Finally got AxeFXII to lock to SPDIF as slave (hybrid Re-Amping success)

[shasha]

EDIT: This just isn't going to work properly. The inherent flaw is that using the AxeFXII as slave requires that you use the digital input at all times or else it will not sync. No way around this inconvenience at present time.

But it wasn't all a waste of time I did manage to get a very workable and relable method for re-amping, but using the AxeFXII as the master.

Yeah, it works better when you actually send it a signal. Half is stupid me, half is stupid audio interface mixer control...ok, all stupid me.

The jist of it came down to the fact that the SPDIF output on my soundcard doesn't spew out a constant clock or anything if there is no active source being sent to the SPDIF output. Of course the fact that there is some ridiculous routing interface that I barely have a grasp on right now just isn't very intuitive did not help. I just assumed that the SPDIF output would be a mirror of my what I was monitoring. No. I can select a ton of different things to send. Well the other issue of course would be that I would have to dig in there everytime I want to switch between re-amping and drying recording and of course I would lose lock when I switched the signal feeding the AxeFXII. That's less than a great idea in my experience.

But the cool part is that I can send a mic input (with no actual audio) to the SPDIF 2 (which is the right channel, i.e., useless) all the time. This is an active signal with no level. Then I can take the DAW mix and send it to the SPDIF 1 output. Of course this doesn't do anything to my recorded signal as long as the input on the AxeFXII is the analog front input. I can record wet and dry both with guitar into the AxeFXII front jack input, with the AxeFXII as the slave and I haven't gotten a single drop out. Monitoring works very well right now too. I do still need to work out exactly how I want to do that, but that's a job for tomorrow.

So when I want to re-amp, I just solo the dry track and switch the AxeFXII input to SPDIF and hit record. I've done it a few times so far and it works fine, no jitter or pops and crap that I can pickup.

So to break it down (and this is still a work in progress)
Red are physical connections
Blue are menu or software settings

AxeFXII:
Slave (no settings for this)
I/O MENU --> AUDIO tab
SPDIF/AES SELECT
USB/DIG OUT SOURCE = INPUT (dry signal select basically)
INPUT Front (for first take) / SPDIF (for reamp)
SPDIF OUT --> Audio Interface
Output 1 --> Audio Interface 3/4 analog (1 and 2 are mic inputs on the front, less cables...any input will work)
Guitar plugged into front jack

Audio Interface:
Master clock, 48kHz 24 Bit (also called internal)
DAW (basically the output of your editor's main mixer) SPDIF 1 (left)
Mic 1 (turned all the way down) SPDIF 2 (right)
SPDIF OUT --> AxeFX SPDIF IN

DAW:
48kHz 24 Bit
Track 1 (Dry) SPDIF L (mono) Record enabled for first take / solo for re-amp
Track 2 (Wet) Analog 3/4 (stereo) Record enabled for first take / muted for re-amp (actually everything has to be muted so don't solo anything other than the dry track)
Track 3 (Re-Amp) Analog 3/4 (stereo) Record enabled for re-amp

Now I've got like a million mixer configurations I can have with this stupid sound card and I've got it working, but I'm pretty sure that I could do something a bit more elegant in the settings. There's also loop backs and crap that I just don't know what they actually do yet. I'm not stupid...really.

I just wanted to give some possible tips on doing this with a seperate interface. I was going to try to go all analog using an FX loop in each patch, but that seemed like a big fat pain in the ass. I'm still stuck at 48kHz which is fine. The big thing is that I can record a nice analog wet signal and a nice SPDIF dry signal at the same time and still use the audio interface as the master clock source and reamp with just switching the input source to the AxeFXII.

I'm stoked as hell right now.

 

[cobbler]

Is this on a Win or Mac system? What are you using for drivers? Asio?

Just curious.

 

[shasha]

Win7, ASIO.

I think that I may have heard a couple of glitches though. Its a work in progress right now. I've got to get to bed soon, but I found out how to add a sub bus from the DAW, but can't get it routed to the damn SPDIF out properly; its either nothing or insane feedback. I think that I've exhausted my usefulness for tonight.

RTFM tomorrow during my lunch break. All this crap would be so much easier if I was just independently wealthy.

The soundcard in question is a Saffire DSP24Pro or soemthing like that. I've got a line on a ridiclulous card right now, I mean stupid, but its going to cost me a guitar that I don't want to give up and it's way overkill and will require a seperate mix monitor system and lots of wiring and configuring. Sad part is that the way it's laid out makes a lot more sense to me, I'm just not used to doing all of this crap with a software 'router', I'm used to have it all on a console.

The red highlighted area is where I'm having the disconnect. I can use the main mix output, but I'd much prefer to use the sub mix. I would assume that even if I had it set to off that the DAW should over ride it.

 

[Bakerman]

You might want to set the dry track to an output other than 1 or 2 (main L/R). Then you can play the rest of the mix while reamping. For example, by setting the track to output #7 (which might be labeled SPDIF L) and changing SPDIF Output 1 to DAW 7 in MixControl, the dry track is the only thing that would ever go to the Axe. You don't have to actually choose output #7, the "SPDIF" label is more of a suggestion since it's your choice in MixControl that determines what really goes to SPDIF out.

Also, about sending SPDIF as clock source: I'm pretty sure the Axe only syncs to the incoming signal if you've selected digital input. So when you're actually recording guitar, if using SPDIF out for anything you'd have to switch the Saffire sync source to SPDIF for devices to be synced. Otherwise there will be little clicks/pops all over the recorded SPDIF signal. They can be pretty subtle; monitoring a sine tone from a synth block is probably the easiest way to spot them.

 

[shasha]

Thanks. I think that I caught a couple of those little pops. I'm looking at something else later tonight. It would be really nice if we could take the 2nd analog output and select it as INPUT without having to put an FX loop in a patch.