adamwhisner

I just downloaded NATIVE at the discount! Looking forward to NOT HAVING TO FIGURE OUT ALL THIS TECH NONSENSE and just recording some guitar! Thanks, man.

Greetings all. Looking for some assistance. Would be willing to Zoom and screen share. I'm a professional voice actor and have rudimentary home studio set up, which I had to whip into shape last April when the pandemic hit. I'm also a long time guitarist and budding home studio musician, but I feel like I'm standing in front of a tech wall that's preventing me from being able to do what I want to do. It's hard to find specific answers on YouTube. I have a PC, an Audient iD44 DI, and a set of monitor speakers. All of my voice work is done through the Audient DI, with two different mics connected via XLR cables to the DI and into the PC via USB, of course. I also have a Helix, which I know very little about other than that it will probably provide all of my sonic needs for guitar playing/recording...if I can figure out how to get it to do what I want. This is where it gets complicated and need help. I use Presonus Studio One as my DAW. It's all set up to record my voice. I edit my voicework by listening to playback through my Yamaha HS8 monitors, which are connected directly to the Audient DI. I barely understand how all of this works, but it does. I don't even remember how I figured it all out. What I'm trying to figure out how to do is to connect the Helix to my DAW without having to unplug anything from my Audient, and use my monitor speakers to hear my Helix guitar sound as I'm playing, as well as for recording playback when I'm making music. I first thought I'd just use the USB cable to the PC from the Helix, but what I can't figure out is how to get sound from the Helix and/or the DAW mix back to my monitor speakers. How do people do this? My monitors are connected to the Audient DI, not directly to the PC. Plus my DAW only lets you select one audio interface at a time as far as I can tell, so how do I get the Helix to talk to the Audient? How do I listen to what I'm recording via the Helix through my monitors? I've currently got an XLR/XLR cable running from the Helix to my Audient DI, in addition to the USB cable going from Helix to PC. I can get sound that way, but it's buzzy. Something isn't right. On top of all of this is my desire to use re-amping with the Helix, which takes the whole thing to another level I don't understand. I'm sure this requires a much more complicated understanding of inputs/outputs than I have. I'm an idiot about this stuff. I'm an actor, not a sound engineer! Help? Thanks, Adam

Thank you SO much for this detail! Above and beyond. I appreciate the tips about expectations. I used my Variax with a Spider V amp for a theatre gig, but that amp had acoustic amp models built in. With a little tweaking, I was able to dial in some acoustic tones that were so good and audience member came up to me afterward and asked when I pulled out an acoustic, because he didn’t remember seeing one. The thing is, I only used the speaker in the Spider V for onstage monitoring, and sent the signal to the house PA. I ended up selling the Spider because the in-room sound of the speaker was awful. The Powercab, even in flat FRFR mode sounds decent. I had to learn how to change my string attack on the Variax to get the right sound when using acoustic models, and that’s actually been fun. I don’t really need spot on tone - it’s the versatility of the guitar I love - I just need to be able to flip between electric and acoustic sounds and not have it be jarringly “digital-y.” There’s a Line 6 pro who does a YouTube demo of the Variax acoustic sounds, and it’s insanely good, but you read later that the signal is going through processors and other pro gear and then Pro Tools. I need the most basic, easy-to-navigate Variax>Helix>Powercab set up. With the Helix, which doesn’t have acoustic amp models that I’m aware of, I didn’t even know you could run a signal chain without an amp model. That’s the kind of beginner level info I need. If I play with some of the settings in the examples you provided, I’m confident I can find something that’s going to sound great. Thanks for taking the time to help me out!

Admittedly, I'm a little over my head with all of the functionality of the combination of my Variax, Helix, and Powercab. So many answers online get into the kind of detail that's just beyond my understanding. All I'm looking for is some noob help with dialing in a decent acoustic guitar sound for coffee shop gigs. Not looking to be shamed by people for whom the answer seems simple. It's not simple for me. I'm an old, former tube amp and 3 or 4 pedal guy just looking for a basic walkthrough. Surely there's a way to get the acoustic models in the Variax to play through the Helix and into the Powercab with a really legit sound that can sound acceptable in a duet scenario with another acoustic guitar player. Please help! Cheers, Adam