Helix Native vs. Helix Floor Unit - Recording

[TRENDKILLCFH333]

I have the Helix floor unit and do quite a bit of recording with it via Focusrite interface.  

 

I was wondering what you guys thought of Helix Native vs Helix Floor Unit. 

 

Is it worth spending the extra $$ to have this on my laptop as opposed to just plugging in my Helix floor unit?

 

Or is it simply just a matter of convenience to bypass the floor unit?    

 

What do you guys think?  

[soundog]

Convenience. Actually, its better to record/track your guitar parts using the floor unit because you can monitor the wet signal with NO latency while recording a wet and dry track via USB. Helix Native is a bit of a power hog, and its difficult to record tracks without significant latency if you want to hear your wet, effected guitar while tracking.

 

Best of both worlds is to have both, because its more convenient to fiddle with your settings and presets when mixing your finished tracks with Helix Native.

[TRENDKILLCFH333]

Thanks for the insight.  I also travel for work sometimes and having a small interface and Helix Native would also give me the tools to jam/record while traveling with my laptop.  

 

I appreciate the advice - thanks!

[soundog]

If you can get the discount on Helix Native, its seriously worth it. An advantage of Helix Native I forgot to mention is using your DAW's automation to automate any Helix parameter in real-time with your recording song. You can do the same thing by using MIDI out to a Helix floor, but its more convoluted. With Helix Native its simple, and powerful.

[TRENDKILLCFH333]

On 6/14/2018 at 9:39 AM, soundog said:

If you can get the discount on Helix Native, its seriously worth it. An advantage of Helix Native I forgot to mention is using your DAW's automation to automate any Helix parameter in real-time with your recording song. You can do the same thing by using MIDI out to a Helix floor, but its more convoluted. With Helix Native its simple, and powerful.

 

One use I can think of for this would be switch pre amps - we have a song where I switch from clean to heavy distortion immediately, so I can definitely see me using this capability for that purpose.

 

I did pull the trigger and got Native.  Man oh man, this plug in is fun!  

 

I recorded a couple tracks last night with my bass player, both using Helix Native simultaneously - the sound was awesome and I loved being able to edit the tones while playing back.  

 

I do appreciate you guys leading me in the right direction and the tips - thanks!