Axe FX III EMI issues? Thinking about upgrading from the II.

Oscar Martinez

Oscar Martinez

Member
Hi fractal friends :)

I'm curious to hear from Axe-III users on how this unit handles EMI issues. Do you know personally whether the III significantly reduces EMI as opposed to the II? I'm currently dealing with a pretty bad EMI issue on my II XL and am crashing on solutions to this. In one of the Axe III's updates, they added an "Improved noise gate in the Input block, now also includes EMI filtering" so I'm curious to hear how well it deals with EMI problems. This is an expensive fix to my problem, but its one I'm willing to make considering that it would be nice to have a continually updated/supported piece of equipment.

I really want to fool-proof my setup against any odd EMI issues. Curious to hear your thoughts!
 
I suppose it somewhat depends on where the EMI is coming from. I don't experience any EMI whatsoever (nothing I can see or hear) except via my pickups if I happen to get close to a PC (making a change using AxeEdit) but I need yo be within a foot or so, and turning away 20° either direction and it disappears.

If you are in am EMI pollution area (apartment building, many taverns/clubs, etc) it may be present as I've seen some chatter here about a few instances. Same with something else on your elec wiring for your home building (60hz hum, etc), it may be present.

I guess I'd say the III does a great job of keeping quiet, but like anything else, can't eliminate it all. A quality power conditioner may help mitigate any on-the-wire issues so that any which remains can be tamed with a noise gate, and locating the device away from common EMI offenders is always a good idea.

The best feedback on this will likely come from those who are playing club venues as those are almost always the most challenging for EMI, at least in my 35 years of playing. Mine sits at home now in my studio...I'm fcuking ooooold. ;)🤘:cool:
 
I've been playing live 2-5 times a week for a couple years now with it, and it holds up very well. While there are a couple of venues around my area that are just known for having tons of EMI and dirty power, for the most part it works great. Those same venues make it impossible to play an actual amp. The hum is louder than the guitar. haha
 
I have my III in a place that feels like a constant magnetic storm on the surface of the sun. Terrible EMI issues that I can't fix. My III has no problems at all. The guitars on the other hand...
 
From a hardware perspective, I cannot comment as I no longer have my XL II. However, I can tell you that the "Noise Reducer" input gate has improved significantly. I can optimize my signal-to-noise ratio considerably by lowering the threshold to previously unusable levels (usually - 32 is my starting point). Before, I would get artifacts (e.g., chattering) when lowering the threshold to such levels (usually around - 40). That is no longer the case. Note that I still need to use a gate after the amp, as I'm a high-gain player, but using the two together has drastically improved the audible amount of EMI when playing and recording.
 
Noise gates only work when you’re NOT playing. They open when you play, so if you’re getting noise while playing that’s happening in the guitar. Not much axe can do about that just like any other amp.

If you’re in a venue where there are neon lights or down lights above the stage, I feel your pain. I brought my strat to a gig at a venue like that and got very familiar with position 2. Next time I’ll bring humbuckers!
 
hoth said:
I have my III in a place that feels like a constant magnetic storm on the surface of the sun. Terrible EMI issues that I can't fix. My III has no problems at all. The guitars on the other hand...
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Same in my place. Even humbuckers can't kill it, so I spend a lot of time using positions 2 and 4 on my Strats, which kills it completely.

Luckily, in a normal situation like when playing out, all my guitars work great at rejecting the noise.
 
On the subject of EMI, has anyone ever tried a filter (such as Greenwave) to reduce possible sources of EMI? I live in a small apartment and there isn't enough space to get away from most of the biggest offenders. Furthermore, it's an older building and I'm not sure how "clean" the power is.

I understand that it is usually preferable to take care of these problems at the source, but I'm not convinced it's a viable (i.e., cost effective) solution to have all the wiring redone or if that'll even resolve the problem.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
Same in my place. Even humbuckers can't kill it, so I spend a lot of time using positions 2 and 4 on my Strats, which kills it completely.

Luckily, in a normal situation like when playing out, all my guitars work great at rejecting the noise.
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I wonder to myself why this works for a strat but not for humbuckers. I thought 2/4 created a humbucker. Distance between pickups?
 
giantslayer said:
Have you already shielded your guitar’s electronics? I would start there if you haven’t.
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Yeah I've shielded the guitars pretty well tbh. Where I currently live, there is an insane amount of dirty power it seems so I get awful EMI noise, EVEN WITH a rocktron hush pedal... its a nightmare.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
That won't help if the problem is EMI, which the OP specifically asked about. EMI flies through the air and is picked up by the guitar, and doesn't travel through the power-line.
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Not to mention, EMI and RF can be induced into electronics. Although, a lot has been done to cancel it out.
 
hensh!n_vfs said:
From a hardware perspective, I cannot comment as I no longer have my XL II. However, I can tell you that the "Noise Reducer" input gate has improved significantly. I can optimize my signal-to-noise ratio considerably by lowering the threshold to previously unusable levels (usually - 32 is my starting point). Before, I would get artifacts (e.g., chattering) when lowering the threshold to such levels (usually around - 40). That is no longer the case. Note that I still need to use a gate after the amp, as I'm a high-gain player, but using the two together has drastically improved the audible amount of EMI when playing and recording.
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jimmynorrisjr said:
I've been playing live 2-5 times a week for a couple years now with it, and it holds up very well. While there are a couple of venues around my area that are just known for having tons of EMI and dirty power, for the most part it works great. Those same venues make it impossible to play an actual amp. The hum is louder than the guitar. haha
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Can you tell me a little more about your experience with the "Noise Reducer" input gate? Thats whats peaking my interest the most with the Axe 3, and I'm really eager to foolproof my setup against EMI issues.
 
luckymethod said:
The greenwave stuff is a bunch of mumbo jumbo and horse shit.

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/greenwave-2500i-ac-filter-review.43879/
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Thanks for the save! I've been getting desperate to resolve my terrible EMI experience in my studio. But perhaps I'll have to find another way.
Oscar Martinez said:
Can you tell me a little more about your experience with the "Noise Reducer" input gate? Thats whats peaking my interest the most with the Axe 3, and I'm really eager to foolproof my setup against EMI issues.
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Yeah so basically I use the Input gate along with a standard Gate. With the Input Gate, I set it to "Noise Reducer" at stock settings to hear what the situation is. With a Marshall style amp that has a lot of high end, naturally there will be more noise. I recall that the stock threshold is -60, which won't help at all. Previously I found that anything below -40 would have an unpleasant effect on my tone. However, lately I've been lowering the threshold to more extreme values starting around -30 and adjusting to taste. I use the Input Gate in conjunction with a standard gate set after the amp, I usually go with a Modern Gate and set the sidechain detector to "Input 1" and choose "Peak" value. Basically I want the gate to open when I play, and to close when I'm not playing. I would say not to go too low on the threshold of the Modern Gate, as set after the amp you will cut a lot of your tone out. But it's fine to use more extreme values with the Input Gate on "Noise Reducer". I believe at 0 (i.e., the most extreme threshold possible) it is still usable but does color the mid/high-end a little bit. But if the noise drives you crazy like it does for me the tradeoff can be worth it. Hope this helps!
 
The Axe itself seems to be pretty immune from EMI, I have my laptop literally on the axe fx and with humbuckers there's no noise or none that gets past the default noise gate settings. Obviously with single coils you get EMI but that has nothing to do with the axe fx. Also if you run a silly amount of gain you will get noise as well, the noise floor of the Axe FX is not infinitely small. To be honest coming from the II to the III I didn't really notice much of a difference, they both had a very low noise floor in any environment I was in.
 
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