TedEH
Cromulent
Can the bus-powered Scartlets be run off of a wall plug? I thought there was only one plug, so if it was plugged into the wall, you'd have no USB.
Recording/Studio Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread - Megathread
- Thread starter ThePIGI King
- Start date
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ThePIGI King
Jiu Jitsu Enthusiast
I got a reply from their customer service. I followed all suggestions/instructions and no dice yet. Hopefully tomorrow after work they'll have sent new criteria. Otherwise I'm not entirely sure what I will do. Probably try and return it.
It got me thinking though - why do we even use/need interfaces anymore? My Helix goes direct for the guitars, and vocals (I've never used it for vocals but I've been told it can be done) and my Darkglass plugs right into the computer as well. So if no mics are being used for drums or cabs or anything...do I need an interface? Is it only to get my audio to the monitors?
It got me thinking though - why do we even use/need interfaces anymore? My Helix goes direct for the guitars, and vocals (I've never used it for vocals but I've been told it can be done) and my Darkglass plugs right into the computer as well. So if no mics are being used for drums or cabs or anything...do I need an interface? Is it only to get my audio to the monitors?
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AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
The Helix is terrible with plugins if you want to monitor your sound after the DAW. Pops and crackles start way earlier too, it can't handle too many plugins in a session for some reason before having problems. The driver controls are not so good either. It's really really sketchy.
An interface like the 4i4 will do 100 times better job as an interface. Just try it yourself, try mixing a full song with the Helix as the interface, you'll see what I mean.
What Helix do you have LT or Floor? Because LT doesn't have 48V power for a condenser, or an XLR in.
ThePIGI King
Jiu Jitsu Enthusiast
Gotcha. So the interface will stay lol
I have the Helix Rack. I love rack gear for some reason. I mean, who doesn't like a nice, good sized, quality rack?
AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
The Helix Rack is beautiful, and it has an actual DI output I think instead of USB only like the others. I read that yesterday. Is it true?
Wish I had the Rack but I have the LT.
That's some pretty weird things happening with your interface. I think the best thing you could do is to try if it works with an another computer. If it doesn't then it's fucked, tell the store and get a replacement.
Usually these interfaces are really simple to install and use in the sense that all you have to do is install the drivers. I had a thing happen with the Helix LT where HX Edit would crash and other stuff after using it for a while. The solution to that was to turn off the power saving on all USB ports in the Device Manager in Windows.
Sometimes devices need little tweaks like this to work well, I write them all down in a notebook so I remember to make the configs again if I reinstall Windows or get a new PC.
ThePIGI King
Jiu Jitsu Enthusiast
I honestly don't know. I can look tonight if I remember lol I know it has a ton of I/O, but until recently I never cared in the slightest. My desk is a cluster because it's in the living room tucked away, but I could probably check for you.
Edit - I will also look into the USB port thing in device manager. I'm waiting for CS to get back to me. I really don't want to return this, my wife may have thrown away the box due to trash day, and I purchased in person, not online lol I may have screwed myself!
Return it anyway. This thing should be absolutely flawless out of the box and for years to come. Return it.
AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
It's ok, I checked online and it does seem to have a physical DI out. Not sure, I'd check the manual just in case. But it's a really useful feature to have if you want to record the processed signal and DI at the same without using the Helix as an interface.
I know there's workarounds to do the same for the Floor and LT by using a Send block at the start of the chain or using the second signal path. I'm thinking of getting a DI box anyway because I don't want to fuck around with my DI takes.
The interface thing there's not that many things that can be done. I see that it uses a USB C connection. Do you have a USB-C port on your PC? If not, are you plugging your interface in a USB 3.1 or 3.2 port that's compatible?
I found something in the manual that might be useful:
TedEH
Cromulent
Today I learned the 4th gen added another plug for power. I've got the 3rd gen, which only has one plug. Interesting.
If power is suspect, I think that USB 3 ports are always going to have enough power, but USB 2 is not guaranteed to work.
If power is suspect, I think that USB 3 ports are always going to have enough power, but USB 2 is not guaranteed to work.
ThePIGI King
Jiu Jitsu Enthusiast
Thanks for the help everyone. So I've followed all the advice on here except returning it. I also tried it with my laptop (also Windows 11) and everything worked just fine. So now I've got to figure out why it doesn't work on my more powerful desktop.
AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
You plugging to the front or the back of the PC? Which USB port? Black, blue, red?
Try disabling USB Selective Suspend?
ThePIGI King
Jiu Jitsu Enthusiast
I've plugged it into the black, blue, big USB, little USB...all of it. I'm currently getting this when trying to Uninstall the drivers so I can reinstall everything:
It said in the Device Manager that the drivers weren't installed. But when I went to install them from Focusrite, it said they were already installed. So I tried deleting them so that I could start from scratch. I'm mostly tech-illiterate, so this is driving me up a wall.
AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
Delete from "Add or remove programs"
ThePIGI King
Jiu Jitsu Enthusiast
I really appreciate your help in all this.
Same problem when I go to uninstall it from the "Add or Remove Programs". I'm not sure where I can download that driver that's missing from, but I would love to download it so I can uninstall it lol
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AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
No problem
Did you reinstall the driver before? Or this is first attempt?Try this article from Focusrite Support:
Oh yeah and you might want to remove or edit the picture? We can see your name and email there
AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
Wait you manually deleted the folder? So that's why it can't find the uninstaller. Can you restore it from the trash bin or did you already empty it?
ThePIGI King
Jiu Jitsu Enthusiast
Good call. Thanks. But my name is pretty generic, and I don't have any social media outside of this site and one other forum, so I'm pretty hard to find lolNo problem
Try this article from Focusrite Support:
Oh yeah and you might want to remove or edit the picture? We can see your name and email there
ThePIGI King
Jiu Jitsu Enthusiast
Not entirely sure what you mean, but I'm guessing I uninstalled it the wrong way the first time? I can reinstall it, to uninstall it again?
AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
Did you manually delete C:\\Program Files\Focusrite\Drivers?
When you try to uninstall the drivers, Windows is telling you that the uninstaller (unins000.msg) which is supposed to be in that folder is missing. I'm trying to figure out why is it missing.. What if you go to that folder? What is in there?
