Digital clipping

[T-axe]

My Axe-Fx II has a harsh digital breakup, apparent on edgy patches, but audible on heavier distortions too. Digging in on the string or doing double-bends highlights this fizzy artifact. Something is audibly overloading in the signal chain, but the meters do not show it. My Parker and Yamaha guitars do not have high-output or active pickups.
I have reset factory patches and Global parameters. I listen through headphones to rule out monitor problems, I have switched the input settings, checked that the speaker sims are on, tried different outputs, checked the global Amp Gain setting. The only thing that has affected it is to reduce input levels, which of course reduces the desired distortion levels.

Just got my Axe-II from a previous owner, mounted in a road case, massively bubble-wrapped and packed well, so no shipping damage.
Emailed Fractal support, who told that they will not honour warranty (on a unit that cannot be more than a few months old) because I did not buy it from them directly. They had no recommendations or suggestions to correct this, just "ship it to us and pay for a repair". I just dropped $$ thousands to get this rig across the border to Canada, and did not anticipate spending hundreds more to fix my brand new Super processor?! I can't sell it if there is a problem though, so any suggestions for tweaking solutions are welcome. Thanks

[jon]

Are the output clip lights lighting when you hear it? How are you connected and listening to it? Are you tickling the red or close?
Can you post up a clip?

[gin]

yep record some audio plz

[Dutch]

Digital distortion is close to impossible with the AxeFx. Headroom in the digital part of the Axe is so high that there is hardly any setting possible that will not overdrive the output into Solid State ugliness way sooner. in which case it is analog distortion and just as ugly anyways. IIRC. But this is semantics and the output overload LEDs should be happily winking away at you by then.
What is possible is overloading the inputs, that should show on the meters or blown analog parts. In which case you have been shafted...

+3 on the recording.

[yek]

Specific amp sims? Are your guitars very bright? Which stocks cabs?

[jon]

Agreed totally with Dutch. I don't think it's that easy to overload the inputs either - I use some active basses with some pretty powerful onboard preamps and the axe handles them well - I don't even have to turn the input way down to avoid clipping.

[javajunkie]

front input has a soft limiter that will pretty much prevent digital clipping. You can run a pretty hot signal (like a drive pedal) into it

Does it happen with amp block bypassed?

[yek]

I *think* I know what the TS is talking about. It's when you hit a note and on top of that note there's something which sounds like digital sounding noise. Could be assumed to be clipping, or "fizz" or whatever. As the TS writes, it's more prominent when hitting the note hard.

Reproduced like this:
- In an empty preset create an Amp block and a Cab block.
- Set the Amp to AC30TB, set Master to 8 or higher, set Amp Drive to 5.
- Set the Cab to SLM 4x12 Blue (OH).
- Important: use a guitar with single coils, and the guitar must have a bright output signal. For ex. the issue doesn't occur with my Gibon of my Tele, but it does with my Suhr GG which is muuuuch brighter than the others.
- Hit a note hard.

As I see it, it's the combination of too much amp gain /or master level, and a lot of bright input signal. IIRC this occurred a lot on the Standard/Ultra too with people using the JCM800 with much gain and very bright settings.

I can make the fizz go away by turning down the gain or master in the Amp sim (combination of Master > 8 and Drive on 5 in Vox is much too congested anyway), or by switching off the Bright switch (compensate with Treble/Presence), or by turning up Damping.

[Smilzo]

I can make the fizz go away ... or by turning up Damping.

I suspect you are experiencing power tube clip.

[T-axe]

Thanks for all the input guys.
For more info, I use a Parker Nitefly and Yamaha Pacifica guitars; stock DiMarzio pickups, in the PAF range of output. No high gain guitar, no boost pedal. I do notice it more when choosing a single-coil setting for Strat swish, but can hear it on humbuckers too.

The only thing that has made a difference so far is turning down the input levels, which should not be necessary on a passive guitar. As you all said, there should be tons of headroom at the input to accommodate a basic guitar signal.

Clip lights are barely pushing yellow, even with the harsh clip audible.
I hear it even in headphones, plugged straight in to the front, nothing in the loop, etc. Otherwise I run it to a Roland keyboard amp for now, at apartment volumes.

I do suspect something is wrong inside, like a blown resistor or something simple, but shipping it back for repair as soon as I received/paid for it is discouraging.
I asked the seller if he was aware of it, but he said that any harsh noises were assumed to be new user programming error, and he was only using it for effects with his amp/pedal setup for distortions. So, not intentionally shafted, but the problem was present before I got it. He packed and shipped it very carefully, 100% ebayer, great communication, so I hesitate to say this was a scammer dumping his problem on me.

I have a friend who just got his Axe II so I will be able to compare units, pick his brain, and see if it's tweakable before shipping back to Fractal.
I will check back in on this thread in a few days,.
Sound clips may help describe it, but that will have to wait till this busy week is over.

Cheers and thanks again!