Noise and clicking sound from axe 2

BrianJ

Inspired
Hey guys! Have an issue here I was hoping you guys could help with. I have an AxeFx II that seems to be causing some noise and a "clicking" sound that almost sounds like a click track in the background. I have a brand new PRS Tremonti running straght to the Axe 2, via a mogami platinum cable with headphones plugged in to the Axe 2, that's it. I've tried moving the unit to a different room, no change. I have a furman IT-20 Series II balanced power supply, and the problem is there with or without the furman. If I turn the guitar a certain way and angle it just right the noise stops, which led me to believe mybe it was my guitar, however it doesn't happen with any other unit I have in the studio, just with the Axe 2. I also have a UA Apollo interface and if I plug the PRS into that it's dead silent.

Now, this noise is prevalent on almost every single factory patch I've scrolled through. If I change the drive control on the amp it seems to subside, but I mean it's gotta be low, like 1-2 on the drive control to eliminate it...which severly affects the sound. I uploaded the 9.2 preset banks from Fractal and all those even seem to have the same issue. I hear so many great crystal clear recodings but I fear mine may be broken. I've had it for quite some time but have not used it much until recently. The problem was always there, that's one of the reasons I bought the PRS, cause it also did it with my Yamaha RGX custom with EMG's...I thought they were the problem but it seems not.

I found this in the wiki: "If you hear ticks or clicks in sync with the tap tempo light, there's interference from your MIDI cable leaking into the signal through your guitar or guitar cable. It's the MIDI sysex data being sent. Make sure you route the MIDI cable away from anything that it may interfere with. Or use a CAT-5 / Ethercon cable. Or switch off "Send Realtime Sysex" (I/O > MIDI menu) if you don't need to use the tuner and the tap tempo light." I turned that off and it made no difference.

I setup the instrument input to just tickle the red under hard strumming. Hitting the global bypass button makes the guitar dead silent as well. Also, if I touch the bridge or the metal casing of the Axe 2 some of the noise gets quieter, but it's still there and this doesn't affect the clicking...there may be two issues? Also, some of the Axe presets have alot of static associated with them even when I unplug the guitar from the unit completely...is that normal? Any other ideas?

Thanks...

Brian
 
Hi Brian,
Sorry, no answer here but my new Axe 2 does very similar things. I have been wondering about this as well. There is the noise gate but I still get some noise when sustaining a note, or the short moment following a passage.

Depending on gain/patch/drive settings, some patches noise floor is roughly 50% of the signal strength or so. I also get the clicking just as you described. This happens with my emgs, JB, and (much worse of course) single coil Strat.

Hopefully someone has an answer....
 
Yeah, it's extremely loud on some patches, and like you said, the noise gate is great, but if you're sustaining a note or chord there a point where the noise is louder than the notes. It's definitely some combination of patch settings and guitar interaction (but it only happens with the axefx, not with any other unit so I don't think it's the guitars fault), but the only way to get it to stop is to turn volume/drive/tone controls way down...it's just doesn't seem right to me...

Also, IIRC you're supposed to set your guitar volume on 10 to do the input gain adjustment correct? If I'm not mistaken I ended up at only 13% on the PRS Tremonti to tickle the red...how can my guitar be putting out that much volume that it needs to be this low?

This has to be operator error of some sort. It would be great if someone else wit a PRS Tremonti or similar would send me a patch to try...something that is completely silent on their machine. As it is right now, the axefx is just not usable.
 
Strip it down. Completely.

Axe-FX II only. Guitar only. Plug into headphones. If noise, change location and outlet. Change guitar and cable.

Then *directly* into a powered speaker of some sort.
 
Strip it down. Completely.

Axe-FX II only. Guitar only. Plug into headphones. If noise, change location and outlet. Change guitar and cable.

Then *directly* into a powered speaker of some sort.

I did this. Took the axefx out of the studio room, plugged into an outlet by itself, plugged the PRS into the axe, and used my Sony MDR-7509 headphones right from the front panel to monitor. Nothing else plugged in at all. Tried different cables, as well as a brand new mogami platinum cable I bought just because of this issue. Same problems still persist.

Tried my Yamaha guitar with active emg's...still persists. I even took the top off the axefx and unhooked the fan so it was completely silent. Same issues. I can set a preset to be "quiet", but it's always with a dark tone (very little treble/highs), or I have to turn the guitar volume down to 5 or lower...on any kind of distorted/high gain presets even that's not enough though.

Hitting bypass makes the signal silent so it has to be in the patches I'm assuming? But even the stock fractal patches do this...I'm sure I'm doing something wrong but don't know what...the unit has always done this from day one.
 
Hmm hitting bypass shouldn't mute the unit completely. You should still hear the dry guitar signal, though very quiet. Maybe you just meant there's none of that noise. Can you confirm this? The presets especially Amps with gain will amplify any noises.

Is it possible to record the sound with a cell phone or video camera and post to YouTube or soundcloud?

You tried different cables, guitars, power outlets and direct to headphones. Might be time to email Support.
 
Yes, I meant that on bypass there's no more noise, just dry guitar signal...that signal is clean and noise free, no clicks or static of any kind...
 
Check your CPU usage. I know that when I get up there on the CPU I get random sonic artifacts that are unpleasant. Sometimes even stock presets can cause a problem with CPU load.

-Phil
 
If the noise abates when you turn your guitar, then the noise is being picked up by the guitar. The reason you don't hear it when you put it in bypass or use other gear is because then there is no gain.
 
If the noise abates when you turn your guitar, then the noise is being picked up by the guitar. The reason you don't hear it when you put it in bypass or use other gear is because then there is no gain.

Hmm...Logic tells me to agree with this, except that when plugged into my UA Apollo interface I was running plugins for reverb and what not there as well... Tonight I will push those harder and add in some gain to replicate the conditions in the axefx, if those same noises present then I would agree that the guitar (both of them) would seem to be at fault.

I have a couple questions if I may:

1. If it is the guitar pickups, is there a way to test them? What I mean is that there are lots of others here with comparable PRS guitars and they don't seem to be having this problem, which would signify that something is wrong with mine specifically...but I can't fix it if I don't know what's wrong...?! I have checked to make sure that everything is grounded properly inside the guitar with an ohmeter, everything seems good. Brand new guitar as well.

2. Are the guitar pickups picking up "actual" noise in this case...something that an Iso-booth would stop, or would this be some kind of electromagnetic interference that an Iso-booth would have no effect on?

3. Part of the noise is definitely from the input design of the axefx (from what I've read)...this is the part that goes away when the bridge or casing of the axefx are touched. If that were grounded properly, that would definitely take care of that portion of the noise...is there a modification that can be done to handle this?

And one last thing...do some of even the stock presets generate considerable noise/hiss/static even when there's no input to the axefx?

Thanks!

Brian
 
I have had something similar with a Piezo pick up on a P22 using a Mogami cable. It's a nasty intermittent. When it comes, the clicks and pops are random and only on one string. In my case, I think it might be a pick up grounding issue of some kind which I have had problems with before on other models. I haven't been able to reliably replicate it or isolate it, but it hasn't returned since I stopped using the Mogami cable.
 
I have had something similar with a Piezo pick up on a P22 using a Mogami cable. It's a nasty intermittent. When it comes, the clicks and pops are random and only on one string. In my case, I think it might be a pick up grounding issue of some kind which I have had problems with before on other models. I haven't been able to reliably replicate it or isolate it, but it hasn't return since I stopped using the Mogami cable.

Hmm, in my case it happened with every other cable I have as well...that's why I spent the crazy money for the mogami platinum cable...!
 
How high is too high?

Usually about 94% or higher.

Hmm...Logic tells me to agree with this, except that when plugged into my UA Apollo interface I was running plugins for reverb and what not there as well... Tonight I will push those harder and add in some gain to replicate the conditions in the axefx, if those same noises present then I would agree that the guitar (both of them) would seem to be at fault.

I have a couple questions if I may:

1. If it is the guitar pickups, is there a way to test them? What I mean is that there are lots of others here with comparable PRS guitars and they don't seem to be having this problem, which would signify that something is wrong with mine specifically...but I can't fix it if I don't know what's wrong...?! I have checked to make sure that everything is grounded properly inside the guitar with an ohmeter, everything seems good. Brand new guitar as well.

2. Are the guitar pickups picking up "actual" noise in this case...something that an Iso-booth would stop, or would this be some kind of electromagnetic interference that an Iso-booth would have no effect on?

3. Part of the noise is definitely from the input design of the axefx (from what I've read)...this is the part that goes away when the bridge or casing of the axefx are touched. If that were grounded properly, that would definitely take care of that portion of the noise...is there a modification that can be done to handle this?

And one last thing...do some of even the stock presets generate considerable noise/hiss/static even when there's no input to the axefx?

Thanks!

Brian

You are confusing ground noise (you are the ground) on the guitar with the input of the Axe-FX. If it was the input of the Axe-FX, the noise would be constant. You note that turning away causes the noise to stop. In other words, it is not the input of the Axe-FX.

Yes - it is the guitar. It is electro-magnetic because the pickups are picking it up; when you go on 'bypass' with the Axe-FX there is no gain stages for your signal, noise is not being amplified.

It probably is not the guitar - all guitars are grounded to the bridge. You can put in resistors and caps to make it safer, but you are the ground.

As we discussed in person, it's the room. Get the Axe-FX out of your house and try it in another locale.
 
Usually about 94% or higher.



You are confusing ground noise (you are the ground) on the guitar with the input of the Axe-FX. If it was the input of the Axe-FX, the noise would be constant. You note that turning away causes the noise to stop. In other words, it is not the input of the Axe-FX.

Yes - it is the guitar. It is electro-magnetic because the pickups are picking it up; when you go on 'bypass' with the Axe-FX there is no gain stages for your signal, noise is not being amplified.

It probably is not the guitar - all guitars are grounded to the bridge. You can put in resistors and caps to make it safer, but you are the ground.

As we discussed in person, it's the room. Get the Axe-FX out of your house and try it in another locale.

Ok, I'll take the axefx across town to my church and try it there...the sound system there is dead silent.

Lets assume for a moment that I take the axe to another location and it's quiet as can be...the answer then would be that there's something either in my house or in my neighborhood that is causing this EMI...? Is my only option to use the axefx to pack up and move?
 
On the axe, press the i/o button, go to midi tab and set 'send realtime sysex' to tuner or none. Make sure metro/both isn't selected.

This should get rid of the click that follows the metronome.

Now for the hiss you are talking about, i have the exact same issue and i haven't been able to figure it out just yet.

I'm currently setting up my home studio so i will have to troubleshoot the same issue.

I'll keep a look on this thread and if i find a solution i'll let you know.
 
On the axe, press the i/o button, go to midi tab and set 'send realtime sysex' to tuner or none. Make sure metro/both isn't selected.

This should get rid of the click that follows the metronome.

he tried this, listed in the first post.
 
Hey Brian,

I have found that mine is near unusable at my house. The ground noise is crazy loud. I am using mine at our church as well. There the ground noise is bearable, but the funny thing is that last night I was getting the clicking, the ground hum was more pronounced and my patches sounded dull. Today, after writing my earlier reply, I played it at the church for a few hours. The clicking was gone, the hum was not bad and the patches sounded very good. Same guitar, same settings. So it seems there is some outside influence.

And as Cliff said, it changes as I aim the guitar in different places. Something in the air?

We do have a power issue at the church. I am thinking that the Axe may be very touchy about good, clean power. I have a Monster power conditioner on the rig as well as mogami cables etc.
 
Hey guys...thanks to all for your responses!

Ok, so I never made it to the church tonite, but I did try some things...

First, I plugged the PRS directly into my UA Apollo to test to see if the problems persisted there. As before, all was quiet.....until I started adding gain to the signal. The clicking and noise was present in the Apollo as well. So, figuring that it was the pickups picking up "something", I turned my attention to the PRS and the way it was setup in the Axefx. I reset my input level and then turned my attention to the AMP block. Scott Peterson mentioned to me that from what I was describing it seemed like all the patches were way too hot for my guitar...he said to turn them down -10db in the amp block (using the Output Level parameter)...this immediately started to curb the background noise in my signal.

I also began to realize that even though I set my input level with the guitar volume at 10, that doesn't mean I need to play at 10 all the time. I found that by rolling off the volume knob the patches started to become much more defined and not so "saturated". Each patch was different and needed a different amount of volume, or needed the output levels tweaked, but overall I found myself playing much more in the area of 5-6 on my volume knob, sometime more, sometimes less. The same was true of the tone knob on the guitar, there's no need for it to be at 10 all the time...alot of the time I was at 3-4 on it. This would have normally sounded very dark and muffled, but with the levels more balanced now somehow it wasn't that dark at all.

I also played with the master volume in the amp block in several patches...I found if it was set too high that it would introduce those clicks and noises as well. I was now able to scroll through the factory presets without constantly overloading something. Some were still too hot and needed adjusted, but it sounded 1000% better all around! I actually spent a couple hours just going through the presets and for the first time enjoyed what I was hearing...!

Now, it's still possible for these noises to be present...but only at extreme tone and volume settings that don't sound good anyway...if I found a patch particularly dark, one trick I found is to use the amp voicing control set to "bright"...this seems to brighten the top end without the need to turn the tone pot up, in fact, you may need to turn it down further...which will further reduce the background noises.

There is still somewhat of a slight hum on some patches, this seems to be associated with the "keeping the hand on the bridge" grounding issue...if I could just find a fix for that I think I'd be golden. It's not nearly as noticeable as before unless I'm on higher gain amps it's more prevalent. But so far I'm really happy with the way it's turning out!

Thanks again to everyone who helped with suggestions! Hopefully others can take something valuable away from this as well...!
 
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