Hello,
I am looking into buying Helix Native for my home recordings. The main reason I want to go with it are the "legacy" effects I learned to love from my M9 stompbox modeler. Going fully digital helps a lot with being efficient and chaining effects. The amount of new models of course is a super big plus, especially since they'd also be very useful for vocals or synths.
There is just one big issue I noticed:
Together with a friend I recently compared the Helix Native demo with other amp suits and plugins. We checked overall sound, workflow and CPU usage between Helix Native, Peavey Revalver 4, ToneLib-GFX, Audio Assault Grind Machine II, Ignite Emmissary and LePou Poulin with NadIR as cab loader. While sonic impressions are always subjective and based on what your ears and brain like, CPU usage is a very different aspect.
It turned out that Helix Native always ended up with noticeably more, sometimes up to twice or thrice the CPU usage than the other plugins when using similar setups. The free LePou amps would stand a bit out regarding CPU power, but not as much as Helix Native. Overall usage was worse in FL Studio compared to Reaper. Leaving just a few numbers I noted down taken from empty projects running mono @ 512 samples / 44Khz on a single guitar track:
Helix Native (808 distortion + 5150/6505 amp sim and cab) = 2.3% CPU 57/512 spls in Reaper // 10% CPU in FL Studio
Peavey Revalver 4 (") = 1.2% CPU 0/0 spls Reaper // 6% CPU in FL Studio
Tone Libs-GFX (") = 0.7% CPU/ 0/0 spls Reaper // 4% CPU in FL Studio
Now, as FL Studio is my main DAW I am a little concerned looking at the CPU usage. 10%+ for a basic rythm guitar track setup would ultimately end up at 40-60% when I have it double tracked along with a lead and bass playing -- even more when using Helix Native for occasional vocal effects. With the other plugins I have never reached that much usage at all. Never have I had to pay attention to running out of CPU power or consider freezing tracks to keep things working well. All in all, this keeps me from buying the software at the moment. So help or advice is very welcome.
My system:
Windows 10 64-Bit
Intel i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50 GHz
16,0 GB DDR3 RAM (all matched)
500 GB Samsung 860 EVO SSD
Can you, Line 6, or any user/reader give clues why the CPU usage is that high?
Are there any CPU optimization developments going on to fix that?
Any advanced setting options I need to look at?
Kind regards