oehman Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 I'm working to get the best gain structure for a Path for vocals. I've got a Shure Beta 58a into Helix path 2 with light compression & delay. The compressor isn't boosting the signal. If I keep the Mic In Gain at 0 db in Helix, I have the trim on my Mackie mixer at 12 o'clock (30 on the trim knob) If I raise the Helix Gain to 15 db, I can drop the Mackie trim to about 9:00.(10 on the trim knob). Is one method more advisable than the other? The Helix line level is pretty strong, I suppose because it is line level instead of mic level. With my HD500 presets, I always had the Mackie trim set at 12:00. But with Helix, I've dropped it down to 9:00. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodychoir Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 I'm working to get the best gain structure for a Path for vocals. I've got a Shure Beta 58a into Helix path 2 with light compression & delay. The compressor isn't boosting the signal. If I keep the Mic In Gain at 0 db in Helix, I have the trim on my Mackie mixer at 12 o'clock (30 on the trim knob) If I raise the Helix Gain to 15 db, I can drop the Mackie trim to about 9:00.(10 on the trim knob). Is one method more advisable than the other? The Helix line level is pretty strong, I suppose because it is line level instead of mic level. With my HD500 presets, I always had the Mackie trim set at 12:00. But with Helix, I've dropped it down to 9:00. I'm working to get the best gain structure for a Path for vocals. I've got a Shure Beta 58a into Helix path 2 with light compression & delay. The compressor isn't boosting the signal. If I keep the Mic In Gain at 0 db in Helix, I have the trim on my Mackie mixer at 12 o'clock (30 on the trim knob) If I raise the Helix Gain to 15 db, I can drop the Mackie trim to about 9:00.(10 on the trim knob). Is one method more advisable than the other? The Helix line level is pretty strong, I suppose because it is line level instead of mic level. With my HD500 presets, I always had the Mackie trim set at 12:00. But with Helix, I've dropped it down to 9:00. I'm working to get the best gain structure for a Path for vocals. I've got a Shure Beta 58a into Helix path 2 with light compression & delay. The compressor isn't boosting the signal. If I keep the Mic In Gain at 0 db in Helix, I have the trim on my Mackie mixer at 12 o'clock (30 on the trim knob) If I raise the Helix Gain to 15 db, I can drop the Mackie trim to about 9:00.(10 on the trim knob). Is one method more advisable than the other? The Helix line level is pretty strong, I suppose because it is line level instead of mic level. With my HD500 presets, I always had the Mackie trim set at 12:00. But with Helix, I've dropped it down to 9:00. I don't have my unit yet so forgive my ignorance but why are you going in line? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodychoir Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 God, I don't know how that triple quote happened, I'm on a bus so the wifi's probably lollipopped, sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oehman Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 I'm using one path for guitar and the other for vocals. I pan them hard L & R to feed the mixer. The default on Helix for the XLR outs is line level. I think DI said that Hd500 in studio/direct is mic level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oehman Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 I'm using one path for guitar and the other for vocals. I pan them hard L & R to feed the mixer. The default on Helix for the XLR outs is line level. I think DI said that Hd500 in studio/direct is mic level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_m Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 The hotter the signal going into your mixer, the higher your signal to noise ratio will be. Generally a good rule of thumb with plugging anything into mixer is that you want the strongest signal possible from the source, and you add gain only as needed. Since the Helix itself is acting as the mic preamp, I would be inclined to turn the gain all the way down on the Mackie, at least at first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oehman Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 That makes a lot of sense. And the numbers kind of add up too. So raising the volume knob on Helix to the max & turning the mic in level to 25 db should give me approximately the same gain as setting Helix mic in level to zero and setting the Mackie trim at 30. (12:00) - but with less noise. Then if I set the guitar preset volumes to match well with the vocals, I can set the trim on the Mackie to 0 for that Input as well. That makes setup a lot easier! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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