SoundIntentions

+1 to all. It's amazing how good direct cleans can be, and how ear-hurtingly bad distorted tones without a cab are. OP you could setup a patch where you have one snapshot with no cab at all for the clean sound you like, and then a snapshot where you both kick up the gain and turn on a stock cab, best of all worlds!

You'll be very happy running your setup this way, I was plugging my LT through a separate interface for a couple of months and finally tried using it as my main hub instead. So much simpler and really great for practicing along with tracks, with awesome sound through the monitors. The only downside is if you take the Helix to another room to play, say a jam space, now you are without an interface at your PC.