Help! Something's wrong with my Axe-Fx III and I can't figure it out. High pitched squeal

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DiMitropoulos

Member
I'm an Axe III owner since November last year and since the day I got my Axe it's been periodically doing this high pitch effect over music and pretty much anything I play back from my computer (but not guitar sounds from the Axe itself).

I really really really am hoping there's just something on my end that is wrong because I don't want to pay a bunch of money to send it for repair (under warranty) just for them to not happen to experience the problem (it's intermittent) and have to pay again to send it back. As you'll see if you read on, I've changed everything, from the computer, to the cables (usb and power) as well as tried on multiple ports on different computers (and different operating systems, too), and the problem persists...

Here is a video showing me switching between the Axe and the speakers on my LG (screen) monitor which happens to also have speakers:
[LINK BELOW]
I have looked around and haven't seen anyone that's describing my exact problem. But it's been happening since version 1.16 from when I got the Axe.

It drove me so crazy that I recently reinstalled windows and installing things for the Axe was the very first thing I did after a fresh/clean install and the problem persists.

Here is another video where switching to another device clears it when I switch back to the Axe III:
[LINK BELOW]

Sometimes when listening to music it does this for just a few seconds then goes back to normal, good, sounding audio. Other times it will just do this squeaky thing persistently. Seems to be clerable by unplugging the USB cable and plugging it back in.

Here's another video where I noticed that sometimes I'm able to knock it loose by switching the buffer size:
[LINK BELOW


Here's another video where a new thing has been happening where the input will just appear and disappear randomly like a flickering lightbulb:
[LINK BELOW


If I turn the axefx off and turn it on again, I have to go around the back and remove the usb cable and plug it in again before the computer will detect the input. as far as I understand that's not how a class compliant device is supposed to function:
[LINK BELOW

I tried with 2 other computers (so making 3 computers total that I've been able to replicate it with) - similar results:

The first one (my workstation server) was immediately squealing upon being plugged in to the axe:
[LINK BELOW

The second one is a new one: the axe won't make any sound at all or even recognize the driver. The video shows me installing the driver and restarting and the axe still not being detected:
[LINK BELOW

----

So, again, the problem is it's gonna cost a lot of money to send it in for repair especially if they don't experience the problem. Sometimes it works for days without any issue, and other times it's constant and I can't get it to stop.

My best guess is that it's a world clock problem of some kind.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! I re-read the terms and forum rules before posting so I apologize in advance if I did something procedural wrong in making this post.

----

LINK FOR VIDEOS:
The forum wouldn't let me post all those links so here is the post but without the links redacted.
 
hmm that's definitely not normal. i'd start a ticket with support.

support.fractalaudio.com
 
thanks for taking a look!

Yes, I've sent all of this to support over quite a long email thread over the past few months and I have an RMA number.. but I don't want to drop 100 dollars just for them to send it back to me and tell me they didn't experience what I was describing.. you know?
 
DiMitropoulos said:
thanks for taking a look!

Yes, I've sent all of this to support over quite a long email thread over the past few months and I have an RMA number.. but I don't want to drop 100 dollars just for them to send it back to me and tell me they didn't experience what I was describing.. you know?
Click to expand...
oh didn't see that.

i haven't seen this issue on the forum, but maybe someone else has experienced and solved it. good luck.
 
@DiMitropoulos, on 9.00 I recently got a clear squeal/noise related to speaker impedance settings above 1.0, but it may happen at 1.0 (default) but I just can't hear it (my HF hearing is not good).

Anyway, as a check if these are possibly related does your squeal exist even on an empty preset?
 
DiMitropoulos said:
I'm an Axe III owner since November last year and since the day I got my Axe it's been periodically doing this high pitch effect over music and pretty much anything I play back from my computer (but not guitar sounds from the Axe itself).

I really really really am hoping there's just something on my end that is wrong because I don't want to pay a bunch of money to send it for repair (under warranty) just for them to not happen to experience the problem (it's intermittent) and have to pay again to send it back. As you'll see if you read on, I've changed everything, from the computer, to the cables (usb and power) as well as tried on multiple ports on different computers (and different operating systems, too), and the problem persists...

Here is a video showing me switching between the Axe and the speakers on my LG (screen) monitor which happens to also have speakers:
[LINK BELOW]
I have looked around and haven't seen anyone that's describing my exact problem. But it's been happening since version 1.16 from when I got the Axe.

It drove me so crazy that I recently reinstalled windows and installing things for the Axe was the very first thing I did after a fresh/clean install and the problem persists.

Here is another video where switching to another device clears it when I switch back to the Axe III:
[LINK BELOW]

Sometimes when listening to music it does this for just a few seconds then goes back to normal, good, sounding audio. Other times it will just do this squeaky thing persistently. Seems to be clerable by unplugging the USB cable and plugging it back in.

Here's another video where I noticed that sometimes I'm able to knock it loose by switching the buffer size:
[LINK BELOW


Here's another video where a new thing has been happening where the input will just appear and disappear randomly like a flickering lightbulb:
[LINK BELOW


If I turn the axefx off and turn it on again, I have to go around the back and remove the usb cable and plug it in again before the computer will detect the input. as far as I understand that's not how a class compliant device is supposed to function:
[LINK BELOW

I tried with 2 other computers (so making 3 computers total that I've been able to replicate it with) - similar results:

The first one (my workstation server) was immediately squealing upon being plugged in to the axe:
[LINK BELOW

The second one is a new one: the axe won't make any sound at all or even recognize the driver. The video shows me installing the driver and restarting and the axe still not being detected:
[LINK BELOW

----

So, again, the problem is it's gonna cost a lot of money to send it in for repair especially if they don't experience the problem. Sometimes it works for days without any issue, and other times it's constant and I can't get it to stop.

My best guess is that it's a world clock problem of some kind.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! I re-read the terms and forum rules before posting so I apologize in advance if I did something procedural wrong in making this post.

----

LINK FOR VIDEOS:
The forum wouldn't let me post all those links so here is the post but without the links redacted.
Click to expand...

Your issue is the same as this one:
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/usb-audio-randomly-distorted.153631/#post-1826771

Increase the USB audio buffer size.
 
related to speaker impedance settings above 1.0
Click to expand...

@yyz67 I've tried this with three different monitors: Focal CMS40, PreSonus R65, and Yamaha HS8 and they all do it. Does that sound right to you? Furthermore, it's not all the time, just every once in an while which makes me think it isn't the impedance setting. What do you think?
 
@yeky83 check out

Basically, changing the buffer size can sometimes knock it loose, but it doesn't matter what the buffer size is. In the video, you see it happening with a buffer of 512 and not with a buffer of 32, for example.

Thanks for the suggestion! any other ideas?
 
DiMitropoulos said:
@yeky83 check out

Basically, changing the buffer size can sometimes knock it loose, but it doesn't matter what the buffer size is. In the video, you see it happening with a buffer of 512 and not with a buffer of 32, for example.

Thanks for the suggestion! any other ideas?
Click to expand...

Does it still happen if you run it really high? @ 2048?

How about the USB Buffer Size in the Axe-Fx III's I/O menu? Do you have it set to 256?
 
It happened again tonight: the USB Buffer Size was 16, I changed it to 256 and (as always) it went right away, but after another few minutes of listening it came back with a USB Buffer Size of 256. In both of these cases the ASIO Buffer Size was set to 32 samples and Safe Mode was clicked (in FASUSBAudio Control Panel) with a sample rate of 48kHz.

I set the USB Buffer Size to 8 and the ASIO Buffer Size to 32(again at 48k in Safe Mode) and it happened again. Trying more combinations now.

Again: this is for computer audio only. In this case I was playing back some tracks in BitWig, but the same happens for a YouTube video, VLC wav file playback, etc.
 
I get this symptom when my master clock goes out of sync. If I go to the I/O settings within the Axe FX III and change the clock input to internal, then change it back to match my setup, it all goes back to normal. What digital I/O are you using and what are the settings? If you’re not using anything, then my suggestion isn’t relevant.
 
That's actually very helpful! I have suspected a faulty world clock as the problem with the unit. Even though I'm only using the AXE as an audio interface (and nothing else: no other equipment or outside clock) it's very helpful to hear that someone else has heard this problem before.

Also: I was just able to get it to happen with an ASIO Buffer size of 2048:


so I think it's safe to say that it's nothing to do with the ASIO buffer size. You can see that changing pretty much any setting (in this case I changed the USB Buffer Size, but I could have changed the ASIO buffer size, or switched the world clock to NO CLOCK and then back to INTERNAL to get the same effect) will make anything go back to normal.
 
@BBW I really appreciate the suggestion. It only happens with computer audio and is intermittent - both of these things make me thing it's not related to a particular patch. Actually I usually keep the AXE on a patch that has no blocks (just an input to an output), but even still, this happens with nothing plugged into the unit other than 2 speakers (or just the headphone output in the front - it happens there too), the power cable, and the usb cable.
 
+1 I am also dealing with the exact same problem! sometimes when playing usb audio this high-frequency sound appears. manipulations with the buffer size did not lead to anything ....
 
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