soundog

Hats off to you! I appreciate all the work you put into making those presets work. And a great selection of Zep tunes, too.

I'm not a Garageband user, but does this get you there? https://support.apple.com/guide/garageband/show-track-automation-curves-gbnd939b92d8/mac

Here's a little more info on watching Activity Monitor to see if you're stretching your RAM to thin. https://support.apple.com/guide/activity-monitor/check-if-your-mac-needs-more-ram-actmntr34865/mac I've heard Reaper is not a huge memory hog, but if you're running soft synths and virtual instruments together with Native, I think 8Gb is too lean for a project studio, especially if you need more than, say, 10 tracks. At a minimum, make sure you're not running any other apps in the background. RAM is pretty cheap these days, and most Macs are easy to upgrade yourself (it depends on which model). Of course, I can't guarantee more RAM will cure your sluggish Native. But I do know when I upgraded my RAM and installed an SSD for my internal/operating system drive, everything ran better!

I'm not a Reaper user, so maybe some of them will chime in here with specific ideas. In general, though, use Activity Monitor when using Reaper + Native to try to determine if the issue is memory related, or CPU related. Then you can try to address the issue by using any tricks used by other Reaper users. If you are only seeing the behavior with Native (and not other CPU-intensive plug-ins like virtual instruments or IR reverbs) I suggest you open a ticket with Line 6 to investigate further.

My best advice is to avoid 80's power ballads if at all possible.

This is a useful thread. I like it.

They just had the 30% off deal around St. Patrick's day. It seems like the sale comes up about every 6 months. So perhaps another sale on Native this fall?

Wait ... did you just call @datacommando a "d*ck"?!! That doesn't help. And it doesn't make sense. How can he be a duck? It just doesn't make sense.

Make sure you wouldn't miss or need any of the Axe/IO's features: microphone preamps, 2 monitor pair outputs, etc.

How does your guitar sound to you with just the pickups straight into an acoustic amp or PA? I play out with an Alvarez Yairi and searched for years looking for a pickup that worked nicely with it. I settled on a B-Band A2.2 with XOM. It sounded natural on its own, so whenever I experimented with IRs in Helix I never really liked the results (I also used 3 Sigma acoustic IRs). If I used an IR at all, it was at about 35%. If your pickup sounds like "quack and plastic" on its own, then the IRs help more, I think. Your're on the right path ... start simple with the compressor followed by EQ (also try the Acoustic Sim EQ), get it sounding as good as you can, then mix in just a little IR if still needed. Also, if you search around on youtube and this forum there are plenty of good attempts to get Helix playing nicely with an acoustic. There is so much variation in guitars and pickups, though, that you will end up creating your own patches.

I always power mine with a Line 6 Variax Cabled Power Kit. Using batteries sucks. The Power Kit is getting harder to find and is overpriced, but they show up on flea bay now and then. I bought two; one as a backup.

Nice!! You're gonna love it. That's the exact same $ deal I got on a lightly used cream Standard at my local Guitar Center a few years back. It just needed a little setup tweaking, and still works great. Have fun!

I've experimented with various preamps in front of a Helix Stomp and a Strymon Iridium in the past (thinking that it would make things fatter), but all my experiments failed. Despite the cause, I decided I would just trust my ears on this one. Sometimes the less you step on a signal, the better. (Now ... a Klon Centaur hardware pedal is a whole nutha story!)

+1. Also, if you look deeper into how others designed their presets, you will learn a lot about how to make your own. Use them as a model, then experiment with your own stuff....

Sorry you're having connectivity problems. I agree with @datacommando, and internet connection is not required for a licensed copy that is properly linked to your Line 6 account. I've never experienced what you're seeing (Mac Catalina running Logic Pro). So.... Something is obviously wrong in your camp., but it should be fixable.There were reported similar problems in early versions of Helix Native. Are you running the latest version? And you linked it to your account while online (no Little Snitch, no firewall, etc). You might also look for some troubleshooting ideas in this older thread. Perhaps even a reinstall.

You get one of each, and then play one after the other.

Agreed. I use Logic with Native, and never lost any of Logic's settings or Native's settings despite numerous updates. But I always do backups just in case!

Yeah, I had one of those. I think it might have come with my Variax Acoustic. It was an XPS-Mini .... like a shrunk down XPS A/B but without the footswitch and the XLR our. TRS to the Variax; TS out. Mine went bad after awhile, as do the A/B versions sometimes.

The Boomerang looper is killer. I've tried 'em all, and its the best for live improv performance I've found.

OMG, they were an incredible band. I listened to ELP and King Crimson and Genesis over and over and over.

But I sure like the Lucky Man solo.

So the Helix won't work with an XLR cable carrying phantom power??

A tip. If you are fairly new to MIDI, there is a learning curve. You actually do need to read the manual's section about MIDI; both for the controller and for the receiving hardware or software. Its also very useful to get and use free MIDI monitoring software (I use this one on Mac) for troubleshooting. A monitor will help you see what is being sent or received. Sometimes everything works easy. Sometimes it will drive you mad. But when it works, its like magic.

Gee, I don't know. Have you asked Line 6? You could always open a support ticket and see what they have to say...

Open a ticket with Line 6 and report the bug. This is a bug affecting lots of people, and it should get high priority. I don't know why you couldn't use an older version, just be sure to save your presets first. Rather than uninstalling you could probably just move your 3.10 AU component out of the Components folder and install 3.01 (Library>Audio>Plug ins>Components). I have not tried this myself, though.