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Using Helix USB audio interface with Android


prsrocker
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I feel your pain, because I also have an Android device...

 

But, it's got nothing to do with Line 6 / Helix... the issue is with Android.

The Helix comes with a basic USB input, there is nothing special about it, and no special requirements to use it.

Android does not (natively) support USB audio output.  Whereas, every other device does...

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I feel your pain, because I also have an Android device...

 

But, it's got nothing to do with Line 6 / Helix... the issue is with Android.

The Helix comes with a basic USB input, there is nothing special about it, and no special requirements to use it.

Android does not (natively) support USB audio output.  Whereas, every other device does...

 

Thanks for the info Jimmy. How odd. I'm astounded that Android does not support USB audio interfaces correctly - especially since it's a far more open platform than iOS!

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It may be a combination of things.  The USB interface on Helix is a USB 2.0 type B which is used for a different purpose such as printers and external devices, in other words things that can be slaved off of a PC.  It may be possible to get a USB micro to USB female OTG converter then use a normal USB cable like you would use with a PC for the connection to the Helix.  However, I'm not sure whether Android would actually see the Helix as a viable sound device or not.

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There is also the issue as to whether the Android device is capable of running in USB Host Mode via an USB OTG adapter cable. Some are not.

 

The audio aspects are far more involved. Particularly when you consider that Helix runs 8 channels of Audio via USB.

 

It would be nice to, at least, be able to use an Android device that does support USB Host Mode (all of mine do) to handle basic housekeeping of backing up and restoring Helix Presets, as well as downloading and installing the Helix Firmware Updates. We'll see in time if Line 6 brings these minimal features to the Android platform.

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I think the biggest hurdle for Android and audio versus iOS is sheer number of different devices and chips and hardware configurations. With iOS you have a very limited number of processors/hardware to achieve compatibility. With Android there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of different hardware configurations. 

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