So this might be silly but... (mic'ing amp with helix)

[RicardoGrilli]

Hey Everyone,

Hope you're all well! First post here. I'm a guitarist in New York City and fairly new to home recording! I got a helix floor a while back and am totally in love with it, using it both as a board w/amp and solo (fx, amp and cab sim) live. Also using it for some simple recordings at home.

Here's where it gets silly, believe it or not I don't own a dedicated audio interface and so would only record through the helix. However, I do own a nice amp and would like to record it with a mic. Then it occurred to me to just mic the amp and go through the helix xlr as an audio interface into my DAW. Lo and behold it actually sounds pretty good! 

I was wondering if anyone else has done this and if they have any tips or fx they put on their path (compressor, boosts, eq) ?

Anyway, looking forward to hearing from you all and learning more!

All the best!

Ricardo Grilli

www.ricardogrilli.com

[silverhead]

Doesn’t sound silly at all. Mic’ing an amp was all there was in the analog world. Not surprising that you would like the sound.

 

There’s no right or wrong about FX to use; whatever sounds good to you is best for you. And Helix gives you tons (sometimes too much) flexibility in trying out different FX. For maximum flexibility in terms of FX placement I suggest you look into the 4CM setup (if your amp has an FX Loop). That way you can mic your amp with specified FX in front of the amp and others post-amp.

[Rachmaninoff]

Not silly... but most Helix effects were designed with a raw guitar signal in mind. You'll probably use very few of them.

 

Nonetheless, if you don't own an actual audio interface, yes, Helix is an audio interface with excellent A/D/A converters, and you can use it. Of course, an actual audio interface would be a lot more practical to use, in particular to feed active monitors. Personally, I use a Volt 2 for such purpose, but the market has several low budget models which also sound great.