datacommando

Way back at the beginning of this digital modelling age I started out with the original big red kidney bean POD, then moved to a PODxt Live in 2006 moving on the POD HD500 four years later, and ultimately the Helix in 2015. Always onwards and upwards, never regretted a moment, (even though I got sidetracked by the BOSS GT for a short time, and toyed with the idea of the Fractal - ultimately - nah!). This stuff just keeps getting better and better, plus it’s light years ahead of the POD HD. If you are after Peter Green tones they should be pretty straight forward to create. His set up was really simple and all the bits are in there. Bear in mind, your old HD presets are NOT transferable. The sound creation engine is completely different, and much better. What’s to debate - do it. Version 3.0 firmware in the pipeline, that’s got to make you want to jump to a new platform. Hope this helps/makes sense.

Here’s an old video from the early days of Helix. Hope this helps/makes sense.

Uh? Now I’m really confused. In your original post my understanding was that your 2013 MacBook Air and it’s OS wouldn’t support the latest Helix firmware because because your OS wouldn’t work with it. As you said you were averse to upgrading the technology I guessed you were stuck on the OS your Mac shipped with - i.e. Mountain Lion. Doh! If you’re already running “Catalina” why not update your HXFX? Ah! Best thing maybe is to wait for v3.0 firmware to drop and the go for the big one. Good luck.

Here ya go - same for all HX products, therefore when the guy says Helix LT it’s exactly the same for your Helix. Hope this helps, but a little research on your part would have been beneficial. This unit with negate your need for POD Farm - this is a whole new ball game so you can forget about that old stuff and btw, you old sounds are NOT compatible with the HX Engine. Get ready for a complete fresh start. Stand by for a tidal wave of RTFM responses. Even better start here and go through all 6 episodes and see how much you can learn!

Hopefully, lesson one will be, “How to install firmware updates without tantrums and tears”. Super Special Edition - “How to install FW Version 3.0“

Ha, ha, ha - you’re a mere child. Get with it youngster. Meanwhile, get a friend with a better computer to do the updates and then do your edits on the hardware. Inconvenient and not very practical.

Take the Berhringer U-Phoria UMC494HD out of the equation. Connect your monitor speakers to the Helix balanced XLR output and connect the Mac Mini and the Helix via USB (DO NOT USE A HUB). Fire up Logic Pro X and select Helix as the audio in/out device. Plug your guitar into Helix, select a clean amp preset and strum. Does that work or not?

Nope! That solves nothing. Check through the threads in this forum and you will find as many Windows issues as Mac, if not more. As for “losing your most valuable info on your computer”. Well, you should always have a back up (failsafe) and always work on a copy. Usually 99.9% of the reported “firmware bricked my Helix” complaints on here are down to “user error”. Some do, but many others never return to admit negligence or plain stupidity. Too embarrassed probably. RTFM, and follow the instructions precisely, usually does the job. As with everything in the modern world, things progress and inevitably you have to update. Basically, you pay your money and take your chances. Hope this helps/makes sense.

Ha, ha, ha. More likely some poor Indian kid with no shoes. I didn’t delve too deep, but I think it’s some sort of oddball hack thing based on the Indian sub continent. There are little sweatshops of the little devils sending out ransom ware and other noxious stuff. I love it when they phone my land line to tell me my MicroSoft Windows computer is infected with a virus and should give them access to everything and then pay them to fix it. Yeah, right. I like to tell them that, as I don’t own a MS computer, I’m only continuing to speak with them while the Feds trace the call. They hang up real quick after that. Another good one to spring on ”cold callers” is, pick up the phone and immediately say in a heavy voice, “It’s done, but there is blood everywhere!”, then hang up - they never ring back. Anyhow, this one seems somewhat similar to when people have their email compromised by Russian “bots” and then start sending out spam. Damn sure, this dude won’t make anything out of me - because I don’t have anything. ;-) Stay safe - who was that masked man?

Here ya go - you can update your Mac Book Air to Mojave (10.14.6) at the very least: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210190 Hope this helps/makes sense

The Mac can switch between audio in/out devices on the fly. You configure what does what, via the main Audio MIDI Setup application and then select as needed. Within LogicProX if the device isn't selected then it won't be used. Note that the ProTools Aggregate device will allow yo to create multi input device from whatever you have available to use. In my case that is setup to allow 12 ins and outs. Example Pics:

Most of the posts on this thread seem to be Mac based, but for any PC user’s, you may want to check this older, and still running thread from the main Helix forum:

Easy way to deal with what you believe to be a “bug” is to do a reinstall of the firmware. As I mentioned in the prior post I use a very similar set up everyday, as do many others, with no problems whatsoever. To me that doesn’t indicate a bug, more likely a glitch. Reinstall the firmware and when completed see if it is fixed. If not, turn off the power to your Helix and wait a few seconds, then turn the power on again while holding down FS 10&11 during boot up. See if that clears the glitch. Hope this helps/makes sense.

Re: post above from dawiodjoopkk12. soundog - the key question is who is this guy? There is something weird about the post from the guy above. If you check the profile there are some odd things where in a post, his is a direct copy of the a post above his in a prior post - almost a direct copy. Plus, some of the posts have strange links in the bottom of the posts. It’s like a bot is posting this stuff because none of it makes any sense. Comments that seem totally random are being made in response to stuff that is unrelated. Weird scenes in the gold mine.

What you have there is a USB cable fitted with an "electronic noise suppressor". See here for the science bit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead

Nope - I have HX Native installed on two Macs without any issues, and they have been like that for over 2 years.

Hi, again, Well, if anything you want to add to a signal chain is “greyed out” and not selectable, then you have run out of DSP (rather than CPU). Other things may still be usable, because they don’t need a much processor power. None of this has any effect on the tone, simply because you cannot select something that would push things over the edge. For the scientific detail you should have a look at forum user Malhavok’s (Ben Vesco) listing of DSP allocation in Helix. https://benvesco.com/store/helix-dsp-allocations/ Hope this helps/makes sense

I guess the sparky that you had in to check the wiring was just a regular electrician not a specialist in audio? That sounds like a bad earth somewhere, and not having clean power supply is not going to help. The guy was right about surge protection and filtered mains. Although, that thing with the phones volume knob is plain weird - something is not wired up right! It's difficult to tell from your quick video clips, but is that a a single XLR cable exiting the rear panel of your Helix? If it is, then where the hell is it going? It looks to me as if, other than that, the guitar cable going in that's the only other connection on the Helix. First off physically disconnect the Helix from whatever else, then plug in some decent headphones and hook up your guitar. Make sure you check your Helix Global Prefs for Headphone Monitor (for this simple test set it to Multi.) Use your headphones, select clean preset and strum. If there is no crackling, hum or buzzing that should basically eliminate the Helix for the moment. Now using good quality XLR cables, connect your Adam TV monitors to the XLR outputs on the rear of the Helix. Make sure the Global outs are set to XLR Line and Volume Knob Control is XLR, select clean preset and strum once more. Clean - then continue. Buzzing or Hum, stop and try to figure where it's coming from. Now connect your guitar to the UAD interface and speakers to see if the buzz occurs while using that. Basically, rinse and repeat, because what I would like you to do is eliminate possible suspects one by one. If they all work fine independently the problem will be with how they all connect and communicate with each other. What you will be left with is whatever is causing the problem. There are quite a few UAD users on here who might have some more specific ideas to help you out. I don't know that much about the Arrow, but I understand that the software that comes with it has the ability to change the impedance of the hardware. Better check that you haven't inadvertently changed something in that box. Hope this helps/makes sense.

My standard configuration is Guitar into Helix, Helix USB in/out Logic Pro X on Mac, XLR cables from Helix OUT into a pair of Tannoy Reveal 802. Arturia Keylab 61 USB MIDI into Mac on another input. Second pair of EGO•SYS nEar5 monitors on 1/4'' jacks from Helix as nearfield reference (if needed). Works a treat and never failed yet. I have UCM204HD simply as a standby spare if needed, never really gets used. Hope this helps?makes sense.

Well, you could get one of these and build your own reverb!

The Helix Native forum has a thread about this. The best thing is to raise a ticket with Line 6 Customer Support, show them the screen shot, and make them aware of this issue. Hope this helps/makes sense. link:

Hi, AFAIK, the ported legacy FX behave exactly as they did in the earlier products. Also, as you thought, if you place a mono effect block after a stereo one it will collapse the signal down to mono. All the dynamic legacy models are variations of compressor models. I tend to assign compression early in the chain prior to anything which takes advantage of stereo imaging, i.e. - delays and reverb. One exception would be the stereo LA Studio Comp which can be nearer the end to add a little gloss. You might find a little more detailed info here: https://helixhelp.com/models Hope this helps/makes sense.

That’s very odd, but the best thing to do with the video is open a ticket with Line 6 Customer Support and let the Tech Crew check it out. This is something I haven’t encountered - I have been using Native in Logic right from the first version without any major disasters. Hope this helps/makes sense.

To continue on from “phil_m”, NO, NO, NO. You HX Stomp allows you to get a dry guitar signal into your DAW of choice. After that you can disconnect your Stomp and it put away. Now, within your DAW you can manipulate the dry guitar signal through HX Native however you like, and as many times as you like. Your computer does all the processing. To reiterate, instead of being limited to the Single DSP and 6 Blocks of your Stomp, with Native running in your DAW it can function like a full blown Helix. Plus you can open as many instances of HX Native as you like (until your computer runs to of steam). Additionally, you can use HX Native to process bass, vocals, synths or whatever else you might have in your track. It’s not just for guitars. Turn off the amp and speaker models and run a drum track through a phaser and reverb, if you wish. You may want to read this: Hope this helps/makes sense.

Done (even though I don’t need it - both my loopers are external units).