Can I use Axe FX II with YouRock Midi Guitar? Plus, will X3L work as a controller?

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kplooksafterme

Inspired
Will Line 6 X3L or Boss GT-6 work as a controller? How is the Behringer FCB?

Hello,

I've had my Axe FX for a few months now. It is, by far, the best thing I have ever bought for guitar.

I want a foot controller, and the MFC is way out of my price range. Will a second-hand Line 6 X3 Live or a Boss GT series pedal control the unit? Both appear to have switches that can be assigned to MIDI commands. Would the Behringer FCB controller be a better option?

Also, I recently bought a YouRock Midi Guitar. It is great, but I am currently running it as MIDI via USB into my laptop to trigger sounds. I have the Axe FX set as my soundcard. There is a teeny bit of lag. My brother is much more well versed in MIDI (I know next to nothing), and he suggests powering the MIDI guitar with batteries and sending into the MIDI input of the Axe FX in order to eliminate the latency. Would this be the correct way to do it?

Many thanks for reading :).
 
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kplooksafterme said:
Hello,

I've had my Axe FX for a few months now. It is, by far, the best thing I have ever bought for guitar.

I want a foot controller, and the MFC is way out of my price range. Will a second-hand Line 6 X3 Live or a Boss GT series pedal control the unit? Both appear to have switches that can be assigned to MIDI commands.
Click to expand...
Yes. But it requires quite a lot of midi programming. Also, you won't have perfect LED feedback of IA states when switching between scenes.
If you got some redundant stuff like the X3 or GT, why not sell them and buy the MFC?

Also, I recently bought a YouRock Midi Guitar. It is great, but I am currently running it as MIDI via USB into my laptop to trigger sounds. I have the Axe FX set as my soundcard. There is a teeny bit of lag. My brother is much more well versed in MIDI (I know next to nothing), and he suggests powering the MIDI guitar with batteries and sending into the MIDI input of the Axe FX in order to eliminate the latency. Would this be the correct way to do it?
Click to expand...
I don't quite know what you want to achieve, but the Axe is not a VST instrument. It can not create sound out of nowhere. As long as you can not convert your midi signal to actual audio, the Axe can do nothing.

If you want to use your Axe as a midi interface to communicate with your computer, it's probably better to do that with directly plugging it into the MIDI in of the axe, as long as you use the Axe as a soundcard.
because:
Plugging into Laptop: Guitar --> Laptop (routing) --> Axe --> Laptop (VST) --> Axe --> Audio
Pluggin into Axe: Guitar --> Axe --> Laptop (VST) --> Axe --> Audio
You reduce the delay by one device. But I'd say it will still be unplayable...
 
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Thanks for such a quick reply!

To answer your question about the MIDI guitar, all I want to do is trigger sounds from VST instruments in my DAW (Reaper in this case). The impression I have been given is that lag is present because I am sending information to the DAW via USB, which then goes back into the Axe FX and out to the speakers. My brother's argument was that I could plug the MIDI guitar into the Axe FX via the MIDI input and use it to trigger sounds in my DAW, eliminating the MIDI/USB part of the equation and thus reducing latency. I'm sorry if I am not explaining it very well, MIDI is pretty alien to me :).

I have no X3L or GT pedal, unfortunately. I am looking at second-hand ones on Ebay for between £100 and £200. The MFC is around £700, however, and doesn't have an expression pedal. Makes it out of my price range :(.
 
Why even have the axe in the equation then? Just plug your midi guitar directly into your laptop and send the analogue audio signal from your laptop directly to your poweramp? Definitely the best solution in this case, as it cuts out the middleman.

You will never get faster as your laptop soundcard allows, unfortunately. As long as you don't have a professional laptop, the latency will make it unplayable. What you can do is reducing the number of midi samples to reduce the latency.

An external soundcard might be your best bet:
http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Recording-Forum/External-soundcard-with-lowest-latency/td-p/6401606
 
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Zwiebelchen said:
Why even have the axe in the equation then? Just plug your midi guitar directly into your laptop and send the analogue audio signal from your laptop directly to your poweramp? Definitely the best solution in this case, as it cuts out the middleman.

You will never get faster as your laptop soundcard allows, unfortunately. As long as you don't have a professional laptop, the latency will make it unplayable. What you can do is reducing the midi sampling rate to reduce the latency.

An external soundcard might be your best bet:
External soundcard with lowest latency - Harmony Central
Click to expand...

Can I not just use the Axe FX as my external soundcard? The idea is for recording and monitoring with my monitors, which are hooked up to my Axe FX.
 
Are you using a Cubase, Logic Pro Pro Tools etc?
Maybe you need to lower your buffer size on your sequencer's audio preferences,, this will reduce the latency. But lowering the buffer size will affect your CPU depending on what type processor you're using.
 
eljodon said:
Are you using a Cubase, Logic Pro Pro Tools etc?
Maybe you need to lower your buffer size on your sequencer's audio preferences,, this will reduce the latency. But lowering the buffer size will affect your CPU depending on what type processor you're using.
Click to expand...

I am using Reaper :).
 
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