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Helix XLR Latency Issue


rickster462
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I recently purchased the Helix and I was trying to use the XLR in a PA. However when I plugged in there was latency, very noticeable latency. I could almost hear my initial pluck of the string, but very, very faint and then the actual sound comes in late. I would expect this from the USB PC connection, but very strange with the XLR to a PA.  I have no latency issues through the 1/4" or USB connection

I looked all over the setting, manual, forums, youtube and could not find anything on this.  HELP...

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This should not happen.  There should be no additional latency on the xlr outs compared to the main 1/4” outs.   If the latency is in fact due to the helix, and not from some additional PA equipment that the XLR signal is routing through, then I’d put in a support ticket with line 6.   They’ll likely have you re-flash the latest firmware first, so you could go ahead and try that now. 

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1 hour ago, rickster462 said:

I recently purchased the Helix and I was trying to use the XLR in a PA. However when I plugged in there was latency, very noticeable latency. I could almost hear my initial pluck of the string, but very, very faint and then the actual sound comes in late. I would expect this from the USB PC connection, but very strange with the XLR to a PA.  I have no latency issues through the 1/4" or USB connection

I looked all over the setting, manual, forums, youtube and could not find anything on this.  HELP...

 

This is definitely not normal behavior. There is ordinarily no perceptible latency out from the XLR connection on the Helix. Does this happen for example on various factory presets or is this happening on presets you have designed? Make sure you test with no effects dialed in on the channel in your PA being used for the Helix.  Keep in mind that many/most of the effects are at 50%-dry/50%-wet when they are set to "50". This means as you move the effect block towards "100" you start to only get the wet signal which, for example on a delay block, means you are increasingly only getting the delayed/wet sound which can resemble latency. May not be the issue but worth checking. If none of the other suggestions people make help I would recommend swapping out cables and also backing up and reapplying the firmware.

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What kind of mixer are you plugging into? Are there any additional A/D-D/A conversions going on in the mixer? How are you monitoring? IEM, wedges? are you standing a distance away from your speakers while playing? Are you hearing the "bounceback" from the FOH on stage? 

I've never personally run into this issue, but I do know what running my 1/4" into a wedge for stage monitoring and then running the other 1/4" into our XR18 digital mixer than into a UHF IEM set does introduce a very, very tiny amount of latency to the IEMs compared to the wedge. If I'm more than 10' from the wedge, though, I can't tell the difference.

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15 hours ago, pipelineaudio1 said:

Feed a pulse to your helix and record both outputs at once to your daw and measure the time difference, if any

 

better to be sure first

 

^^^ THIS ^^^

That will confirm whether it is the HELIX having a latency issue... or if it is something further down the XLR chain (mixer, effects, speakers, distance, etc... etc...) causing the problem. 

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Guys, thank you for all the input and the quick responses it's really great to see a forum like this! I tried the Helix through my own PA and everything worked out fine. Definitely must have been something on the other end of that P A I tried last week. Thanks again guys

 

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The impulse idea is definitely the way to go.

Oh and just to rule out the highly unlikely: How far away was the speaker from you when you noticed?  You get 50 ms Delay about every 17 meters due to the speed of sound in air :D

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