Can I reamp through the HX Stomp without using it as an audio interface?

[jms92]

I would like to use the HX stomp as a guitar effects box for my studio but keep using my regular audio interface for recording the guitar and vocals. 

 

Is there a way to send my dry guitar signal through the HX stomp for reamping without configuring it as my primary audio interface?

And would that make any sense in comparison to just jusing Helix Native?

 

I've looked at several YouTube videos comparing the sound of Helix Native and the HX Stomp and the HX Stomp sounded better to me.

[silverhead]

Yes you can get a dry guitar signal from HX Stomp to your DAW using your regular audio interface. Assuming you also want to record the wet stereo signal simultaneously you will need to use three audio input channels on your interface device. Connect your HX Stomp main outputs to two of those channels and use those to feed a stereo track in your DAW. Connect your HX Stomp Send output to the 3rd interface input channel and use that to feed a mono track in your DAW.

 

In your HX Stomp preset place the SEND block at the very front of your signal chain, before any processing blocks. This will carry your dry guitar signal to your interface. Make sure you set the Dry Thru parameter on the Send block to route the dry signal to the rest of your signal chain. This will get the processed stereo signal to the HX Stomp main outputs.

[datacommando]

6 hours ago, jms92 said:

I've looked at several YouTube videos comparing the sound of Helix Native and the HX Stomp and the HX Stomp sounded better to me.

 

HUH? HX Stomp sounded better?

 

You do realise that your HX Stomp uses exactly the same "audio engine" as HX Native and that Native is not limited to 6 blocks for effects? Native is technically even more powerful than a Helix floor unit because you can load as many instances into your DAW as your computer can handle.

 

Listening to things on YouTube is not always accurate as video can be subjected to all sorts of compression routines that can totally mess with the audio.

 

If you try the technique described by "silverhead" in the post above, you can try out the demo version of HX Native and check the results first hand. Furthermore, once you have your DI audio you can process it through a whole bunch of other plug-ins for even more sonic mayhem.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense

[jms92]

11 hours ago, silverhead said:

Yes you can get a dry guitar signal from HX Stomp to your DAW using your regular audio interface. Assuming you also want to record the wet stereo signal simultaneously you will need to use three audio input channels on your interface device. Connect your HX Stomp main outputs to two of those channels and use those to feed a stereo track in your DAW. Connect your HX Stomp Send output to the 3rd interface input channel and use that to feed a mono track in your DAW.

 

In your HX Stomp preset place the SEND block at the very front of your signal chain, before any processing blocks. This will carry your dry guitar signal to your interface. Make sure you set the Dry Thru parameter on the Send block to route the dry signal to the rest of your signal chain. This will get the processed stereo signal to the HX Stomp main outputs.

 

If I understand you correctly, you describe how I can get a signal from the HX Stomp through the regular audio interface into my DAW.

My question was more along the lines of: If I have already recorded my guitar through my regular audio interface into the DAW, can I reroute / reamp it through the HX stomp without using the HX stomp as an audio interface?

 

So basically the signal goes DAW (clean signal) -> HX Stomp (adds effects) -> DAW (distorted signal) but without having the HX Stomp selected as the primary audio interface.

I would prefer this workflow because I want to keep my regular audio interface selected as the main interface in the DAW but still reamp through the HX Stomp.

Unfortunately, the section about reamping in the manual assumes that I also want to use the HX Stomp as my audio interface, which is not the case for me.

 

 

8 hours ago, datacommando said:

 

HUH? HX Stomp sounded better?

 

You do realise that your HX Stomp uses exactly the same "audio engine" as HX Native and that Native is not limited to 6 blocks for effects? Native is technically even more powerful than a Helix floor unit because you can load as many instances into your DAW as your computer can handle.

 

Listening to things on YouTube is not always accurate as video can be subjected to all sorts of compression routines that can totally mess with the audio.

 

If you try the technique described by "silverhead" in the post above, you can try out the demo version of HX Native and check the results first hand. Furthermore, once you have your DI audio you can process it through a whole bunch of other plug-ins for even more sonic mayhem.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense

 

Okay. I didn't have a chance to compare them yet because I don't own Helix Native but it sounded better in most videos and it also seemed to be the general consensus when reading reviews online. I'll need to do some A/B testing then.

[datacommando]

10 hours ago, jms92 said:

Unfortunately, the section about reamping in the manual assumes that I also want to use the HX Stomp as my audio interface, which is not the case for me.

Hi,

 

The reason that technique is in the manual is because it is the most simple, painless way of doing it, and your audio remains digital throughout. What you want to do will put the audio through a couple of unnecessary analogue/digital/analogue conversions, but hey, that’s the way you want to work with it, so fine.
 

You simply need to take the clean guitar audio out from your DAW via your interface into the front end of your HX Stomp and then the effected signal back to your interface and into the DAW. Not overly complicated really, a bit of re-patching and there you have it. A small mixer would be a preference here, again that’s up to you. Furthermore, as you already have a clean guitar tracked, you could keep any further processing digital by using HX Native as a channel insert plug-in and thus allowing even more options as it has far more FX blocks available. No need to exit the DAW for Helix tones.

 

10 hours ago, jms92 said:

Okay. I didn't have a chance to compare them yet because I don't own Helix Native but it sounded better in most videos and it also seemed to be the general consensus when reading reviews online. I'll need to do some A/B testing then.

Mmm... I didn’t realise that there is a general consensus of opinion that Native doesn’t sound as good as a Stomp. Surely some mistake. That quite simply defies logic. The whole reason that the HX Stomp exists is because the “brain” is derived from the Helix, which is the same as Native.

 

I admit that my view may be somewhat biased as I have been using a Helix floor as a primary tool for recording and re-amping guitar tracks for five years. Plus I have being using HX Native as major plug-in since it first became available - not just for bass and guitar, you can use it on any audio that you want, e.g. vocals, drums, synths. Could be that my ears have been deceiving me all this time. I really should spend less time in the studio and trawl YouTube to find where I’ve been going wrong.

 

Also, when asking for assistance,  it would be a good idea to let us know what computer OS, DAW and interface you are using - that way we could probably offer other options and/or more suggestions. For example, how about the possibility of an aggregate USB device for recording and playback?

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

[cruisinon2]

On 10/25/2020 at 5:29 AM, jms92 said:

I've looked at several YouTube videos comparing the sound of Helix Native and the HX Stomp and the HX Stomp sounded better to me.

 

Any preference you have for the sound of one Helix demo over another is due solely to the subjective nature of tone and/or the skill of the guy who created the patch and made the demo. Helix is Helix... Stomp, Native, Floor, or Rack is 100% irrelevant. They're all the same modeling engine.

[jms92]

Alright, in that case it surely makes no sense to work the way I suggested. :)

I was assuming that there was a difference between the hardware units and the VST and the YouTube videos I watched confirmed that to me.

 

Lesson learned: Better ask directly in the forum of the producer than to watch YouTube videos. :D

I'll return the Stomp for Helix Native then.