patgiff Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 Hi from Germany. I have a Helix for 3 years now (cannot imagine life without it) and just decided to take the plunge into the wild world of MIDI. The reason being that I wanted to use an amp with multiple channels and be able to control from the Helix. I have ordered an Engl E570 preamp with MIDI capability and I have been reading the manuals of both devices. The E570 should arrive tomorrow! However I don't have a warm fuzzy feeling that I will quickly be able to figure it out. I watched a video on doing MIDI control between a Blug Amp1 and the Helix, it looked very straightforward. Not sure it will be so simple with the E570. Anybody out there using MIDI between Helix and an Engl E570??? Any tips or tricks you could share with me would be much appreciated. A link to a video would be worth a million words :-) Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rd2rk Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 FIRST: READ THE MANUAL!!! BOTH the Helix and E570. WARNING!!!! See especially pages 18 and 33 of the E570 manual. The "MIDI FOOTSWITCH" switch MUST be set to the right, else power will be sent thru the MIDI jack to the Helix. That would probably not be good! There appears to be two ways to do Channel switching. The Engl Z-4 switch box appears to be a TRS device, which could probably be replaced with the Helix EXT AMP switching. HOWEVER - the E570 sends the Z-4 15mA of current to operate the LEDs. This may be too little to matter, or it may FRY your Helix. I'd contact L6 support before trying this!!! IF they say it's OK, then I would guess that the way it works is that if you set the Helix switching in Command Center to send NONE;TIP;RING;BOTH you can select the four channels. If you have the Z-4 you can use a continuity tester to figure out which is which. OR MIDI PRESETS Starting on page 23 of the E570 manual there are instructions for setting up presets. The default MIDI Channel on Helix is Channel 1 (BASE Channel in Global Settings>MIDI/Tap Tempo). Set the E570 to MIDI Channel 1. The default is probably OMNI. That MIGHT work, but matching the Midi Channel is Best Practice. In Helix Global Settings>MIDI/Tap Tempo set MIDI PC SEND to OFF. This prevents Helix from sending it's default Program Change message when you select a preset, and allows you to use any Helix Preset with any E570 Preset. In Command Center, use Instant Commands - the Lightning Bolts (IC) - to select the E570 Presets. I assume from the manual that the E570 numbers it's presets 1-128, like the Helix. Set IC1>BANK/PROGRAM to the E570 Preset# you want to load when you select a Helix Preset. Leave the MIDI Channel setting on BASE if you've set Helix and the E570 both to the same channel. Leave the BANK CC00/032 settings OFF. Set PROGRAM to the E570 PC# you want to load. If you want to use Snapshots to change the E570 Presets, IC1 must be set for EACH snapshot you use. If in Global Settings>Preferences Snapshot Edits is set to RECALL, then you can make all of your Snapshot settings at once, the SAVE the Preset If Snapshot Edits is set to DISCARD then you must save the preset before moving to the next snapshot, else your settings will be lost. I think that about covers it. Questions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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