First Band Rehearsal with the Axe-FX 2 XL+: Lesson learned

Orbm1

Inspired
I have had my XL+ for about a month now and I AM still learning to dial tones and presets for my (just for fun) neighborhood band.

Yesterday we had our first rehearsal after a few weeks of family things and I brought my XL+ and my MFC...everybody was very surprised to see that much being set up. My fellow band members DO NOT know anything about Fractal Audio (neither the other guitar player).

We rehearse with headphones using the Jamhub. I plugged to it and I sound thin and NOTHING like what I hear at home when I've dialing the presets... I could not sustain notes, no warm break up, no distortion, NOTHING!!!

Now, something that I am still puzzled about the Axe FX is the output options, I was going with a 1/4 inch stereo cable to a 1/4 inch stereo input in the Jamhub. the AxeFX was in output as Stereo, switched to Copy to L-R (the same), switched to L+R sum, the same thin sound...

SIDENOTE: I still have a question with my XL+ as when I use this same cable to my interface, the sound is washed out or sounds weird, warbly. I assumed that maybe the inputs on the interface or my monitor ARE NOT balanced or Stereo inputs. I have since switched to a regular 1/4 inch cable going from the left output (output 2) of the axe fx to my monitor and left XLR to my interface (output 1) with no issues. I am using sum L-R, is this correct?

ANYWAYS... I was frustrated as I have been practicing and I felt that it sounded horrible and I could even feel the expression of my friends getting like "so much equipment for this?".... 20 million ideas were running through my head, even the unthinkable one of just going back to my Firehawk FX and/or get the Helix (OH NO!)....

In a quick break I thought maybe it is the stereo cable to the Jamhub... so I used another regular cable to connect to the jamhub, still horrible. Changed cables for my guitar... the same!!!! I started thinking it is my guitar that it is not outputting enough sound, it is a Variax so I thought it failing or something..

Last song we practiced was an acoustic song and i dialed my acoustic patch and set up the variax in acoustic mode... ALMOST NO SOUND! I increased the output from the axe-fx and still, barely a sound!.... SOOOOOOOO I noticed that the input meters were not even hitting the second green light and I have set it up to "tickle the reds".... I decided to change my guitar cable ONE LAST TIME and guess what: PROBLEM SOLVED!!! My axe-fx started to sound like it usually does... off course it was too late as it was the last song, but I was able to show the keyboard player the difference and he was able to hear it! NOW, I can't wait until next practice...

Moral of the story: ALWAYS check your cables, in my case TWO GUITAR CABLES in a row were failing... if it doesn't sound good and you know how it should sound, it is usually something else (like cables) and NOT the AXE-FX!!!!!

Sorry for the long post...

Thanks for reading!

Omar
 
I enjoyed your post! I always try to start with the simplest possible solutions when I have a problem with sound. Just have to go down the list before I get upset or sharp with the sound man.
 
Glad it was a simple fix. Sometimes small things can be so frustrating.

I know... the worst part is that I was getting sound.. it was JUST HORRIBLE AND THIN! It would have been easier if the sound was cracking, no sound, or on/off.... I am so glad this happened at a rehearsal and not a gig or live event...

BTW, I have tossed both of the cables... I would hate for this to happen again!
 
I know... the worst part is that I was getting sound.. it was JUST HORRIBLE AND THIN! It would have been easier if the sound was cracking, no sound, or on/off.... I am so glad this happened at a rehearsal and not a gig or live event...

BTW, I have tossed both of the cables... I would hate for this to happen again!
Always carry spares!
 
If two cables in a row are bad, maybe you have a wonky output jack on your guitar.
 
First thought I had too ....... it's worth checking your guitar output jack socket for bad soldering or potentially shorting wires or lugs too close to each other etc.
 
I once had a horrible super loud buzz at the start of the rehearsal. I changed every cable except the guitar cable, losing at least five minutes of precious time. And yes, you guessed which cable was the culprit in the end... I had a fine and expensive looking speaker cable that got mixed up somewhere and it ended up as the guitar cable. Surprise surprise, it doesn't sound too good as a guitar cable. :(
 
ANYWAYS... I was frustrated as I have been practicing and I felt that it sounded horrible and I could even feel the expression of my friends getting like "so much equipment for this?".... 20 million ideas were running through my head, even the unthinkable one of just going back to my Firehawk FX and/or get the Helix (OH NO!)....


I know this feeling all too well. back in the day I had decided that I wanted to give the Line6 Vetta a try. I had talked this thing up so much to my bandmates, and I finally picked one up, brought it to practice, tore down my mesa rig, and hooked up the Vetta, and the utter lack of tone was so disappointing, I could almost hear my band mates in their heads saying, "damn he spent all this money on this piece of junk".

Luckily you own an Axe FX and not a Vetta, because I was never able to get that Vetta to sound anything close to what I wanted, and ended up returning it. You can at least save face by going back next practice and melting faces!:D
 
Nice that's why I always make my own cables, and regularly check them. Pleased it was a simple fix for you.
 
If you're playing solely through headphones, with no "amplified" sound coming back at the guitar you are not going to have any of the guitar>speaker>guitar interaction that is always going to be present unless you are playing solely through headphones (which has only been possible in the last 5+ years really).

For a natural sound and sustain, the sound MUST be hitting back into the pickups to create the loop, sure you can still get a decent tone and sound just playing silently with headphones, but it will never have that natural thickness and sustain. Even if you just have a small computer speaker to feedback the amplified sound back into the guitar it will do wonders compared to playing in what is virtually a 100% isolated box. Even in a recording studio where a guitarist may be in the control room and his amp/cab in an isolated booth, he is still getting sound coming out of the studios monitors going back into the guitar to create that loop of interaction.
 
Some hints from Cliff from the official fractal wiki


Headphones sound quality
  • Why can playing through headphones sound dull? Cliff: "Because there's no string and body reinforcement. When you play through speakers the sound couples into the guitar body and strings. With headphones you don't get this so the sound is very sterile and lifeless. Now, if you use speakers during recording and then playback through headphones it will sound fine." And: "It's lack of acoustic reinforcement. I did a test a few years ago and I don't remember the actual numbers but having a speaker aimed at the guitar adds many dBs of power to the lower mids coming out of the guitar. IOW, if you measure the spectrum of the signal coming out of a guitar alone and then compare that to the signal coming out with a cab or monitor in proximity at a reasonable volume there are a LOT more lower mids with the speaker present. This results in a "thin" sound without the speaker." source
  • Ways to increase the Axe-Fx II's sound quality through headphones:
    1. Use far-field Impulse Responses.
    2. Set Proximity to zero in the Cabinet block.
    3. Crank Room Level in the Cabinet block.
    4. Add the Stereo Enhancer to presets.
    5. Increase De-Phase in the Cab block.
    6. Set Character to Dynamics, Amount at 4, Q at 0.7, Frequency at 450.
 
This has happened to me multiple times because of a bad toggle switch on my LP. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to notice since it only does this in one position. I usually toggle it really quick/fast to recover (i'm assuming I'm wiping off some corrosion), and that usually fixes it for awhile. I've cleaned that thing at least 5 times, 5 ways to Sunday. I need to just replace it.
 
You should try an evidence audio cable. Best sounding cable I've ever used and its built solid. To me it felt like someone took a blanket off the tone. I'm pretty sure it's a capacitance thing because it was a huge difference on my passive pickup guitars, and barely noticeable on my active pickup guitars. But it's never failed on me. I've been using it for years.
 
My bet is on the jack as well. This exact thing happened to me a month ago, ended up the ground from the jack had come loose.
 
Agreed. I was getting "communication timout" errors with my Axe FX and it was a bad USB cable...I didn't know USB cables could go "bad" but apparently they can! In my networking technologies course, I learned to "always check physical first"....you can apply that rule to pretty much anything hardware related. It's usually something stupid like a bad cable.
 
Good post... Have had the same issue with my Axe Fx. Luckily it was just 1 cable. I swapped to a PRS cable and it makes a difference.
Also have done some headphone rehearsal with Axe Fx with X32. Worked great!
 
The good thing is that you went for the obvious first!!! I've seen guys here doing Firmware rollbacks, Reloading factory settings, and just blaming the world. Even though they were told to first try the easiest solution, they kept on going at it blindly.
I think a really basic thing comes to mind: if one is using top notch gear such as the AxeFx; one should first get guitars and cables in top-notch condition.
 
Were you sitting during that session? I'm asking because you mentioned using the JamHub. Some guitars are more sensitive due to their jack placement.
 
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