acoustictunes Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Currently I have a mac laptop hooked up to an audio interface and studio monitors. I was interested in getting a HX Stomp. If I connect the stomp via USB to the mac, and I'm playing guitar through the stomp, is there a way to make the audio from the stomp go out my studio monitors without physically connecting the cables from the stomp to the monitors? I'd prefer to leave the monitors plugged into my existing audio interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zolko60 Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Yes, aggretating devices but the Round Trip Latency would be the higher of the aggregated interfaces. Quite high in case of the multi sample rate driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acoustictunes Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 Thanks -- I've been reading the HX Stomp manual (Rev C) and I see the discussion on p.55 about hardware vs software monitoring. I guess for the best latency while playing guitar, I'd want to leave it plugged into the HX Stomp. I guess I could just get a mixer to combine the HX Stomp out and the audio interface out, so that I don't have to plug in and out every time. But then I guess I have to add a mixer to my desk which is already running out of space :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zolko60 Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 You can also use 48kHz only Class Compliant mode to keep the latency at a playable level or use your audio interface direct monitoring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codamedia Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 On 1/2/2021 at 4:52 PM, acoustictunes said: Currently I have a mac laptop hooked up to an audio interface and studio monitors. I was interested in getting a HX Stomp. If I connect the stomp via USB to the mac, and I'm playing guitar through the stomp, is there a way to make the audio from the stomp go out my studio monitors without physically connecting the cables from the stomp to the monitors? I'd prefer to leave the monitors plugged into my existing audio interface. Does your audio interface not have inputs? IMO..... plug the output of the Stomp into the INPUTS on the interface and call it a day! There is no need to run the audio "digitally through the computer" when you simply want to play guitar. You will not notice any degradation in sound! When recording you can always track the sound directly from the Stomp through USB (if you want).... but that doesn't mean you can't monitor it directly through the interface (with no latency) at the same time. FWIW: I always connect/monitor through my interface for the lowest latency possible. Since I love the sound of the pre-amps in my interface (and that is what I hear anyway) I don't bother tracking the Helix digitally/directly through USB, I track it through my interface inputs. That's not meant to be a "right vs wrong" way of doing it... it's just how I do it. If I didn't have great sounding pre-amps, I'd likely do it differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acoustictunes Posted January 4, 2021 Author Share Posted January 4, 2021 1 hour ago, codamedia said: Does your audio interface not have inputs? IMO..... plug the output of the Stomp into the INPUTS on the interface and call it a day! There is no need to run the audio "digitally through the computer" when you simply want to play guitar. You will not notice any degradation in sound! When recording you can always track the sound directly from the Stomp through USB (if you want).... but that doesn't mean you can't monitor it directly through the interface (with no latency) at the same time. FWIW: I always connect/monitor through my interface for the lowest latency possible. Since I love the sound of the pre-amps in my interface (and that is what I hear anyway) I don't bother tracking the Helix digitally/directly through USB, I track it through my interface inputs. That's not meant to be a "right vs wrong" way of doing it... it's just how I do it. If I didn't have great sounding pre-amps, I'd likely do it differently. I was just trying to understand how many line inputs I needed :) I currently have a Toneport UX2, which as separate line inputs from the microphone inputs, but Gearbox doesn't run on my Mac anymore. Also, it wasn't clear to me from the manual whether the UX2 knew how to monitor the line inputs and merge with the audio from the computer (youtube / itunes). The "Line 6 Audio - MIDI Devices" panel on the mac doesn't talk about any of that. I was thinking of upgrading and trying to figure out how many inputs I needed. A Focusrite 2i2 only has 2 inputs that are combo xlr and 1/4 inch, but normally I'd connect microphones to that. So I was trying to understand if I needed extra inputs or not, because I don't want to unplug my microphones every time I want to connect the HX stomp. When I looked at Focusrite 4i4 and the MOTU M2 / M4, their documentation talks specifically about routing line inputs to the analog outs / studio monitors, with very close to zero latency. They also talk about being able to control the mix between the inputs and the computer (the MOTU even has a physical dial for that). So that sounds like the right solution, instead of sending the audio from the HX stomp via usb to the computer and then back out to the audio interface. It sounds like I just need those extra cables, and I don't need an aggregate device. I think that the latency is going to be lowest if you connect the studio monitors directly to the HX stomp, but if the audio interface supports direct monitoring like the Focusrite / MOTU / every other modern audio interface, then running a cable should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.