To Native.. or not to Native.. that is the Q

[jrrjr68]

Other than instant access to all the Helix tone via DAW.... I am guessing I would STILL need to use my interface to plug in my guitar to my laptop. 
So my point is.. if I still have to carry around my interface to even plug my guitar in to record.. how is this plug going to benefit me as opposed to just plugging in the helix and using it as an interface? 
 

[zooey]

You can process multiple tracks at once through Native, up to the limit of your computer.

[saks]

i like to do re-amping and mixing of IR's. Although the Helix makes this super easy...Native makes it stupid easy. 

[jrrjr68]

I'm asking because it's 30% off right now..  thanks for the replies guys .
I didn't even consider re-amping. 
I am recording dual guitar tracks, with a DI track for every song I record in case I want to change the tone later. 
That would be nice on the mixing/production end I suppose

[silverhead]

Also with Native you don't need to have Helix connected all the time. Once your dry tone is recorded you can disconnect Helix (and/or leave it at home while traveling) and still use Native to tweak tones.

[jrrjr68]

Could I connect my guitar to my laptop via 1/4" x 3/8" and eliminate my interface altogether? 
It seems like I'd still need a pre-amp? 
If so that would be great 

[rd2rk]

Another consideration...

 

Helix:

3.58x22.05x11.85

14.6 lbs

$1500

 

Sonic Port VX mobile interface:

Pocket sized

Negligible

$160

[jeremyn]

Even though I have a Helix floor unit and hardly ever record seriously, I picked it up at the discount simply because I'd like to re-amp some tracks and do some tone tweaking when I don't have access to my guitar. It looks like a simpler workflow to play with settings on the computer until they are close enough and then bring them across to the Helix floor for final tweaking for live use.

 

So I just use the Helix as the interface for the initial recording. And then can play with various settings to fine tune while the tracks loop around.

 

My only issue at the moment is that Logic keeps bringing up the "System Overload" dialog after a few seconds with even for the simplest patches in Native. I'm sure I'll get this sorted at some point.

[mileskb]

I just made use of the discount...   I spent about 5 minutes with Native and was so impressed......   I had a dry guitar track recorded...  and for giggles just dropped Native into that channel as the plugin...     I'll never get the next two hours back...    I was trying different amps, different delays and effects... cabs with different mics...  the power was amazing.

 

What does this mean?

 

So in the future, I will worry more about recording a decent dry track.  I may listen to whatever amp I feel like while recording, but the focus/goal will be to ensure the dry track is solid.  Then when it comes time to mix I can tweak all day long if I want to with mic placements on cabs and finding the perfect reverb etc..  All things that used to waste precious time in setup and seriously interrupt the creative process can wait until the idea is down and solid now..

 

Native Rocks !!!!

[zooey]

Of course you can do that w a hardware Helix too, just one track at a time, and only if your Helix is physically there. It's even set up to make that workflow easy.

[phil_m]

Of course you can do that w a hardware Helix too, just one track at a time, and only if your Helix is physically there. It's even set up to make that workflow easy.

 

That's really the key... Once you start re-amping mulitple tracks, the time savings start to increase exponentially. With traditional re-amping, you have to let the song play through the whole way for every track you're re-amping. With re-amping in the plug-in, you can re-amp all the tracks at the same time, and you don't actually have to play through the whole song at all to get the re-amped tracks. You can just render everything down all at once.