Bug? Mac USB Issues

Been using my Axe II with my Macbook Air for the past month in either GB or Logic Pro. No dropouts or clicks. FWIW, the AxeFx is the only audio interface I'm using so I'm not doing the aggregate thing.
 
What is the highest CPU on the Axe you get upto on a patch? Can you load up to say 85 - 90% then try again?

I have a suspicion that it is affecting those of us who use CPU demanding patches.
 
I have the same strange pops....They come rarely or I hear them rarely because they are often hard to hear. But the first them I really could hear them was at reamping the dry signal with a clean sound via usb. It sounded like if I made bad cuts on the guitar track...It was completely random. Now I dont trust the usb thing....Hope they will be fix soon :( (mac pro 6core)..
 
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I'm posting to this thread because I know a lot of Mac users are having trouble from reading the many threads on these issues. I've done a lot of testing because being a studio owner, I need to capture the very best sound possible out of the Axe FX II.

Quickly summarizing highlights of some of my Axe-FX II testing:

-Axe-FX II can sound much better than the Standard or Ultra using digital IO when correctly set up.
-spdif/aes I/O on the Axe II works perfectly in my results
-Axe2 USB I/O is broken and unusable on my 2011 MacBook Pro 2.2GHz quad core 17".
-when USB on Mac finally gets fixed, "Aggregate" is the only fully functional DAW IO mode in Pro Tools.

To begin with, GOOD NEWS, the Axe FX 2 100% works flawlessly on a Mac using fully digital I/O. Furthermore, my testing showed that spdif/AES is the ONLY way I can use the Axe II with digital IO in a my Mac based DAW studio. USB mode does not work with my Mac and Axe2. Nothing I can do (and I have 12+ hours testing/experimenting and trying every possible permutation I believe) can get the Axe to play nice with my Mac via USB audio. I feel I can safely conclude that Axe 2 USB+Mac simply does not work on my Mac given my experiences and the parallel experiences of many Mac+Axe II USB users in this forum.

For those that don't know, here are the digital I/O settings that 100% work flawlessly and sound stunningly good on my Mac and AXE-FX II.
--connect the Axe 2 and your interface together with high quality digital-rated S/PDIF RCA cables In>Out and Out>In, bi-directional.
--set your MBox 3 Pro internal clock to 48k on the software control panel or in your Pro Tools session (which does the same thing.)
--set the Axe 2 "Main Input Source" to spdif/AES
--set the Axe 2 "spdif / AES select" = spdif
 
If/when USB does finally work on my MacBook or on another one of my Macs, the Pro Tools session must use aggregate IO as the interface selection when using the Axe II in USB audio mode.

Here's why:
-can't use primary interface output as session output because you many need to reamp your recorded tracks using outs into the Axe FX II.
-can't use AXE FX II output as session output because you need to use your primary interface as the main master section and/or DA of your studio.
-can't always use use AXE FX II input as session input because you may be recording other instruments simultaneously

You also must use USB as AXE FX II "main input source"
-why:reamping from PT sessions.

So, therefore, we can only use aggregate IO for a fully functional Pro Tools workstation with the Axe 2 properly integrated in, via USB only.

However, at this point, there is no permutation of changing the following combinations that will work to make the Axe FX 2 work in USB only audio mode on my macBook:
-drift / resample checkboxes in "Audio MIDI Setup" aggregate.
-clock source choices in "Audio MIDI Setup" aggregate.
-changing DAW buffer settings and/or toggling them back and forth
-DAW/computer/interface/AXE-FX restarts
-toggling the DAW input and or/output interfaces from and then to "aggregate" again.
-changing USB cables, ports, removing hubs and/or other USB devices from the Mac DAW.
 
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I'm posting to this thread because I know a lot of Mac users are having trouble from reading the many threads on these issues. I've done a lot of testing because being a studio owner, I need to capture the very best sound possible out of the Axe FX II.

Quickly summarizing highlights of some of my Axe-FX II testing:

-Axe-FX II can sound much better than the Standard or Ultra using digital IO when correctly set up.
-spdif/aes I/O on the Axe II works perfectly in my results
-Axe2 USB I/O is broken and unusable on my 2011 MacBook Pro 2.2GHz quad core 17".
-when USB on Mac finally gets fixed, "Aggregate" is the only fully functional DAW IO mode in Pro Tools.

To begin with, GOOD NEWS, the Axe FX 2 100% works flawlessly on a Mac using fully digital I/O. Furthermore, my testing showed that spdif/AES is the ONLY way I can use the Axe II with digital IO in a my Mac based DAW studio. USB mode does not work with my Mac and Axe2. Nothing I can do (and I have 12+ hours testing/experimenting and trying every possible permutation I believe) can get the Axe to play nice with my Mac via USB audio. I feel I can safely conclude that Axe 2 USB+Mac simply does not work on my Mac given my experiences and the parallel experiences of many Mac+Axe II USB users in this forum.

For those that don't know, here are the digital I/O settings that 100% work flawlessly and sound stunningly good on my Mac and AXE-FX II.
--connect the Axe 2 and your interface together with high quality digital-rated S/PDIF RCA cables In>Out and Out>In, bi-directional.
--set your MBox 3 Pro internal clock to 48k on the software control panel or in your Pro Tools session (which does the same thing.)
--set the Axe 2 "Main Input Source" to spdif/AES
--set the Axe 2 "spdif / AES select" = spdif

Have you tried reamping via spdif yet? If so, how do you set it up?
 
Here too, I was unable to use the Axe FX II as a USB soundcard.
However I've found a strange behaviour.
I also have an M-Audio Firewire 410 soundcard.
With both connected, in the audio configuration of Logic Pro I'm able to select the Input to be the Axe FX II USB, and the output the FW 410 (this without having to create an aggregate device).
Well, strange enough, with this configuration, I didn't have any problem at all.
But as soon as I switch the output to be the Axe FX II USB, it starts to crackle, and it freezes the unit after a few minutes.

My setup is:

Mac Pro 1.1 Quad Core
OSX 10.6.8
Logic Pro 9.1.6
Axe Fx II v5.0.1
 
With both connected, in the audio configuration of Logic Pro I'm able to select the Input to be the Axe FX II USB, and the output the FW 410 (this without having to create an aggregate device).
Well, strange enough, with this configuration, I didn't have any problem at all.
But as soon as I switch the output to be the Axe FX II USB, it starts to crackle, and it freezes the unit after a few minutes.

This is exactly what I am experiencing, although my unit hasn't frozen for a while. And I'm using a mbox2. The USB IN seems to work fine.
 
Have you tried reamping via spdif yet? If so, how do you set it up?

Yes, that's what I do, reamp. When the analog hits the MBox 3 Pro interface, it gets sent to the Axe 2 via spdif while simultaneously the guitar also gets tracked into Pro Tools clean, pre-Axe2. To reamp, send the recorded clean track out to the Axe2 again, with the Axe usually on diff settings of course.
 
I have a latest rev MacBook Pro running Lion and have experienced similar issues when recording, both in Ableton Live and Logic 8. I am using the Axe-FX II as my only I/O via usb.

After a number of experiments, I feel like it is related to output level clipping more than anything else. I would strongly suggest reducing your output levels and trying again. Did this last night and was able to record flawlessly.

Just my $.02
 
The levels are way low - when re-amping, atleast lower than -18db in my daw. I'm just confused on the sporatic out of sync issue, and random buzz/clipping in the SAME preset.
 
there seems to be a lot of issues around the way Mac's are getting pops and crackles whilst monitoring and recording.

Other than Macs We have not been able to track anything specific down, it appears to be happening in Snow Leopard, Lion and Macs of different ages and chipsets.

It does not depend on the DAW and I have not had a problem with any other interface on this particular Mac.

I tried my Axe-FX II with a Windows machine yesterday and there did not appear to be a problem, but on my Mac it is really bad.

here is one of the threads in the discussions forum discussing the issue, there are other threads too.

http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-discussion/41775-usb-recording-%3D-random-pops-recorded-take.html

http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-discussion/42398-using-axe2-audio-interface.html

http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-discussion/41504-please-help-horrific-intermittent-recording-noise.html

Kinda scary that this problem occurred on your 666th post. :twisted
 
After a number of experiments, I feel like it is related to output level clipping more than anything else. I would strongly suggest reducing your output levels and trying again. Did this last night and was able to record flawlessly.

The problem on my system is unrelated to clipping.
 
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