Unleash the Power of Helix Native Automation in Your Tracks

[soundog]

I think one of the best unsung features of Helix Native is DAW automation control. You can use it to fine-tune your guitar sounds to flow with your song compositions and mixes. For example, automate the gain and volume of your amp so they increase during choruses; switch on distortion, reverb, or delay blocks during leads; or draw in automation for wah or volume pedal positions to fit your tune perfectly. You can then tweak your automation while your mixing until its right where you want it. Helix Native even uses automatic "preservation" for automation assignments, which intelligently re-assigns stuff if you decide to change, say, an amp or a distortion pedal, so you don't have to re-do your automation.

 

While Helix Native doesn’t support direct MIDI control (yet, but it will soon), automation is more powerful and useful, and it works like a champ. If you haven’t tried it, you really should. Most major DAWs support plug-in automation (I know for sure Logic, Pro Tools, and Reaper do, and I can’t imagine any competitive DAW not supporting it.) 

 

Read the section in your Helix Native guide (currently on page 30) “The Automation/Controller Assign Tab.†It explains how to assign any Helix knob or switch (in any block) to an automation controller number (up to 16 knobs and 16 switches). Then, in your DAW, you can use those knob and switch numbers to create automation lanes along your song’s time line. You’ll need to check your DAW documentation on how to do that, its different for each DAW. You basically use your mouse or a controller to draw in your automation, and select points where effects should turn on/off.

 

Beyond the documentation, there is at least one Youtube video demonstrating how to automate Helix, and its right here. The guy is using Reaper. The video’s a bit long so if you’re in a hurry just watch the first part where he explains how to set up Helix Native’s controller assignments and use them in the DAW, then fast forward to the end to hear how the DAW automation controls Helix Native during the song.

[Lachdanan0121]

If you haven’t tried it, you really should. Most major DAWs support plug-in automation (I know for sure Logic, Pro Tools, and Reaper do, and I can’t imagine any competitive DAW not supporting it.) 

 

 

Oh yes! 100%.  Sure you could setup automation from your DAW to the Helix hardware as well, but that is far more of a PITA, and is far less stable. 

Native makes it far more intuitive, faster, with better results.

 

Most DAWs do have automation support. The ones you listed plus Studio One, and FL Studio. Actually FL Studio has some of the most powerful/flexible automation capabilities around. I automate parameters in HXNative in FL Studio, only takes a few clicks to setup, and your ready,

[MusicLaw]

Thanks for these posts guys! Much appreciated! I've had HX Native for two months w/o an adequate PC to run it on. Just got a brand new PC to run it, so I'm really looking forward to installing the imminently forthcoming new version in the next few days and bringing my entire Helix suite up to fw 2.5! Also going to give Reaper a close look. I keep hearing positive comments about it. Even from long time ProTools users. 

[wilsonazguitar]

Hello! I've been using this feature in Reaper, but I just switched to Garageband.

 

Does anyone know if you can do automation with Native in Garageband? I see the plugin still has the knobs and switches that can be assigned but I see no feature within Garageband where you can actually write automation. 

 

 

[soundog]

I'm not a Garageband user, but does this get you there?

 

https://support.apple.com/guide/garageband/show-track-automation-curves-gbnd939b92d8/mac

 

 

[datacommando]

On 5/31/2021 at 9:59 PM, wilsonazguitar said:

Does anyone know if you can do automation with Native in Garageband?

 

Hi,

 

You might want to look at this.

 

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.