HX Effects in Helix Floor FX Loop

[TimHarman]

I've had the Helix Floor for years, but have been drastically under-using it. I'm now digging in (firmware is current), and finding that Helix Floor alone doesn't give me enough processing blocks for my most elaborate setups. I want to use more effects from the Helix library.

 

So I got an HX Effects, intending to run it in a stereo FX loop of the Helix. I have two conundrums to submit to the more extensive wisdom of a circle of Helix elders.

 

1. In first experiment, I'm sending from Loops 1&2 of the Helix to the L-R inputs of HXfx, and returning to Helix Loops 1&2 from the L-R outputs of HXfx. Of course it's working, and as I have the loop after the amp block in Helix, I'm getting stereo (which is required). I'm just not sure it's working as wonderfully as it could. QUESTONS: Is this the optimal interconnect for this purpose?  If not, what's better? And how should I have the input/output levels set on the jacks I'm using? Line? Inst? A mix?

 

2. I intend to keep several pre-amplifier effects on HXfx, then go to stereo before returning to Helix for amp/cab models and post-amp stereo fx. (I understand that if all I'm sending to HXfx is mono, I wouldn't need to send from both Loops 1 & 2; one would do.) But I also want to have a parallel path, presumably in HXfx - and I want to retain the stereo result of that parallel path into the Helix FX returns. These effects all need to come before amp/cab models - AND I don't want them collapsed to mono.

 

I find references to "Dual" amp/cab models in Helix, but find no documentation to tell me which (if any) of the models have "stereo throughput" - or whether these references are just to configuring and using two (thus "dual") mono amp/cabs, on two paths, in Helix. (I'm also chronically confused about how to set this up, and split/merge blocks rarely work as I expect them to). My intuition tells me that, whether I set up two amps in separate paths or there ARE dual amp-cab models...if I place stereo blocks after the amps, I'm then somehow getting two sets of stereo signals...which ultimately I don't need. I just want stereo at the Helix outputs.

 

Simpler version of my quandary: I'd like parallel paths before amp/cab model(s) which are not collapsed to mono, and stereo after the amp/cab model(s).

 

Apologies for being dense about this.