All of a sudden, Expression pedals stop working mid song, axe fx skipping/cutting out

Here's my breakdown (in case it helps solve the problem).

It happens to me upon boot (randomly), and here are my MFC settings:

Axe-FX Mode: II;
PerfMode: Preset;
Axe Display Offset: 1;
MFC Display Offset: 1;
Bank Size: 0;
Bank Style: Current;
Bank Song Limit: 384;
Bank Song Wrap: On;

Expression calibration has sweep 0-116 on each pedal.
.....
I can dig deeper if needed, just ask...

For me, when I say randomly, here's an example: I just fired up the Axe, and MFC (ethernet via Bestronics ethercon cable). My expression pedals and external switch worked fine. Tried 4 or 5 presets, no problems. Power cycled the Axe, again, no problems. Power cycled one more time, and boom. Dead expression pedals. No rhyme or reason, it is random, and doesn't matter what preset.

By the way -when I power cycle, the Axe boots up and always loads a preset number one less than last one before power down- is that normal?. It always does this unless it is powered down on Preset 1, and then it will boot back to preset 1.

HTH.

-paul


EDIT- Here's my firmware versions
MFC-101 Mark II fw 3.06 / Axe-FX II Mark II -FW 18.08
 
Last edited:
MuleMan26 said:
Here's my breakdown (in case it helps solve the problem).

It happens to me upon boot (randomly), and here are my MFC settings:

Axe-FX Mode: II;
PerfMode: Preset;
Axe Display Offset: 1;
MFC Display Offset: 1;
Bank Size: 0;
Bank Style: Current;
Bank Song Limit: 384;
Bank Song Wrap: On;

Expression calibration has sweep 0-116 on each pedal.
.....
I can dig deeper if needed, just ask...

For me, when I say randomly, here's an example: I just fired up the Axe, and MFC (ethernet via Bestronics ethercon cable). My expression pedals and external switch worked fine. Tried 4 or 5 presets, no problems. Power cycled the Axe, again, no problems. Power cycled one more time, and boom. Dead expression pedals. No rhyme or reason, it is random, and doesn't matter what preset.

By the way -when I power cycle, the Axe boots up and always loads a preset number one less than last one before power down- is that normal?. It always does this unless it is powered down on Preset 1, and then it will boot back to preset 1.

HTH.

-paul
Click to expand...
I have exactly the same settings and my axe boots exactly the preset at which I turned it off.

But I'm not on the most recent version of the MFC. I think I stopped at the upgrade which only added XL compatibility, as it didn't have any new features for non-XL users, so I saw no reason to upgrade.


Just adding this for the sake of debugging. Maybe this bug got introduced with one of the recent updates? It clearly doesn't happen for me.
 
Zwiebelchen said:
I have exactly the same settings and my axe boots exactly the preset at which I turned it off.

But I'm not on the most recent version of the MFC. I think I stopped at the upgrade which only added XL compatibility, as it didn't have any new features for non-XL users, so I saw no reason to upgrade.


Just adding this for the sake of debugging. Maybe this bug got introduced with one of the recent updates? It clearly doesn't happen for me.
Click to expand...

I just updated my post with firmware versions. They are 18.08(axe) and 3.06(mfc). I am not sure when the preset dropping down one after boot started happening, but I know it was not like that for the life of my axe. I didn't notice for awhile because I use one preset A LOT and its in location number 1 which remains selected after a power-cycle -see explanation on last post.

What MFC firmware do you have?
 
I've never experienced this issue and I have an Axe-Fx II Mark I Firmware 17.04 and MFC-101 Mk1 Firmware 3.08 and I also use a LF+ PRO+ Firmware 4.19. I use 2 BOSS FV-500H & 2 FV-500L and a homemade footswitch with 4 Momentary switches.


  • Have any of you with the issue ever connected the Ethernet cable, 7pin Phantom Powered MIDI cable or FAS Link XLR cable while the Axe-Fx II was powered on? It says in the MFC-101 manual to always have the Axe-Fx II powered off before connecting to the MFC-101 or else it will cause damage.
  • Has anyone who has the issue at bootup tried holding down the RECALL button when powering on the Axe-Fx II, so a blank preset is loaded to make sure it's not a Axe-Fx II preset issue?
  • Has anyone tried not connecting the MFC-101 to their Axe-Fx II and connect it to another FX Processor or a PC with MIDI cables and then used MIDI-OX or a DAW to see if the Expression pedals only have the issue with the Axe-Fx II?


It would be helpful if anyone who replies to this thread includes:
  • Axe-FX II Mark I, Mark II, XL or XL+ and what firmware version
  • MFC-101 Mk1, Mk2 or Mk3 and what firmware version
  • Expression Pedal Brand and Model
  • External Switches Brand and Model
 
Well, hopefully the boot-up issue is the same as the issue that I can reproduce fairly quickly by just spamming up or down ~+10/-10 presets at one time via bank size 0. When I do this, occasionally the pedals will not function.

For me, the problem is easy to reproduce on stock presets. I’m typically traversing up or down around a preset called “Tremverb”. I just basically hold the up/down for quite a bit of time, release… wait for the midi-in light to stop then test and see if the midi-in lights up when I go from toe-up to toe-down and back on the expression pedal. This might take a number of attempts for the failure to occur.

I just reproduced the problem about 10 times in the last 10 minutes. I also tested with FASLINK and the problem is there as well. When the MFC is in this state, if I enter EDIT mode the pedals still don’t work. I also don’t see any midi-in lights on the Axe-FX when I enter EDIT mode. However, when I exit Edit mode, I see midi-in on the Axe. Then the pedals start working again.

If you guys want me to try to disable something as a test to see if there is a work-around, I’d be glad to try it. It would be interesting if someone else can try and just replicate what I’m doing above. I’m not sure if FAS has already reproduced this in-house yet or not.

Axe Fx XL 18.07 via ethercon to MFC Mk III 3.08 w/2xEV-1’s.
 
I did some more testing with this tonight to see if I could narrow down the issue. So far, no luck. I tried the following:

* Reset to Factory and Change to Expansion Port, XL, Bank Size 0
* Rolling back to MFC MkIII firmware 3.03 (Earliest support for my XL).
* Turning off Total Sync
* Turning Send Realtime Sysex to None on Axe
* Changing all XP’s to BegPdl
* Changing all XP’s start value to something other than 0.
* Changing BankStyle to None
* Changing Bank/Song Limit to 200
* Bank/Song Wrap Off
* Bank Size 5
* Faslink/Ethercon

All of the above failed. One slightly positive note, if I set the mode from XL to None, and set the output to MIDI (connected to computer), the expression pedals seemed to work when toggling through presets. Granted, nothing is really going on here, but I think I might try going straight MIDI to the Axe later this week to test. It's possible I didn't try this test long enough.

Again, I can reproduce this really quick. Has anybody tried reproducing this like shown in my previous posts? Maybe my MFC is faulty?
 
I just finished testing with Midi direct. This also fails. While in the failed state, if I pull the midi cable and put it directly into my computer I don't see any MIDI messages coming in when moving the expression pedals.

I suspect the problem is with the MFC firmware, but it's possible I might have a defective unit. I guess I'll open a support case.
 
biskitboy said:
I just finished testing with Midi direct. This also fails. While in the failed state, if I pull the midi cable and put it directly into my computer I don't see any MIDI messages coming in when moving the expression pedals.

I suspect the problem is with the MFC firmware, but it's possible I might have a defective unit. I guess I'll open a support case.
Click to expand...

I was having problems last year with no volume after scrolling through. My MFC was swapped out by G66 but that was because it did the completely frozen thing where it had to go back to them anyway. When first using my replacement with my existing presets, it was still causing glitches where patches would have no volume after scrolling and sometimes the unit would need a reboot. I did open a ticket and Matt just told me to get a new unit from G66 but this was a new unit from G66 and it was doing the same as the last one.
Anyway, I wiped everything from the axe and then rebuilt all my patched from scratch. Only used it for one rehearsal and festival and it was fine. I won't be using it again until two weeks from now so I still can't be 100% that it has cleared up.
I would say there is a niggling problem with the MFC as a few people have reported the same thing. No idea what is causing it though as plenty of people seem not to have the problem at all.
 
The same thing has been happening to me intermittently now for a year or so - my bank size is 5 and I use Mission pedals ...............every now and again the MFC simply won't recognise a pedal and the pedals simply don't work....

..my fix is usually to switch a few presets - and then give it a moment - and then it works again? Bizarre. Usually after it happened once it wont happened again until I'm using the system again.
 
I am having issues with the volume pedal and something else going on, only at boot up and then not always......here's what happened:

My rig started out as Axe II MK II with MFC 101 MK III connected via ethercon with 2 Boss FV500 pedals. One for volume, the other for 'other' but only really used for wah at the moment.
I had the volume set up as per the default settings which I think is s that it controlled the output volume parameter. I never had any issues with this set up.
I then added volume blocks to all my patches so I could bring the volume down and still have the delay trails; it seemed a better more versatile solution being able to put a volume block anywhere in the chain. This had the effect that on boot up I found I needed to move the volume pedal in order to get sound. This happened consistently and I believe is pretty normal and can be 'cured' by altering a setting in the modifier menu as per several peoples suggestions here when I posted about it. I initially left it as is.

Things got more interesting when I got hold of an RAC 12. I hooked it all up and powered everything on........and there was no sound. I wobbled the volume pedal and no sound came through; (I had forgotten about this until know). I switched everything off and back on again, and this time after moving the pedal it all worked.

I did notice however that often on start up, that although the volume pedal worked as expected, the axe would not default to the patch it was on when switched off. In fact looking at the display on the axe you would see the last patch come up, and then it would flick through a couple of different patches before settling on one, which was usually, but not always patch 15.

I assumed this was something to do with the RAC 12 but they said they doubted it but said I should send them a log file (generated by the RAC 12) if it carries on doing it.

Of course it all settled down and the issue seemed to have gone away so I never did send them the log file.

Just recently on start up there was no sound even after I had moved the volume pedal. I found that switching patches back and forth, usually once but sometimes more than once would restore sound. Once the sound has been restored I have never had a problem. On top of this the issue with the Axe not defaulting to the patch it was last on has come back so I guess I should send Al at RAC the log file he requested!

All this leads me to believe that this is some sort of MIDI issue, although that's probably stating the obvious?
 
Sounds like the problem above is very similar to mine. Next time it happens, just look and see if you see the midi-in light on the AXE fx light up when you move an expression pedal. I suspect you won't see any input. Then try pressing any of your IA switches active in that patch, and I bet those will light the midi-in light.

I did wind up opening a case and they are working on a fix.

Love this company.
 
I had this exact issue last weekend on boot up at a gig- Eeek!.

Axe Fx Mark I, MFC Mark I, Bank Size 0, using Ethernet cable. No green midi-in light on the Axe when pedals are moved. Preset buttons work fine.

Took shutting it down and restarting 3 times to get it to come back.
 
Just a quick update: After setting my volume pedal, XP1, to BegPdl on the MFC, as suggested by Chris, I don't seem to have any issues with no sound at boot up. Reading above it appears others tried this with no luck but it seems to have worked for me and everything is behaving!
 
Admin M@ said:
We made a change to the AXE-FX which should have solved this problem. Can anyone running Axe-Fx II firmware version 19 beta confirm this?
Click to expand...

I can confirm my issue has disappeared completely and am not sure which firmware did it since my last post. It just simply works now every time. I did clear my user presets and start over about which ones I really need a few firmwares ago, so not sure if I had a corrupt one there.

My axe performs and sounds simply amazing right now with 19 b2. Couldn't be happier.
 
Hi Matt,

updated to 19 b2 and, sorry to report, nothing has changed - exact same behaviour as before.

Happy to trouble-shoot/webex with u if it would help to diagnose.

Cheers,
Sukh
 
Toadfish said:
Hi Matt,

updated to 19 b2 and, sorry to report, nothing has changed - exact same behaviour as before.

Happy to trouble-shoot/webex with u if it would help to diagnose.

Cheers,
Sukh
Click to expand...

Hi Sukh. Just for grins, change the banks size, save, set the bank size back to the original/desired size and save it again. Then test.
 
Hi Sukh,

At the same time, can you please post the exact steps to reproduce?
 
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