soundog

Just released a new album; I recorded 90% of the guitars and bass using Helix Native (in Logic Pro). The album ("Strange Tales" by John Plainsong) is here to listen to for free if you want to hear how it sounds (or stream on the usual outlets). Its sort of mainstream rock/blues/Americana. No metal hippity-hop.

Yeah, I noticed the delay/reverb was turned up pretty high on some of the leads, especially in the 2.8 set .... so I just turned the block mixes down. But I always adjust the effects on presets to fit the song anyway. Nice, though, that you're fixing the ones that seem "buggy." Awesome job on these, BTW.

I can see why Line 6 moved the "commercial" presets over to a separate forum, but I don't want anyone who might be interested to miss out on Freemen's outstanding set of new presets. Anyone playing blues, funk, soft rock, hard rock, alt rock, country, etc would benefit from these, and they're a great bang for the buck (128 presets with snapshots, IRs, tons of tonal variety, blah blah blah). I posted a mini review over here.

Yes, pick them up for sure! I was up waaay too late last night playing with these new Classic Rock/Hard Rock presets. Highly recommended! Its a really generous pack, I’m still making my way through it (128 presets by my count!). Theres a folder of presets for the new 2.8 amps, one for the “original” amps, and one for a variety of overdrives into amps that you can easily customize (perfect for lead guitar and feedback junkies). Theres a healthy bunch of custom IRs too. Each preset has up to 8 snapshots (usually with various clean, crunch, rhythm, and lead tones). There’s even a handy spreadsheet summarizing which cabinet IRs go with which presets, and which amps are used. You can tell these weren't thrown together and shoved out quickly .... a lot of care went into them. I like making my own presets and have gotten pretty good at it, but I always learn a lot when studying creative presets like these. Some use parallel IRs. The use of effects is clever, and sound great in stereo recordings. When a single amp is used for multiple presets, there are useful changes to deeper amp settings (sag, ripple, bias, etc). I think some of my favorites are included with the new 2.8 amps, especially the 8 Grammatico presets, and the combo Fullerton and Grammatico preset. These presets could be used for rock (hard or soft), alt rock, funk, blues, pop, or even country chicken picking. The range of accessible tones is huge. They'd be great for live work, but also sound great using them with Helix Native for recording. I’ll be using these a lot, and can already tell this will be one of my “go to” bunch of presets.

Gilmour used a lot of good analog gear, so getting a tone that's close can be challenging with amp sims. http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=71 You may want to try some Helix blocks before your amp, like an LA compressor, and a mellow distortion (like Teemah, Minotaur) turned down. Push your pickup output a bit before hitting the amp. And don't worry too much about having to use bridge position only .... try other switch positions (with volume/tone knobs) to get the tone you're after. And focus on the amp tone first, then add the reverb/delay stuff.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. @chasingMango ... I recorded all the tracks in my basement studio, but sent them out for mix and master (used soundbetter.com to find the mix engineer and he was great to work with, for a very affordable price). I was trying to mix it myself but I was spending way too much time tweaking stuff, so could never focus on writing. @lungho, thanks so much for the supportive feedback. The more extreme guitar effects were indeed Helix ... for leads I like gilmore-esqe tones with mainly reverb and delay. The rhythm parts I usually left dry (just amp) so the mix engineer could blend reverb/delay to fit. I can't imagine trying to record electric guitar at home with a real amp these days ... the amp sims are getting better and better.

I just finished an album using Helix for all the electric guitar tones. The only exception are two of the tracks (Night Train ... I used S-Gear; and Mary Madeline .... mic'ed acoustic). I started out using my Helix Floor for tracking, but later started using Native because it was just easier for me to deal with plug-ins, and the Floor was usually in a gig case. A lot of the bass on the album uses Helix also — I usually DI'ed the bass, and then mixed in some parallel Helix bass stuff (Ampeg B15 or SVT, or Darkglass/Obsidian for some edge). You can stream or listen to tracks here: https://music.johnplainsong.com

Study online videos on using UA Console; the software control center for the Apollo Twin. Learning how to use it efficiently is half the battle with using the Apollo Twin. I'm assuming you're plugged into the Apollo front panel 1/4" guitar jack (Hi-Z). Make sure levels are set correctly for that input, and then make sure you have selected the same input within your DAW. The Apollo Twin has a lot of digital outputs! I don't know if you're on a Mac or PC, so can't help you configure there....

....and because of that its a good idea to make it clear to new buyers the Native discount has already been used. Think of it as a money-off coupon that's was in the box; when its gone its gone. Most used buyers won't care because they just want the hardware, but its good to be clear to avoid any problems with someone expecting to get the discount.

My understanding was that you had to own the hardware for at least 6 months to qualify for the discount (and retain rights to the software). If the OP owned it for a year, he's free to sell it, and keep Native (even if he had just bought it). Of course, when you sell the Stomp, the new user will not be able to buy Native on the special pricing discount. .... it can only be applied once with a given Helix.

If that clean sound is straight through your babyface into a DAW track, yeah you got something wrong. Isolate the guitar signal first. Check the wiring. Check your cable. I'd try to isolate guitar and cable first (plug into an amp) before you start adding other pieces to the puzzle (like your interface, computer, DAW, plug-ins). If the guitar sounds bad through an amp, fix it or seek a good tech.

Therein lies the dilemma. Home recording softwares (e.g. DAWs, virtual instruments, audio plug-ins, etc) are more powerful than ever and are always evolving .... but keep requiring more powerful CPUs, graphic processors, RAM, etc. Its always just a matter of time before we have to upgrade once again.

Well, there ya go...

Useful info for Reaper users, thanks! I don't use Reaper, but FYI ... Native now supports Program Changes. In Logic, though, I have to use Native as an plug-in in an Instrument track rather than an Audio track. Then its a matter of getting audio in, and recording the audio. For Reaper, I'm not sure how that is done. Maybe this thread would be helpful for that: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=153147

You could try the usual tricks .... like making sure nothing else is running on your Mac (even in the background ... use Activity Monitor to see). Also no bluetooth, no wi-fi. No nothin'. And make sure you aren't running up against memory constraints (also use Activity Monitor to check "memory pressure."). If none of that is helpful, it may be time for a different plug-in host, a different plug-in, or (I hope not) a different computer.