Helix remote controlled by Cubase … need help!

[Optimist]

Hi everybody,

not sure if this is the right forum, but anyway:
I have been trying to remote my Helix with Cubase (Pro, 9.5) an ran into different problems.

My setup is like that:
We are a band with guitar (me), keyboards, and bass. Drums are programmed in Cubase with Addictive Drums and the like (on an iMac in the studio, on a MacBook Pro when playing live). Everything is nearly complete »virtual«, guitar via Helix, bass via POD X3, and keyboards all into the mixer into an 6x headphone amp. So we can practice nearly silent alltogether except the vocals anyway.
In Cubase I have not only the drum tracks but also some playbacks for vocals, guitars, fx etc.
For live playing, I have set up »long« Cubase tracks which contain up to 9 songs each, one after the other. I can navigate between those different segments by using »cycle markers«, which are mapped to keyboard numbers 1-9. So if I press »4« on the keyboard, Cubase jumps to the beginning of song 4, pressing »space« starts the playback. This is very, very handy. See picture.

Now I had been thinking of remote controlling my Helix (connected via USB) by setting up an extra MIDI-part for every »song-segment« going out to the Helix. In this part I have (momentarily) only two controllers: one »Program Change« that sends a PC message to switch between Helix presets, and one controller »cc57« that toggles footswitch 10 in stomp mode on the Helix. Footswitch 10 is always assigned to a kind of distortion/boost fx on the Helix, used for guitar solos etc.
So, when I jump to a »song« via keyboard, the Helix should the select the correct preset at first, and when it comes to my solo part and »cc57« jumps from somewhere below 64 to somewhere over 64, footswitch 10 should be activated … and when my solo part is over (and »cc57« jumps under 64) it should be de-activated.

So all I send to the Helix is a Program Change and a controller message. AND IT WORKS!

BUT the following problems occur:
1. When I press the space bar (start/stop) inbetween a song segment, footswitch 10 toggles as well, regardless of the »cc57« value. So it inverts the state of the footswitch, making it »de-activated« when it should be activated.
2. When I press the space bar inbetween two songs, the Helix becomes completely MUTED (no sound). When I jump to the next (or another) song start, Helix gets unmuted and live again. This might by useful for live situations but is not wanted here.

What am I doing wrong?
Footswitch 10 is set to »toggle« … »latching« does not work anyway.
Cubase is set up to use continuous controlling and event following.

Thanks in advance,
best regards
Opti/Alex

[lline6kronus]

Hi @Optimist

 

I know that this is a post from over a year ago and I know that my question is not the same as your question, but maybe you could help me, because it is a similar question.

I have tried to place a Program Change in a Midi track to change Presets, but I have been unsuccessful so far.

 

By clicking the "PRESET" button on my Helix, I was able to see that my
preset had the following values that you see in the screen shot below, which I have been able to enter into the line editor of my Cubase 8.5.

 

When I click the play button within Cubase, I can see on the Helix screen, that it changes to CC32: 002, PC: 008 and CC69: 000. I do not understand why it follows my input of the CC32 to be 002 and the CC69 to be 0, but the Program Change "PC" becomes 008, when I clearly have it set to 51?

 

Again, as you can see in the screen shot, I have even tried to add 51 to the Data 2 column, but that did not work either. Is there a CC from program change?

 

 

I have also tried to keep each command sequential, along with adding the MSB - CC0. I have also tried to change the 51 to any other number, but it has not worked so far. Still remains on PC008

 

 

If you are able to make your Program Change, then can you share with me how you did that?

 

One edit to my original post - I watched the following video and realized that I had to change the Global Settings> Midi channel to the same channel that I have in Cubase - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ADVKLUcwkk

 

As a result, I changed my Global Settings> Midi to 16 and the preset changed for a brief moment, but then reverted to the PC008 preset. Why? That does not make sense. Nothing else is set to channel 16.

 

OK, one more edit. After I wrote the last sentence, I went to check the channel settings on each track. After making sure that each track was set to a specific number, then the above screen shot worked, with the one exception that I had to change it from 51 to 52

 

Thank you for letting me talk through this, until I figured it out.

 

BTW, another thing that is important from the above YT link, is that, you have to choose your audio interface as the external rather than the Helix. I imagine that it is because, as the YT video explains, connect your midi out of the audio interface to the midi in of your Helix.

 

 

One other note, if you want to change the snapshots, then use CC69 to change - the following video around 06:51 explains changing snapshots - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojUgrs5x8rU - In Cubase, I was able to use CC69 with a value 0 for the first snapshot, value 1 for the second snapshot and so forth

 

One other caveat, if my VST instrument tracks are frozen, then I would have the same issue as listed at the beginning, where it reverts to the 008 preset. If anyone knows a work around for that, then I would appreciate it. In many of my songs, I have so many tracks that I really need to freeze many tracks, so that it does not overdo the CPU.

 

Hope this helps someone and thanks in advance.

 

[lline6kronus]

I do not know if this is the solution or not, but it has worked so far and I will add another post if it stops working.

 

First, I went to Global Settings> MIDI/Tempo> set Tempo Select to Global and changed the MIDI Thru from "auto" to "Off"

 

Second, in Cubase> the midi channel that I had dedicated to the Helix, channel 16, I changed the incoming Midi from "All MIDI inputs" to "Not connected" - I read in another post that the Helix sends data back to Cubase, so I basically turned off the loop

 

Another Edit to original post

 

One item that I may have overlooked as trivial, is actually very important. If you right-click on the newly created MIDI track, select "Show Automation," which will allow you to select the CC 0 and CC 32 parameters, that you entered into Cubase's  "Line Editor" - see screenshot from previous post above.

Once selected, follow that by selecting "Modulation" from the drop down menu directly below the first drop down menu, followed by clicking the "lock" icon - see second screen shot below. Be sure to repeat these steps with the CC 32 parameter as well.

 

 

 

Once you have locked both the CC 0 and CC 32 parameters, then make sure that your audio interface, which has the MIDI in cables connected to the Helix's MIDI out, is selected, with the channel that you have set in Cubase's  "Line Editor" - once again, see screen shot from previous post above.

In my case, I set the channel to 16 in the "Line Editor," so I selected channel 16 of my Focusrite Clarett. It has still worked so far. The only time that it hasn't was when I would forget to these steps, that I have just outlined.