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Looking for digital connection help.


cordelero
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Hey everyone.  I got my Helix yesterday and I'm loving it.  I'm doing a Halloween show playing 80's British Goth and my tones are going to be perfect!  Now for my questions:

 

I'm not going to be using the Helix to record direct through USB because I can't use it at the same time as my Apollo Twin in Cubase and there's no way I'm going to switch back and forth between audio drivers all the time (I like having a static setup that doesn't require me to think when I'm feeling creative).  What I'd really like to do is go out through one of the digital outs in Helix into the Optical In on the Apollo Twin.  I know nothing about digital audio connections.  Is this possible? 

 

Also, it would be great if Line 6 could make a tutorial on splits and merges.  I want to create a patch using the two paths where one is a clean Fender sound with tons of delay and reverb and the other is a Hiwatt with a fuzz pedal and be able to A/B between them with a footswitch.   It seems possible but I can't figure it out to save my life and the manual is really simple in this regard. 

 

One more.  I would love to have a reference to all the parameters in all the effects.  There are some parameters in the compressors and modulation effects that I'm not familiar with and I'd like to know what they do.

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Hey everyone.  I got my Helix yesterday and I'm loving it.  I'm doing a Halloween show playing 80's British Goth and my tones are going to be perfect!  Now for my questions:

 

I'm not going to be using the Helix to record direct through USB because I can't use it at the same time as my Apollo Twin in Cubase and there's no way I'm going to switch back and forth between audio drivers all the time (I like having a static setup that doesn't require me to think when I'm feeling creative).  What I'd really like to do is go out through one of the digital outs in Helix into the Optical In on the Apollo Twin.  I know nothing about digital audio connections.  Is this possible? 

 

Also, it would be great if Line 6 could make a tutorial on splits and merges.  I want to create a patch using the two paths where one is a clean Fender sound with tons of delay and reverb and the other is a Hiwatt with a fuzz pedal and be able to A/B between them with a footswitch.   It seems possible but I can't figure it out to save my life and the manual is really simple in this regard.

 

I don't think Apollo Twin for USB/PC is out yet, so I assume you're on a Mac? If so, you can create an aggregate device and run both your Apollo and Helix simultaneously. Haven't used Cubase with an aggregate device yet, but it's no problem on Logic.

 

As for the splits and merges, there are already a couple tutorial presets (in Setlist 8) that have two presets in one. One of em switches instant with a footswitch; the other smoothly blends between them with EXP 1. Both have spillover delay and reverb.

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Thanks DI! You're a really helpful presence here.  I am a mac user and I'll look into the aggregate device - much easier than using digital I/O.  

I discovered the templates AFTER I posted yesterday.  I'd still like to know the logic behind why the presets work.  I'm a physics teacher and I can't stand know understanding the why of everything. :)

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I'd still like to know the logic behind why the presets work. I'm a physics teacher and I can't stand know understanding the why of everything. :)

My favorite teacher was my freshman university Physics professor.

 

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "Why the presets work?"

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I pulled up the template for 2 tone A/B and can't really figure out how the splits and merges work.  There are two y-splits but I can't see where they split to and how this accomplishes the A/B function.  I also can't  find which parameters or blocks the footswitch actually controls.  It makes it difficult for me to reverse engineer the process.

 

I think a great feature would be the ability to pull up a page for a footswitch that has an assignment and see a list of the parameters and blocks that it controls and to have the ability to adjust the settings for each from the page.  Setting up a switch or controller to control multiple parameters or blocks is a dicey situation for me.  One wrong move (or accidental twist of the joystick button) can throw the assignment for that switch into chaos.  To clear all assignments for a switch seems to require figuring out what parameters are currently assigned and turning them off individually.  I may be just getting used to the process, but it seems a lot less intuitive than the rest of the device - which came very quickly to me.

 

I have ideas for tones that I want to create but feel that I need to master the splits and merges to do so.  For instance, I want to create a clean tone that has a fuzz tone that can be blended in with the controller.  I understand that only A/B splits can be assigned to controllers.  My concept of "A/B" is "A or B".  A detailed tutorial on splits and merges would be fantastic.

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I pulled up the template for 2 tone A/B and can't really figure out how the splits and merges work.  There are two y-splits but I can't see where they split to and how this accomplishes the A/B function.  I also can't  find which parameters or blocks the footswitch actually controls.  It makes it difficult for me to reverse engineer the process.

 

I think a great feature would be the ability to pull up a page for a footswitch that has an assignment and see a list of the parameters and blocks that it controls and to have the ability to adjust the settings for each from the page.  Setting up a switch or controller to control multiple parameters or blocks is a dicey situation for me.  One wrong move (or accidental twist of the joystick button) can throw the assignment for that switch into chaos.  To clear all assignments for a switch seems to require figuring out what parameters are currently assigned and turning them off individually.  I may be just getting used to the process, but it seems a lot less intuitive than the rest of the device - which came very quickly to me.

 

I have ideas for tones that I want to create but feel that I need to master the splits and merges to do so.  For instance, I want to create a clean tone that has a fuzz tone that can be blended in with the controller.  I understand that only A/B splits can be assigned to controllers.  My concept of "A/B" is "A or B".  A detailed tutorial on splits and merges would be fantastic.

I don't have Helix in front of me right now (lent it out over the weekend), so let's see if I can do this from memory...

 

If you want to see what a footswitch does, just touch it. If you touch the A/B footswitch (FS8?), it should jump to the Controller Assign page for the Split > A/B block, where you'll see that the switch toggles between two min and max values: A100 (top path) and B100 (bottom path). This is basically switching your guitar signal between Paths 1A and 1B.

 

If you follow the signal paths, 1A is routed down to 2A and 1B is routed down to 2B. This effectively extends both paths to the second DSP. (Path 2 uses an entirely different DSP chip.) Then the paths are merged back together before the Delay, Reverb, and Looper. So there's only one split and one merge.

 

 

There's another way to accomplish the same thing, starting with a new preset:

  1. Assign both Path's Input blocks to Multi.
  2. Place a single Volume/Pan > Gain block (both set to -120dB) somewhere on each path.
  3. Assign both Gain blocks to a single footswitch, but press BYPASS while one of them is selected. This makes the footswitch toggle one on and the other off. By extension, you'll be toggling between the blocks on Path 1 and Path 2. Any blocks after the Gain block on each path will spillover into the other path.

Just note that when you're running two paths full tilt with duplicate inputs, you may have to drop each Output block's Level parameter by approx. 3dB. Just like in a DAW.

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Thanks DI.  The obvious split and merge in the Two Tones A-B patch make sense to me, but it's the little circles after the amp on path 1B and before the cab on 2B that I don't understand.  The one on path 1B is merge mixer and the one on path 2B is a split Y.  They are small and greyed out.  When I click on the joystick on them I found that you can't remove them.  Are these some kind of auto-created devices that are necessary for the other parts to work or am I missing something?

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Thanks DI.  The obvious split and merge in the Two Tones A-B patch make sense to me, but it's the little circles after the amp on path 1B and before the cab on 2B that I don't understand.  The one on path 1B is merge mixer and the one on path 2B is a split Y.  They are small and greyed out.  When I click on the joystick on them I found that you can't remove them.  Are these some kind of auto-created devices that are necessary for the other parts to work or am I missing something?

 

Ah. Say you start with a serial path. If you create a block and move it down, it creates a parallel path with both a Split and a Merge block. These Split and Merge blocks can also be moved. If you move a Split block down, it creates a duplicate Input; if you move a Merge block down, it creates a duplicate Output. The grayed out block you see is the Merge block. It doesn't do anything until you move it back up to Path 1A. But it needs to be there so you can grab it and move it up (if desired).

The manual goes into more detail on page 17—"Moving Split & Merge Blocks for More Parallel Routings."

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