Can I record USB 7 while using a different audio interface?

[dmcasas]

Hi! I have a Foscurite audio interface which I always use for Cubase. I'd like to record the dry signal of my guitar with the USB 7 feature of the Helix, but I wonder if this is only possible to do while using Helix as the audio interface... Can I record dry signal via USB while still using my Focusrite as my audio interface in Cubase? Can Helix USB be used just as audio input without being used as audio interface? I'd like to do so and then reamp with Helix Native

My Helix unit arrives next week

Thanks!

[rd2rk]

If you have a MAC you can create an aggregate device.

If you're on Windows you need to change the ASIO device in Cubase to the Helix, then when you're done recording the DI track on USB 7, just switch back.

Not a big deal on most DAWs, but Cubase is a PITA so YMMV.

Other options depend on your unnamed Focusrite AI.

I have the 18i20 which has SPDIF. I could take a split after the Input Block and assign it's Output to Digital but switching the ASIO device is easier.

You can also just place a Send after the Input Block and run that into your AI.

Unless you're Superman you will NOT hear any degradation from the conversion.

[markwesse]

On 7/20/2022 at 11:21 AM, rd2rk said:

If you have a MAC you can create an aggregate device.

If you're on Windows you need to change the ASIO device in Cubase to the Helix, then when you're done recording the DI track on USB 7, just switch back.

Not a big deal on most DAWs, but Cubase is a PITA so YMMV.

Other options depend on your unnamed Focusrite AI.

I have the 18i20 which has SPDIF. I could take a split after the Input Block and assign it's Output to Digital but switching the ASIO device is easier.

You can also just place a Send after the Input Block and run that into your AI.

Unless you're Superman you will NOT hear any degradation from the conversion.

 

The counterpart on PC (ie aggegation) is to simply use ASIO for all and you connect both devices

 

Both ios/mac and pc suffer the same drawbacks using aggregation eg increased latency as the kernel needs arbitrate the usb bus

 

Asio4All for all seems to work better when its a multi IO paired with a stereo in on another device

 

HTH

[rd2rk]

On 7/19/2022 at 9:00 PM, markwesse said:

 

The counterpart on PC (ie aggegation) is to simply use ASIO for all and you connect both devices

 

Both ios/mac and pc suffer the same drawbacks using aggregation eg increased latency as the kernel needs arbitrate the usb bus

 

Asio4All for all seems to work better when its a multi IO paired with a stereo in on another device

 

HTH

 

I purposely did not mention ASIO4ALL because, IME, it's more trouble than it's ever been worth.

Something that in some cases might work better than awful and in other cases not is not something worth using.

The solutions I offered might be annoying, but they ALWAYS work.

[markwesse]

On 7/20/2022 at 2:03 PM, rd2rk said:

 

I purposely did not mention ASIO4ALL because, IME, it's more trouble than it's ever been worth.

Something that in some cases might work better than awful and in other cases not is not something worth using.

The solutions I offered might be annoying, but they ALWAYS work.

 

I understand...its funny as its always worked well in the case I mentioned ie NOT 2 multiple IOs...to the point that for live, I often run the helix > asio4all because the latency is sooo much better and I find the helix or HD drivers just randomly crash.

 

I get what you are saying...but it works for me...sorry to hear you had issues.

 

Im about to change my 'insert box' ie pc to an i7 mini pc so will be interesting to see how that goes.

Silicon...anything is possible...I tried and tried with ipad and had nothing but issues so I gave up yet others still swear by them.

 

I does run onsong nicely and thats the only job it gets now :-\

 

Cheers

[rd2rk]

Whatever works for you. I can only advise based on my own experience.

[dmcasas]

Thanks to you both for your replies!

[Klaim]

To add to these valid solutions:

• I got a lot of random Windows crashes (as in blue screen of death) coming from Asio4All when I was using it all the time, I think it's best to first see if switching between the constructor-provided Asio drivers isn't working well enough for you. That being said it was more than 2 years ago and there have been updates so I don't know. It's just good to know that there might be stability issues with it.
• An alternative to Asio4All for Asio driver working as an aggregator: VoiceMeter Banana  - it works well but in my experience it was slow (as expected for this kind of feature I guess) to the poitn I couldnt use it for recording guitar, and it was super hard to understand all the parameters (I feel like it have more than Asio4All.

[markwesse]

Hey! to provide some background but just using as a single io driver instead of Helix Asio

 

My Live daw/lappy is completely stripped out ie no bloatware, minimal services band usual peformance tweaks (i7 8 core old lappy)

 

When I use Asio4All, its extremely rare that I get a crash with these settings

 

 

To get similar performance use Helix, its between 12-16ms (hard to get stable comparisons) and I occasionally get BSOD (ie this morning when I was testing for USB performance/IO)

 

Anyway...works for me...mileage obviously varies

[dmcasas]

My Helix arrived yesterday and I found out that the easiest way to do this for me is just switching the audio interface in the Cubase settings. I usually use just 1 audio input so it doesn't bother me much.

 

But beware you will get a BSOD if you shut down Helix while it's being used as the audio interface in your DAW.