Helix native is a standalone VST that you can use in your DAW when recording that provides all the same processing that the helix does. I was looking at the Helix website recently checking out Native but the retail of £320 put me off. I then noticed that because I owned a Helix device already I could get a discount, which came to £100 including tax, so I bit the bullet.

I’ve had an HX effects for several years now and it love it to pieces but the VST version means I can access the same sounds without lugging the foot pedal around. Obviously it will need some careful thinking about MIDI foot control, that should be a winner. It will give me access to all the wonderful distortion effects that otherwise would require a host of separate VST plugins. Processing power will clearly be a potential issue, but removing other plugins should help. I intend to start by creating my three basic live patches (clean / dirty / filthy) then see what the best way of using effects will be. There are some like the Eventide Blackhole reverb that I love but with a bit of work I’m sure Native can do something similar

it could mean a complete re-evaluation of how I get my sound but the potential benefits are huge. On the HX effects I use the snapshots feature a lot and Native offers eight of these instead of the four on the pedal. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I spend a great deal of time in bed thinking through my setup and frequently forget to implement the ideas when I wake up.

So, getting stuck in, immediately a major problem arises. Ableton cannot (seemingly) send program changes to Native. This makes live work a complete pain. The fallback is to use snapshots, except you cannot switch amps within them, only stack them up an switch between them, not the best option!