "filter" fed to an IR engine for processing the guitar signal. You would now be dealing with either some form of modified .wav file or a completely different file format that could be modified and/or responded to by other algorithms such as ones for mic distance. Purely speculative but if you are dealing with modified "optimized" IRs that have additional data than just the standard IR/wav file does this still have to fit in the same 1024 or 2048 space as a conventional IR. If so do the bytes allotted to optimizations allowing the extra features impact the overall quality or detail of the .wav. Depending on implementation the impact to IR detail could be negligible or non-existent. Method 4 - Helix cabs are simply a regular IR created with a 'neutral' mic and then "colored" appropriately by the Helix's mic type, mic distance, and early reflection algorithms/parameters. Implications: This, similar to Method 2, would seem like a highly likely approach to me although Line6's comments about Helix cabs being optimized IRs does not seem to jibe with this approach which simply uses a standard neutrally oriented IR and applies post processing for the various cab parameters (mic-type, distance, reflections). So... in summary, I have no clue how Line6 has implemented their cabs but if they are simply "regular neutral" IRs with post processing algorithms applied for mic-type, distance, and reflections that begs the question that perhaps some of these algorithms could be applied to and opened up to third-party IRs. Applying Line6's early reflections to a third-party IR for instance. It might not make a whole lot of sense to apply a Line6 Royer mic emulation to an Ownhammer IR that had been created with an SM57 mic but I suppose it could be done. Perhaps Line6 has pioneered a whole new way of creating IRs that allows them to be "parameterized" and processed in new ways by the IR engine. If so, this technology could provide the entire IR community with a much more efficient, enhanced, and flexible method of sorting through IRs if it was applied as an industry standard. Maybe that is where we are headed while currently different manufacturers (e.g. Line6, Fractal) offer different IR parameters that can be modified. One standard IR protocol would offer many mic, distance, and potentially other parameter choices across different products instead of requiring a different IR for each parameter change. Similar to the way a Helix cab functions. One has to wonder though if "parameterized" IRs are or would be as faithful as one that is created recording the actual mic selected at the distance, axis, etc. indicated. My gut says it would take a long time to get certain parameters like mic-type in "parameterized" IRs sounding as authentic. Perhaps all the actual recorded mic-types could be combined into a single file and then parameterized instead of requiring separate files. Anyway, IRs feel to me like somewhat of a moving target and an evolving technology/art right now. One conclusion I have come to while stepping through some of the possible methods Line6 might have used to create their cabs is that running a Helix cab is not "the same" as running an IR. Either it has an essentially different DNA than a standard IR .wav file or it is a standard although perhaps "neutral" sounding IR(depending on whether or not Line6 is using different IRs for different mics) that is receiving custom Line6 post processing that the Helix does not allow to be used on third-party IRs. Either way this makes Helix cabs a somewhat different animal than a typical third-party IR. Even if the only difference is that the Helix's native cabs are IRs that have access to some post-processing that third-party IRs do not. This conclusion could admittedly be negated by some method that was not listed here and changes the playing field.

My initial thoughts given that you say it was running great before would be either that a file has become corrupted, or there is not enough memory, processing power, or disk space on the computer it is running on. I would try reinstalling Native if you check and find all your hardware resources are adequate. If you are running on Windows take a look at Task Manager to see what the memory and CPU usage look like when it crashes your DAW. And of course make sure you have enough disk space so that temp file creation isn't causing any problems. If you have been adding a lot of large files lately you may have run low. Also, did you import your presets from a Helix. If so you might want to try running Native without the presets or different presets to see if it still crashes. I have not heard of specific presets crashing Native but it is one more factor you could troubleshoot.

Thanks for the clarification brue58ski. You do have to go to the link that is NOT Amazon Prime to be able to choose your colors. I contacted them after making my order with my color choices and they did respond affirming that was how my order would be filled. It looks like these may be coming from China judging by how long the tracking email says they will take to arrive so if you order these you may want to leave yourself a few weeks lead time. I will try and post back when I get them on their usability and how long they took to arrive.

Not really a problem, especially with the addition of the new "Restore Backup" function in the new HX Edit 2.30, but just a little something to be aware of that I believe is a change from the previous Helix application editor versions to the new HX Edit 2.3: I was able to import all of my IRs at one time into the old Helix app editor by highlighting all of them and doing the import. One thing I have noticed has changed if I remember correctly in the new HX Edit 2.30 is the following. In the old Helix app even if you had empty slots in your IR list you could still bulk import all your IRs at one time by highlighting them all and using the Import function on the Impulse Response tab. Having an empty slot now in your IR list will cause your bulk import to fail at the empty slot. You now have to import your IRs in bulk by groups that do not have an empty slot. Not a big deal but something to be aware of if you get that orange bar and error message when attempting to bulk import IRs. I have every IR slot filled so not a problem for me. Anyway, not sure if I described this issue accurately and how exactly I got this to happen (repeatedly) but the overall gist of it is if your manual bulk import fails and you see an orange bar with an error message when you are manually bulk importing IRs look for an empty slot as the culprit. All the IRs up to the empty slot should import properly. Blank IR slots are not a problem if you are using HX Edit 2.30's new "Restore Backup" function.

Native does not support snapshots yet so when you import from Helix to Native you will only get the snapshot that is active when the preset was saved on the Helix. They are I believe planning on including snapshots in Native in the future. I was able to import all of my IRs at one time into Native by highlighting them and doing the import. One thing I have noticed has changed if I remember correctly in the new Helix Edit and therefor maybe in Native is the following. In the old Helix app even if you had empty slots in your IR list you could still mass import all your IRs. Having an empty slot now in your IR list will cause your bulk import to fail at the empty slot. This only applies if you are manually importing your IRs via the Import function. This won't be a problem if you are using the new Helix Editor "Restore Backup" function. You now have to import your IRs in bulk by groups that do not have an empty slot. Not a big deal but something to be aware of if you get that orange bar and error message when attempting to bulk import IRs. I have every IR slot filled so not a problem for me.

The Helix stock cabs are great and the ability to change the mic-type, distance, and add early reflections is fantastic. If they add any more features like off-axis to the Helix cabs it will become even less compelling to wade through IRs with so many options at your fingertips with the stock cabs. Not to speak of the fact that you can change the Native cabs' parameters from snapshot to snapshot. You can of course also change the IR used from snapshot to snapshot. Is it possible that you may be underestimating the number of people using at least a few IRs with more users coming on board as they get more familiar with the Helix? I think arguably the IMHO very limited and ponderous interface for using IRs (not enough slots, too short a namespace, lack of ability to see which IRs are in use, etc.) as well as the tedium prior to Helix Edit 2.3 involved in the IR backup and restore process required for upgrades has hampered the use of IRs in the Helix to some extent. Remember having to reconstruct according to a snapshot or alternatively having to rename and number all your IRs in order to be able to restore them to the correct locations. A better IR implementation may eventually increase the number of IR users. Many IRs appear to still be selling like hotcakes, are a great tool for finding new sounds, and they were a big selling point for the Helix.

Thx!

Just purchase Helix Native, import the presets from your Helix, and view them offline to your heart's content. The one caveat is that Helix Native is not supporting snapshots yet although it is supposed to in the hopefully near future. This means that whatever snapshot is currently active in your saved preset is the one that will get imported into Helix Native and comprise the entire Helix Native preset. Again, Native does not have snapshots (yet).

Not your fault really. The Variax setting for global versus per preset being located on the Input block rather than somewhere in the Global Settings is unusual and rather unique on the Helix. You would not expect a setting within a preset to impact every other preset using the Variax. This has confounded many users, you are far from the first and ultimately it would make more sense if eventually it got moved to the Global Settings as that's what it is. Logically it has no place being located within a preset but perhaps architecturally or from a programming perspective that was the best or easiest way to implement it.