Help With BeatBuddy into Helix LT

[robkel]

Hey all, I have tried searching, but all of the topics concerned a Beatbuddy being synced with a looper, all I am trying to do is hook my Beatbuddy up to my Helix LT. I am trying to go with the Beatbuddy midi spliter chord that plugs into the in/out of the Helix, but I cant get any drum sounds to come through. The only way I have gotten it to work is to use a 1/4 cable and have it in my chain between my guitar and Helix. Can anyone explain how to best ue the Beatbuddy with the Helix, and what settings I need to adjust? Thanks a million.

 

Rob D

[Kilrahi]

25 minutes ago, robkel said:

Hey all, I have tried searching, but all of the topics concerned a Beatbuddy being synced with a looper, all I am trying to do is hook my Beatbuddy up to my Helix LT. I am trying to go with the Beatbuddy midi spliter chord that plugs into the in/out of the Helix, but I cant get any drum sounds to come through. The only way I have gotten it to work is to use a 1/4 cable and have it in my chain between my guitar and Helix. Can anyone explain how to best ue the Beatbuddy with the Helix, and what settings I need to adjust? Thanks a million.

 

Rob D

 

It's like any other pedal. 

 

If you don't want it chained after or before your Helix, your only other option is in an FX loop. The only deal is you probably won't want it to be impacted by your FX blocks, so you'll want to put it on its own path that joins at the very end of the guitar path, or at least goes out the same send.

[robkel]

53 minutes ago, Kilrahi said:

 

It's like any other pedal. 

 

If you don't want it chained after or before your Helix, your only other option is in an FX loop. The only deal is you probably won't want it to be impacted by your FX blocks, so you'll want to put it on its own path that joins at the very end of the guitar path, or at least goes out the same send.

Thanks! So I just tried putting it after the Helix before the Amp, and that was much better sounding, none of the effects changed the sound of the Beatbuddy, so if all else fails I will go with that, only issue is recording, I use Reaper Software to record tracks through a USB from the Helix to mny computer. Will having the Beatbuddy after the Helix before the Amp not allow me to record, i.e. the Electric or acoustic guitar I am recording will come through, but not the Beatbuddy? If I did it the way you mention, how hard is it to do what you mention (own path at end of guitar path). I am technologically ignorant.

[garymwest]

12 hours ago, robkel said:

Hey all, I have tried searching, but all of the topics concerned a Beatbuddy being synced with a looper, all I am trying to do is hook my Beatbuddy up to my Helix LT. I am trying to go with the Beatbuddy midi spliter chord that plugs into the in/out of the Helix, but I cant get any drum sounds to come through. The only way I have gotten it to work is to use a 1/4 cable and have it in my chain between my guitar and Helix. Can anyone explain how to best ue the Beatbuddy with the Helix, and what settings I need to adjust? Thanks a million.

 

Rob D

Hey Rob, Since you have the midi cable for your BB you might try sending the midi tempo signal to the Helix, the time based effects sound great when synced to the tempo, set the delay times to note values. Your tempo led will turn blue when synced.

[Kilrahi]

20 hours ago, robkel said:

Thanks! So I just tried putting it after the Helix before the Amp, and that was much better sounding, none of the effects changed the sound of the Beatbuddy, so if all else fails I will go with that, only issue is recording, I use Reaper Software to record tracks through a USB from the Helix to mny computer. Will having the Beatbuddy after the Helix before the Amp not allow me to record, i.e. the Electric or acoustic guitar I am recording will come through, but not the Beatbuddy? If I did it the way you mention, how hard is it to do what you mention (own path at end of guitar path). I am technologically ignorant.

 

If you do it after the LT then no, it won't show up in the recording.  

 

However, it is possible to make it so it does, and it's not very hard.   I use an HX Stomp, but I have done things like this with the Helix LT, and the two are very similar with the Stomp restricted to only a "Path A", so while I am going largely from memory, the below should work. The first thing you'll need to do is plug the BeatBuddy sends into the returns on the Helix. If you want stereo then you'll use both return 1 & 2. So that routing would be:

 

1. TS Cable from BeatBuddy Output L(Mono) to Helix Return 1. 

2. TS Cable from BeatBuddy Output R to Helix Return 2. (Skip if stereo is not desired)

 

The next step is to design the Helix's internal signal chain. There is more than one way to accomplish this, and there are pluses and minuses to each, but the one below is probably the easiest. In the manual it is referred to as "Parallel Routing."

 

When you first look at the Helix screen, you have TWO paths you can choose. For the setup I'm suggesting, you'll be using the guitar signal for "Path 1" and the BeatBuddy signal for "Path 2." Keep in mind this stuff is even easier to do with HX Edit, but I assume you'll be using the device itself in the instructions below. 

 

1. Using the joystick, press down to move the cursor on the Helix from "Path A" to "Path B."

2. Press left with the joystick on "Path B" until you get to the "X." Turn the joystick to select an input block. 

3. Select "Input Return 1" for mono, or "Input Return 1/2" for stereo. 

4. If you want the output of the BeatBuddy to be separate from the guitar signal, then move to the far right output block on "Path B" to choose a different output than the source for "Path A." I would then go into "Path A's" output block and choose a different choice than what I did for "Path B." Keep in mind, this is only necessary if you don't want them mixed. 

 

If you run into trouble with the above, I would check out the LT manual covering the following pages:

Page 8 - Shows the signal view and labels what the paths are that I'm referring to. 

Page 16 - Choosing inputs and outputs. 

Page 19 - True parallel path example, which is what we are doing here, except without the duplicate inputs and outputs. 

Page 22 - Demonstrating the type of input blocks you can select. 

 

The YouTube video below, while not trying to do what I did, also shows very well the mobility between all of the paths. 

 

 

[AndyDSA]

Hi all

I too have just purchased a Beat Buddy (and upgraded its firmware to the latest 3.80).

 

A) I had previously trialed one with my Helix LT and successfully used:

1. the effects loop AFTER an amp block with one TS cable in each of the send/return as per Kilrahi's suggestion above

2.  A separate path for this block through to my hi-fi amp for just the Beat Buddy (also as per suggestions above)

 

However, I didn't want to tie up the effects loops just for the Beat Buddy and it appears that you have to add this path and block combination to every Preset on which you want Beat Buddy (Am I wrong?)

 

B) So I used two quality TS cables from the 1/4" outputs to the Beat Buddy inputs and then took two TRS to RCA to go to my hi-fi i.e. with no changes to presets on the Helix. So, I have my Guitar > Helix > Beat Buddy > Hi-Fi amp

 

My problem is now that going that way I hear fizz and clipping on clean settings from the Helix as though it is producing old school digital effects from 10 years back. It seems that the Beat Buddy is converting them or adding distortion in some way. This occurs whether or not I am playing a kit or have it paused

 

My questions:

1. Am I correct in my assumption in B) about using Effects loop for every preset if I chose to go that way, or is there a better way to use the Send/Return blocks globally as an input for Beat Buddy

2. Is there any known degradation of signal as per my path B and is this something I should head to the Beat Buddy forum about or....?

 

It appears that in A my signal is clean but the flexibility of set up is very restricted and I have to add Send/Return to each Preset or Snapshot.

In B it appears that the flexibility is covered (not sure about synching with Looper but that is another step to cover) however the sound is poor.