Helix Native on a 12 Year Old Computer!

I’m shooting a new video where I install Helix Native on a 2010 MacBook – Core 2 Duo processor, 8 GB RAM – and it WORKS.  Surprisingly, it works.  Wow.

And it’s working inside of an older version of Logic Pro, which itself uses CPU and RAM.

Line 6 deserves the credit here.  They made a piece of software that’ll run on almost anything.  Most modern software programmers couldn’t care less about locking out people with older computers.  Apple and Microsoft have entire business models based on us rebuying stuff every 3-5 years.

All of this makes me wonder how powerful the Sharc CPU inside the HX Stomp actually is.  If I can duplicate two of them in software with a 12 year old Core 2 Duo, it can’t be that much of a powerhouse.  Still, it’s a very important CPU, being used in so many things (Apollo Solo and Duo being two examples).

Windows users can achieve similar results running Windows 7 on a Core 2 Duo machine.

The bigger drawback is latency – you’re not going to get less than 1 ms of latency with any 12 year old laptop.  It’s difficult even for modern computers (2022 as I write this). Even on a six core i7, Logic Pro will only go as low as 32 IO Buffer, which gives you between 3 and 4 ms of latency.  Some argue that you can’t hear or feel under 5 ms but I disagree – I can feel 4 ms.  IMHO you need around 1 ms or less.  YMMV.  Obviously a Core 2 Duo will choke on 32 IO.

So really I don’t know how practical this all is.  But it is super cool that you can do it.