Help! Ax8 sounding thin today?

[eppyfone]

I played a gig less than a week ago and I took my usual rig: my Ax8 + power amp (and cabs were provided). It played amazing as always. Now less than a week later I've sat down to play but something is completely out of whack.

I started off by using my Ax8 + power amp (44 magnum) + orange 2x12 and usually I'll set the Ax8 OUT 1 to 0. My power amp sits at 9 o'clock and that's a very decent volume for practicing. But now I did that and at first I couldn't hear a thing. I double checked all connections and they look good. So I turned up all volumes and I could finally hear something with my Ax8 @ 1 o'clock and PA @ 3 o'clock. This kind of setting would normally blow the roof off the house.

I thought maybe I had blown my PA without knowing it, so now I've tried going through the PA of my orange rockerverb. But still I have the same problem: my Ax8 is @ 11 o'clock before I can hear anything, but most notably the tone of what I hear is super thin and very displeasing as it's quite piercing.

I've also done a reset of all the Ax8's parameters to no avail.

What is going on?!

 

[Dutch]

I'm guessing this is on all presets and you tried replacing all cables? At one time I inexplicably had two cables fail at once. Really weird since I hardly ever have failing cables at all.
Did you try different guitars? Maybe the battery on an active guitar? Is there anything else in your rig? Expression pedal setting?

You've reset the system parameters, global and I/O settings come to mind. Output EQ and such. Other than that, no idea at the moment.

Do you have a recent backup of your presets?

 

[eppyfone]

I'm guessing this is on all presets and you tried replacing all cables?

Yes and yes unfortunately.

Did you try different guitars?

Yes, my Epiphone Les Paul and Fender Tele Special.

Maybe the battery on an active guitar?

Neither have active pickups unfortunately.

Is there anything else in your rig?

Nope. I purposefully run a very lean rig. I'm just using the things mentioned above.

Expression pedal setting?

What should I look out for here?

You've reset the system parameters, global and I/O settings come to mind. Output EQ and such. Other than that, no idea at the moment.

I was going through the manual and reading up about these things, but there's nothing obvious coming to mind. Any ideas?

Do you have a recent backup of your presets?

I do not but after this I definitely will start backing up my presets!

Thanks for your help so far!

 

[Dutch]

Oops. Having backups of backups is a good thing. Recently my external hard drive crapped out on me and I lost over a year of family photos. Since on my Macbook Pro harddisk space is on a huuuuge premium I did not have them on there and it's been a while since I had backed all of it up onto my other externals... I have them stashed around the house in case of burglary. There's nothing that can't be replaced in my house, except the memories in those photos. Stupid to the max and lazy and thoughtless... That costs.

If your AX8 is physically failing, your presets may still be alright, so make a backup now, just in case.

I'm coming from a II, so I'm not entirely up to speed on how it works with the AX8. I'm not even sure there is such a thing as system reset like on the II. The XL's have a reset procedure powering on with the bypass button pressed (something like that) and all AxeFx series have a system reset in the utility menu. I haven't run across anything like those in the AX8 yet. Maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[eppyfone]

Bump.

 

[Rex]

Sounds like you may have bypassed your Amp block.

 

[eppyfone]

Sounds like you may have bypassed your Amp block.

Hmm from memory I remember the amp block being active

 

[Rex]

Hmm from memory I remember the amp block being active

Do you have anything connected that could be sending a MIDI command that would bypass the Amp?

 

[eppyfone]

Do you have anything connected that could be sending a MIDI command that would bypass the Amp?

Negative I'm afraid.

Do you think the power surge may have blown, like it did for radguitarist in the other thread..?

 

[Rex]

I didn't know you'd had a power surge. Have you contacted Fractal support yet?

Meanwhile, see whether Output 2 is giving you the same problem.

 

[radguitarist7]

Contact Fractal. They'll get it straight for you.

 

[eppyfone]

Oh I didn't actually have a power surge. I just thought everything else has been thought of and investigated, but still no solution.

I guess I have no choice but to contact fractal, although I'm not covered by warranty since I got mine secondhand. Will that matter?

 

[eppyfone]

Meanwhile, see whether Output 2 is giving you the same problem.

Good thinking! Seems like out 2 is working just fine. I hadn't thought of trying that.

What does this mean then? Do you think the issue is software related I.e. settings, or is there a chance some wiring is damaged still?

 

[Rex]

Good thinking! Seems like out 2 is working just fine. I hadn't thought of trying that.

What does this mean then? Do you think the issue is software related I.e. settings, or is there a chance some wiring is damaged still?

That suggests there may be an issue with Output 1. Get hold of support. Warranty or no, you can at least ask what the next steps are.

 

[Dutch]

See I/O: output1 nominal level should be +4. Is it?

BTW, I found the system reset. It's in the utility menu. Right where one would expect it.

I think it is strange that both output 2's would work well and both output 1 left and right would be busted. A broken transistor would affect only one side. Did you try the XLRS?

I still believe there is a setting wrong somewhere and your unit is alright. Is just hard to find without hands-on.

Try Fractal support. They won't charge you for an email. They've been known to be gracious, although with the size they've grown, they probably can't avoid being more businesslike.

 

[Keg8605]

So this problem occurs with both xlr and 1/4 on output 1 correct?

 

[eppyfone]

That suggests there may be an issue with Output 1. Get hold of support. Warranty or no, you can at least ask what the next steps are.

Okay! Thanks for your help

 

[eppyfone]

See I/O: output1 nominal level should be +4. Is it?

Yes, it is.

BTW, I found the system reset. It's in the utility menu. Right where one would expect it.

I tried a reset the other day, but it didn't help it seems.

I think it is strange that both output 2's would work well and both output 1 left and right would be busted.

Actually, I just tried OUT 1 R and it does work! So it seems like it's only OUT 1 L that has an issue.

A broken transistor would affect only one side. Did you try the XLRS?

I haven't since I don't own the appropriate equipment for it, but I will at band practice tomorrow.

I still believe there is a setting wrong somewhere and your unit is alright. Is just hard to find without hands-on.

Resetting the parameters under utility should have fixed a whacked setting I would have thought

Try Fractal support. They won't charge you for an email. They've been known to be gracious, although with the size they've grown, they probably can't avoid being more businesslike.

Okay, I'll give them a go thank you!

 

[eppyfone]

So this problem occurs with both xlr and 1/4 on output 1 correct?

I haven't been able to try the xlr's since I don't have the equipment for it, but it seems like it's just the left output 1.