MG2, Variax/Helix, and Notion 6

Windows/Mac
1

Greetings,

I have just gotten back into playing after a long hiatus and had to relearn how to set up all of my software (motorcycle accident in 2016 has me taking long breaks from time to time and my memory isn’t as sharp as it was before the accident, and hooking up a bunch of devices, cables, and apps can be bothersome at times.) I had purchased Notion 6 during the hiatus knowing that it is descended from older software that could transcribe tablature in real time as one plays. However, I am having a difficult time with a few things. I know that this forum is for MG2 but that my issue involves other apps/devices, so I will probably post in other relevant forums, though I know that there are others with similar setups:.

I can’t mute my Variax/Helix. I set up a straight Variax-to-USB with no pedals/amps/cabs/effects with HX edit but still hear clean guitar coming through the midi when using MG2. I cannot remember how to mute the guitar sound so that I can hear only the midi sounds.

I can’t get the midi sounds to play through my PC sound card (Sound Blaster AE-9.) Only through the PA connected to my Helix, so I cannot record with my PC. The only thing that “takes” under audio interface is ASIO Helix. Helix Stomp and the two Sound Blaster options don’t take.

I use loopMIDI as the go-between to get MG2 to talk to Notion 6. I set up Notion 6 to see loopMIDI as the MIDI I/O in. I set my instrument as a 6-string electric. When recording, the tablature displays gibberish and I get no sound playback.

My hope is to capture tablature when I jam so that I can review it with both my eyes and ears as that seems to work well for me. I also wish to set things up so that I can record with not only the Helix, but with MG2 sounds as well. I have Sound Canvas VA for the old school midi sounds and will experiment with other plugins, with the hope to create some interesting metal.

Any insight will be greatly appreciated!

2

The Variax has piezos for each string if I’m not mistaken, I don’t know if Helix is sending those 6 audio streams to the PC? If so you would better use MG3Hex to make full usage of the separated strings.

For the clean guitar sound coming through you need to check the Helix settings.

On a PC you are not able to mix interfaces when you use the Helix ASIO driver. This only works when using drivers like ASIO4all etc. but the latency is high and not really recommended.

For recording you might want to get a DAW.

3

on muting the guitar sound: use the volume sliders in mg2, if they are all down and you still hear guitar then the signal is coming from elsewhere, most likely the mix option on the helix.

on recording: what software do you usually use to record? will you want to edit the audio and midi side by side at some point?

on notion6: ‘6-string electric’ may be looking for multiple channels. i don’t recall if mg2 can output to multiple channels, it may be better to try one of the keyboard selections in notion instead. also it may make sense to send notion’s audio output to your sound blaster.

lastly, neither mg2 or mg3 will give you output suited for tablature. mg3hex will send note per string (i think this is not in the current beta but on the list).

i don’t know if mg3hex will run on helix though.