soundog

....my ISP is notorious for being especially rude. :)

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hmmmm....

Should be easy enough to test on your own. If you aren't itching, you don't have bugs.

^This.^ Latency should only be an issue for Helix Native users that don't own Helix hardware to monitor through.

There are good USB audio interface for <$100 that should work well. Read reviews and specs, then maybe try one out.

+1 on Block clip indicators (green, yellow, red). Voted. One advantage of using Helix Native is that you can check your level after the plug-in with a meter, and watch it as you build your preset.

Sorry, wasn't trying to throw any shade your way .... and you're absolutely right, its splitting hairs in this case ... either way the OP might be losing connection via either a faulty cable (intermittent wire or shield) or a faulty USB connector on Helix or the PC. @jbright44, you aren't using a USB hub by any chance, are you — they are notorious for messing up connections.

Something else may be going on .... maybe a bad USB connector? FYI, 1's and 0's aren't moving through a USB cable, its not digital. Larger, more conductive wires are better. Shorter lengths are better. Ferrite chokes (those lumpy things on some cables) aren't required. But for sure, a USB usually work or it doesn't, and there's no need buy snake oil cables. But check you connectors ... wiggle the end of the cable and test it.

What he said. And try the JC120, Twin, Archon Clean, and Soldano Clean amps. Max Channel Volume, Master Volume around 3-4, Drive as low as possible for the tone, and compensate with plenty of output gain. Then use the amp tone settings to adjust for any "muffling." Oh, and leave your guitar volume knob below 8. Keep playing, there are good cleans in there...

Line 6 mentions: If your audio interface doesn't have a dynamic impedance circuit, several models—especially fuzzes—won't behave like the real thing. Helix and newer Universal Audio interfaces have this and they also mention mention the 123dB dynamic range spec. The chip set in the Helix hardware only physically supports 114dB, so they must squeeze some extra range out via algorithms. You would be fine with 114 or 117dB in an interface. Also, compare noise specs when shopping. I use an Apollo Twin interface. It has good specs and components, and you could use one of their bundled guitar sims for low latency tracking while still getting some decent guitar tone through your headphones. Its got good High-Z input for guitar. Other interfaces are good too....but shop on reviews and specs. Haven't looked at specs for the Studiolive mixer as an interface. Have you tried it without the DI in the signal path? The importance piece is the A/D and D/A in an interface, if its a good one a DI is usually not needed.

An obvious tip that I overlooked for awhile ..... If you create a stereo track with stereo instance of HxN plug-in, and you want to do all of your effects (reverb, delay, etc) within HxN rather using other DAW plug-ins afterwards, you can pan the location of the mono guitar in your mix's stereo field using the Volume/Pan effects block. So: Amp/Cab (mono) --> Volume/Pan:Pan block (stereo) --> various effects blocks (stereo; e.g. Reverb, Chorus, Delay, etc) Then, use the balance slider in the Pan block to place your mono amped guitar in the stereo field (see example below, with guitar panned a little left of center). Leave your DAW pan for the track set to center (HxN is taking care of the panning and stereo image). Remember to choose all Stereo (not Mono) blocks for each effects blocks in your block chain after the amp ... if you accidentally stick a mono block in there, it will collapse the stereo to mono! And if you split your amp into two paths, be wary of how you place the stereo blocks. Amp and Cab blocks are mono, all blocks after that are stereo. Pan the amped guitar location using the Pan slider control.

Doh! .... just found the ticket (a Pan block) under Stereo blocks for Volume/Pan. Works as it should.

When playing through stereo speakers, the guitar is normally centered. Stereo effects (eg ping pong delay, reverb, etc) are spread to L & R sides. Is there a simple way to pan the location of the (mono) guitar/amp sound so it is not in the center, while retaining the illusion of a stereo"room" from the effects?

Good info! Copied and pasted parts into my Helix notes...

I like to watch videos of Slipknot turned up really loud while drinking cough syrup.

I hear ya. Even a $30 Behringer box has 100dB dynamic range, which should good enuf for many. Noise shouldn't be much of a worry in a electrical geetar track. If it is, turn up the distortion!

...or use a clean tone with plenty of sustain/compression (red compressor & Teemah), then use your pedal as a volume pedal to swell the volume as you play notes (or set up auto volume).

This should be a Sticky! Its way better to have your HxN input too low than too high. A few notes related to this topic: * Before recording, play some "loud" chords on your guitar and first check the levels on your audio interface (if it has adjustable levels). Make sure the level is not peaking. Then do the same and check the peak meter on the HxN input. Turn it down to keep the input level on the meter at < -18. * If you're shopping, audio interfaces that have a dynamic range of >114dB for the High-Z/guitar input are best (quality A/D and D/A chips). * When recording guitar tracks, if you're not monitoring through Helix hardware (e.g., you only have Helix Native) and you have lots of tracks or virtual instruments or a slow computer, and you can't get your latency (audio delay) low enough for your guitar when monitoring through your DAW, you have to resort to some tricks. I usually "bounce" and export a rough mix of the song without the guitar track to a stereo file, then open that file into a fresh DAW project containing only 2 tracks: 1) the rough mix audio file, 2) the guitar track to record with Helix Native. Then you can set your buffer and latency really low to record the guitar track while software monitoring through Helix Native. After recording, import the guitar audio/track into your full-blown project. Another option is to use something like an Apollo Twin interface with zero latency and built-in amp sim software.

Perhaps during the transition to Snapshots between Helix hardware and Native some oddities or minor glitches happened??? I would be surprised if there were no glitches during that transition, given the breadth of the info contained in the .hlx files. Regardless, this was a minor annoyance, and all is working nicely now. BTW, the Snapshots are really useful during automation during mixes with Native, as well the input level, amp EQ and drive.

....sounds like the sale is ending really soon, folks. Be smart! Buy now! BTW, I see that you can also get the discount at a lot of online retailers, like Sweetwater if you need to order some new strings or something. For a very short time, get 30% off all software items in the Line 6 online store including Helix® Native, POD Farm®, Model Packs, and Echo Farm™! The sale ends at 11:59pm (PST) on February 28th, so act now!

You betcha ... load 'em up, dude!

LOL. You won't be harmed in any way. :) This is more for recording purposes within a DAW, not live performance — as Helix Native was originally intended.

@lachdan0121 - would cause no more latency than the plug-ins used already cause. And phasing would not be an issue whatsoever. I've tested using 2 instances.

Helix through headphones sounds great - what's all the fuss about? - use good headphones of the right impedance - here's the latest Sonarworks studio headphone guide - cut Helix highs to mimic guitar cabinet frequency response (a lot crappier than headphone response) - add a tiny bit of room reverb to create some ambiance and space - Monty Python uses Sennheiser's