soundog

The best thing I've found (although never as good as using a quality small diaphragm mic) are these acoustic guitar IRs: https://www.3sigmaaudio.com/acoustic-impulses/ which come in a set for mic'ed, sound hole pickup, and piezo pickup. You can record direct into your DAW from your piezo pickup and use an IR plugin to host them (3 Sigma provides a free one), or you can set up a simple acoustic guitar path in Helix and use the IR there, using blocks such as Studio Compressor: Studio Preamp: IR (using 3 sigma IR): EQ: Reverb/Delay to taste

It does seem to be less CPU intensive to use a Mono instance. In fact, I usually set up a mono track, just using the Helix Native amp-related stuff (similar to what you would do mic'ing an amp). So, mainly just amp, cab/IR blocks. Maybe some mono EQ or studio compressor. If I want to add stereo effects later (eg reverb, delay, etc) I do that when mixing using third party plug-ins on the mono guitar track.

Yes, that is a helpful article!

Logic Pro seems prone to those danged overloads. Some think its due to its heritage and code base. If you google you can find lots of stories, and lots of suggested solutions. I have a few plugins in particular that seem to cause problems at times, so I'm cautious with them. HxN is on my list, but its a processor intensive plug in. Omnisphere. Some reverbs. A few tips I can offer that have helped me are: - keep lots of plug-ins of your main 1/2 channel (use busses instead, then route those to the main) - bus hungry effects (I usually have one room verb, one chamber verb, one plate verb, and a couple of delay busses) - increase buffer size when mixing, decrease (and use low latency mode) when tracking - for stereo fx in HxN, use a stereo instance on a stereo track, and use the Volume/Pan block after amp and before stereo fx to pan your guitar position - for HxN,though, I almost always focus on a getting a good mono guitar track (eg mono Helix with only amp/cab/IR), then use third-party delay/reverb if needed in the mix - I usually save the raw (muted) guitar track(s), then commit/bounce the amped sound as early in the project as possible. can go back to raw track if needed. - create a blank audio track with no plugins, and try to always select/highlight it (record enable) when working (this one gets mentioned in lots of forums, and works)

@jagman13 ... I finished the testing. For your first test, I duplicated as best as I could, also adding the busses from SD2 with Space Designer, and Channel EQ shown in your screen shot. Everything ran fine here. Here is how my meter looked with the same project running: I was able to add 10 additional HxN tracks (duping the Steve 4U one) before I pegged the CPU meter and got a system error. (Plus, I noticed I had Safari, Messenger, and Preview running when I finished the test, so I could have gone for more without those.) For the second "pure" test, I was able to run 35 instances of stereo HxN before I hit the wall (and before going insane from hearing the Bosnian Sunset loop through a wall of Helix Natives): After running this test, its made me that that perhaps HxN may not necessarily be the culprit in large projects, so I won't be so quick to assume that. With numerous virtual instruments and power-hungry effects plug-ins, HxN may just be the unlucky straw that breaks the cpu's back. Or there is some complex interaction between plug-ins? I don't know how your iMac is spec'ed (cpu speed, dedicated graphics chip(s) for the 5K, etc). My quad core i7 is 4.0 GHz, with dedicated 4GB AMD Radeon M395 GPU. FYI, I'm using SSD internal, USB 3 7200 RPM external drives (for sample libraries) and a Thunderbolt Apollo Twin interface. Not sure why such a big difference in the number of tracks of HxN we were able to run before overload.

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I'll test this tomorrow on my system and let you know what happens. Wow, lots of stereo instances of HxN, so not too surprised you were bogging down. What were your Logic buffers set to during the test?

I can do. Couple of questions .... do you have a MIDI drum file playing on SD2? For the Helix tracks, what sort (if any) audio is playing on each track? And, for your notation — for example Track 2 Mono-Stereo PV Panama Left — do you mean a stereo instance of HxN on a stereo track, mono instance on mono track panned left, or ??? Another test suggestion would be to use an audio file (e.g. stock Logic Apple loop) on a HxN stereo instance/track with a given preset, then duplicate the audio file and track until Logic chokes. Count the instances.

Do your CD's sound different on your various computers and stereo systems (speakers out of the equation). 1's and 0's. At matching sample and bit rates, quality processors are surprisingly similar ... some are just faster! You can repeat the experiment. Use a simple Helix patch with no stereo effects (which will most likely present phase or timing differences). Use the Helix hardware as your audio interface. Run the same raw guitar track through both and capture them in your DAW. Carefully align the audio files so peaks are perfectly aligned (no easy feat, so zoom or use alignment plugin). Reverse the phase of one. You should be able to achieve complete cancellation (or at least align them close enough so you hear the summed dB drop consistently low enough to be assured the files are identical).

Jagman, I'm running a similar system to yours (Late 2015 27†Retina 5K iMac, i7 4.0 GHz, 32G RAM, SSD drives, Logic Pro X 10.4) . Without duping a test to see how many instances I can run, I can tell you my experience has been similar to yours. HxN seems to be a CPU hog at times. You can do the usual stuff (have a blank track highlighted during mixing, render virtual instruments, etc). I also find that running projects in 44.1K/24 bit seem to go easier, higher sample rates cause more problems. I have, at times, resorted to bouncing the song with no guitar, and setting up a separate project for tracking the guitar parts, rendering the guitar audio tracks, and importing them into the main project. Often I use other plug ins for effects (eg reverb/delay) and just use a mono instance of HxN (uses only 1/2 the horsepower), just for amp/cab/IR tones. HxN sounds good enough on projects that I continue to use it, but I hope they are able to somehow bring down the CPU usage. If it will help you troubleshoot, I can run a duplicate test and we can see if we are seeing the same usage. Maybe create multiple instances running a specific preset, buffer set the same, see how many tracks we can get before it smokes.

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Thanks, that helps! Also found this useful thread http://line6.com/support/topic/28449-best-locking-tuners-for-variax-standard/ and have ordered a set.

@fremen - good to hear .... best to you during your transition!

Oh, come on...you know what fits. You don't have to recommend or play favorites, just mention some options. I drive 40 minutes to my closest guitar outlet with a tech on hand, pay the tech for his time, maybe or maybe not find the tuners I want, etc, etc.... vs Please just give me a few of the "many" candidate tuner brands/names that would be a drop-in fit, I research and order online and install them myself. Think of all of the time, energy, air quality saved in the name of a better future for all children.

If you do a proper A/B (remove all variables except the hardware vs the plugin) using Helix hardware as the audio interface into HxN, and adjusting levels properly, you'll find that the resulting audio is, indeed, identical and will cancel out (nulls) if you reverse the phase of one of the comparisons.

Good to hear!

Not sure what's up with it, but its been up and down and in and out and inaccessible for most of the past weekend. Wazzzup??

I, too, would love to upgrade the tuners on my Standard (e.g. higher ratio, locking, rotomatic-type). Can you simply recommend some that would be a simple nuance-friendly drop-in match?

Do an experiment. Create a simple patch with your PV Panama, turn off the effects blocks such as distortion. Without playing, turn up the gain on the PV to see if the noise/hum increases incrementally as you do. I still think it may be a matter of noise in your system/guitar/AC that is being amplified by HxN. Remove as many variables as possible and look for a direct correlation.

Latency mainly comes from the software (GarageBand) processing the audio. By the time its done, you hear a delay when monitoring through the software. Its not a bug in the Mac or software, just the way DAWs and audio software work. You can usually reduce the latency in the software: here's an article on GarageBand: https://ourpastimes.com/how-to-adjust-latency-in-garageband-12594258.html Since you have the Helix hardware, its always best to monitor through the hardware (zero latency), and record either the processed guitar or raw guitar to process later. Or both! The Helix manual explains this pretty well (USB recording).

Those kinds of noises are maddening and hard to track down. I'm guessing when you use high-gain settings HxN is compressing and boosting any existing noise/hum that was always there, but you didn't notice/hear it. Listen as you increase gain levels (with headphones) to check. You'll need to try to eliminate/change possible sources to see if you can isolate the cause. It sounds like you've already started doing that. Obvious examples: guitar pickups, audio interface, lighting, transformers, AC power quality, other AC stuff on the same shared outlet, etc. FYI, I'm using an iMac here and get some expected hum/noise with high-gain settings — but nothing unexpected, problematic or at the level you're describing. I use a Furman AR-15 Series II voltage regulator/power conditioner in the studio, but that sort of thing may or may not help your situation.

""sounds good" and "sounds identical" are two very different assessments." Agreed! Its unrealistic for a user to think the patches will sound exactly like the videos when they use them with their setup, though quality speakers and guitar sure help! Still, I find good value in the patch sets some of these guys are working hard to create, and the market will decide which ones have staying power.

Interesting perspective. Though my experience is that – with a decent guitar and player, and a full-range speaker or PA – those "other guy's patches" can sound pretty darned good. The EQ settings usually need to be tweaked to better match guitars. I often turn first to Delaune and Freman patches when recording because they can be a huge time saver. (I go for the "amp" type patches, rather than the "artist/song" patches.) Of course, I don't listen to see if they sound exactly like the creator's youtube video or not; I'm just looking for usable tones. That said, patch creation (especially learning amp/cabinet/IR block interactions and settings) is a skill that is worth developing.