Complex set up. NEED HELP!

[adamwhisner]

Greetings all. Looking for some assistance. Would be willing to Zoom and screen share.

 

I'm a professional voice actor and have rudimentary home studio set up, which I had to whip into shape last April when the pandemic hit. I'm also a long time guitarist and budding home studio musician, but I feel like I'm standing in front of a tech wall that's preventing me from being able to do what I want to do. It's hard to find specific answers on YouTube.

 

I have a PC, an Audient iD44 DI, and a set of monitor speakers. All of my voice work is done through the Audient DI, with two different mics connected via XLR cables to the DI and into the PC via USB, of course.

 

I also have a Helix, which I know very little about other than that it will probably provide all of my sonic needs for guitar playing/recording...if I can figure out how to get it to do what I want.

 

This is where it gets complicated and need help.

 

I use Presonus Studio One as my DAW. It's all set up to record my voice. I edit my voicework by listening to playback through my Yamaha HS8 monitors, which are connected directly to the Audient DI. I barely understand how all of this works, but it does. I don't even remember how I figured it all out.

 

What I'm trying to figure out how to do is to connect the Helix to my DAW without having to unplug anything from my Audient, and use my monitor speakers to hear my Helix guitar sound as I'm playing, as well as for recording playback when I'm making music.

 

I first thought I'd just use the USB cable to the PC from the Helix, but what I can't figure out is how to get sound from the Helix and/or the DAW mix back to my monitor speakers. How do people do this? My monitors are connected to the Audient DI, not directly to the PC. Plus my DAW only lets you select one audio interface at a time as far as I can tell, so how do I get the Helix to talk to the Audient? How do I listen to what I'm recording via the Helix through my monitors?

 

I've currently got an XLR/XLR cable running from the Helix to my Audient DI, in addition to the USB cable going from Helix to PC. I can get sound that way, but it's buzzy. Something isn't right.

 

On top of all of this is my desire to use re-amping with the Helix, which takes the whole thing to another level I don't understand.

 

I'm sure this requires a much more complicated understanding of inputs/outputs than I have. I'm an idiot about this stuff. I'm an actor, not a sound engineer!

 

Help?

 

Thanks,

 

Adam

[rd2rk]

On a PC you can't PRACTICALLY (there are workarounds that mostly don't work consistently) use two ASIO devices at once. That means connecting your ID44 and your Helix by USB won't work.

 

Your ID44 has the ability to do everything you want. I suggest you go to their website and watch all the videos while referencing the manual.

 

Depending on which Helix you have, you might be able to use the S/PDIF Inputs on the ID44 (need adapter) and eliminate the (pretty much inaudible) AD/DA conversion that would be necessary using the XLR from Helix to ID44.

 

If you bought your Helix new (or if the previous owner didn't use the discount), you can get a great discount on the Helix NATIVE Plugin. You put that on a track in your DAW, record a clean guitar signal on the track, then process it through NATVE any way you like. No need for traditional re-amping. Helix routing options make this easy, and whatever sound you make on the HW Helix can be duplicated in Native.

 

After you've done some research on the Audient site and better understand the ID44's capabilities, come back here for answers to specific Helix questions.

[adamwhisner]

I just downloaded NATIVE at the discount! Looking forward to NOT HAVING TO FIGURE OUT ALL THIS TECH NONSENSE and just recording some guitar!

 

Thanks, man.

[zappazapper]

Your interface has 4 inputs. You said you have two microphones connected already, so just connect the Helix to the other two inputs. 

[rd2rk]

29 minutes ago, zappazapper said:

Your interface has 4 inputs. You said you have two microphones connected already, so just connect the Helix to the other two inputs. 

 

As mentioned, you can use the digital out and save the XLRs for something else.

If you have the full-fat Helix Floor or Rack you'll need something like this:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Coaxial-Optical-Converter-Bi-Directional/dp/B07VHPJ1DD/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

If you have the LT, something like this might work:

 

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CDL313--hosa-cdl-313

 

That second one should work with the Floor or Rack also, but the first one is cheaper and comes with cables.

 

You might want to contact support to verify that these converters will work. I have the Floor model, and my Scarlett 18i20 has Coax S/PDIF I/O, so I don't need these.

In any case, buy from somebody with a good returns policy, in case there's noise or it just doesn't work as advertised with the ID44.

 

 

[zappazapper]

Sorry, I guess I missed the OP when he said, 

 

23 hours ago, adamwhisner said:

I've currently got an XLR/XLR cable running from the Helix to my Audient DI, in addition to the USB cable going from Helix to PC. I can get sound that way, but it's buzzy. Something isn't right.

 

I think that before you go buying a chain of digital signal converters, you might want to think about figuring out why a simple XLR connection is "buzzy". 99.9% of the time an analog connection should function just as well as a digital connection in the audible frequency range, so if what you're hearing sounds "buzzy" then you have an issue that needs troubleshooting (it's not the natural state of balanced analog signals to be audibly noisy, and aliasing noise of a 24 bit signal will be inaudible except in only the most extreme situations). The first place I'd look is the little ground lift button beside the XLR outs on the Helix. Beyond that, your interface uses a wall-wart adapter, which are notorious for causing noise in any device within spitting distance. You might think about moving that wall-wart to a different plug, preferably one that's on a different circuit (ie. a different breaker on your panel).

[rd2rk]

As zappazapper says above, but try getting all of your audio equipment on the same breaker circuit to eliminate that cause of ground loops. Also be sure that you're using a quality emi/rfi filtered surge strip for everything on that circuit, and that it's not a circuit that also hosts refrigerators, air conditioners, microwaves rheostats, etc. In addition, since "buzzy" is not a really clear description of the problem, be aware of possible USB ground loop issues. These can be REALLY hard to track down. If all of the regular ground loop solutions above fail, try disconnecting your USB devices one by one starting with anything not audio such as printers, modems, routers and the like. You might connect those to different USB ports than the audio related USB devices, maybe separate hubs?

 

A last word on wall warts. In addition to being famously noisy, it's possible that they can be defective and still appear to work. If you have multiple wall warts in your system, you might need to get a high quality power supply with isolated outs such as those made by VooDoo Labs, OneSpot and others.

 

Are we having fun yet?

 

EDIT: Oh, yeah, defective cables......