Axe Fx II - Dealing With Noise

axel

axel

Power User
Just wanted to get some input from others on how they deal with instrument noise. My SG is not the quietest guitar, but seems to pick up more noise when playing through the Axe Fx than when playing through my tube amp. It may just be my imagination, but it seems like I have more noise coming in on the input since going from FW 4.xx to FW 5.xx. When I listen back to recordings I made with earlier FW versions, I don't hear as much noise. I've tried different cables, and they don't seem make much difference. I notice it mostly when notes taper off, and I begin to hear more noise than tone from the guitar. My issue is not "hum", just seems to be noise picked up by the guitar. I have already added some sheilding to the component cavity of the guitar, which did help a little. Also curious how everyone is running their noise gates (input gate only, gate placed later in the signal chain, both...).

Edit: This post is in no way meant to point fingers at the Axe Fx II as having a "Noise" problem, it is meant to be a thread where we can share our methods of dealing with noise induced by outside sources.
 
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fyi - I have an SG as well and I find it picks up a lot of noise including hum that seems to be from bad grounding (I touch something metal near me and it disappears). I was going to look into shielding etc to improve the situation.

As for the AxeFx, others will give some pro comments I'm sure, but from a basement player, for what it's worth, one thing I've been experienmenting with is 2 gates - the regular one set to mild values, and an expander block set to "input" + set clamp down fast for hi-gain use and that can be turned on / off by foot controller. I'm also trying to use less gain but that's another story I know.

I can't comment on comparison to tube amps as I sold the 2 that I had but, as I recall, into my Traynor with tube screamer in front I had more noise issues than with the AxeFx Ultra or II.

Hope this helps
 
I have always had more hum and such with the AxeFx II than my amps.

And like you said, it changes if I touch the outside of the plug of my guitar cable.

Don't have that with any other gear in my mix room or live room.

My standard setup is Out 1/2 -> XLR -> mixing desk or -> Digidesign 003 audio interface

Richard
 
If it changes when you touch the outside of the guitar cable plug it's a grounding issue and is not the fault of the axe. It seems like the latest train around here everyone is hopping on is 'I'm experiencing/hearing x in my tone, what's wrong with my axe fx?!?!?! Panic!?!? Fenzy?!?!' not specifically responding to this case, but forumites need to lighten up, have a drink or take a relaxant or whatever you do, I promise it's not as big of a deal as we often think it is. In this case, try an isolated grounded outlet, power in the U.S. has exceptionally low standards, and I'm amazed at how many players I run into with ground issues in their gear(standard amp/pedal rigs)
 
This is a good thread and constant quest either with high gain or synth connections

Be interested in the gate suggestions of others. Using the input gate as well as a gate block? Or the right balance of threshold and ratio settings. I find that my tuning of patches for noise can sometimes change based on different rooms or other electrical things running. It would be cool to have an auto gate option that can sense the hum and try and find the right balance between the threshold and ratio settings or where a modifier could control those levels via a footswitch ala vol+1, Vol -1.
 
You know something weird here, talking about noise and SG's, my SG has the absolute worst frickin' pickguard static I've ever seen. It's got some P90's in it too which makes playing that thing a real interesting experience. I tried playing it the other night and even used some endust on the pickguard and it wasn't a lot of help.
 
shasha said:
You know something weird here, talking about noise and SG's, my SG has the absolute worst frickin' pickguard static I've ever seen. It's got some P90's in it too which makes playing that thing a real interesting experience. I tried playing it the other night and even used some endust on the pickguard and it wasn't a lot of help.
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Same here - if I rub against the back of the guitar particularly around the electronics cover I get that staticy sound. Do you know if there is a fix for that?

Thankyou for confirming I am not the only one - when I 1st reported this issue on the gibson guitar forum a couple of years ago, I could not find anyone who had the same issue. I would love to know how to get rid of that annoyance. My SG standard is my favorite sounding guitar but the static is a real bummer.
 
sprint said:
Same here - if I rub against the back of the guitar particularly around the electronics cover I get that staticy sound. Do you know if there is a fix for that?

Thankyou for confirming I am not the only one - when I 1st reported this issue on the gibson guitar forum a couple of years ago, I could not find anyone who had the same issue. I would love to know how to get rid of that annoyance. My SG standard is my favorite sounding guitar but the static is a real bummer.
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Strange, I have a 61 Reissue, and I haven't noticed any static. Maybe the area you live in has very low humidity?
 
jdolll said:
If it changes when you touch the outside of the guitar cable plug it's a grounding issue and is not the fault of the axe. It seems like the latest train around here everyone is hopping on is 'I'm experiencing/hearing x in my tone, what's wrong with my axe fx?!?!?! Panic!?!? Fenzy?!?!' not specifically responding to this case, but forumites need to lighten up, have a drink or take a relaxant or whatever you do, I promise it's not as big of a deal as we often think it is. In this case, try an isolated grounded outlet, power in the U.S. has exceptionally low standards, and I'm amazed at how many players I run into with ground issues in their gear(standard amp/pedal rigs)
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I'm hoping this will be a productive thread on isolating and reducing noise induced into the Axe, and nothing more (no Axe bashing please).
 
Totally agree. Plugging directly into the axe is VERY quiet. Just looking for ways to reduce when that is not the case and any best practice tips. (other than playing direct thru :))
 
Fixing the problem at the source is always the best thing. But that takes time, and experience in shielding and tracking down ground loops. If you can do that, you can have everything practically noise free. My strat is all single coils and I can turn the gain to 10 because I took the time to get it right. Most don't go down this route, so there is....

The noise gate inherent in every patch in the axe - layout->page right button for those reading and didn't know.
The new gate is vastly superior to the one in the ultra - I still use a decimator with the ultra, but I don't feel the need for it in the II. With some tweaking, you can get it pretty much perfect. There is very little change to tone - only if you're observant and listen really hard will you hear the slightest top end come off due to the nature of the method - the downward expander technology.
 
jon said:
Fixing the problem at the source is always the best thing. But that takes time, and experience in shielding and tracking down ground loops. If you can do that, you can have everything practically noise free. My strat is all single coils and I can turn the gain to 10 because I took the time to get it right. Most don't go down this route, so there is....

The noise gate inherent in every patch in the axe - layout->page right button for those reading and didn't know.
The new gate is vastly superior to the one in the ultra - I still use a decimator with the ultra, but I don't feel the need for it in the II. With some tweaking, you can get it pretty much perfect. There is very little change to tone - only if you're observant and listen really hard will you hear the slightest top end come off due to the nature of the method - the downward expander technology.
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Sounds good, can you offer any advice on eliminatng noise (other than ground loops) based on your experiences and how you set up the Axe gate(s)?
 
Sure, but the approaches for the II and the ultra are a little different, and I normally use the decimator with the ultra.

For the II, I use the input's gate only - on the ultra I sometimes used the input's gate as well as a block, with different settings
Thresh usually set somewhere around 40-50, but all dependent on the guitars, level of noise, amount of gain etc
Ratio is usually depending on the style - clean patches is usually about 1.2-1.5, crunch is about 1.5-1.8, and lots of gain is about 2-2.5, but I don't ever go past that, it starts to be very unnatural, matter of fact, past 2 is usually pushing it. Attack is fairly quick - 5-10ms, and release is somewhat long - maybe 200ms or so, but can also vary according to patch - somtimes it's 100ms sometimes it's 300, 150 or so seems just right. If you're playing metal, you might dig really low attack times, as well as low release times. Some like the tight 'choppy' sound.
With the ultra, sometimes I might add a gate somewhere at the end to kill off things that were exaggerated elsewhere in the chain, but I haven't done that once yet on the II
 
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sprint said:
Same here - if I rub against the back of the guitar particularly around the electronics cover I get that staticy sound. Do you know if there is a fix for that?

Thankyou for confirming I am not the only one - when I 1st reported this issue on the gibson guitar forum a couple of years ago, I could not find anyone who had the same issue. I would love to know how to get rid of that annoyance. My SG standard is my favorite sounding guitar but the static is a real bummer.
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Had this problem with the pickguard on some of my Teles . . . try rubbing a dryer sheet on the pickguard.
 
axel said:
Sounds good, can you offer any advice on eliminatng noise (other than ground loops) based on your experiences and how you set up the Axe gate(s)?
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Shield your pickup cavitities with copper foil, you can get it from stewmac. My previous post was to state that people always point the finger at the axe when 99.9% of the time it's going to be your guitar or environment. Silent high gain is unnatural and difficult to obtain, when I used to be a high gain player it required a mix of gating, compression, and eq. People assume its easy to do, it's very much not. But don't blame the axe for that... Crank the gain to 9 o'clock on a rectifier or a powerball and see what happens.
 
jdolll said:
If it changes when you touch the outside of the guitar cable plug it's a grounding issue and is not the fault of the axe. It seems like the latest train around here everyone is hopping on is 'I'm experiencing/hearing x in my tone, what's wrong with my axe fx?!?!?! Panic!?!? Fenzy?!?!' not specifically responding to this case, but forumites need to lighten up, have a drink or take a relaxant or whatever you do, I promise it's not as big of a deal as we often think it is. In this case, try an isolated grounded outlet, power in the U.S. has exceptionally low standards, and I'm amazed at how many players I run into with ground issues in their gear(standard amp/pedal rigs)
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Just some background, I have a small studio and have been tracking and mixing for about 15 yrs.

The problem I'm having seems to be something with the input jack grounding scheme in the AxeFx itself. This happens for me, with different instruments, cables, humbucker pups, yada yada yada. All of which work great with other gear and don't exhibit the same problem.

But I loves me some AxeFx, not a basher here.

I only offered up my problem so that other folks won't feel like their Axe is defective.

Cheers,
Richard
 
Jay Mitchell stated on TGP that the Axe-Fx (whichever version) input circuitry is vulnerable for picking up radio broadcasts... Haven't experienced that myself.

I use the Input noise gate at very moderate settings. Threshold at 80-72%, Ratio at 2.30-2.60. Works great, no noise, no sustain cutoff. Even with a hi-gain monster such as Recto Orange Modern.
 
I get the best connection and the most quiet using a wireless connection (Shure). Using any cable always added noise. If I approach the rack I start hearing buzzing that disappears as I move away. It is a delicate balance using the gate without killing the input signal. I have also tried turning off the gate and adding a gate block after the amp which works great on some patches. You will just have to experiment as there will be a lot of "noise" from all the electronics and lighting around you.
 
Thanks Yek,

For me, for regular amp hiss, I just leave it... I'm used to that and don't gate it in the AxeFx.

On recordings, I get rid of it as needed in post in my DAW.

Richard
 
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