Had a rough Axe night

Pinkycramps said:
Ahhh.. computers. At some point they will do some wacky crap to you.

No real reason for this post. Not sure anything can or needs to be done... I think it was just one of those things. I'm simply sharing the story. By now you all know that I'm pretty regular on here and I love my Axe and the guys who made it. It's a fantastic tool, and the best gear purchase ever. It just kind of let me down the other night. It has happened before, but it's rare.

Like many on here, for me the Axe FX is a working tool, and I use it almost daily.
At practice on Monday we played a full set "show style". My XL was in a bad mood I guess, and I had to stop and reboot it twice in an hour's time. My band was looking at me like "WTF?"
The first time the MFC and AXE screens just went blank. It stopped responding to any inputs. Thankfully it was between songs during preset change.
The second time the screen was there, but sound stopped coming out, and it would not respond to any inputs.

It was not connected to Axe Edit - there was no USB connection to the Axe.

One thing I can think of is that I am sending it midi via the midi jack (from Ableton Live) I am having some inconsistent results with that right now. I'm not sure that is related to the crashes though. It's something I am keeping an eye on.

Reliability is a big thing, and I've had a number (like - 15 I'm guessing +/- 3) of issues with my rig in 2 years. (mainly random preset jumps, crashes, sound drop outs)That said, I have had far less issues with it than I did with my old analog rig and it's rack full of gear and cables and switchers. Overall it's a pretty consistent performer, and I've never had an issue I couldn't solve within 30 seconds or so.

I'm big on quality cables, double checking connections, and trying to "keep it simple", or at least as simply as I can (saying that, I realize I have one of the more complicated rigs on this forum.) Sometimes, ANY rig is going to give you a headache. You just need to stay calm, and work the problem.

I think I'm going to reload software tonight, just int he name of a "tune up". I'm still on Q1.something, (didn't want to change my sounds in the middle of a project) so I guess it's a good time for an upgrade to Q2.
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Hi PC - sorry to hear that you've got troubles with the best bit of gear around :(
I get what you're saying that you need your gear constantly and you need it to be reliable - playing live is great fun and a real rush but kinda embarrassing when things don't go to plan!
Back in the days when valve/tube amps were King and something went AWOL you could switch off and change over with a replacement - which you hopefully had in your essential guitar players toolkit;)
Anyway the old amps were big, heavy pieces of gear from a bygone age and kinda robust!
Our lovely black boxes today are basically a Computer with clever programming and they need a bit more protection so with that in mind (and knowing what nightmares exist in the wiring at various gigs) I've taken to using a UPS in my rig.
Guaranteed perfect sine wave mains supply to your Axe and MFC regardless of a very wide margin of input voltages plus safe shutdown time in the event of a major problem!
Some guys use a Furman or similar conditioner but to be honest they're as much use as a cheap $10 connector strip plus if there is a voltage spike from a thunderstorm or whatever they commit suicide and need new diodes replaced. A good old APC UPS will give you nice clean supply and keep working through voltage fluctuations and protect your Axe if the gig wiring goes into meltdown!
I don't know if your problem has been caused by dodgy gig wiring somewhere and I hope it's easily fixed but folks have been using UPS to maintain critical computer function for as long as computers have been around so for me, playing live IS that critical situation hence UPS!
Keep on Rockin'
 
Jaz1956 said:
<snip>
Some guys use a Furman or similar conditioner but to be honest they're as much use as a cheap $10 connector strip plus if there is a voltage spike from a thunderstorm or whatever they commit suicide and need new diodes replaced. <snip>
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For sure that used to be true but new advances in power conditioning & surge protection are not based upon diodes that sacrifice themselves - or so says Furman re: their DMC technology. Purportedly things have changed.

Agree that a UPS is handy thing - but again, your balance of weight vs. risk is individual and not everyone has the same risk profile. YMMV.
 
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∞Fractals said:
For sure that used to be true but new advances in power conditioning & surge protection are not based upon diodes that sacrifice themselves - or so says Furman re: their DMC technology. Purpotedly things have changed.

Agree that a UPS is handy thing - but again, your balance of weight vs. risk is individual and not everyone has the same risk profile. YMMV.
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Hi F - Ahh but Furman's latest flagship conditioner will cost you $600 and it's basically doing what a $150 UPS does! Even they are offering UPS solutions now - for $750 minimum!
A lot of guys on here use their Axe at home only - maybe to do recording or just for the pure fun of playing through a great-sounding bit of gear so if their rig has a hiccup it's not the end of the world when they have to reboot to clear a problem but if you're out there on the Front line like Pinkycramps playing almost night after night live you need something dependable. Like I said it may be that this is not the cause of his problem but to me replacing my rack slide-out tray with a laptop on it with a UPS has (so far) left me without any problems or added any extra weight:)
Peace
 
Well, to answer the question, yes I do have a Furman unit in my rack, although I'm in the camp that believes that unless you have a voltage regulator, your not getting much other than a spike catcher and a multi-outlet with handy lights. (Cool with me, cuz it is handy.) My rig is complex, and fills up a 10 space so I have a few things going on, but nothing that should cause Axe crashes.

I don't think it's a preset in my case either. I had it happen twice on Monday night, about 45 min to an hour apart (which means I was on a totally different preset as I would have been 10-15 songs down the set.) In fact, they were not even the same amp. I think one was on my HBE doing a Killers song, and the other time I was on my clean Fender doing The Cure or something like that.

It is as described earlier... sound keeps coming, but you can't change anything. Can't change scenes, presets, IA's - nothing, and the screen goes blank. I also can't reproduce it. It is random (which is the worst and scariest part. Pinky-Cramps Law says that this issue will only occur at very important moments of large gigs...:mad:)
We'll see what happens Saturday... as I'll be spending many hours working with it, and I'll report back.
 
Hey Pinkycramps, how are you connecting the MFC to the Axe? I have been using an ethercon cable & 3 nights in a row I got time out errors. This is on 2 different XLs, 2 different cables. Tonight, I tried good old midi & it works flawlessly for 2 hours. I was her able to get much more than an hour out of the ethercon. It seems the communication is getting garbled up & either the Axe can't tell where the MFC is or visa versa & they give up & freeze. For me, it was scrolling though banks that seemed to trigger it. Midi had no problem at all.
 
Pinkycramps said:
Well, to answer the question, yes I do have a Furman unit in my rack, although I'm in the camp that believes that unless you have a voltage regulator, your not getting much other than a spike catcher and a multi-outlet with handy lights. (Cool with me, cuz it is handy.) My rig is complex, and fills up a 10 space so I have a few things going on, but nothing that should cause Axe crashes.

I don't think it's a preset in my case either. I had it happen twice on Monday night, about 45 min to an hour apart (which means I was on a totally different preset as I would have been 10-15 songs down the set.) In fact, they were not even the same amp. I think one was on my HBE doing a Killers song, and the other time I was on my clean Fender doing The Cure or something like that.

It is as described earlier... sound keeps coming, but you can't change anything. Can't change scenes, presets, IA's - nothing, and the screen goes blank. I also can't reproduce it. It is random (which is the worst and scariest part. Pinky-Cramps Law says that this issue will only occur at very important moments of large gigs...:mad:)
We'll see what happens Saturday... as I'll be spending many hours working with it, and I'll report back.
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Same things happens on mine running 2.0 and a Behringer FCB1010. Even the jog wheel on the AXE FX II locks up! Probably just a bug. I really have to install the new firmware!
 
do a system reset on the Axe while everything else is unplugged from it, this appears to have fixed any issues I had with my MFC not controlling the Axe FX properly after moving to the new Quantum firmware.
 
Well, I saw this post and read a few of the others regarding issues with the Axe-FX and thought I’d share mine, only mine recently happened on a gig.

I fairly recently purchased the XL plus. I have a Mark II that I loved and never had an issue with. I purchased the XL plus because of the fact that the Mark II will not read XL plus .sys files, as well as a few of the added features the XL plus had.

I had a gig a few weeks ago and that morning went over a few songs at home and everything was working just fine. Got to the gig and I immediately noticed that my rig just wasn’t feeling or acting right. We were doing a 2-hour show and about 3 songs into the set all the LED’s on the Axe went into the red and there was no sound coming out. My Axe is in a rack with a power amp and Furman power conditioner. Not only that, my Furman power conditioner was plugged into the bass players Furman power conditioner, because I initially had some unusual noise, (which the sound guy said was from the stage lights) when plugged into the A/C break-out box. So I plugged into the bass players Furman and the noise was eliminated.

Like I said about 3 songs into the set everything went red and no sound. I turned the rig off and back on, and again the LED’s were in the red. We tried going direct out from the Axe, (I normally mike the cabinet) and the sound guy said it sent his LED’s into the red. I was dead in the water with no backup. I played for a few years with the Mark II and never had an issue with it, where with the XL plus there have been a few quirks between it and the MFC-101 that I never had with the Mark II. Luckily the other guitar player in the band had a Crate PowerBlock that he keeps for a back-up that got me through the gig, but you can imagine it wasn’t much fun for me with no effects, or amp/cab sounds I was used to and had programmed into the Axe for the rest of the gig. I was just glad to get the gig over.

That’s the first time I ever had a rig go down on a gig and it wasn’t fun.

So what was the problem? Did the Axe blow? Or was it something else? I was sure it was something with the Axe and would need to send it in for repairs.

Well, the next morning I assembled the rig at home to see what it would do and to my surprise and happiness, it worked just fine and has ever since. I can only assume it had something to do with the A/C at the venue, but not sure. What was puzzling is the bass players Furman I was plugged into was plugged into the came A/C break-out box. Do I trust the XL Plus now? Not totally. I just may go back to bringing the Mark II on gigs and leave the XL Plus at home. Right now I’m still using the XL, but if I ever have another issue like that again that will be it for the XL Plus on gigs. I never had such an issue with the Mark II, but there have been a few quirks with the XL and MFC that I never had with the Mark II either. Could it be a bug in the XL that I didn’t have with the Mark II? Possibly. Is it all software related, or is there a design and construction difference between the XL and Mark II? I don’t know. It may just be my imagination, but the Mark II and MFC seemed to work more seamlessly and with fewer issues than with the XL. There is currently (as of Quantum 2.0) still an issue where upon initially turning on the Axe and MFC where the MFC does not show the patch name, just the number until the patch is changed, then the names appear. I do like the ability to read any .sys file and some of the added features of the XL. But to be honest, I would have never upgraded to the XL if it wasn’t for the .sys compatibility restrictions and frustrations, which is by design and one of the things you just have to expect and accept when dealing with software based products. Every software product manufacturer does it. Eventually you are forced to upgrade hardware because of new software, and the old is never compatible with the new.

At any rate, that’s my long winded two-cents that I felt compelled to share. I never contacted fractal with this Axe occurrence because the unit is now working fine and it may not have been the Axe. However, to say I’m not concerned, or a bit uncertain would be a lie.

Pinkycramps said:
Ahhh.. computers. At some point they will do some wacky crap to you.

No real reason for this post. Not sure anything can or needs to be done... I think it was just one of those things. I'm simply sharing the story. By now you all know that I'm pretty regular on here and I love my Axe and the guys who made it. It's a fantastic tool, and the best gear purchase ever. It just kind of let me down the other night. It has happened before, but it's rare.

Like many on here, for me the Axe FX is a working tool, and I use it almost daily.
At practice on Monday we played a full set "show style". My XL was in a bad mood I guess, and I had to stop and reboot it twice in an hour's time. My band was looking at me like "WTF?"
The first time the MFC and AXE screens just went blank. It stopped responding to any inputs. Thankfully it was between songs during preset change.
The second time the screen was there, but sound stopped coming out, and it would not respond to any inputs.

It was not connected to Axe Edit - there was no USB connection to the Axe.

One thing I can think of is that I am sending it midi via the midi jack (from Ableton Live) I am having some inconsistent results with that right now. I'm not sure that is related to the crashes though. It's something I am keeping an eye on.

Reliability is a big thing, and I've had a number (like - 15 I'm guessing +/- 3) of issues with my rig in 2 years. (mainly random preset jumps, crashes, sound drop outs)That said, I have had far less issues with it than I did with my old analog rig and it's rack full of gear and cables and switchers. Overall it's a pretty consistent performer, and I've never had an issue I couldn't solve within 30 seconds or so.

I'm big on quality cables, double checking connections, and trying to "keep it simple", or at least as simply as I can (saying that, I realize I have one of the more complicated rigs on this forum.) Sometimes, ANY rig is going to give you a headache. You just need to stay calm, and work the problem.

I think I'm going to reload software tonight, just int he name of a "tune up". I'm still on Q1.something, (didn't want to change my sounds in the middle of a project) so I guess it's a good time for an upgrade to Q2.
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