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Newbie Question for Guitar + Vocal


mitchmarkell
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Super brand new to Helix Floor. Opened it yesterday.

How can I set up an independent vocal preset (or a few of them) thru the Low Z I/O and still have access to many different guitar presets? - Short of adding a seperate vocal path to every guitar preset? 

 I basically would want a vocal with a tube pre to compresdor/gate with a reverb and some delay, but would like to stomp on a present with more delay at tempo sometimes or maybe add some fuzz. 

And then use the Guitar amps & presets all over the place. 

Can it be done?

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Helix does not support the concept of a global vocal setting. As you suspected you need to use a vocal channel (path) in every preset. 

 

You can have some flexibility using snapshots to have different guitar tones within a preset but quite limited.

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Bummer. But I could do it by copying and pasting a separate vocal path into a number of presets - correct?

 

Or I guess I could even approach it the other way around and use Helix primariy as a vocal processor/mixer live with various guitar presets added in (?) 

 Or square peg/round hole?

Usually the kind of gigs I do the PA is set it & forget it, - so if there are effects to ad on vocals I need to do it myself. 

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You can copy and paste entire presets or individual blocks within a preset. You can't copy/paste an entire signal Path from one preset to another in one operation. What you can do is set up a vocal preset as a template, using one of the signal paths and leave the other path empty. Then you can copy this preset as a starting point to add in a different guitar processing path each time.

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On 6/24/2018 at 10:56 PM, silverhead said:

Helix does not support the concept of a global vocal setting. As you suspected you need to use a vocal channel (path) in every preset. 

 

You can have some flexibility using snapshots to have different guitar tones within a preset but quite limited.

Why quite limited?

I have a path dedicated to my vocals and use three paths for guitar which have dramaticlly different guitar tones per preset.

Only in one or two cases I needed so much DSP I had to ditch the vocal path. Fortunately they were instrumental numbers.

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Probably your best bet is to create a template preset that has a basic guitar path and vocal path.  Then just copy it over to the preset location you want to work with, rename it, save it, and you're set to go.  As talwinkings points out, you have more than enough DSP available to probably accomplish whatever you want in the other path unless you're going crazy.  I have probably 30 or 40 presets I've created that only use a single path.

 

Of course the main limitation on such at thing is if you're going into a PA system with other vocals you can't really split your vocal out into it's own channel.  But if that's what you're doing there's not really a lot of sense in using a Helix vocal path.  That's what the PA is for.

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Just a follow-up.  My issue is resolved. You are correct DunedinDragon, - creating a template in HX Edit was a quick simple way to get me set up with different guitars and setups without having to change anything on the vocal path. 

 

Thanks for the help.

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  • 11 months later...

A preset with your vocal settings as a starting point seems like the only way to go. It´s far from optimal, IMHO. 

I´m at home working on my presets, no point or desire to be locked up in my tiny rehearsing space for hours...

So say I get 10 prests done with vocal paths (using the template as a starting point). Now I´m ready to try it out with the band... It turns out that on "real use" the vocals are buried, too much reverb, or need more compression and high end... You have to change 3 blocks in 10 presets, so that´s a loooong time tweaking to get 1 path that´s basically shared among presets. If this happens at sound check at a venue (hey this space has already loads of natural reverb, need to loose some reverb on vocals), it´s panic time. 

 

I own a VoiceLive 3, I´m in the process of switching to Helix for the superior sound, editing capabilities and routing options. I keep finding things that are missing in one or the other. Let me point out a feature in Voicelive3 that handle this specific scenario. Global preset... In every block in a preset there´s an option to revert to a "global setting", that is, the settings of that block in that global preset. So you got a "vocal + guitar" template that you configure as "global preset". Now you´re in preset 200 and Vocal comp is set to "use global", if you change the comp ratio it will change for every instance of a compression block that is set to "use global". Makes sense?. There´s other ways to achieve the same, but basically have the ability to configure a block´s "global settings" that are refernced in other instances.

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Adding on my previous post. A "global settings" per Block actually makes a lot of sense from a "pedals" perspective.

With a traditional multiple.pedals setup you mostly configure pedals once. You setup your BigMuff how you like and leave it like that, you don´t noodle with 12 pedals in between every song. You just turn them on or off.. That´s exactly how these "global settings" would work. Treating your blocks as if they were real pedals, you add Fuzz to your pedal and fuzz is added on every preset because it´s a per-block thingy, not a preset setting. Just like real pedals.

I really, really need this!!. Ok so i´ve owned the Helix for some 3 days and i´m already an annoying brat ;)

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It's been a while since my original post and I can say that most of my issues questions are resolved and I am very happy with the quality and capabilities of the Helix as both guitar and vocal processor. I am able to use a separate path and Output for vocal and guitar that works well in most applications. In the case of my guitar output I am generally going to an acoustic guitar amp that is set pretty flat so it's pretty accurate to the original tone without adding additional or untended color. It's very similar to going to a powered speaker except you do have the ability to shape the EQ and adjust the output volume post Helix if need be. Of course this could be mic'd for a larger room with a house PA.

As for my vocal path I am most typically going dual Low Z Mic Outputs on the Helix directly into Powered PA speakers and that gives me the ability trim/adjust overall levels with the volume control on the powered speakers as opposed to the old days when we would have an actual PA with a mixer controlling volume and Power amps at 100%.

In my current setup there is no mixer involved. It works for almost everything from practicing at home to rehearsal with my band, to gigging smaller venues. As for big wet rooms, - I have had no opportunities to deal with that, - (thankfully).

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