Helix Volume too low (bass)

[Eraseri]

I've been happily using Helix for many months now with my guitar. However I just purchased bass and have tried to play it with Helix... Problem is very very low volume compared to guitar. I changed my bass battery twice so it's not the issue. Bass also sounds very nice and loud through normal bass-amp. With Helix low sound volume is big problem. I have tried plugging it in to guitar and aux-port, and also tried sending normal bass-cab signal to Helix AUX-IN... No help

Basically I have to put all cab volumes to 10.0 and add gain-block with ~7.0 db to get remotely as much volume as from guitar. I'm really frustrated with this issue, hopefully someone has some tips I could try?

[silverhead]

Did you have the Input Pad on when using your other guitar? If so try turning it off.

[rd2rk]

No such problems here - passive Squier P/J - Strat - PRS w/HBs.

 

[raww]

Have you checked z-in setting switching from auto to manual setting for guitar input port?

Do you use an bass amp model for bass

 

I use and Squire Jazz bass and one with active pickups. While in the past the J seemed to have low output for me at the moment it seems ok again for me. But never had to add several volume boosters. 

[codamedia]

This problem is not normal.... 

The Helix does not distinguish between what is plugged in, it simply treats the signal it is sent. The signal from the Bass is obviously lower than the guitar.... apparently much lower. 

 

Make sure you test everything equally.

• Use the same input for both the guitar and bass... 
• Use the same cable for both (eg: unplug one to plug in the other)
• Test "levels" with the same preset! One will certainly be louder than the other (no two guitars are the same level) but they should be within the ball park of each other.
  • If you don't do this.... how would you know it isn't just the presets that are different levels.

15 hours ago, Eraseri said:

Bass also sounds very nice and loud through normal bass-amp. 

 

Compared to what? Have you plugged in another bass to see if it's the same level? Have you plugged your guitar into that bass amp to see how loud it appears? 

 

15 hours ago, Eraseri said:

I have tried plugging it in to guitar and aux-port

 

FYI: By design, the AUX input is much quieter than the guitar input is.

RELATED: If you attempt a "return block" make sure the return is set to instrument level in the global settings. 

 

15 hours ago, Eraseri said:

and also tried sending normal bass-cab signal to Helix AUX-IN... No help

 

Please explain this one? If you hooked it up the way this sentence suggests you would blow your Helix into oblivion :) 

 

15 hours ago, Eraseri said:

I changed my bass battery twice so it's not the issue.

 

That would indicate an active bass. If there is a compressor near the front of the chain, maybe it is clamping down to hard on the signal. If wouldn't matter what you put in front of the compressor for volume, the compressor would just squash it even more. 

 

[Eraseri]

Thanks for many answers! Bass guitar in question is ESP LTD D-5

 

I have checked Z-In -setting, it was on auto. Tried different impedances... Didn't help much

 

Tried changing input-pad setting, not much difference.

 

So far Helix has not blown into Oblivion yet! Hehe :)  ,I meant that I hooked up Helix to my Bass cab's recording output (roland bass 30 amp)

 

I tried one guitar and bass in both bass amp and Helix. Difference was very clear. Guitar is much louder. It seems I have some problem with this bass. And yes im using Bass-cabs on helix

[bassbene]

Complaining about 7db of boost? There are miles to go before will run out of headroom.

Input impedance will only affect the tone, especially with passive instruments. It will not affect volume.

 

Keep in mind that the Input Pad does about 5db of attenuation. If you say that this does not make much difference, the assumption is that you have something in your preset that is hard on dynamics. Compressor? Overdrive? Hard driven amp? Some block seems to kill eat your volume with the bass guitar.

I would start with a clean, minimal preset and build from there. And don't be scared to add a boost of 7db...   
 

 

[Eraseri]

Returning to this topic. I have been playing Bass through Helix and Roland Cube 30 XL-basscombo. As I wrote earlier there are a lot of times when I combine playing bass and using PC for backing track for example or playing with Yousician. I tried what bassbene suggested and removed everything from signal-chain except amp+cab. The sound is just very low sounding still... Even bought a new bass, Marcus Miller V7. Still low sounding

 

Best results I get when I plug my bass to Roland Cube and use microphone on front of Roland to verify played sounds to Yousician for example. I don't get what is the problem. I have to put PC volume to like 30 %  and program volume to even lower so that bass can compete with PC-sounds. Veeery annoying. Also everything sounds quite weak through Helix compared to small Roland. 

 

Also tried plugging Bass through Roland to Helix. I think its normal to crank up volume to 100 % from roland?

[jbuhajla]

What Helix input are you plugging your bass into?