shasha
Fractal Fanatic
OK so I've been messing around with re-amping without using the USB method and it's really been a battle of compromise and/or failure. Some things I've taken away are that the analog output as a wet signal is fantastic going into a decent audio interface. It really does sound great. The analog dry signal on the other hand is a challenge because it's such a low level signal that by the time you record it and then send it back to the AxeFXII there is noise on there. I've gone balanced, humbuster, ground lifted and even taken the AES output and fed it into a standalone ADC and its still picking up RF or EMI or aliens.
Going with SPDIF or AES for the dry signal is fabulous. It's so pristine and noisefree that using it would be great....except that you have to switch between the AxeFXII and the audio interface as the master clock source every time you switch between the first take and re-amping it. This isn't very practical or even possible depending on your setup.
So what I've learned is that the digital path for the dry record and send is great. The analog path for wet is great. Master clock source is an issue...with one interface.
Which leads me to my latest idea.....two audio interfaces. Now you can't usually use multiple interfaces at the same time in a DAW unless you use ASIO4All (causes drift) or via aggregate audio devices (which is Mac only). But you can gang multiple interfaces together to be seen as one with some brands such as PreSonus and Focusrite. This would allow me to set up one interface as a master at all times. I would record wet analog directly into it. I would send the dry SPDIF signal to the AxeFXII during re-amping. This eliminates the need to switch master clock sources. The other interface would be used to record the dry signal via SPDIF which would be fine because the AxeFXII would be upstream in the chain thus being the clock source (meaning the 2nd interface is slaved).
The only issue I can see is if the AxeFXII is on it's internal clock when recording the first dry and wet take and this is a HUGE possibility. I have no way right now to test this without buying another interface and at the moment I'm into the research phase.
If any of this makes sense to any of you then you probably can contribute to this portion of the project and I'd like to hear it. It's not a matter of the USB not working for me because it does, but I'm hardheaded and my monitoring solution is all through my interface. I also like the capabilities it has vs just using the USB interface of the AxeFXII.
Going with SPDIF or AES for the dry signal is fabulous. It's so pristine and noisefree that using it would be great....except that you have to switch between the AxeFXII and the audio interface as the master clock source every time you switch between the first take and re-amping it. This isn't very practical or even possible depending on your setup.
So what I've learned is that the digital path for the dry record and send is great. The analog path for wet is great. Master clock source is an issue...with one interface.
Which leads me to my latest idea.....two audio interfaces. Now you can't usually use multiple interfaces at the same time in a DAW unless you use ASIO4All (causes drift) or via aggregate audio devices (which is Mac only). But you can gang multiple interfaces together to be seen as one with some brands such as PreSonus and Focusrite. This would allow me to set up one interface as a master at all times. I would record wet analog directly into it. I would send the dry SPDIF signal to the AxeFXII during re-amping. This eliminates the need to switch master clock sources. The other interface would be used to record the dry signal via SPDIF which would be fine because the AxeFXII would be upstream in the chain thus being the clock source (meaning the 2nd interface is slaved).
The only issue I can see is if the AxeFXII is on it's internal clock when recording the first dry and wet take and this is a HUGE possibility. I have no way right now to test this without buying another interface and at the moment I'm into the research phase.
If any of this makes sense to any of you then you probably can contribute to this portion of the project and I'd like to hear it. It's not a matter of the USB not working for me because it does, but I'm hardheaded and my monitoring solution is all through my interface. I also like the capabilities it has vs just using the USB interface of the AxeFXII.
