Crackling noise when I play... [CLOSED]

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I hear the same crackling with my Axe Fx II. Today was the first time I used the Axe II at really loud volumes with the band and noticed exactly the same crackling. Until today I used the Axe Fx II only at living-room volumes and didn't notice it.
I hear it on both channels, but I think it's louder on the left side. I use a wireless system and xlr cable into the mixing board. I changed every cable but it did not help. Probably something with the wireless system? It's a Line6 G50.
 
painkiller said:
I hear the same crackling with my Axe Fx II. Today was the first time I used the Axe II at really loud volumes with the band and noticed exactly the same crackling. Until today I used the Axe Fx II only at living-room volumes and didn't notice it.
I hear it on both channels, but I think it's louder on the left side. I use a wireless system and xlr cable into the mixing board. I changed every cable but it did not help. Probably something with the wireless system? It's a Line6 G50.
Click to expand...
I think mine's in the left too. Next time it happens plug straight in and listen to the headphones - that'll eliminate a lot of other possible causes.
 
Unfortunately the crackling is back after a week or less, the new firmware(3.03 beta) didn't fix it :( only rebooting help the issue for now...
 
I played a lot during the weekend (no wireless unit this time) but did not came to a conclusion. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. If it's there and I switch the unit off and on again it's gone, but it will appear again sooner or later.
But I noticed something, which could be a coincidence, though: If I use the MFC 101 via Cat5 and my mobile phone is close to the MFC, the crackling will appear more often. If I use the midi cable OR switch the mobile phone off it's gone. Like I said... could be a coincidence, probably someone can test this. I will try it again on Thursday. Unfortunately I can't do it earlier.
 
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There are two posts about this but I kinda believe the crackling is not necessarily coming FROM the axe fx II. I thing its actually the input of the devices used for monitoring that are clipping... I connected my pc speakers to the output of the axe and if I up'ed the levels it was like a rice creaspies bowl but no clipping at low levels. Then I connected it directly to the input of my avid mbox mini and I could monitor with the blicking light that it didnt take much for the signal to clip... letting me know with a red light so I can adjust until its green.

There is no crackling through my peavey 5150's return jack at very high levels so there is no clipping with the amp.


Just a theory...
 
farrakon said:
There are two posts about this but I kinda believe the crackling is not necessarily coming FROM the axe fx II. I thing its actually the input of the devices used for monitoring that are clipping... Just a theory...
Click to expand...
But then why do we hear it from the headphone outs too?

Thanks for chiming in!
 
I know... its rather strange... but it happens with devices that seem to clip at their input... Im not hearing clipping if its only the axe and headphones or while connected to an input that can be level controlled or my amp...
 
Since no one can really tell where the crackling is coming from ive been testing some more... i still cant say if its coming directly from the axe but ive used it in two ways that dont give me crackling....

First way was connecting the out of the axe ro the input of my mbox mini and observing the input level of the mbox i keep the led green and cant hear any crackling while recording.

Second was connecting the usb from axe to computer but using asio for all. I selected the axe for input and the laptops sound card for output....and lime this i dont get the noise whule playing.

Now if i connect the axe output 1 directly to the speakers and use usb to record the axe as input i get the horrible noise. Also i get the noise if then i use the axe's asio with the axe as input and output.

Im still to try recording with usb even with the crackling and doing playback afterwards with my laptops soundcard... lets see what happens.... but it is rather annoying to hear all that distorted noise when you know the levels are very low looking at the display of the axe.
 
Yea that's normal when the CPU gets to 95%, happens with the ultra too. If that's happening to you a lot, there are quite a few ways to get the CPU back below 95%
 
I heard it on all of mine. Push it to about 97% and play hard and listen carefully. Can't miss it.
 
Hitting the cpu hard is not a sound you miss. This is more subtle and once it happens, it will happen with every patch regardless of cpu usage until a reboot (at least for me and some others).
 
alternatively to turning it off... ive seen that lowering the output knob completely and giving it a second to settle and then turn up bit by bit "cures" it... until you pass like a limit where it starts again
 
I came looking for this thread as I had seen it before...and experienced the problem this afternoon. A mild crackling after a single note slide from g to a on the e string. FW v4. Guitar plays immaculately...near perfect fret job and setup.

So on the other side of the room is a Mesa Mark IV compact combo. Same amp I was modeling, same channel. Running clean on both the model and the real amp. Different cable.

And guess what... The crackling is there, too. It's harder to hear it. Why? The noise floor is a lot higher on the real amp, so the crackling gets lost in the real noise. Also, the amp was on the floor, so I was initially listening off axis, which is a different condition than IR and FRFR.

Nevertheless, it was there. So, either it is the guitar, or an artifact of the behavior of the real amp.

Dave
 
xarkon said:
I came looking for this thread as I had seen it before...and experienced the problem this afternoon. A mild crackling after a single note slide from g to a on the e string. FW v4. Guitar plays immaculately...near perfect fret job and setup.

So on the other side of the room is a Mesa Mark IV compact combo. Same amp I was modeling, same channel. Running clean on both the model and the real amp. Different cable.

And guess what... The crackling is there, too. It's harder to hear it. Why? The noise floor is a lot higher on the real amp, so the crackling gets lost in the real noise. Also, the amp was on the floor, so I was initially listening off axis, which is a different condition than IR and FRFR.

Nevertheless, it was there. So, either it is the guitar, or an artifact of the behavior of the real amp.

Dave
Click to expand...

Wow, that is quite interesting....can't ever say I experienced that before, could be because of the noise floor as you mentioned....but I will test that out tomorrow too.
 
Are any of the affected players using real power conditioners?
This happens also due to poor grounding of the power supplying the dwelling, or business which provides powers to the AXE as well as any other device, like, say the MESA Mark IV on the other side of the same room whose power is provided by the same circuit run, or panel. This is very common in tract, and apartment buildings, and sometimes even commercial applications although thir 3 phase systems are often crafted and engineered properly by much more experienced engineers and contractors. There is a reason why so many power conditioners are used. Those who say that it is a glorified power strip, know not what they speak of, and likely have only used sub standard low quality power conditions, which are in fact only glorified power conditioners. But a proper conditioner, with filters and absolute isolated ground protection will in fact provide pure power. No computer lab, tel/comm facility etc. uses raw wall power. NEVER. This is also why semi conductor manufacturing stations have multiple layers of ground protections. The pops you hear are likely 1 of 2 things. (1) Clipping, or (2) ground pops. (Which do sometime accumulate and release) IMHO this is the likely culprit for most of the noise you are hearing.
 
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