Reamping With Line6 Helix – Everything You Need To Know

I’m sure you’ve heard the term ‘reamping’ before, but do you know how to do that in your Line6 Helix?

Disclaimer: Even though I’ve worked with Line6 in the past, this is an independed video/post. Line6 didn’t ask for this post nor do did they get to see it before it’s release.

What Is Reamping?

Reamping is taking a recorded DI track, so a completely unaffected guitar or bass sound, and playing it back through an amp, modeller, or plugin. This way we are separating the performance (playing guitar) and dialling in sounds into two different processes.

This post is about reamping with Line6 Helix. If you’re interested to learn reamping with any modeler or using a real amplifier, you can find an in-depth article here: Reamping Tutorial

How To Connect Helix To Your Computer

We start by running the USB cable from the Helix to our computer. All Helix range units and the POD GO can also function as audio interfaces and route signal in cool ways without extra cables. If you’re on Windows, you need to download a driver from the Line6 website. If you’re using Mac computers, you’re good to go unless you want to use some other sample rate than 48kHz. For those situations you can download the Line6 Mac Core Audio driver from Line6 website.

In your DAW set your Helix unit as the audio interface, both input and output. The easiest way to hear your track and yourself while playing is to use the headphones output on the Helix.

But because I’m way more used to dialling in the sounds using my studio monitors, I wanted to use those instead. Luckily, Helix has all this clever routing built inside of it that made this easy: with USB plugged in and Helix set as our audio interface, the two XLR outputs, so outputs 1 and 2, on the back of the Helix, output everything like the normal audio interface outputs do.

You can run those outputs straight into your studio monitors and use the level control on the Helix to adjust the volume. But because I also had to record audio from the Helix for the video above, I ran those outputs from the Helix into my Audient ID44 MKII’s inputs 1 and 2 and recorded those.

Routing Signal For Helix Recording

We want to create a setup where we can record using the sounds that suit the music we’re working on, but also capture the DI sound of the guitar to use it for reamping later.

Because we are using the Helix as our audio interface, all of this is easy to set up:

1. Navigate to Helix global settings -> Ins/Outs, go to the page three using the page buttons and set the re-amp source to ‘Guitar’.
2. In your DAW set up a channel for DI recording, which is channel number 7.
3. Create one stereo track in your DAW to record your Helix tones and set input to channels 1/2. 
4. Set outputs of both tracks to 1/2 to hear them.

Arm the DI track and the stereo tracks for recording and play your guitar. You should see levels meters moving on both DI track and the Helix output track (inputs 1/2).

Dial in the desired sounds on your Helix and start recording.

Routing For Reamping

Once you’ve recorded a take you’re happy with, it’s time to configure Helix for reamping. We want to create a setup where we can hear the rest of the track and also tweak the sounds of our lead track while it’s playing.

We start by routing our DI track to some other output than 1/2, because we’re using it for monitoring. Instead, we can set our DI track’s output to 3/4.

Then in your DAW create a new track to record your reamped DI tone and set it’s inputs to 1/2.

We also need to make sure Helix sees our DI track we sent to outputs 3/4, so on Helix (or HX Edit) navigate to inputs and set it to USB 3/4.

To recap: In our DAW we are sending the DI track to USB outputs 3/4 and we made sure Helix sees those inputs 3/4. From those inputs signal goes through Helix and we can adjust the end result in our DAW while the rest of the track is playing.

When we are happy with the sounds we can arm the track we record our reamped tone to and let the software do the rest.

Why Reamping Makes Collaborations Easier

From time to time I like to invite other guitarists to play on my tracks. And what I’ve learned over the years is that the easier I make it on my guests, the better. Reamping makes remote collaborations incredibly easy because my guests don’t have to guess the kind of tones I’m going for or how their lead sound will sit in the mix.

Instead, they can just send me their DI tracks and let me take care of the rest.

5 reasons to learn reamping

1. Recording DI tracks and reamping allows you to focus on getting your best take and work on the tones later.

2. Reamping allows remote collaborations: people can send their DI tracks that you can then reamp through your gear. Or, for example, you can send your tracks to a friend to be reamped through a unique amp for example.

3. Reamping allows you to adjust the sounds while the rest of the track playing -> less time spent mixing

4. Reamping allows you to tweak the sounds of your amp/pedal/effect while the track is playing -> new creative possibilities.

5. Reamping allows you to reuse the same guitar tracks in other songs / remixes.

If you want to get your Helix and support what I do, you can use the affiliate links below:

►►Get Your Helix at Thomann: https://www.thomann.de/fi/thlpg_f4zbo3gyex.html

►►Get Your Helix at Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/helix