craiganderton

I also use Studio One, but it's version 4, which has been optimized quite a bit compared to V3. Plug-ins like Helix require a lot of CPU; with all due respect to PreSonus, who include some very fine plug-ins with Studio One, their amp plug-in is not on the same level as Helix. Fortunately, Studio One has a couple different ways to do what's called "track freeze" in other programs, so after recording a track, you can bounce it to processed audio, and save CPU. You can also preserve the pre-bounced state in case you need to revert, and edit the plug-in later. Unfortunately for guitar players, a fact of life is that lower latencies - which give the most comfortable playing "feel" - stress out the CPU the most. Amp sims like AmpliTube, Waves G|T|R, and Guitar Rig can select "lower resolution" modes while tracking, and then when mixing, you can increase the resolution because you can also increase the latency while mixing - you won't notice the change in feel compared to playing. Consider using some of the lower-latency amps in Helix when tracking, then going for the heavy-duty ones when mixing. As to the spiking, that could be something else, and you just hadn't noticed it because it didn't matter until there was something else draining the CPU. Not sure which platform you're using, but for Windows, Latencymon (which is free) will show what's drawing CPU power. For many people, just turning off the wi-fi made a significant improvement in performance. I also found some "HD Audio" drivers that graphics cards install can give a really big performance hit, because they prioritize video over audio. Some will even basically stop your hard drive if needed, so they include a big audio buffer. Disable any unused audio drivers (but note that when there are updates to Windows, you may need to dig in and disable again - they're often turned back on as a "favor" to you). Finally, I've had some mysterious "all of a sudden the program starts crackling" issues when using multiple Helices. Saving the project, closing Studio One, and reopening solved the problem for at least the next several hours, providing I wasn't trying to do a zillion other things on the computer. Good luck! You'll find the same issue with other CPU-intensive plug-ins. You might want to become friends with Studio One's internal performance monitor, which shows CPU drain for plug-ins and what they contribute to increased latency. It can be quite revealing about what's dragging down a project.

I was not surprised that sometimes, companies don't meet intended schedules. But now that it's dropped, what HAS surprised me is the depth of the update!!! I believe Line 6 has fulfilled their design goal that Helix would be a platform, and they've done it with style. They got it right.

You could also make a breakout box with a stereo cable that goes into the guitar, if you change the output jack's ring connection to the battery's positive voltage terminal.

Check your graphics card drivers.

I'd seen several posts about how inserting Helix Native in a DAW could cause a crash. I was just about to post what seemed to be the problem before 1.80 came out - if you dragged it into a mono track, you'd get the crash; but not if you dragged it into a stereo track. However, I've been able to drag 1.80 into mono tracks without issue, so if that was indeed the problem, it has been fixed. I also verified that my multiband preset pack works perfectly in 1.80.

Can you tell what is playing the backing tracks? With some programs, almost anything (included transport controls) can be assigned to MIDI learn, and be triggered by pretty much any MIDI command. I'll look into this a little further when I'm back in the studio.

The blurb on the Helix Native landing page used to say "Helix Native is compatible with a broad range of digital audio workstations, providing powerful 64-bit performance on AAX, AU, VST2, and VST3 platforms." However, I went there and now it says "Helix Native is compatible with a broad range of digital audio workstations, providing powerful 64-bit performance on AAX, AU, and VST3 platforms." I dug a little deeper, and found that it doesn't do VST2 on Mac, only on Windows.

I believe Helix Native is VST3/AU/AAX only. Is the version of S-Gear you're using VST2 or VST3? If the VST3 version responds to program changes, then that means other sim plug-ins can as well. Why they don't would be the next question :)

Agreed, bias makes a major difference.

I wrote an article for Guitar Player magazine on using program changes with amp sims. I found that most stand-alone sims could respond to program changes, but oddly, with Windows I have yet to find a VST3 plug-in that recognizes program changes - although VST2 versions of the same plug-in often do. I don't know if there's some underlying change in the VST spec that broke using program changes in VST3 and would require a significant rewrite, whether there's some particular issue with program changes and VST3 plug-ins, or whether any of this relates to Helix Native.

So far with my preset pack, two people had problems loading the setlist because of a mismatch between HX Edit and the Helix firmware. However, recently someone simply could not get the setlist loaded unless it had already been uncompressed. He was using WinRAR. I have installed other software where the documentation specified using ONLY Windows' built in Zip extractor, and specifically recommended against using 3rd-party unzippers like WinRAR and WinZip. I'm no IT guy, but given that there are a bunch of smart people here...I was wondering if this issue might be a one-off, or other people have encountered it. I do know about the downloads warning on the Line 6 site that says you need to turn off Windows SmartScreen, but I'm curious if there might be more to it that just that.

Multiband compressors can make very flexible EQs. The only limitation (which I don't know if it applies to Helix or not) is that compared to equalizers in DAWs, the multiband compressors tend to hog a lot more CPU. But in any event, I'm glad you got it sorted out, and have multiple solutions that work for you!

Of course gear matters, my original point was that the music matters more. A good song can sound good on just about anything, but a bad song can't be saved by gear.

Give the following a try. By boosting the graphic EQ's low sliders all the way up and cutting the high sliders all the way down, the isolation is pretty good (30 dB). You'll need to bring the level down a bit at the Graphic EQ output because of the low end boost. Follow that with the High Cut, and I think you'll have what you need. (FWIW if you look at the screenshots in my multiband preset pack demo video, I used the graphic equalizers to do multiband splitting - using a graphic EQ also has the advantage of being able to tweak the amount of leakage between bands. You may want to try this with bass as well, depending on your application.)

The only tidbit I can contribute is that I know it was intended to be a platform, not just a "produce it and move on to the next thing" type of product. What with the updates, creating a marketplace for presets, the ability to load IRs, etc., I'd say they stayed true to that direction.

This is GREAT advice for more than Helix. When mixing, I mix at low levels. Then if it also sounds good loud, I'm done. Also, I used to mix on speakers and use headphones as a reality check. However, with headphones becoming the dominant music delivery system, I'm doing the opposite - mix on headphones, use speakers as a reality check. My experience totally confirms what you say - after tweaking for speakers, it sounds even better on headphones.

Excellent point! Here's the Fletcher-Munson curve. It shows that your ear approaches flat response only at very high levels. BTW 85 dB or so is a standard monitoring level for film studios, although of course, they have bigger rooms.

Quick update...I've been experimenting with other effects, like chorus, phaser, reverb, etc. Although three or four bands can be really cool, a lot of times bi-amping as described in the article is all you need to do.

Even with vintage analog gear, every room you play will be different because rooms are like giant filters+delay+reverb anyway. And you don't get to tweak the parameters :) Since most of my work is in the studio, I optimize presets to sound good in stereo, in the context of a mix. This is why I use multiband presets so much. Then, I come up with "live" versions that strip off some effects and collapse well to mono. In my Multiband Presets Pack, there are snapshots for mono without effects, stereo without effects, and some with only some of the bands. Usually, at least one of those will work well for live, but retain the essential aspect of the tone. Another issue is impact. Subtleties that sound great in the studio can get lost live. So if you're listening on headphones and a DAW, the aspects you like most may be something that people don't even hear in a live performance situation. In the studio, a lot of what's important about a preset is the ability to blend. Live, it's often the ability to stand out because a) the instrumentation will usually be more sparse, and b) the acoustics mush things together. Hope this helps...

A couple people have reported issues installing the presets from the Craig Anderton's Amazing Multiband Helix Presets pack, and it sounds like your situation may be similar. This can happen if there's a mismatch in the Helix firmware and HX Edit versions (e.g., you're running the latest HX Edit version, but older Helix firmware). The fix is to update both to the latest versions from the Line 6 downloads section.

I use the Beeline cables from Neat Microphones. The company was founded by the people behind Blue, and was a division of Gibson that got caught up in Gibson's issues. The owners acquired the inventory, so the cables are available for around $40, which is lower than the original pricing. The only disadvantage I've found is that they're not particularly supple because the construction is pretty heavy-duty and the cables are thick. Some people don't like the look with the yellow stripes, but others like it because of the visibility - you're not as likely to trip over them Although I worked with the company while at Gibson, I'm not affiliated with Neat. I just like their products. FWIW, the online user reviews are extremely favorable.

Team Viewer is another option for controlling HX Edit on your desktop from a tablet or smartphone. It's free for personal use, and I've used it with various DAWs that don't have a remote control app.

I gave up on guitar amps in (believe it or not) 1968, and started using FRFR keyboard amps that were made by RMI. (Admittedly, this was because I created effects to give me the sound I wanted before hitting the amp, so the amp sound became less relevant.) At the time, tubes were getting inconsistent in terms of quality, and because I was playing over 250 dates a year, reliability was also an issue. I continued to use FRFR, and switched over to the Bose L1 when it came out because it could also feed FOH, and the line array was great for feedback by holding the guitar parallel to the speakers. On gigs with DJs in Europe, I didn't use any amp - just fed the AdrenaLinn output into the FOH, and got feedback by touching the headstock to the monitor speakers. The only time I use physical amps any more is in the studio to get a specific tube amp sound, because of the miking options that are possible with a room and cabinet. But this is maybe 1% of the time. Helix Native and other amp sims are a) all I really need, and b) can get sounds that are difficult or impossible to obtain with conventional amps. If I had to use physical amps and crossovers to do my multiband presets, I'd go insane. And broke. Or both :) I do find that amps have a certain kind of "feel" when playing live, which I believe has a lot to do with the room but also, a speaker cabinet is a very complex filter. So I think the comments about using Helix with a cab are spot on when you want that amp "feel."

Yes, that's where I'm coming from. AC/DC's total sound was about more than amps. Gear can certainly contribute to sound, and facilitate the musicianship. But if Jimi Hendrix had played "Little Wing" on an Epiphone acoustic guitar, I think it would still have been just as beautiful and compelling. Think of it this way: if the emotional impact of music was dependent on gear, cover versions done by different people using different gear would be irrelevant. I'm not saying gear is unimportant, just setting priorities by saying that emotional impact "has little to do with gear."

I think so, because presumably, the feature set for the software is frozen. Therefore the Knowledge Base article can be finished because it describes the feature set, yet testing can still be ongoing prior to the software release.