OrangeBlackstar

Thanks for the help guys. Follow up question that I forgot to add in the original post: my monitors have a spot for headphones, if I listen to my helix using headphones through the monitors will it sound noticeably different than listening with the same pair of headphones directly in the helix?

Hello, I hope everyone who is reading this is doing well. My question is regarding the helix and my studio monitors. I currently own a pair of Sterling MX3 monitors which I haven’t used with my helix due to a lack of a connection between the two. The only input for these monitors is two RCA slots. I would need an instrument to RCA cable; however, before I purchase one I wanted to ask around for sound quality opinions. From what I understand, RCA cables are unbalanced, and unbalanced is supposed to be less hi-fi than balanced. Is this something really worth getting new monitors over? Like will the quality be that bad? I know each pair of monitors colors sound to some degree, and being that these monitors were around $100 I’m not expecting a completely flat frequency response. I’m more concerned with what the cables will do to the sound since they’re unbalanced. Is this something that I’ll notice and will be annoying to listen to? Or is this like the difference between recording in 48k vs 44.1k, where technically there’s a difference but people don’t really hear it? Any and all help is appreciated, thank you in advance!

Hello, I hope everyone is doing alright! So I was mixing in logic and I noticed that my guitar tracks had a negative correlation. I recorded two tracks from the helix, both with the same patch and settings, one was panned 100% left and one was panned 100% right. The correlation hovers around 0, i‘d say around 60% of the time it’s below 0. Not by a lot, but it’s below 0. I’ve tried inverting phases on the tracks and all that does is cancel out audio. I know the first response is probably going to be to “play tighter.” I’m not Paul Gilbert or Yngwie, but the playing on those tracks is tight. I don’t think the negative correlation is a timing issue. Is this something that’s just standard for double tracking? If I pan them more towards the center the correlation goes up, but the whole point of double tracking (in my opinion) is to get that stereo spread by hard panning. Any and all help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

Finally, here's a photo of what I'm talking about :)

Edit: it didnt allow me to submit the photos of the EQ

So I tried recording with a new patch. To make things simple, I only put on an amp+cab block. I turned the high cut to about 14k and again, the global eq was off. No other effects or blocks were on (no input pad, no input gate). Below are some screenshots of the EQ analyzer and where the edge of the frequencies was. With a Q set that was adding 10+ db I barely got anything out of the 7k range. Idk if the amp i picked matters, but I chose the Uberschall (probably not spelled correctly) and Engl models for this test. Both are high gain so I thought it would help the cause. I also forgot to mention, I run through a pedalboard prior to the LT, but for this test all my pedals were off. Like I said before, this happened when I had an HX stomp too, so I don't think this is due to the unit i'm using. For any follow up questions about my gear, here is my complete rig: Ibanez rgr652ahb with dimarzio fusion edge pickups Ernie ball 52-10 cobalt strings (I'm in standard tuning) Ernie ball prodigy picks Ernie ball 10 ft cable to the pedalboard Dunlop kirk hammett wah (modded for true bypass and LED) EHX mel 9 Digitech drop Digitech whammy (5th gen) Ibanez TS9 MXR EVH phase 90 TC electronic Sentry noise gate MXR carbon copy Hosa 5 ft cable to LT USB cable from LT to mac (i'm using the LT as my interface) Logic Pro X 10.4 I'm using Three Monkeys Solderless cables to connect all my pedals. My pedals are all powered with a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus. I know I mentioned the wah pedal was modded; however, this issue happened with the HX Stomp too before I modded the wah. I doubt it's a power issue, I use a Livewire surge protector in a building with acceptable power. When this happened with the Stomp, I was living back at home (great power) plugged into a Samson power conditioner. That's everything that goes into the equation here, so I'm really not sure where the problem is. Also, as far as plugins are concerned, for this test I used only an EQ on the guitar channel to demonstrate the highest I could reach in the frequency spectrum. There weren't any plugins on my master bus, guitar bus, or anywhere else linked.

I don’t recall the options for split/merge so I’ll check it out when I get home. Another thought that occurred to me is the reverb block- I have a high cut at like 3.7k on that, but the mix is only at like 15%. Is this something that can affect the overall frequency as drastically as I’ve explained it?

Pretty close to a vertical line, I don’t have my computer on me right now but from what I remember it’s like a steep slope that ends at about 7k. I mean, there might be a little bit over 7k, like 7010hz or something minuscule like that, but for the sake of simplicity it’s about a straight cut at 7k. My mixer in my daw (logic) has a channel eq (which has the analyzer that I’m observing). Even if I eq the frequencies above 7k up by like 24db there’s really nothing showing up. As far as the input block goes, I haven’t checked if there happens to be a cut on that, so I’ll give that a look. Im using third party IRs by 3 sigma audio. I’m running the same IR twice (on different paths though so like a full stack) and each IR has a cut at 14k.

Hello, I recently noticed in my daw that there are absolutely no frequencies showing up above 7k in my analyzer. I'm not sure why this is, there aren't any plugins in the daw set to have a high cut at that value. I looked through my patch on the helix that I recorded the track with block by block, and there are a few high cuts set (redundant, I know) but the lowest they ever get is 14k. My global EQ is off, and even if it was on when I recorded the track, the high cut was set to 20k. The helix doesn't sound terrible because of this, however it is causing me problems further down the line in mixing due to the overall frequency spectrum not having enough energy in the higher regions. Is this something the helix just does automatically? I used to have an hx stomp and one day while recording with a friend they pointed out that there was a high cut at 7k, which I thought was strange, but at the time I didn't pay it much attention. Now I've realized that it was indeed an issue. Any tips on this? Any and all advice is appreciated.

Hello all, I’ve recently been learning more about gain staging and setting everything up correctly so that I won’t have clipping later down the road in my mixes. In regards to the helix, the patches I’m making right now are peaking at about -8.5db (I know, not the recommended -18.0), but this is without me paying attention to the volume knob on the unit. Is there an optimal spot to have this in for gain/avoiding clipping purposes? Currently it’s at like 12 and I haven’t thought about it until now. I use the helix as my interface so I’m recording directly out through the USB. Any and all input is appreciated my dudes.

Hello all, i apologize if this is a novice/unnecessary question. I was wondering if it would at any point be detrimental to the helix LT if I leave the USB cable plugged in to the back of the unit, but not always connected on the opposite end to another device such as my computer. I have a MacBook so naturally I don’t always keep it in one spot, and the way my helix is positioned makes it so that plugging in the cable and unplugging requires moving a lot of stuff around. Would leaving the cable plugged in essentially be the same as leaving an instrument cable plugged into the input jack constantly? I know I’m probably overthinking this but I just spent over $1100 so I’m not taking any chances. Leaving the cable plugged in even if not connected to something at all times would just make life a little easier. Thanks in advance for any and all input.

Hello all, i apologize if this is a a simple question but I can’t find the answer anywhere online or in the pdf of the manual. I recently ordered the Helix LT and I wanted to double check that it’s safe to plug into the power strip I have. I bought a low grade power conditioner/surge protector from live wire and it says the max it can power is 15 amps. I’ve seen the number 60 watts thrown around online for the Helix but I haven’t seen it in official writing/documents. Because of this, I was wondering if someone could tell me the amount of watts, volts, and amps the LT consumes/needs. This is probably me just being extra about it but I just spent $1100 on this so I’d rather double check than have something tragic happen. For the power strip in question, I’d be plugging in the LT, my pedal power 2 plus, and some very low grade studio monitors (less than $100 for both). Occasionally my computer might get plugged in but that’s about it. This wasn’t necessarily for complete and utter destruction of excess noise or elimination of subpar power, it was more so a last line of defense for the safety of my equipment so that I can sleep better at night. Any and all help is appreciated, thank you.

Hello All, I currently have an HX stomp and am interested in purchasing a Helix. However, I keep having an issue with the stomp that I would like to figure out the solution to prior to purchasing a helix, that way i can ensure that this issue won't come up again. I play higher gain material (gojira, slipknot), and have noticed an issue with a few of the amp models, most notably the PV Panama. For rhythm material it sounds great, but for anything on the higher strings it instantly sounds very choppy and ice picky (not in a good way). Below are two audio files of me playing roughly the same thing. One is with the PV amp, another is with one of the JCM models. As you can hear, the PV is very choppy, while the JCM has a more natural sound to it. Any idea on how to fix this? I'm not palm muting in any weird way or anything, as this would then apply to both models. I'm using external pedals, but they were on for both presets. I'm using 3rd party IRs, but both presets are utilizing the same one. My first thought was perhaps digital clipping, but that wouldn't make much sense. The JCM preset's output is actually louder than the PV preset. Just for confirmation, I turned down the output for the PV to like -20db and the issue was still there. Any and all input is greatly appreciated. I know this unit is capable of great tones, I just need to get past this issue. New Idea_1#01PV.aif New Idea_1#02JCM.aif

Good Evening, I'm researching into the Helix because this unit looks amazing and I want to figure out as much as I can before I decide to buy it. For the effects loops, I have two questions: 1.) In the manual, it says that the levels should be set to instrument if connecting to external pedals. This originally made sense to me, but after further thought I wondered if this is true when the effects loop comes after the amp. My understanding is that when a signal goes through a guitar amp it becomes line level. Is this the same with amp models in the Helix or does it remain instrument level throughout the entire signal chain, regardless of whether or not an amp block is used? If it passes through the amp model and becomes a line level signal, would I then need to set the levels in global settings for effects loops to line, or still have them remain as instrument since they're connecting to external pedals? The pedal that I'll be putting in the loop is the carbon copy. 2.) I've been looking into putting a buffer into my rig at the start, way before the Helix. This research has led me to understand that some amps have buffered effects loops. If I were to use all 4 of the Helix's effects loops, or even just one with really long cables and a long signal path, I'm concerned about tone degradation. Are the effects loops in the Helix buffered? Sorry if these are basic questions, I couldn't find the exact answers I needed anywhere else. I appreciate any and all input.

Hello all, I'm currently planning to upgrade my rig to include a helix, and have come across the following question: why does everyone connect the helix to an external audio interface with XLR cables? I currently have an HX stomp and I connect it to my scarlet solo with a TRS cable. From what I've gathered, XLR cables are popular because they're balanced signals... but so are TRS cables. However, almost every review I've seen of the helix involves the player hooking it up with two XLR cables to their external interface. I plan on upgrading to the 2i2 interface for multiple inputs, that way i can have a stereo sound. However, I'm unsure of if I should connect the Helix to the 2i2 with TRS cables or XLR cables. Which makes more sense? The 2i2 has an option for phantom power. From the research I've conducted so far, phantom power can potentially be harmful to a TRS cable (and as a result whatever else is connected to it) if plugged in. If I use XLR cables, it appears as if phantom power won't be harmful in any scenario; that being said, do I need phantom power on? Or do i just record with it off? Lastly, since I currently use the HX stomp as my amp, I always have the output set to line level. Is this something that will be the same with XLR cables, or will I need to change my output to instrument? I know these are fairly basic questions but I couldn't find answers pertaining to this anywhere else. Any and all input is appreciated.