Helix Native 1.60 “The Spring Cleaning Update”

Spoiler:

Helix Native delivers the same award-winning HX amp and effects modeling found in Line 6’s best-selling Helix hardware guitar and effects processors, bringing authentic tone to your favorite DAW.

Helix Native is available as a fully functional 15-day free trial, which requires a Line 6 account.

New Amp Models (2)

Cali Texas Ch1, based on* the clean channel of the MESA/Boogie® Lonestar

Placater Clean, based on* the clean channel of the Friedman BE-100

New Effects Models (3)

Distortion > Deranged Master (Mono, Stereo), based on* the Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster—WARNING! Like the real thing, this model will take your head off! Works best before a distorted amp

Distortion > Deez One Vintage (Mono, Stereo), based on* the BOSS© DS-1 distortion pedal (classic Made-in-Japan version)

Distortion > Deez One Mod (Mono, Stereo), based on* the BOSS© DS-1 distortion pedal (Keeley mod version)

* All product names are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with Line 6.

New Features

MIDI block bypass—Helix Native now lets you bypass individual blocks via MIDI. Right-click (or Control-click) the desired block and from the pull-down menu, select MIDI Bypass > MIDI In. Then click the Automation/Controller Assign tab and choose the desired CC#. Note that there are lots of CCs that Helix Native will ignore, as these are reserved for Helix hardware functionality. See the Helix Native Pilot’s Guide for more information

MIDI parameter control—Helix Native now lets you control parameters via MIDI. In the inspector, right-click (or Control-click) the desired parameter and from the pull-down menu, select Controller Assign > MIDI CC. Then click the Automation/Controller Assign tab and choose the parameter from the list. Adjust the MIDI CC#, Min, and Max Values

MIDI snapshot select—To select a snapshot in Helix Native, send it a MIDI CC#69 message. Value 0 will recall Snapshot 1, Value 1 will recall Snapshot 2, Value 2 will recall Snapshot 3, and so on

Block Copypaste between Helix Native and HX Edit/—Helix Native now lets you copy and paste individual blocks between plugin multiple instances and HX Edit. Right-click (or Control-click) the desired block and select Copy. Then switch to HX Edit and on the Signal Flow view, right click on the destination block (or an empty block location) and select Paste

Helix Native now lets you copy and paste individual blocks after closing and then reopening the plugin window

Helix Native now lets you copy and paste individual blocks between multiple instances

Improvements/Changes

The most recent new HX Reverb models have been tweaked to sound notably wetter (see Known Issues below)

When changing the Time parameter, Legacy delay models now exhibit a more organic behavior (like DL4 and Echo Pro)

Helix, Helix Rack/Control, Helix LT only: Variax Shuriken bank names now appear in the Input > Multi and Input > Variax block without requiring connection to Variax Workbench

Plug-in window now loads faster

Many under-the-hood improvements

Bug Fixes

DSP intensive presets with one or more Placater Amp+Cab, Amp, or Preamp blocks can sometimes generate an error message — FIXED

The Filter > Legacy > Obi Wah model is mono (should be stereo) — FIXED

Modulation > Legacy > Analog Chorus > Mode parameter was mislabeled “CH Vib” — FIXED

PitchSynth > Legacy > Smart Harmony > Key parameter was mislabeled “V1 Key” — /FIXED

Attempting to import a very long Impulse Response can sometimes result in Helix Native freezing — FIXED

Clearing all setlists and presets does not clear preset names until the plugin window is closed and reopened — FIXED

In some cases, tempo changes may not be properly recalled when Tempo is set to Per Snapshot — FIXED

Moving the Merge > Mixer block to Path B and then moving it back to its original position on Path A can result in an error message — FIXED

In some cases, Path 2B’s input cannot be set to Host — FIXED

Many other minor bug fixes, optimizations, and stability improvements

Known Issues

As the new HX Reverb models have been tweaked to sound notably “wetter”, any existing user presets that use these models will sound different. Although Helix and HX hardware has the ability to compensate for changes made to models when rebuilding presets (and one of our goals is to rarely if ever cause audible changes to existing user presets), the improvements made to the reverb blocks unfortunately cannot be compensated for.

* In ProTools, the Compare function only loads the selected preset.

In Logic 10.4.1, after moving an instance of Helix Native to another channel strip location, the Compare state can sometimes reverse.

The DAW’s Compare function toggles between the two previously loaded presets, instead of toggling any edits made to the preset.

A processing block cannot be moved between a Split or Mixer and another processing block.

In Logic, switches 13-16, Master Input/Output, and Snapshot Index parameters are missing from the Automation lane list.