soundog

what DAW will you be using?

ye

...as others here have mentioned, the 3 Sigma acoustic guitar IRs sound really good on an acoustic when place in a Helix IR block. They take out a lot of the quack out of a piezo pickup, give it a more rounded woody tone. 3 Sigma includes some for sound hole pickup to, but I haven't played around with those.

The ToneDexter uses IRs just like the Helix does (they call them "WaveMaps"), but it uses a proprietary IR format, so you can't interchange its IRs with the Helix. The ToneDexter is made to create custom IRs for your personal instruments, and that's its claim-to-fame. So, you could either use the ToneDexter for your tone, and it would make creating a custom IR for your Martin pretty easy to do. Or, you could read up on how to record your own IRs in WAV (the standard) format and use those in your Helix. I'm guessing ToneDexter will do a better job, though, because I think it may be doing some fancy EQ matching along with the IR creation, because it learns the unique sound of your pickup system along with the sound of your guitar through a mic. Either way, its best to have a good small diaphragm condenser mic to create your acoustic guitar IRs. The better the mic is for getting the studio recordings sound you want from your acoustic guitar, the better the IRs will be at recreating those sounds live with a pickup. Helix or ToneDexter; the choice might be .... do I want all of the effects and extra I/O capabilities of the Helix in one box, or do I want a dedicated preamp/IR box (ToneDexter) and then add other effects pedals as needed? Nice choices.

I find nothing in the Line 6 online manuals or Knowledge Base for this (beyond how to update firmware, etc). Are you aware of something specific? If so, please provide a direct link. Thanks!

@jeffsguitars --- Are you willing to share your Workbench files with us other V-Standard owners so we can see what kind of results we can get? Especially the electric models (I personally don't use the acoustics). Workbench has so many variables and is quite deep, so it would be helpful, I think. It would be nice also if Line 6 would share a basic step-by-step (possibly including new firmware and Workbench files) to optimize the V-Standard, especially given how negative many reviews have been. I've spent a lot of time tweaking the physical setup on mine, but the mag pickups still sound a lot better, so I usually only use it for alt tunings.

...and don't forget that the looper block is useful for testing things. Use it as your first block, record a guitar loop, and then play with subsequent blocks and parameters while you're designing your template. This frees up both hands for tweaking, and ensures your guitar playing is consistent for testing stuff.

Yes!!! Using -12 as your peak on the input is of primary importance on this thing. Bang your guitar hard and watch the input meter closely before recording. The last thing you want is any digital clipping interfering with what you're hearing. You also need a decent audio interface with HI-Z input capabilities. Then for clean tones start with your amp Master volume at around 5, Channel volume maxed, and Gain dialed down low. Adjust your guitar volume/tone/pickup, and your Helix amp Gain & EQ as needed for the song). Get all of that right before adding other Helix blocks and FX stuff... ...by the way, I have to put in a plug for a great little reverb plug: Liquidsonic's Seventh Heaven (emulation of the Bricasti M7). The basic version (30 reverb selections) is only $69, and it has stunning plates, halls, rooms, and chambers for the money. I rarely use the reverbs in Helix Native, except for stuff like the springs or particle-verb.

Yes! Snapshots and Helix/MIDI control support would really add to an already great plug-in!

Ah, I shoulda known. Logic (which I use) does have MIDI-to-automation. At least you are close! A Helix Native update is expected within a few weeks, so hopefully they will add the direct support...

yeah, use a Knob controller for things that use a range of control values (like a knob you would turn for a level setting, or a volume/wah pedal), and a Switch controller for things you would just turn on or off (like a foot switch).

If you follow the instructions in the Automation/Controller Assign Tab portion of the Helix Native Pilot's Guide (user manual), and the info in that Mixcraft video on MIDI control, I would think things should work. Communication should flow like this: MIDI Controller <---> Mixcraft <---> Helix Native. So, in this case, for simple control you usually assign the Wah "exp toe" parameter to a knob, and make sure the assigned MIDI CC number is also used by your controller. Mixcraft should just pass that through to Helix Native. Sometimes for troubleshooting, its useful to use a MIDI monitor utility to "spy" on the MIDI data that is being passed through your system. On the Mac, I use "MIDI Monitor." Not sure what's useful on PCs. Sorry I can't help more, but MIDI troubleshooting is tough unless I have the same stuff (controller, DAW, PC) that you do. But the basics are the same. You might also try the Mixcraft forums. There's some deeper info on Helix wah control here (for hardware Helix, but similar to Native): http://line6.com/support/topic/25440-whos-having-luck-with-exp-position-bypass-for-wah/

any pedal that can send out MIDI CC will work for wah or volume control....

Yes, like @tcamponovo sez, experiment with sticking a low pass/hi pass block after your amp/cab/ir and roll off the highs (try 6k for starters) and lows (try 80 Hz for starters). You can also experiment with tone matching by using some sort of EQ Match plug in (T-Racks 5 has a good one - , so does iZotope, and FabFilter). You can measure the eq curve of your target tone, then apply it to your Helix tone in varying %s until it sound good, then see what is being applied as the "adjustment". After that, you can create an eq block to duplicate the adjustment with Helix Native. Lots of a given guitar tone is contained within the EQ.

...its difficult to say if the bass in that live recording was direct, off the board, or through a mic. Its possible the sound you hear was a limiter or compressor kicking in at the transients, and is more apparent in the lower notes carrying more energy. Easier to replicate tones recorded in a studio setting, for sure.

Latency can certainly be an issue when tracking guitar through Native only. It depends on your processing power, your DAW, and the tracks you are playing while recording. A hardware Helix + Native is the best total solution — so you can monitor your tracks with zero latency and full FX/amp + IR, etc. Nothing gets in the way (other than more hardware and wires to deal with). I usually record in Logic Pro X at 88.2/24, so if I get too many tracks + intensive virtual instruments running I can't run Logic tight enough to get <10 ms latency, which is a no-go for me when tracking precise guitar parts. So...if I run into that barrier, I bounce the project with no guitar parts down to a stereo file, then bring that into a project with Helix Native, running the smallest buffer possible, and record the guitar tracks for use in the main project. A bit of a pain, but not insurmountable especially given the awesome tone out of Helix Native.

Thanks, Phil ... then I'll stop messing around with editing .hlx files. I do hope we see something around NAMM; that's coming up soon!

Any word on when we might get Snapshot support in Native? I have a bunch of presets that use Snapshots, but no hardware unit to edit down for Native. I'm sure a lot of users are in the same boat... If no full-blown support, how about a temporary band-aid revision to at least let users select which Snapshot they want to load in when exporting an .hlx file? Or a parser utility. Or enable using Native with the Helix Editor to select a Snapshot. Or ???? Or, does anyone know a simple way to edit an .hlx file using a JSON editor to do a cut & paste job to a preset file containing snapshots to specify one of them to load into Native?

Have you checked your MIDI stream to see what Logic is sending to your Helix? As mentioned, Helix responds to CC68 to toggle the tuner screen...could you have some sort of embedded control in your automation file or something (CC68 is often used for legato switch, for example). MIDI Monitor is a good sw utility to use to spy on MIDI message streams...

All of these are great tips! And speaking of tips, the Helix community forum is full of great ideas. I keep a text file of user quotes and ideas from the forum that I can reference or try later. Below are the quotes I have in my section on "Clean". (BTW, I just added Doug6Strings clean amp setting snapshots to try out.) Note that these are all different user opinions (usually each paragraph below is from a separate user) ... but all ideas are worthy of experimentation.. ------------------------------- Cleanest amp in there is the JC 120. Some others get very clean, too, if you take the master to 5, channel to max, and gain very low. Like the Twin especially. Archon clean channel, Soldano Clean channel, and Matchless 1 are faves of mine. use the "channel volume" of the amp model to adjust the overall volume without changing the tone. Drive and master volume will change the tone. Channel volume will allow you to balance the volume between clean and driven amp tones. I ALWAYS use a patch that allows me to go from clean to edge to dirt to big. Every time. Its simple. Right now my choice of amps for this are the Plexi Trem Bright channel, Cartographer, and Matchless Channel 1 mainly, but I have a bunch of amps I love that work for this. Keep the Amp Master volume at 5 (or thereabouts) or below on those of these which have a lot of power amp distortion. Turn Sag all the way down. (personal preference) Always have the Input Pad ON. Set up your tone so that at clean, it's clean when your guitar is on 7 or 8, edge of breakup above that. Learn to use that guitar volume. It will change your life. I also set my guitar tone at about 8, because I like it better there. YMMV. Set a foot switch to go from the base clean tone to a dirty amp tone. You may be able to do this with just the gain and the Channel Volume, but I often add midshipmen's and take away bass and presence. Set another foot switch to add a good gain pedal. I use Teemah or Minotaur mostly, occasionally Valve Driver. Now, you can add that to your clean tone, or to your dirty tone, and with the volume control on your guitar, if you do this right, you can get just about any sound in the known universe with one patch.

Or you can use echo. Or you can use echo.

Not sure what your problem is ... all working well here (though I'm running logic 10.3.2 and Sierra --- I always wait a couple of months before upgrading either Logic or OSX).

Just checked requirements here: http://shop.line6.com/software/plug-ins/helix-native.html and it says Helix Native is compatible with Logic 10.2.3 or above. You may want to double check with Line 6 support about compatibility, but that may be the problem.

Are you running Logic 9 in 32-bit mode? Helix Native is 64-bit only, I believe.

The first sample set sounds to me like differences in EQ and volume settings. The second sample set sounds like the gain (and a compressor?) is turned way up on the free VST -- listen to the noise level when the sustain fades. You should be able to tweak things to get what you want, but there are lots of variables. There are some good tips in this thread: http://line6.com/support/topic/31009-tips-from-the-vets-for-new-user/