Discharge

S

Studio F

Member
Hi,
Having a very weird problem with my Axe FX II+.

Plugging from the XLR into a small Mackie mixer. After maybe an hour, there seems to be some kind of discharge and the entire PA mutes. It kind of feels like it's power cycling, but you don't see any indication from the Mackie. The Mackie never goes dark.

I've used a Line 6 Hw500 for years with this same rig and this never happened. An EE friend of mine suspects that there is some sort of charge building up in the Axe Fx and its dischargeing into the Mackie

Have tried lifting the ground on the XLR, made sure 48V was off, inserted isolating transformers, plugged into the same power source, measured the AC, played different venues. Always the same...

????

E
 
if you play really loud, maybe your speakers overheating and overload, mute and come back to life.
to me that sound like the problem, can I be right?
 
d2dark said:
if you play really loud, maybe your speakers overheating and overload, mute and come back to life.
to me that sound like the problem, can I be right?
Click to expand...

I think you might be onto something. Which Mackie mixer is it? Is it a powered mixer, running speaker cables out to the speakers, instead of XLR cables to powered speakers. Maybe a short in the speaker cable. That could cause the amp to shut down. Or maybe a bad XLR cable feeding it, causing something to clip, and therefor shut down a power amp. Just thinking out loud.
 
There are no discharges, most likely. It sounds like power amps shutting off. Please detail your PA system so we can try to figure it out.

How high is your Axe Output knob on the front panel? Where is the Trim knob set on the mixer?
 
Mine has an issue with the XLRs. Sound cuts off randomly, it comes back if you gently move the cable. So I dont use them. I stick to the 1/4. Did you try a standard cable?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Everyone,

I don't think it's the speaker shutting down. It only last for about 1/2 a second.
A speaker would probably shut down for longer than that.

Not running Axe Edit

The PA is a beringer( sorry I originally said Mackie) into an EV powered speaker. The meters on the mixers main bus are barely turning on maybe 3 or 4 leds are lighting.

And like i said, this NEVER happened with the Line 6 playing at the same volume.

I've tried the 1/4 inch output, same problem.
 
Studio F said:
I don't think it's the speaker shutting down. It only last for about 1/2 a second.
A speaker would probably shut down for longer than that.
Click to expand...

not necessarily. it could be how the EV handles clipping.

And like i said, this NEVER happened with the Line 6 playing at the same volume.

I've tried the 1/4 inch output, same problem.
Click to expand...

what do you mean by same volume? same Gain/Trim setting and other knob settings? or it SOUNDS the same volume? you still could be sending too much signal or something with any combination of gain, trim etc.

when you PFL the Axe channel so your meters show just that channel, what level are you getting?

it's really hard to troubleshoot this without seeing things. so many variables. it could be the mixer, it could be the powered speakers, etc. i'm pretty sure there is no discharge coming from the axe though. i'm not sure that's even possible.

i would focus on the speakers first. do you have the new EVs that have the LCD display on the back?

curious - how high is your Axe Output Knob set on the front panel?
 
You need to work out which point is failing in the signal chain:

Axefx -> cable -> beringer mixer -> cable -> [amp+speaker]
Click to expand...

I'd start inserting monitoring in between each step to see where the problem starts, e.g.

Axefx -> cable -> recording device -> cable -> beringer mixer -> cable -> [amp+speaker]
Click to expand...
-or-
Axefx -> cable -> beringer mixer -> cable -> recording device -> cable -> [amp+speaker]
Click to expand...

Where the recording device is a computer with an XLR in/out that records and also sends the input to the output (i.e. software monitoring).

Then reproduce the issue and see if the recording also drops out. All cables should be line level as the speaker is powered, so safe to run into a computer interface.
 
As has been stated above by others, you need a methodical approach and the first thing I'd be suggesting is to disconnect the Axe FX and connect an MP3 player or similar to the 1/4 lead you are using to feed the mixer. You will probably need an adaptor between them but the audio source is the only thing you should change - don't change any leads just yet.

You can then let the MP3 player do it's bit for a couple of hours (and try to ensure the same apparent signal level or volume on both the input of the mixer and the speaker output) - if no dropouts then it could be the Axe FX. But then again, remember that the Axe FX outputs are at pro line level +4dBu and not consumer level -10dBu which could be a factor.

If this doesn't seem to help then maybe cable changes are the next step...
 
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