My weirdest tech issue with the Axe-Fx III so far

A

Andromalius

Inspired
More of a weird issue and nothing vital but I can't fathom why it happens.

I was looking at Barcelona vs Inter on a PC stream (using Firefox) and thought that while I was at it, I could do a few guitar exercises. So I start my axe III and... the stream freezes. No way to get anything out of it until I turned the axe III off, at what point a refresh had the stream working perfectly well. The unit is linked through USB to my PC, and everything network related goes through a network card and RJ45, I don't use USB for that at all.

So, yeah, wtf lol. Absolutely not something important but I'd like to know for the sake of just knowing if there's a technical reason for that. I did not change the sound device in windows if that matters.
 
"network related" has nothing to do with anything. the internet isn't freezing.

the Axe is probably invoking the usb audio driver, and the browser is trying to switch to it.

this is more of a computer issue. you could try to disable the Axe usb audio as the device when it's powered on. perhaps turn it on so it is the audio driver, then change to something else. that might prevent it from auto trying to engage again.
 
I’ve had this issue multiple times too and so far blaming my USB extension cable ( total length about 5meters)
In chrome for me, but streaming videos seem like my internet has slowed to a crawl. Change audio out to my pc speakers and it’s all back to normal.

Mac mini here, latest Mac OS.
 
Computer sees another sound device that's higher in the hierarchy and switches to it, video player doesn't like it. Disable it from the sound devices list if you don't want to hear computer audio through Axe.
 
I recently had the same freeze issue on Windows 10 with a USB headset. I resumed playback on PC and YouTube froze. I unplugged the headset and playing continued.
 
rickboot said:
I recently had the same freeze issue on Windows 10 with a USB headset. I resumed playback on PC and YouTube froze. I unplugged the headset and playing continued.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Windows doesn't like audio hardware changes while media is playing, especially when playing within a browser.
 
Just an idea, but I helped a Mac user with something similar recently: by switching on the Axe-Fx, your computer is switching to it as an audio interface. Doing so may be trying to force the browser or other application from 44k to 48k -- midstream, which may result in silence. Try changing your other audio device to 48k if possible so the transition is more graceful when you turn on the Axe-Fx.
 
I had some audio issues (as in not playing audio at all) when switching between Axe FX and my sound card. I updated the USB firmware and driver, which were both quite old, and it seems much better now. Maybe worth checking these?
 
I use the Axe-Fx II as my only audio interface on Windows 7 and this happens all of the time. I've fixed this every time by right-clicking the audio icon in the lower right tray, selecting "Playback devices", and then disabling and re-enabling the Axe in the pop-up window. This usually resumes video playback in-browser immediately with audio. There's not a lot of rhyme or reason as to when it occurs, seems just random but this always resolves the issue.
 
Admin M@ said:
Just an idea, but I helped a Mac user with something similar recently: by switching on the Axe-Fx, your computer is switching to it as an audio interface. Doing so may be trying to force the browser or other application from 44k to 48k -- midstream, which may result in silence. Try changing your other audio device to 48k if possible so the transition is more graceful when you turn on the Axe-Fx.
Click to expand...

Changing the default on my audio interface to 48k solved similar issues on my Win10 computer. I also have to pay attention to the default device for audio playback as I use my USB connected mixer (Soundcraft MTK22) for audio playback. Sometimes when I open a device (for example an Arturia stand alone synth) it defaults to my AxeFX III. At one point I spent 5 or 10 minutes scratching my head before I realized what was going on (and I wonder why I have a receding hair line!).

At times I have resorted to restarting the Windows Audio service. This is easy to do if you know the steps.

1. Open task manager
2. Select the Services tab
3. Scroll through the list of services until you find the service labeled "Windows Audio"
4. Right click on the Windows Audio service and select Restart from the context menu
5. Sorry in advance for "shouting" but this is super important:

MAKE SURE YOU SAVE YOUR WORK BEFORE YOU RESTART THE AUDIO SERVICE.

If you don't save your work first your DAW software may hang and you might lose that perfect take or mix.

Scott
 
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My dumbed down addition to this, which worked for my tech-unsavy tail....

Changing hardware recognized by your PC/Mac will just cause problems if you do it in the middle of whatever media based program you're working with. Some are immediately noticeable, others will show up after recording the best solo you ever played and will never remember, 5 minutes later when you replay it. If I'm doing any sort of recording that I think I might keep, I just reboot and start up the Axe from a stable desktop before I do anything. Unfortunately, I have a lot of proof that it doesn't work out as well if I don't follow that protocol.
 
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