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
I have a suspicion that it is affecting those of us who use CPU demanding patches.
Do I search under my posts I did Digi I/O re-amp explanationHave you tried reamping via spdif yet? If so, how do you set it up?
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.
Have you tried reamping via spdif yet? If so, how do you set it up?
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
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.