How to only get the "audio interface out" from Helix?

[katerlouis]

This might sound silly, but please hear me out first :D

 

I use Quantiloop on my iPad Pro as a Looper (insanely good, check it out!) and control it with the Helix footswitches using MIDI CC. Great! 

The Helix is connected to the iPad via USB (works great with a USB-A to USB-C adapter, nice!) and I have headphones plugged into the "headphones" jack.

 

The issue is, that I hear both the Helix AND the monitor of Quantiloop, which feels very odd. Even if I somehow muted the input monitoring in Quantiloop, I still have weird volume differences in what the Helix puts out to my headphones and what iPad gives into the Helix. This doesn't only happen with the iPad, with my PC and MacBook aswell. Playing with Ableton, Logic or just playing along to Spotify is always a fiddling. Changing the volume on the iPad / MacBook also isn't possible. It is fixed once the Helix is connected to them.

 

You could change the volume of Spotify itself, for instance, or youtube etc.

Or you could change the LEVEL of the MULTI-output block in Helix. But the levels are adjusted to the my live-setup etc. Don't like to mess with them and changing back could be forgotten.

 

Another workaround is changing the output block from "MULTI" to "USB 1+2", but would require changing patches I normally want to use with MULTI-out. Again: not so convenient and "easy to forget switching back" 

 

I'd appreciate if you shed some more light on how this workflow is intended and how you deal with these issues. Do you just use a separate audio interface and mix from there? 

 

Please shed a bit more light on the matter :)

 

 

 

Louis

 

 

PS: If you have a better idea for the title, please shoot!

[ricksteruk]

Yeah I've been struggling with these sort of issues as well. I'm trying to use Helix with either "Group the Loop" or "Loopy" on my iPad or Ableton Live on my mac.  Also I am using MIDI Guitar 2 on iPad and Mac to add synth sounds into the mix (and trying to loop them as well as the guitar.. which gets very complicated as you can imagine!)

 

I usually set use the output block set to Multi and on iPad or Mac looper set the input monitoring off so that I only hear the guitar directly through Helix and not as it's played into the looper.

 

Sometimes I have tried setting one path to output to USB to send the whole signal via the iPad and then returning the signal from iPad onto a new path via USB 3/4 (as you can't select USB 1/2 on paths) - but this gets annoying if you aren't using your iPad that day as there is no signal passing through without the iPad.

 

As you say - it would be great if there was a way that the looping could be integrated easily into your normal patches without having to adjust loads of settings (like the Global > USB input trim, Path outputs etc).

 

I think a couple of Helix software updates would help (and I suggested this 3 years ago!!) - being able to route USB to the SEND / RETURN blocks would make it easy to add a USB looper device anywhere into a signal path.  https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/SEND-Block-to-more-places-e-g-1-4in-for-easy-IR-bypass/818624-23508#idea-tab-comments

I was really expecting this to be added in the upcoming v2.8 "Missing Connections" firmware and it's a massive bummer t have to wait further .. I am gonna keep mentioning it till it happens  ;)  Maybe TGP is the place where I will go and throw in my 2 cents worth as DI seems to listen to that more.. I will remind him that he upvoted this idea long time ago.

 

Also having different options for the Path outputs might help too - some people might need USB & XLR, but not 1/4in Jacks - so a user definable "User Multi" might be helpful.

 

I am currently thinking about adding an extra audio interface via the Send / Return blocks to see if this makes life easier to route things.