Reamp through external effects and external amp

[c_frederick]

Apologies if I'm missing an active thread on this but I couldn't find anything.

I use Ableton Live and I'd like to re-amp a track through Helix to external effects and an external amplifier...and then mic that and bring it back into Live as a new track.

I understand how to re-amp a track 'inside the Helix box' and I know how to connect a guitar to an external powered amp through Helix (found a video on this) but this is a bit different.

Is there a correct way to do this?
I sort of got it to work by setting my 'source track' in Ableton to External Out USB 3/4. Then on the Helix I used a USB 3/4 Input block -> a Send/Return FX Loop block...I used Send 1 to go into an external fuzz pedal (or whatever) and then into the amp. Instead of using the paired Return on the Helix,  I mic'd the amp and brought that back into the Helix Mic Input. The 'new/re-amped track' in Ableton seemed to want to use External In USB 8.

I say this "sort of" worked because I was able to record the re-amped signal but the results were underwhelming. I feel like I either missed something important or found a 'hack' that's not really the optimal way to do this. Does anyone else ever take a track from a DAW and use Helix to reamp it through external fx and an external amp that is mic'd and captured via Mic In?
I'd greatly appreciate any widsom/hints on this! Cheers,

Chris

[rd2rk]

USB 8 is the usual way to re-amp through Helix, and as long as your send is set to INSTRUMENT (what your external effects likely need to see) in Global Settings>Ins/Outs, that should be as good as it gets. The rest is the usual - good mics, good mic positioning, good EQ.

[c_frederick]

Thanks for the response on this, I appreciate it.