External looper wiring and signal chain assistance

[hoppmyers1]

I've recently pulled my Helix Floor processor out of the closet after a couple of years of not using it and am basically starting over on the learning process. My normal playing consists of making rhythm loops on an external looper and playing along with the loops that I make through an amplifier; now through the Helix into 2 separate powered speakers (left/right from the Helix ¼” Outs).

 

I've got a Boss RC30 stereo Looper that I would like to hook up to the Helix, so I can record effect driven patches on to the looper and then play it through the powered speaker/ speakers depending if I want the loop playing to the right or left speaker or both. If there is some kind of global setting to make the looper available on all patches, it would be great.  It’s not that I would use the looper every single time I played. It would just be nice if I didn’t have to set up a send/return block on every preset if possible. I can always bypass it if I’m not using it.

 

Looking for some assistance on setting up cables on the back of the Helix to the looper as well as setting up and assigning the send/return blocks needed to get it to work. I'm running the Helix floor processer using firmware 3.15.

 

I’ve tried hooking the send 1 from the Helix into the L/mono input jack on the back of the looper and the receive 1 on the Helix to the L/mono output of the looper and get sound when adding a send/return 1 block on the Helix, but can’t get the looper to record anything. 

 

Can someone give me suggestions on how to run the cables on the back of the Helix to the looper and how to set up the send/return blocks or if there is another way to do it all, some assistance would be highly appreciated.?

 

 

[datacommando]

On 7/18/2022 at 9:45 PM, hoppmyers1 said:

Can someone give me suggestions on how to run the cables on the back of the Helix to the looper and how to set up the send/return blocks or if there is another way to do it all, some assistance would be highly appreciated.?

Hi,

 

I have various external loopers that I use with my Helix floor, and one of those is the Boss RC30 in stereo.
 

Easy enough to set up with a non bypassed stereo FX Loop block, usually near the end of the signal chain, although you can place it anywhere you wish. I then have 4 cables attached to Send 1/2 and Return 1/2, two are blue and two are red, and both are labelled to make cable management easier - red -> right, blue -> left, into and out of the RC 30. You can then customise the scribble strip to name it as you wish. 
 

For your configuration it may be best to have all your signal chain set up with all your fx, then just before the output stage, split the path to a parallel A/B, where one path (A) continues direct to the Helix stereo output (1/4” Right or both), and the second path (B) with the effect driven looper goes to another Helix stereo output(1/4” Left or both).

 

There is no Global setting to have a looper available on any/every preset. Having said that, there is a a trick. If you know that the FXLoop block to feed your RC30 will always be in the same position in the signal path, add that block to the position you require in a New Preset and assign it to a footswitch that is not bypassed. Now touch the footswitch and create a Favorite and name it to suit, then next time you need to add you external looper, select it in the Favorites list it will be added to the current signal path, always in the same place. Done. See page 17 “Adding a Block to Favorites”, Helix 3.0 Owner’s Manual - Rev F - English.

 

https://line6.com/data/6/0a020a3f041b611d61cac763b/application/pdf/Helix 3.0 Owner's Manual - Rev F - English .pdf
 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

 

[hoppmyers1]

Thank you SO much for your time and the priceless info. You saved me hours of grief and frustration!

[hoppmyers1]

"Easy enough to set up with a non bypassed stereo FX Loop block, usually near the end of the signal chain, although you can place it anywhere you wish. I then have 4 cables attached to Send 1/2 and Return 1/2, two are blue and two are red, and both are labelled to make cable management easier - red -> right, blue -> left, into and out of the RC 30. You can then customise the scribble strip to name it as you wish. "

 

I do have a question on the last sentence you wrote above about "customise the scribble strip". Could you explain to me what that means and how I would go about doing it? I'm not sure if I understand or not, but it looks like you are saying that once I insert the send/return loops, I will somehow assign that particular block to a pedal?

[datacommando]

On 7/19/2022 at 6:31 PM, hoppmyers1 said:

Could you explain to me what that means and how I would go about doing it? I'm not sure if I understand or not, but it looks like you are saying that once I insert the send/return loops, I will somehow assign that particular block to a pedal?

Sure,

 

in order to use your external RC30 unit you need to cable it up to your Helix using the Send/Return jacks on the rear panel. Next select the preset you wish to use with your looper. Add a stereo FX Loop block near the end signal chain and assign ot to a footswitch and turn it on, if it is bypassed no signal is sent to the RC 30. This block  sends your processed guitar signal out to the Boss box were you record the loop and it comes back into your Helix and then along the rest of the signal chain to the final output to your speakers. Essentially from your original description of what you wanted, I suggested that when you insert the Loop block, you should drag it down to split the path, thus allowing your guitar signal to travel to the final stereo output, while the split path feeds you guitar audio into the Boss and back in to continue to the output.

 

It probably sounds more complicated than it actually is. It’s early evening here and I’m not in the studio until tomorrow pm, but I will put together a preset you can experiment with, and upload it here.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

 

Lots of people don’t like this type of comment, but the Helix 3.0 Owner’s Manual is chock full of useful info about creating custom scribble strips and saving favourites etc., plus it’s free - find it here.

 

https://line6.com/data/6/0a020a3f041b611d61cac763b/application/pdf/Helix 3.0 Owner's Manual - Rev F - English .pdf
 

[hoppmyers1]

Thanks again. I appreciate any type of comment that helps me learn and after re-reading your original comment and going to page 17, I was able to understand more or what you were telling me. I'll take some extra time to read the entire manual and try not to be too much of a pest. I do very much appreciate all the "free" time you've given. Looking forward to the preset!    

[datacommando]

On 7/19/2022 at 8:23 PM, hoppmyers1 said:

not to be too much of a pest.

No, you are not pest - it’s a quest for knowledge, and it’s free. Use it wisely “Grasshopper”. If you don’t know about something - ask, it’s not a secret. Your Helix is capable of so many things that you possibly haven’t even considered yet.
 

Stand by for the example preset tomorrow.

 

 

[datacommando]

On 7/19/2022 at 8:23 PM, hoppmyers1 said:

Looking forward to the preset!

 

Hi,

 

Here ya go!

 

Boss RC30.hlx

 

As promised - a very quick and dirty preset to use with a stereo external looper eg:Boss RC-30. Download the "Boss RC30.hlx" file to your computer and drop it into an empty New Preset slot in HX Edit and send it to the Helix. Next hook up your RC-30 looper to the Helix, using four cables via the SEND/Return 1 and 2 jack sockets. Sends goes to the Looper L/R in, and L/R out goes to Helix Returns. Now plug in your guitar to the Helix and go loopy. Yay craziness!

 

Make sure you have a safety copy of my original preset then you are free to change any, or all of the effects, amp and speakers and move them around to suit your own settings. this is just a bare bones template. You mention having 2 powered speakers, therefore you may want to play around with the final outputs. At the moment thet are both set to Multi Out > Pan > Center. This is because I was running this out of my studio monitors on the XLR outs. I did try panning each output at 50% L/R and also 75% L/R and returned them to Center so you can play around with it as much as you like.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

 

P.S. I got a late start on this today, as my wife's MacBook decided to die this morning. It tried to start up, but would then shutdown about two thirds of the way in. That left me spending 3 to 4 hours running tests, zapping the NVRAM and SMC, all to no avail. Eventually, figured the disk was failing to mount properly, so then I had to reformat the thing and re-install the system over the Internet. I think the the record high temperature here in the U.K. yesterday screwed the thing up on shutdown. She has a new MacBook Air on back order - expect delivery end of Aug or start of Sept. C'est la vie. What fun we have.  :-)

[hoppmyers1]

Sorry for all your woes, ... I have days like that as well. Hopefully, the rest of the week will be better for you.

 

I've saved your file to the computer and will play around with it tomorrow. I've been building furniture and doing non-stop projects on a house I recently bought; one of the projects being a music room to spend a great deal of my retirement in. I'm trying to have some fun in the middle of it all by playing with the Helix.

 

I was able to get the looper hooked up, added to my favorites and have threw it in a few presets to make sure it was working correctly by your previous posts, so your time has not been spent in vain. Thank you again. I do really appreciate it.

 

I realize that the only way I'm going to learn the tricks is to spend lots of time tweaking knobs and watching Youtube.  

[hoppmyers1]

I wanted to thank you again for the preset. I've learned a great deal from it, including never having added a preset or anything through Helix edit into the processor before. Reading the manual is not quite the same as something more visual as I'm sure you know. So, the preset was very helpful to me in a number of ways. Having the additional pathways is also helping me to understand better on how to set this part of the system up as well.

 

Hoping your heatwave dissipates shortly. I'd hate to see your country lose all its greenery. My mother and sister were/are from Kings Lynn. I had the chance to visit the Isle a long time ago. A very beautiful place.

 

If it makes you feel any better, the house I just bought is in Arkansas where the last three weeks has been mostly above 100 degrees, the humidity around 60% or more and it's only rained for about 20 minutes during all that time. My other house is in the mountains of Colorado where the highs have been in the low 80's and it's rained almost every afternoon; closer to your type of weather, so being here in Arkansas has been a challenge with the heat for me as well. Take care.

[datacommando]

On 7/22/2022 at 3:55 PM, hoppmyers1 said:

I wanted to thank you again for the preset. I've learned a great deal from it, including never having added a preset or anything through Helix edit into the processor before. Reading the manual is not quite the same as something more visual as I'm sure you know. So, the preset was very helpful to me in a number of ways. Having the additional pathways is also helping me to understand better on how to set this part of the system up as well.

 

Hi,

 

Glad to know that it has helped you to have a better understanding of the Helix, and how you can put things together. The real beauty of this technology is that unlike the "real world" there is very little chance of blowing anything up by plugging something into the wrong block. There are no rules, if something sounds good to you, and you enjoy what you are doing - that's great.

 

I hope you're making progress on your music room in your new property, and then you can enjoy your retirement. I retired quite some time back, which gives me all the time I need to play around with all my "boys toys" down here in my studio, which is actually a log cabin at the bottom of the garden, about 100 yards from the house.

 

Luckily for me, (I don't function too well in heat), we have returned to the usual grey and damp weather over here - the standard British summer is two warm days and a thunderstorm. 

 

Have fun with the building project and enjoy experimenting with your Helix.

 

Regards

[soundog]

This thread is gold for folks adding a looper pedal to their Helix!