Recording w/ Line 6 Helix on Reaper (Playback Sound Quality Issue Fix)

[aleistercamillus]

Hello!

I recently purchased a Helix Floor Board after many years of using the Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5. Great product but I became really frustrated when it came down to using the Helix Floor Board as my main audio interface with the reaper(I had been using the scarlet solo for many years). The issue I was having was the following...

My headphones were jacked right into the back of the helix (via the headphone output) and that sound was amazing, however, when I would record and playback what I had just recorded on the reaper, the sound quality felt diminished or low quality in comparison to the sound I was hearing through the headphones in real-time). Now, I'm no technical wizard however after a week I was finally able to find a solution.

The problem comes down to mono and stereo. When I used to record with my scarlet solo... I used to record in mono and the mistake I made was recording mono with the Helix.

********The solution******** = Set recording track input on repear to Input: Stereo Input 1 / Input 2.

Now when I playback the recording- it doesn't sound diminished or poor in quality in comparison to what I was hearing live or in real-time. There is also an extra step, which the following video explains very well...

https://youtu.be/5ToSh-u4S64?t=733
In fact, watch the entire video (at least the reaper section which basically shows you the things I mentioned above).

Basically set up the input on the beginning of the Helix edit chain to Guitar instead of Multi, then set up the output at the end of the chain to USB 1/2.

The solution might have seemed pretty simple and obvious to many of you reaper-heads out there but I was seriously struggling to find the solution to my issue on all the different forums- then I came across the video above and it helped me and I'm sure it will help the next person that is having the same issue.

As a side note; I'm not sure what the technicalities are behind the low-quality sound on mono but I'm guessing the sound helix is delivering in real-time through the headphones is stereo? Either or, basically... record in stereo and properly set up the input and output settings on Helix Edit. Thanks guys.