Ability to load 3rd Party Audio Plugins (Like Waves or UAD) to Helix.

[CoachKale]

Whether as part of the Current Helix Family or the next generation. It would be amazing to have a "Plugin Block" where Waves, UAD or similar audio plugins could be added...

 

The ability to add Waves Tune Real Time for a Vocal mic live, Greg Wells PianoCentric on an HX Stomp attached to a Nord, CLA Bass on a bass guitar rig, etc...would make the tool even more powerful as live solution.

[lou-kash]

On 2/17/2025 at 1:28 AM, CoachKale said:

It would be amazing to have a "Plugin Block" where Waves, UAD or similar audio plugins could be added...

Does your Helix device run MacOS, Windows or Linux?

No?
Well, then someone would have to write a plugin for the "HelixOS" first. 

 

On 2/17/2025 at 1:28 AM, CoachKale said:

The ability to add Waves Tune Real Time for a Vocal mic live

My gut feeling is that it will be faster and cheaper to find a vocalist who can actually sing in tune in real time… ;)

 

That all aside, the appropriate place to post feature request is here: https://line6.ideascale.com

[SaschaFranck]

You can have all that. Just not within any current HX series hardware (it's simply not powerful enough for a start, let alone the operating system being something extremely different).

You could slap a computer based setup together and use it live. And it'd possibly be a lot cheaper than any hypothetical modeler allowing you to do these things (which would possibly cost at least 2 times as much as current offerings). What you need is:

 

- A computer of some sorts, preferably a laptop. If I was thinking about such a setup, a Macbook Air M3 (or likely an M4, which should be released rather soon) would be my prefered choice. The main reasons being that it's incredibly power efficient, has zero moving parts inside and gets just lukewarm with the lid closed (which is absolutely important for live playing as you don't want the keyboard to be exposed to anything like a beer shower).

The smallest model would be sufficient (in case you don't want to run large sample libraries as well). I can run 3-4 fully loaded instances of Helix Native on one single core. That's just mindblowing.

 

- A low latency audio interface of some sorts. I'm using a Motu M2 which is delivering a roundtrip latency of just 3.5ms at 44.1kHz samplerate. That's pretty much as good as a Helix Floor with both paths connected serially. You could of course get even lower by getting, say, an RME interface and raising the samplerate (which would obviously cost quite some CPU cycles, but there's plenty of juice - see above). We're now talking about <2ms roundtrip latency, which would even allow you to set up some send/return routings without running into latency issues.

 

- A floor controller of some sorts (plus some expression pedal/s). There's gazillions by now, it's just a matter of your budget.

 

- Ideally a tablet or an external MIDI knob box to remote control things when the laptop is closed and placed in a rack drawer (which is the only way I'd accept it to be on a stage). A cheap Android tablet running TouchOSC can go a long way here (I'm using just that to control some aspects of my current pedalboard).

 

- Some software to run things. On macOS, Mainstage springs to mind, cost around 30 bucks and comes with all of Logic's FX already. You can have all amps in the world kinda for free in case you'd be using the NAM plugin and some captures.

 

- Some decent rack to secure and transport things in.

 

Overall cost of all that would possibly set you short by something along the lines of 2k, in case you're on a budget. 2.5k would already give you a pretty great setup and in case you can spend 3k there'd be little else to wish for. You could possibly save 500-1.000 buying 2nd hand.

Yes, that's a lot more expensive than a Helix Floor, but it's incredibly more capable.

 

In case I ever want to slap a new setup together, this is a route I will very seriously consider.

[datacommando]

On 2/17/2025 at 12:28 AM, CoachKale said:

The ability to add Waves Tune Real Time for a Vocal mic live, Greg Wells PianoCentric on an HX Stomp attached to a Nord, CLA Bass on a bass guitar rig, etc...would make the tool even more powerful as live solution.

Already possible, provided that you are using Helix Native on a computer, which is something that some users do.

 

I can’t comprehend that 3rd party Plug-in manufacturers would ever consider trying to re-write a library of existing software instruments, and effects, simply to run inside the Helix platform - nah, that’s a complete non starter.

 

What you are asking is beyond the scope of what the Helix is designed to be - as noted by Digital Igloo, on a previous occasion - “Helix is meant to be the centerpiece of a larger rig, not a picture-perfect replacement for everything everybody could possibly want to connect to it.”  Luckily, Line 6 added Send/Return sockets for additional processing.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

[craiganderton]

Sascha Franck's reply covers what I would have said. However, there's another option. Basic PC laptops are cheap, and even small audio interfaces (e.g., what IK offers) are high quality. You could run your plugins of choice in a basic computer and as datacommando points out, connect Helix to it with Send/Return connections. Then you can have your sturdy Helix with footswitches living on the floor where it belongs, and the computer off to the side to be used as needed.

[mlwinnig]

Having recently fought most of these (and several other related battles) I settled on this setup...

 

Tried and returned a couple of audio interfaces, settled on a Presonus STUDIOLIVE AR16c mixer. Does everything I need/want. Happy to share more/why. It includes 6 months subscription or 1-time (no upgrades) to Studio One 7. FaderPort 16 and Atom SQ controllers (very cool!) "stack" extra 6 months for each. Helix "Native" .vst was like $69 or so since my Floor (purchased used) was neither registered nor Native purchased. It has become one of my favorite plugins. It's like a Swiss Army Knife.

 

Dusted off Floor, may plug in soon (probably as a effect send to on mixer?) but this is a pretty solid (freaking awesome?) setup!

[SaschaFranck]

On 2/18/2025 at 6:20 PM, craiganderton said:

Sascha Franck's reply covers what I would have said. However, there's another option. Basic PC laptops are cheap, and even small audio interfaces (e.g., what IK offers) are high quality. You could run your plugins of choice in a basic computer and as datacommando points out, connect Helix to it with Send/Return connections. Then you can have your sturdy Helix with footswitches living on the floor where it belongs, and the computer off to the side to be used as needed.

 

The downside of such a setup being that it'd add what I'd think of being "considerable" amounts of latency. An HX loop will add around 2ms on its own (I hope it's only taking the latency of one single path into account, otherwise it'd be around 4ms) and you'd then have to add the computer latency, which, depending on your budget, could be anything from around 2ms (requiring a powerful computer and an expensive interface) to, say, 6ms (which can be achieved by sort of budget computers and interfaces already.

So you'd get around 5-8ms of latency on top of the 4ms the HX hardware comes with. Let's say you may end up with 10ms. For me, especially when playing through headphones, that's in a well noticeable range.

And add to that that at least some plugins (or HX blocks) will add some bits of their own latency as well. I mean, just the PolyCapo on its own is adding so much that I personally never use it.

 

Personally, if I was to go the plugin route, I'd do it consequently. There'd be no single sound cables running to and from the floor anymore and it'd also add the immense flexibility of just needing your laptop and an interface to have access to all your sounds, even without what is a rather bulky floor unit.

[SaschaFranck]

On 2/19/2025 at 12:24 AM, mlwinnig said:

Tried and returned a couple of audio interfaces, settled on a Presonus STUDIOLIVE AR16c mixer. Does everything I need/want.

 

It's not coming with dedicated drivers for macOS as it seems. That means it's using the "native" Core Audio support of macOS, which isn't allowing for very low latencies.