Helix with reactive load box

[JLondon]

So I'm entertaining the idea of getting a Suhr Reactive Load box.  I understand the basics and purpose, but what is the best way to incorporate the Helix between either FRFR/FOH/DAW?  In other words, where do you plug the line level from the load box into the Helix?

[shanecgriffo]

i'm not sure why you'd need one...?

[rvroberts]

The idea is that you can use an amp you love into a load box instead of one of the amps in the Helix.  And that is where you would put it. you would put a send to your amp in you effects chain in the normal position - generally after you effects - but that depends on what you want to achieve.  You then send either into the front of the amp (the most likely solution) or the effects loop if you only want to drive the output stage.  You then plug the amp into the Suhr Rective load and feed that back with a return - probably - but not absolutely necessarily - straight after the send.  You then use a IR to get the effect of a speaker cab. Pass that through any reverb or delay or whatever you want post amp and mic. and come out of the Helix just like normal.  You will need to set suitable levels in the send and return to suit the front of the amp and the output of the load box.

Pete Thorn does it a lot especially for recording.  Check his youTube stuff on it.  You would want to particularly want to love that amp you are putting in the chain though - it's a fair bit of fiddling so you would want to be sure it pays off - he seems to believe it does - I've never used it - I got rid of everything in the way of old valve amps when I realised the Helix was going to do everything I needed.  Here's one - 

[rvroberts]

And here's another........hope some of that is useful

[JLondon]

The idea is that you can use an amp you love into a load box instead of one of the amps in the Helix.  And that is where you would put it. you would put a send to your amp in you effects chain in the normal position - generally after you effects - but that depends on what you want to achieve.  You then send either into the front of the amp (the most likely solution) or the effects loop if you only want to drive the output stage.  You then plug the amp into the Suhr Rective load and feed that back with a return - probably - but not absolutely necessarily - straight after the send.  You then use a IR to get the effect of a speaker cab. Pass that through any reverb or delay or whatever you want post amp and mic. and come out of the Helix just like normal.  You will need to set suitable levels in the send and return to suit the front of the amp and the output of the load box.

Pete Thorn does it a lot especially for recording.  Check his youTube stuff on it.  You would want to particularly want to love that amp you are putting in the chain though - it's a fair bit of fiddling so you would want to be sure it pays off - he seems to believe it does - I've never used it - I got rid of everything in the way of old valve amps when I realised the Helix was going to do everything I needed.  Here's one - 

 

Thanks!  I 'think' I've got it.  I'm not doing recording yet so for now I'm planning on going into FRFR cabs.  So for that reason alone I'm thinking a basic 4CM with a return being necessary.  Im trying to work this out in my head rather than physical experimentation, I just was (and still am somewhat) confused as to which cable the 'output' of the load box replaces in the typical 4CM setup.  I didn't know if I was going to have to create a return/send loop in my Helix chain or whether I just plugged into one of the other inputs.  Ooops!  I just realized that the amp (Reeves Space Cowboy - unbelievable!)  that I'm most interested in using for this application doesn't even have a return/send loop.  So what do I do now?  I'll study your previous response again to make sure you haven't already answered that.

 

[JLondon]

 

The idea is that you can use an amp you love into a load box instead of one of the amps in the Helix.  And that is where you would put it. you would put a send to your amp in you effects chain in the normal position - generally after you effects - but that depends on what you want to achieve.  You then send either into the front of the amp (the most likely solution) or the effects loop if you only want to drive the output stage.  You then plug the amp into the Suhr Rective load and feed that back with a return - probably - but not absolutely necessarily - straight after the send.  You then use a IR to get the effect of a speaker cab. Pass that through any reverb or delay or whatever you want post amp and mic. and come out of the Helix just like normal.  You will need to set suitable levels in the send and return to suit the front of the amp and the output of the load box.

Pete Thorn does it a lot especially for recording.  Check his youTube stuff on it.  You would want to particularly want to love that amp you are putting in the chain though - it's a fair bit of fiddling so you would want to be sure it pays off - he seems to believe it does - I've never used it - I got rid of everything in the way of old valve amps when I realised the Helix was going to do everything I needed.  Here's one - 

Ahhh!  I do believe you already made it clear in your previous explanation.  Thanks again!  I've seen the Pete Thorn vids but he didn't go into detail about the physical cabling to the Helix.  And yes this particular amp is pretty important to me (Reeves Space Cowboy).  It's touted as being like a Steel String Singer without costing a hundred thousand bucks.  I can't verify this personally until I've had the opportunity to play a Singer, but I do know that both like to be cranked in order to find their 'g' spot (grin).

[onanisland]

I use the Shur RL with my Helix. Basically tube head 8ohm speaker load into RL -> Line Out into a FX Loop Return 1 then I'll place a Cab block after. You can also use the AUX input on Helix and create a dedicated path for effects if need be. It's pretty straight forward.

[ChristianBoddum]

Hi! I'm gonna try this in the near future. I hope I can load my VOX AC-10 to the Helix plus keeping my speaker active by connecting it through a HB PA-100 attenuator. I have modded the amp to have a speaker in for the PA-100's return speaker signal. On paper this should be sweet, however I go the cheaper route to see if it works, before making bigger investments, if needed. I have a very good VOX AC-15 in the Helix that I use with Celestion Blueback and alnico Gold IR's. That gives me a solid FOH sound, on the other hand adding the real amp should be a little livelier experience. The down side could be that levels don't match, we'll see and hear ;-) If I can preserve the AC-10's character through the Helix, then a lot of options are at hand all of a sudden; in-ear, recording etc.

[Marrissey]

On 6/13/2017 at 6:23 PM, onanisland said:

I use the Shur RL with my Helix. Basically tube head 8ohm speaker load into RL -> Line Out into a FX Loop Return 1 then I'll place a Cab block after. You can also use the AUX input on Helix and create a dedicated path for effects if need be. It's pretty straight forward.

 

So, you plug the guitar into the amp? Than you put on the Helix a Return Block and plug the RL into he Return 1 of the Helix? And how do you set the Return block? Instrument or Line? Probably Line...

Thank you very much

[bsd512]

9 hours ago, Marrissey said:

 

So, you plug the guitar into the amp? Than you put on the Helix a Return Block and plug the RL into he Return 1 of the Helix? And how do you set the Return block? Instrument or Line? Probably Line...

Thank you very much

 

Yep, it works great. I use a Surh RL + Helix for profiling amps with the Kemper silently. And it also makes it easy to do a little conditioning on the signal before feeding back into the Kemper during the profile process, like a little hi-cut'ing to de-fizz it. Works great!