HELIX MIDI and routing integration with RJM Effect Gizmo

[Sjaltenb]

Hey all,

 

I’ve been experimenting with effects and various setups for over a decade. I’m a hobby player who loves to build things with some favorite tones, and more recently, has a family who sleeps in the same house as my rig. 

 

Ive had half stacks, combos, massive pedalboards, small racks, and most recently Helix Floor only.  My influences are Gilmour (major), blues, some Mayer (more the tone than the music), rock, etc. 

 

In my current situation, I love the Helix because it gives me amp flexibility, a load of great effects, endless routing, delays, verbs, cabs, etc. I simply don’t have the space or budget for multiple Amps, so digital modeling really makes sense for me. Additionally, headphones and studio monitors critical for space and family!

 

Over the years I’ve always had to compromise for various reasons. So when I had my gilmour setup, it was very dedicated to those tones. When I had the Helix only, it was a Swiss Army knife for other music but I missed certain pedals and Gilmour and other tones. Plus, I just like trying new pedals and rig building as a hobby. Luckily, I’m now in a position where I don’t have to compromise as much monetarily. My only constraint is keeping everything inside a 16U rack, and can’t go crazy on the $. 

 

Ive since sold the Helix Floor and picking up my Helix rack today. Will also order a Control when I can find one used (anyone?) It will be the heartbeat of the new rack rig, providing the majority of the EQ, compression, delay, reverb, some modulation, dirt where the models are great, routing, MIdI controlling, etc, all of which it does awesome for me! 

 

Where I’m wanting specific pedals to take over for tones and tunes I love, I’m going to use an RJM Effect Gizmo combined with rack drawers and pedals to handle the tail of other tones I desire. I’m hopeful they all play nice together. I do have four custom made buffers I plan to insert before the FX return in the Helix. 

 

Here is my thought / question : how can I best incorporate the two rigs for the best of both worlds? Routing options are critical, but my thought is to put the first 6 loops of the RJM in one FX loop, and the 2nd 6 loops in the another. This would leave the first and last FX loops open.

 

From a MIDI standpoint, I think I’ll have to call certain CCs for every patch where I use the External FX. Is that right? Or, should I program using PCs? I’m less familiar with how this would work.

 

Ideally, I’d want the Helix Control to represent the status of the RJM loops where I want instant access, which would be a combination of internal Helix FX and external loops via MIdI. Is this possible?

 

Any help or guidance would be great!

 

SA

[rd2rk]

Whether you use PCs, CCs or NOTEs depends on the requirements of the devices being controlled. What you'll want to do is make sure that those devices are all set to different MIDI channels (there's 16 channels), so that they'll only respond to the messages intended for them. In CommandCenter you'll then be specific about the channel you want to send the message on.