Frustation! First bad "gig" with the Axe....ever.

jlynnb1

Axe-Master
So I played at my church again this morning. I've played here before and it always sounds stellar. Today, there was a super nasty fizz on everything...almost sounded like clipping. Clean, dirty, clean with drives, didn't matter. We couldn't find clipping anywhere. Not on my end, not at the board. Crazy thing is, I had tested the same patches on my CLR this morning before I left and everything was fantastic.

The sound guy said I was hitting right at 0 like usual. I thought for a moment that perhaps he didn't have my switched to line input...but that would have pushed the channel into clipping, not just added distortion correct?

This is the first time over the last few years gigging this thing heavily that I've had any issues. I know it's not the Axe itself, but I'm at my wit's end trying to figure it out! Anyone have any lightbulbs go off reading this that can throw some ideas at me?
 
Interesting. What firmware are you on? I'm on 19b2.

I had the exact same thing yesterday at my church. Same patches, same everything, but a fizzy clipping on the tail end of notes. Everyone could hear it, but no one could track it down. Not clipping any of the boards. The only thing was we didn't get time to swap out the XLR cable.

I need to test some more at home because I didn't think I had heard anything unusual whilst practicing.
 
Did it sound like static noise?
I get it sometimes, and have found out that if I turn off the Axe-Fx and wait ca 15-30 seconds it's gone on the next power-up.
I have no idea why it happens.
I think it only has happened when I've been hooked up to either a mixer or a computer.

Could it be caused be a ground loop thing?
 
i am on 19b2 as well, that's interesting...

it couldn't have been cpu overload, i wasn't even hitting 80 on any of the patches.

it wasn't a crackle like that, it was a fuzz/hair that got way more pronounced as gain was added. it was there on clean tones, but hitting an OD made it exponentially more noticeable. i lowered levels, changed IR's, etc...nothing helped it.
 
Start bypassing blocks one by one to find out which of the blocks is causing this sound. You'll find the problem quickly that way if it's a tweak related issue.

well at first the only thing active was amp/cab/verb....the verb wasn't causing it and going direct/iem bypassing the amp or cab wasn't really an option for me. strange that someone else on 19b2 had the same type issue in the same situation.

what is really perplexing is that it sounded find through the CLR then SO different direct in the church system. (very nice system)
 
it wasn't a crackle like that, it was a fuzz/hair that got way more pronounced as gain was added. it was there on clean tones, but hitting an OD made it exponentially more noticeable. i lowered levels, changed IR's, etc...nothing helped it.

Yep, sounds similar to what I was hearing too. Definitely not CPU overload as I've been in that situation before so I'm familiar with that crackle.

I could hear it more clearly on the end of delay trails too, but that could be because my delays are at the end of my effects chain, so if the noise was generated before then the delay is just replicating it.
 
what is really perplexing is that it sounded find through the CLR then SO different direct in the church system. (very nice system)

At the same time? Or at home vs at the gig?

It does sound like a bad cable, to me.

Whose cable connected your Axe to the FOH?
 
Could it have been interference/60 cycle hum? I get that at times, even with humbuckers. Much more pronounced as you increase gain. Did you have the input noise gate on? Was it present only when playing or when muting strings as well?
 
I'm with Chris and Cliff....cable.
Have you tried it back at home after the church gig with CLR's or cans? If things are back to normal at home, cable seems even more likely. Maybe one of your interconnects or the FOH cable, or a bad connection at a snake box. The only time I've ever had a problem at a gig....it was a cable....to make it worse, it was one of mine...an interconnect.
 
I believe it's a bad cable for me. I've been meaning to make up my own set of cables as that way I can be sure everything works.
 
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