CPU freeze up

Robboman

Robboman

Fractal Fanatic
I'm trying to build a single 'loaded' preset that would have all my most needed meat-n-potatoes pedals in one pedalboard, but I keep running out of CPU. Must be the G3-ification of the drive pedals? They sound fantastic, but whenever I switch to the Y state of drive 2 I hear that faint 'pinggg' sound and see that message my reverb was been automatically disabled due to lack of available CPU.

The preset is (pre) Comp > Wah > Drive1 > Drive2 (post) Filter (for null boost) > Rotary > Delay > Reverb.

I've started experimenting with different FX types, etc, to discover which ones use less CPU to find a way to make this chain work. Do you have any tips? I like lots of drive flavors, so the 2 drives (each with distinct X\Y) is pretty key.

Is there any hope CPU efficiency can be optimized any further than it already is in future firmware?

The other bad thing that's happened (only twice) since I got my FX8 - unit freezes up. Actually, what froze up is the preset \ footswitches.. I could press menu buttons and navigate them, but couldn't switch presets or turn individual fx on or off. Only way to unfreeze was to power cycle. I assume this was also a side effect of pushing the CPU to hard.
 
Another question.. I was using FX8 Edit while doing all this and remembered that the USB connection uses a bit of CPU. So I watched the CPU % on the FX8 and unplugged the USB cable, but the % didn't budge. I was hoping it would drop a point or two at least. Is there more to it than just unplugging? Like, would you need to save and restart the FX8 to see the benefit?

I was never one to push CPU limits on the Axe-Fx II, so this CPU management stuff is all new territory to me.
 
Robboman said:
I'm trying to build a single 'loaded' preset that would have all my most needed meat-n-potatoes pedals in one pedalboard, but I keep running out of CPU. Must be the G3-ification of the drive pedals? They sound fantastic, but whenever I switch to the Y state of drive 2 I hear that faint 'pinggg' sound and see that message my reverb was been automatically disabled due to lack of available CPU.

The preset is (pre) Comp > Wah > Drive1 > Drive2 (post) Filter (for null boost) > Rotary > Delay > Reverb.

I've started experimenting with different FX types, etc, to discover which ones use less CPU to find a way to make this chain work. Do you have any tips? I like lots of drive flavors, so the 2 drives (each with distinct X\Y) is pretty key.

Is there any hope CPU efficiency can be optimized any further than it already is in future firmware?

The other bad thing that's happened (only twice) since I got my FX8 - unit freezes up. Actually, what froze up is the preset \ footswitches.. I could press menu buttons and navigate them, but couldn't switch presets or turn individual fx on or off. Only way to unfreeze was to power cycle. I assume this was also a side effect of pushing the CPU to hard.
Click to expand...

Contact Joe regarding the footswitch issue - it's a known issue. BTW, it's not an issue of pushing the CPU too hard.
 
If I'm trying to conserve CPU I usually start by changing the reverb to normal mode instead of the higher quality mode. And, based on a tip from Cooper Carter, I'll lower the echo density of the reverb down to something around 3-4. For live, it's usually a-okay.
 
Thanks guys. The footswitch thing only happened twice, neither time during a gig or anything, just messing around at home with FX8 Edit connected.

The reverb is already 'normal' quality but I didn't try lowering the echo density. I'll try that tonight, and also the 'NO LOOPER' setting since I won't need a looper for this preset. How much CPU will NO LOOPER save me?

The other thing I'll try just to be thorough is to rebuild the preset from scratch in an empty slot. The one I'm working with is a modified stock preset, so who knows, maybe there's some sort of leftover baggage in there.

From the FX8 manual:
ƒ Reverb: QUALITY and ECHO DENSITY (Lower = less CPU)
ƒ Phaser: STAGES (Lower = less CPU)
ƒ Filter: ORDER and Q (Lower = less CPU)
ƒ Multi-Delay: TYPE (Different types have different requirements)
ƒ Setting LOOPER POSITION to “NO LOOPER”
ƒ Modifiers also affect CPU usage.
 
Couple more questions.. (I'm full of them today).

1). I seem to be pinning the CPU when I switch to the Y state of the drive block(s). Is there any reason the Y state uses more CPU? Even with the same drive type in both X and Y, it only seems to runs out of CPU on Y.

2). When I pin the CPU in this way (using the Y drive), 'automatic block disabling' kicks in and disables the Reverb. Why the Reverb? Is it because it's the last block in my chain? Because it's the most CPU intense? Or because it works by disabling reverb, and only the reverb? I'd rather have it disable, say, the rotary in my preset. Is there a way to change what block gets disabled first?
 
Robboman said:
I'm trying to build a single 'loaded' preset that would have all my most needed meat-n-potatoes pedals in one pedalboard, but I keep running out of CPU. Must be the G3-ification of the drive pedals? They sound fantastic, but whenever I switch to the Y state of drive 2 I hear that faint 'pinggg' sound and see that message my reverb was been automatically disabled due to lack of available CPU.

The preset is (pre) Comp > Wah > Drive1 > Drive2 (post) Filter (for null boost) > Rotary > Delay > Reverb.

I've started experimenting with different FX types, etc, to discover which ones use less CPU to find a way to make this chain work. Do you have any tips? I like lots of drive flavors, so the 2 drives (each with distinct X\Y) is pretty key.

Is there any hope CPU efficiency can be optimized any further than it already is in future firmware?

The other bad thing that's happened (only twice) since I got my FX8 - unit freezes up. Actually, what froze up is the preset \ footswitches.. I could press menu buttons and navigate them, but couldn't switch presets or turn individual fx on or off. Only way to unfreeze was to power cycle. I assume this was also a side effect of pushing the CPU to hard.
Click to expand...

I had the exact thing happen to me yesterday while I was at home messing around with my presets. The FX8 just froze on me. I couldn't change the scenes no matter what foot switch or button I pushed. The menu buttons wouldn't work either. I just turned off the FX8 and turned it back on and it started working fine again. I'm just glad this happened at home and not during a live gig.
 
Geronimo said:
I had the exact thing happen to me yesterday while I was at home messing around with my presets. The FX8 just froze on me. I couldn't change the scenes no matter what foot switch or button I pushed. The menu buttons wouldn't work either. I just turned off the FX8 and turned it back on and it started working fine again. I'm just glad this happened at home and not during a live gig.
Click to expand...

Open a support ticket - they'll take care of you. I got help fast.
 
spandol said:
Is this a hardware issue? My unit came in today and this would be horrible happening during a show!
Click to expand...

No. Early units have a bug in the micro code. The micro code can be updated in the field. Units currently shipping have the updated code.
 
Aaaand... my FX8 is now fixed. Micro updated.

I opened a support case early today, had email within the hour and then Joe agreed to call me 9pm EST, which was the only time I had free for him when I could be in front of my FX8. He called right on time and walked me through the update process over the phone.

This is what outstanding customer service looks like people. I'd be more enthusiastic, but it came as no surprise... this is Fractal I'm talking about.

Thanks Joe!
 
FractalAudio said:
No. Early units have a bug in the micro code. The micro code can be updated in the field. Units currently shipping have the updated code.
Click to expand...

How can we tell if our FX8 has this bug? Mine came loaded with firmware 1.02, but I received it about a week and a half ago.
 
DavidE said:
How can we tell if our FX8 has this bug? Mine came loaded with firmware 1.02, but I received it about a week and a half ago.
Click to expand...

Your FX8 probably has the latest micro already. Mine arrived Apr 30th from the first non-beta small batch and came with firmware 1.01.

The microcontroller is a separate chip for lower level hardware control stuff. It has it's own small firmware that ordinarily would never need to be flashed by end users... but it can be if needed as directed by Fractal Support. This is not to be confused with "The Firmware" we all routinely update for new features and sounds.

Joe showed me how to update the micro firmware, it's easy but involves accessing hidden menus. Hidden for good reason.. you could brick your unit if you screwed up.
 
Robboman said:
The reverb is already 'normal' quality but I didn't try lowering the echo density. I'll try that tonight, and also the 'NO LOOPER' setting since I won't need a looper for this preset.
Click to expand...

Update.. tried these.. 'NO LOOPER saved only 2%', but lowering the reverb echo density saved a ton of CPU and still sounds good. I'm using 'recording studio c' reverb type, 'normal' quality and the echo density was set to 10. Dropping to 5 saved me 9 or 10 % CPU.

So all the stuff I wanted now fits comfortably in one preset!

There's no real need to make any of these CPU saving compromises of course, it would be easy to just use fewer blocks and spread out the stuff you need across multiple presets. I'n never gonna turn all these blocks on at the same time anyway :)
 
Hey I just bought an FX8 Waited 6 months for it down here in New Zealand. Its almost the arseole of the world down here, we wait years for gear to get here. Anyway Ive had it about 5 days now. Every single time Ive played which is about 5 times each time for an hour or so...the unit freezes up on me and I have to turn it off and then back on. In the last hour its happened 4 times.. This makes it totally unusable for live performance. Ive also downloaded Fractal Bot etc and uploaded the latest firmware but that made no difference. Can anyone help?
 
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I will, but they are In Australia as you cant buy the units in New Zealand and I was hoping there was an easy fix before I talk to the supplier
 
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