Play a Backing Track

[deakle]

I play my Axe III mainly through headphones. Is there a way that I can route a pre-recorded backing track from my Mac into an input on my Axe III so that I can listen to it as well as my guitar through my headphones? In other words, give me a backing track to play along with?

 

[FractalAudio]

Just plug in the USB to your Mac and select the Axe-Fx III as the audio playback device.

 

[Zedhed]

From page 19 of the manual;
USB INPUTS AND OUTPUTS
COMPUTER OUTPUTS 3+4
Destination: The Output 2 D/A converter which feeds the Output 2 jacks, and possibly SPDIF/AES.
Applications: Play a second stereo signal through the Axe-Fx III. Ideal for backing tracks so they can be fully independent from processed guitar at Output 1

 

[unix-guy]

From page 19 of the manual;
USB INPUTS AND OUTPUTS
COMPUTER OUTPUTS 3+4
Destination: The Output 2 D/A converter which feeds the Output 2 jacks, and possibly SPDIF/AES.
Applications: Play a second stereo signal through the Axe-Fx III. Ideal for backing tracks so they can be fully independent from processed guitar at Output 1

I wish that would work with my iPhone/iPad...

 

[lp59]

I wish that would work with my iPhone/iPad...

Didn’t test it, but I thought it would because the III is now Class.compliant.

 

[deakle]

Thanks guys!

 

[unix-guy]

Didn’t test it, but I thought it would because the III is now Class.compliant.

I haven't been able to find any way to select alternate outputs...

 

[FractalAudio]

I wish that would work with my iPhone/iPad...

It should.

 

[bradlake]

I wish that would work with my iPhone/iPad...

it does! I'mright now listening to my morning radio show while fiddling around on guitar with my III...feeding USB audio to the III from an iPad connected to the MacBook with the lightning /usb connector
its easy to miss the crucial step, on Mac with high Sierra or later, to enable the iPad/phone in the Audio Midi utility by clicking on the enable next to the phone/pad as shown
I would also recommend the wonderful app Audio Hijack from www.rogueamoeba.com
that really helps routing audio around your various in/outs......hope this helps.

 

[unix-guy]

it does! I'mright now listening to my morning radio show while fiddling around on guitar with my III...feeding USB audio to the III from an iPad connected to the MacBook with the lightning /usb connector
its easy to miss the crucial step, on Mac with high Sierra or later, to enable the iPad/phone in the Audio Midi utility by clicking on the enable next to the phone/pad as shown View attachment 49743
I would also recommend the wonderful app Audio Hijack from www.rogueamoeba.com
that really helps routing audio around your various in/outs......hope this helps.

I'm talking about iPad connected directly to the Axe Fx III with lightning to USB cable.

It should.

Have you tried that?

 

[bradlake]

I'm talking about iPad connected directly to the Axe Fx III with lightning to USB cable.

Have you tried that?

that works for me as well, but with no control of volume from ipad other than out 1 level, which can be problematic.(thats an Apple limitation afaik

 

[∞Fractals]

I use analog from an old unused iPhone running music into In3-GEQ-Out2-RTA.

Works great!

 

[spagthorpe]

I have my MacBook Pro plugged into the III 100% of the time. I also use headphones most of the time, since my play time is at night. Setting the Axe as your audio device should let you play along with youtube, BiaB, audio files, etc. What you don't have is volume control on the Mac when doing this, so that kind of sucks on certain things. I've had some youtube clips for example, that are hard to hear, so the only way to hear them is to turn the output up on the Axe, but then the guitar is too loud. It's not perfect, but there is usually a way around the problems; and I don't want to buy another piece of gear at the moment.

 

[bradlake]

I have my MacBook Pro plugged into the III 100% of the time. I also use headphones most of the time, since my play time is at night. Setting the Axe as your audio device should let you play along with youtube, BiaB, audio files, etc. What you don't have is volume control on the Mac when doing this, so that kind of sucks on certain things. I've had some youtube clips for example, that are hard to hear, so the only way to hear them is to turn the output up on the Axe, but then the guitar is too loud. It's not perfect, but there is usually a way around the problems; and I don't want to buy another piece of gear at the moment.

I’m tellin ya , the Audio Hijack app I referred to above, will make volume control much much easier.
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/play-a-backing-track.143078/#post-1693275

 

[unix-guy]

that works for me as well, but with no control of volume from ipad other than out 1 level, which can be problematic.(thats an Apple limitation afaik

And I can do the same... But I was asking about using a different output than output 1.

That's the whole point of my comments

I want to send iPad output to Output 2 or 3.

 

[bradlake]

And I can do the same... But I was asking about using a different output than output 1.

That's the whole point of my comments

Gotcha..... and I also raised that point months ago and it would seem not a viable option...but miracles happen here with some regularity.

 

[smcrosby]

Just plug in the USB to your Mac and select the Axe-Fx III as the audio playback device.

The one time I tried playing m4a, mp3, and You Tube files through the III, I had the same volume imbalance issue (not being able to hear the iTunes and You Tube playback when also playing guitar through the III). Any way to boost the USB volume on the mac side or the III side so the m4a, mp3, and You Tube file doesn't get drowned out? It would be a BIG help for learning tunes, jamming to backing tracks, etc.? Thank you Sir!

 

[guitarzen]

Gotcha..... and I also raised that point months ago and it would seem not a viable option...but miracles happen here with some regularity.

Yes, I also raised that point about a month ago as well. I would love to have the ability to set which USB channels route to which outputs as a menu item in the global setup. Probably should add it to the wish list.

 

[Gabaghoul]

Yeah. The USB stuff in the AxeFX III is unnecessarily difficult to configure. They should probably just implement a simple mixer in Axe-Edit because I've been fighting this today for a bit. Tried configuring speakers in Audio-Midi Setup, tried changing USB audio to 7/8 and routing to there. I did get a few good people to help me on the forum but havent got their suggestions to work. Shouldnt be this hard.