🎄'Tis The Season?

This gonna be awkward, but my new M1 Pro MacBook Pro and Helix Native couldn't mix well. Not sure why but after spending a whole lot of money, it resulted in a rather disappointing outcome. Okay, let me rewind a little here...

So on Cyber Monday 2021, I finally purchased Helix Native at a discounted price of USD70, which translated to just under SGD100. So pumped and excited for it because I've heard really great things about it. It wasn't until my new M1 Pro MacBook Pro which arrived 2 weeks after that I downloaded Native.

Ran my HX Stomp as an audio interface into Logic Pro and was able to configure most of my patches into Native. The speakers on the MacBook Pro is legit insane!!! This marks a new era in my music journey and I decided to get a proper audio interface just for Native.

Enter the Focusrite Solo 3rd Generation. Focusrite is no stranger to me, after having owned a 2i4 2nd Gen model for quite a while before the Helix entered my life. The reason I chose Focusrite again is because of USB C connectivity the 3rd generation offered.

I was deciding between the Solo or the 4i4 because it's either base model or all-in. Since I already have my pedalboard and HX Stomp doubling as an interface, I got the Solo just for practice. It's cheap too, at just $136.99 on Lazada!

The quality of Focusrite remained the same since I can remember. The front has become glossier and the buttons have darkened. It still feels very professional and I love it. There is this new "air" button which I have yet to explore.

Excitedly, I hooked my guitar into my new MacBook via the Focusrite Solo. However, this time, I couldn't get Logic Pro to recognise Native as a plug-in. No matter what I tried, Logic will just crash if I open Helix Native. What a bummer...

This is what I kept running into. Somewhere along the lines of Helix Native not engineered to work with M1 chips yet. I tried opening Logic using Rosetta 2 but macOS Monterey removed that feature. So Logic is opening up via ARM technology and the Intel-based Helix Native is not communicating with Logic at all.

And that is the reason why I missed out on the usual new-item-post with the Focusrite Scarlett Solo. I was so devastated at the results and it might be months until Line 6 releases a fix for this issue. Until then, both the Native and Focusrite Solo won't be of much use to me...

At least I didn't splurge on a microphone yet because I almost did just that. Was looking at the AT2020 for a good while and contemplating the Shure SM58 too. Using guitar on Zoom with mic-in seems really promising...

Edwin Ang

*As of 26th July 2022, the Focusrite Solo has been sold for $120. A Hotone Jogg has replaced my audio interface slot.