soundog Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 1) Its like getting new stuff for free! 2) The upgrade went smooth and quickly. Updates always make me a little nervous after a cup of coffee. So I backed up my preset bundles and made careful notes of my IR slot contents. But I didn't need to .... everything was restored as is, along with the new 1.8 version. 3) I love the new Fullerton and Grammatico amps. They may be my favorites yet. The amp+cab modeling reacts realistically to my Strat and Gretsch bass. Great clean, crunch, and lead tones from a single amp. 4) New stuff for bass (an amp, a DI, and a distortion pedal). Bonus for us bass players! And they all sound excellent. 5. Native is still a bit of a CPU hog. But that's life in the fast lane, I suppose. 6) I'm using Native with Logic Pro X on a fast iMac running High Sierra. You're mileage and experience may vary. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craiganderton Posted August 5, 2019 Share Posted August 5, 2019 18 hours ago, soundog said: 5. Native is still a bit of a CPU hog. But that's life in the fast lane, I suppose. Yup! I think Line 6 throws a lot of CPU at those algorithms, that's why they sound good (and why the floor Helix isn't $999). However, I have noticed that newer versions do tend to be optimized a little better. The difference between 1.5 and 1.71 was pretty major in terms of cutting down on CPU consumption. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
line6picker Posted August 5, 2019 Share Posted August 5, 2019 I too am updating to 1.80 in the moments to come on my Mac! Since I wanted to try the factory tones that come with 1.80 (although I'm not sure why) I thought I'd try to save my custom presets and IRs separately so that I could install the updated factory patches. While this may have been addressed in the past I am noticing that when I try to save, copy or move my IRs to a folder for backup they do not maintain their original order. Is there any way to force them to save their order so that I won't have to rearrange them all over again when I have to move them back to Native, other than by using the Save Bundle command? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcc1 Posted August 6, 2019 Share Posted August 6, 2019 On 8/5/2019 at 12:27 AM, soundog said: 5. Native is still a bit of a CPU hog. But that's life in the fast lane, I suppose. I also noticed this. Much more CPU heavy than other amp suits, so there is less headroom for flexible creative usage. I have never had issues running out of resources before.(Yet, the amount and quality of the sounds is great.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundog Posted August 6, 2019 Author Share Posted August 6, 2019 @line6picker -- the last I checked Helix Native (and Helix Edit) can really make a mess of IR loading. It needs to have a way to export and import IR bundles (to maintain your slot order). I keep a screen shot of my order in case things get messed up (then, its a matter of dragging and dropping them back in order, one at a time). Or, some have resorted to naming their IRs with an alphabetical prefix (a0, a1, ... a9, b0, etc) because Helix seems to put the IRs in alphabetical order. @gcc1 - I've had to jump through hoops when recording through Helix using software monitoring, especially on complex projects or with cpu-hog virtual instruments. In worst cases, I've bounced my song (with no guitars) to a stereo track, then used it to record Helix guitar tracks using a low buffer setting for low latency. There are other creative workarounds, but that would require an essay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
line6picker Posted August 6, 2019 Share Posted August 6, 2019 Thanks Soundog. I also thought about resorting to the alphabetical prefix in order to keep things in order. However, part of the problem (it seems) may simply be that my Mac (High Sierra) automatically reorders files when they are pasted into a folder. It looks like Mavericks might have addressed this with a new 'SORT BY' of "NONE" in folder choices, whereas High Sierra does not have a choice for "NONE" (see image below). Still investigating a way around this. This is an age old problem when attempting to save song titles in the original order of the album too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcc1 Posted August 6, 2019 Share Posted August 6, 2019 1 hour ago, soundog said: @gcc1 - I've had to jump through hoops when recording through Helix using software monitoring, especially on complex projects or with cpu-hog virtual instruments. In worst cases, I've bounced my song (with no guitars) to a stereo track, then used it to record Helix guitar tracks using a low buffer setting for low latency. There are other creative workarounds, but that would require an essay. Thanks for sharing your experience and tips. I'm gonna have to come up with something like that definitely. Wished it wasn't necessary, but oh well. :o) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
line6picker Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 Soundog: I hesitated installing 1.81 for Native when I saw this KNOWN BUG listed on their update page: "Logic Pro X is currently unable to write snapshot or switch automation data for Helix Native". Do you use Logic Pro and has this been an issue for you? One of the main reasons that I was considering the switch to 1.81 was for the improved midi mapping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randallhnielson Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 Hi All, I am a total new user ... I literally just plugged into Helix Native for the first time, through a UA Apollo x6. I'm using Studio One 4 on a fast PC. Any advice on eliminating latency, other than taking the buffer down to 64 or 32? I feel like I'm overthinking things and missing something simple ... any advice is much appreciated. Thanks - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundog Posted August 9, 2019 Author Share Posted August 9, 2019 line6picker .... there's another thread I posted regarding this, and I (and @datacommando) both mention that we've seen no issues. I'm using High Sierra and Logic 10.4.5. I tested all the automation and snapshots stuff and it worked OK with 1.81. Its important to me because I do a lot of automation with Native. I didn't test any patch/preset selection stuff via MIDI program change, though. Let us know if you have any issues. I suppose you could always roll back to 1.80 if necessary. Or use Time Machine. also re: naming files. There's an essential Mac app called "A Better Finder Rename" that will do all sorts of file renaming, including sequential and alphabetical naming. Might be good for IR file renaming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
line6picker Posted August 9, 2019 Share Posted August 9, 2019 Soundog: This is good information. Thank you. I don't do a lot of automation with Logic Pro but I have agonized to setup midi foot controllers to work reliably with the snapshots in Helix Native. When I read that the Helix Native 1.81 had better midi integration this sounded like a win, since this had been a weak point in the past. I loaded 1.81 by simply running the .dmg file. Very smooth, and all of my original patches (which I also backed up) were all there right in place. Did Line 6 do anything miraculous with the 1.81. Factory Presets that might make them worth downloading? Factory presets are often unusable (IMO) so I wonder if it's worth the effort since I would have to reload all of my other patches if I do the necessary 'Restore Factory Setting' just to see if I like them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundog Posted August 12, 2019 Author Share Posted August 12, 2019 .... well, I didn't download them, for the same reason as you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
line6picker Posted August 12, 2019 Share Posted August 12, 2019 Great minds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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