rzumwalt Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 I experienced a brief drop out in my signal the other day that was a little curious. I was running XLR mono out to the house sound board and 1/4" out to a powered monitor. (The monitor has two channels, one the 1/4" directly from my Helix and the other is the house monitor channel mix back to me via XLR converted to 1/4" through a DI box, in case that matters.) My guitar signal through the monitor is about 50% the house signal and 50% my direct 1/4" out. During rehearsal a band member tripped on my XLR out to house, which didn't unplug it from the Helix, but briefly interrupted the connection. The surprising thing was that my entire signal dropped out for maybe a little less than a second. Even from my direct 1/4" to the monitor, not just the XLR that was bumped. I'm curious whether this was an indication of any permanent damage to the Helix, but I think the chances of that are low because it's been about a week and I haven't noticed any change in performance. My real question is what was going on that caused the drop out. I do have a theory. I notice that unplugging the XLR with the house channel live doesn't create much of a pop like you'd expect unplugging an analog device, or any other equipment, really. It is possible the Helix is designed with a sensor on the XLR out so that it automatically mutes the port briefly when it is unplugged in order to avoid the characteristic popping and protect everyone's gear. My theory is that it mutes the entire output, or at least the XLR and 1/" outputs, to accomplish this protection. I'm curious whether anyone has any inside knowledge or other theories. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterHamm Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 You may also have a short in one end of that XLR cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzumwalt Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 Would a short in the XLR cause a dropout in all of the Helix's other outputs as well? Is it maybe a circuit protection measure? If it was a short I could understand a dropout due to some temporary overload to the Helix, but in this case the Helix didn't show any signs of having any problem other than the very brief dropout across all outputs. I.e., it didn't restart, become unresponsive, or sound any different once the signal came back. This may just need to be chalked up to, "hey...that was weird." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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