USB interface distortion after upgrade to 2.70.

[Jase_Winter]

Hi All,

 

Just upgraded my firmware to 2.70 from 2.54 and now my USB audio is very distorted. Helix sounds are fine but any audio coming back from the mac via either the system or my DAW are now very distorted.

 

I installed the latest drivers and read the notes about allowing them through Mac OS X's security features in 10.13 and onward however I never got the prompt for this and it doesn't show up in the privacy settings either.

 

Tried the usual restarting of everything with no luck, anyone else experiencing any problems using the helix as an audio interface?

 

 

[datacommando]

5 hours ago, Jase_Winter said:

Hi All,

 

Just upgraded my firmware to 2.70 from 2.54 and now my USB audio is very distorted. Helix sounds are fine but any audio coming back from the mac via either the system or my DAW are now very distorted.

 

I installed the latest drivers and read the notes about allowing them through Mac OS X's security features in 10.13 and onward however I never got the prompt for this and it doesn't show up in the privacy settings either.

 

Tried the usual restarting of everything with no luck, anyone else experiencing any problems using the helix as an audio interface?

 

 

 

Hi Jase,

 

Don’t know if anyone else has encountered this, but I certainly haven’t experienced any degradation in audio quality since the upgrade to v2.70. I am still running High Sierra as I’ve been too busy to switch over to Mojave yet.

 

You say all the audio going into your Helix from the Mac is distorted. From that info, I guess your monitor/speaker system is connected to the Helix. If so, does the audio from iTunes or whatever distort when played through your computer speakers? Do you have another audio interface you can patch in to test your system with? If you can eliminate the bits you know have changed, you may narrow it down to the cause of the distortion.

 

If everything was fine and now it’s not then it could be that it’s a glitch with the driver you have installed. You could try removing it and reverting back to see if the audio problem persists. 

 

It would be worth knowing if others have this issue.

[Jase_Winter]

11 hours ago, datacommando said:

 

Hi Jase,

 

Don’t know if anyone else has encountered this, but I certainly haven’t experienced any degradation in audio quality since the upgrade to v2.70. I am still running High Sierra as I’ve been too busy to switch over to Mojave yet.

 

You say all the audio going into your Helix from the Mac is distorted. From that info, I guess your monitor/speaker system is connected to the Helix. If so, does the audio from iTunes or whatever distort when played through your computer speakers? Do you have another audio interface you can patch in to test your system with? If you can eliminate the bits you know have changed, you may narrow it down to the cause of the distortion.

 

If everything was fine and now it’s not then it could be that it’s a glitch with the driver you have installed. You could try removing it and reverting back to see if the audio problem persists. 

 

It would be worth knowing if others have this issue.

 

Thanks for the reply, Audio through my focusrite interface or direct from the laptop is completely fine, I'm listening on headphones in both cases, youtube/itunes and sound from my DAW all play back distorted with the Helix but fine through the Focusrite. I prefer to use the helix for recording as the interface as the headphone amp seems to do a better job of driving my 250ohm beyerdynamic 990's. I can use XLR out to my focusrite if needs be but i'd prefer the simpler setup.

 

Additionally, i'm also running High Sierra and previously hadn't installed any specific Helix driver, it just worked as is when connected via USB and i've been using it like this since I got it earlier this year. I then upgraded the firmware from 2.54 to 2.70 and thats when the issue started, after looking around on here I installed the Helix driver for mac however it did not resolve the issue.

 

Hope that helps clarify.

 

Close to wiping the mac and starting over to be honest, I only use it for music production and video and most of my files are stored elsewhere on a server.

 

Cheers,

 

Jase.

[datacommando]

47 minutes ago, Jase_Winter said:

 

Thanks for the reply, Audio through my focusrite interface or direct from the laptop is completely fine, I'm listening on headphones in both cases, youtube/itunes and sound from my DAW all play back distorted with the Helix but fine through the Focusrite. I prefer to use the helix for recording as the interface as the headphone amp seems to do a better job of driving my 250ohm beyerdynamic 990's. I can use XLR out to my focusrite if needs be but i'd prefer the simpler setup.

 

Additionally, i'm also running High Sierra and previously hadn't installed any specific Helix driver, it just worked as is when connected via USB and i've been using it like this since I got it earlier this year. I then upgraded the firmware from 2.54 to 2.70 and thats when the issue started, after looking around on here I installed the Helix driver for mac however it did not resolve the issue.

 

Hope that helps clarify.

 

Close to wiping the mac and starting over to be honest, I only use it for music production and video and most of my files are stored elsewhere on a server.

 

Cheers,

 

Jase.

 

Hi again Jase,

 

The set up you describe is exactly the way use my Helix on version 2.70.

 

Guitar and or Variax into Helix with audio out via USB to Logic, the back out to my monitors through the Helix XLRs. My Mac is also on High Sierra. I have absolutely no distortion. The one thing to note is the change of driver, but it seem the distortion appeared first and changing the driver was an attempt to fix it. This is weird. 

 

Could it it be something has changed with the audio output levels, the interface selection on the Mac or mismatched sample rates etc. Check the Helix global and make sure the trim levels on USB 1&2 in and out are not clipping. There maybe some change in the globals after your upgrade.

 

I will download the “new” driver, and see if I have any issues with my set up.

 

Later!

[Jase_Winter]

16 minutes ago, datacommando said:

 

Hi again Jase,

 

The set up you describe is exactly the way use my Helix on version 2.70.

 

Guitar and or Variax into Helix with audio out via USB to Logic, the back out to my monitors through the Helix XLRs. My Mac is also on High Sierra. I have absolutely no distortion. The one thing to note is the change of driver, but it seem the distortion appeared first and changing the driver was an attempt to fix it. This is weird. 

 

Could it it be something has changed with the audio output levels, the interface selection on the Mac or mismatched sample rates etc. Check the Helix global and make sure the trim levels on USB 1&2 in and out are not clipping. There maybe some change in the globals after your upgrade.

 

I will download the “new” driver, and see if I have any issues with my set up.

 

Later!

So, i've just discovered what triggers it, connected to the mac via USB and tested iTunes, sound is absolutely fine, started up Logic and immediately the sound distorted, I have only just switched to logic from Garageband so I guess it could be Logic related, any tips for how to set this up right? 

 

It does seem odd that starting logic affects the system audio as well though.

[Jase_Winter]

And testing the same thing with the Focusrite (connect to mac, play itunes through it, start logic) Produces no issues at all, so it's definitely Helix related.

[Lachdanan0121]

IF it only happens in the DAW try this step.

 

I have to do this every time I open FL Studio, and open a project I am working on.  Its simple, but it is a true solution for me. 

 

Go into the ASIO/Driver section of options in your DAW once you have it open. 

Choose a different ASIO/driver option. Doesn't really matter which as long as it is a different one that won't immediately crash your DAW.  Now only after a few seconds, immediately back to Helix ASIO drivers. Give it a try now. 

 

I do this in FL Studio to refresh any under-runs that happen due to loading certain instruments within the project, or a project that is already open. Sometimes if I don't do this, it sounds like static running through a guitar amp. Once I do this everything is clear as day.  It only takes a couple of seconds honestly, and learning to work with the kinks/quirks of one's system is part of any audio engineer's trade. Its so habitual for me at this point its just part of the start up process. 

[datacommando]

4 hours ago, Jase_Winter said:

So, i've just discovered what triggers it, connected to the mac via USB and tested iTunes, sound is absolutely fine, started up Logic and immediately the sound distorted, I have only just switched to logic from Garageband so I guess it could be Logic related, any tips for how to set this up right? 

 

It does seem odd that starting logic affects the system audio as well though.

 

Hi Jase,

 

This is the weirdest thing! I just downloaded the "new" Line6HelixDriver1.0.5.dmg and installed it. The download section has a release date of 10/24/18 for this item, yet when I look at the date for the L6Helix.kext in my extensions folder the date on that file is 21 Aug 2018. Then when I check the prefs in LogicProX and uncheck the Core Audio option I get silence! I have to have Core Audio selected to get sound.

 

Check your audio prefs in Logic and set Core Audio to Enabled and Input and Output Device both to Line 6 Helix and the I/O Buffer Size to 256 Samples.

Recording delay = 0

Processing Threads: Automatic

Process Buffer Range: Medium

Multithreading : Playback and Live Tracks

Summing: High Precision (64 bit)

ReWire Behavior: Off (if not being used)

 

That should be just as I have it set on my system.

 

When you say you start up Logic and immediately the sound distorted, do you mean this happens while playing back or while trying to record?

 

The other thing I have heard people complain about causing noise and distortion, is when trying to record from Helix into Logic if they have software monitoring enabled! That's not good.

 

I'm really not sure what the problem is with your set up, but I simply cannot replicate it at my end - at this time.

 

I will try and check out some other things and see what I turn up.

 

 

[Jase_Winter]

11 minutes ago, datacommando said:

 

Hi Jase,

 

This is the weirdest thing! I just downloaded the "new" Line6HelixDriver1.0.5.dmg and installed it. The download section has a release date of 10/24/18 for this item, yet when I look at the date for the L6Helix.kext in my extensions folder the date on that file is 21 Aug 2018. Then when I check the prefs in LogicProX and uncheck the Core Audio option I get silence! I have to have Core Audio selected to get sound.

 

Check your audio prefs in Logic and set Core Audio to Enabled and Input and Output Device both to Line 6 Helix and the I/O Buffer Size to 256 Samples.

Recording delay = 0

Processing Threads: Automatic

Process Buffer Range: Medium

Multithreading : Playback and Live Tracks

Summing: High Precision (64 bit)

ReWire Behaviour: Off (if not being used)

 

That should be just as I have it set on my system.

 

When you say you start up Logic and immediately the sound distorted, do you mean this happens while playing back or while trying to record?

 

The other thing I have heard people complain about causing noise and distortion, is when trying to record from Helix into Logic if they have software monitoring enabled! That's not good.

 

I'm really not sure what the problem is with your set up, but I simply cannot replicate it at my end - at this time.

 

I will try and check out some other things and see what I turn up.

 

 

 

 

The exact (and frankly really strange behaviour) is this :

 

- Connect Helix via USB, change system audio prefs to Helix so I can hear all system sounds through the headphone out on the Helix

- Test with a song in iTunes, plays fine.

- Start Logic, immediately, before logic has even fully loaded, the sound distorts.

- Haven't got as far as actually monitoring an audio recording from the helix, just tried playing back a midi drum track I had been working on so I don't think it's related to monitoring, the only track in the DAW is a midi track.

- If I then quit Logic and wait a few seconds, sound returns to normal.

 

I've made sure all my settings match yours, no difference.

 

I also get no sound with core audio disabled, should the Helix drivers take preference here i.e, if core audio is disabled, the drivers are in use? I'm not sure I understand this part to be honest.

 

I think i'm gonna try wiping the mac and rebuilding it, gives me an excuse to update it anyway. Very strange though.

 

Thanks for the help!

[Jase_Winter]

Re-imaging (upgraded to mohave) seems to have resolved the issue so I guess it was all software/mac OS X related and not an issue with the Helix itself. Hopefully I can get back to recording now!

 

Thanks datacommando for the pointers.

[ShoreProductions]

On 10/27/2018 at 10:17 AM, Jase_Winter said:

Hi All,

 

Just upgraded my firmware to 2.70 from 2.54 and now my USB audio is very distorted. Helix sounds are fine but any audio coming back from the mac via either the system or my DAW are now very distorted.

 

I installed the latest drivers and read the notes about allowing them through Mac OS X's security features in 10.13 and onward however I never got the prompt for this and it doesn't show up in the privacy settings either.

 

Tried the usual restarting of everything with no luck, anyone else experiencing any problems using the helix as an audio interface?

 

 

Did you install the Line 6 Helix Driver2, Version 1.0.5? 

[Jase_Winter]

2 minutes ago, ShoreProductions said:

Did you install the Line 6 Helix Driver2, Version 1.0.5? 

 

After re-installing OS X i've not installed any additional Helix drivers, it just worked without them.