Re-amping via USB and monitoring

rdomain

Inspired
Hey all,

I'm finally using my AxeFX II for some serious recording. It's all been live use for most part up til now!

I'm currently setting my system up for a session tonight and I have everything happening via USB for recording. Stereo/dual mono wet and one dry signal for re-amping.

The question.

How can I re-amp the guitar part without sending the rest of the tracks through the AxeFX also? I'm running Logic on a MacBook Pro. Latest os etc. Firewire soundcard with 10 i/o
I can't see how you can select the AxeFX for the output (for re-amping the guitar) as well as monitoring the rest unless I aggregate my devices perhaps but I've heard there's issues with that? I can select a different in and out but not two different outs.

Suggestions appreciated.
 
Nope. The only way to do it is to create an aggregate device. I do it in Pro Tools and it seems to be working better with the beta driver.
 
Can you explain in more detail.. :)

Under Audio/Midi setup, I created an aggregate device made up of the Axe II and my Mackie Onyx 400f interface (although I just got an RME Fireface 800 but have not tried it with the Axe yet). This allows me to monitor the entire mix while reamping by sending only the dry track back through the Axe while the rest of the mix goes out to the Mackie. Much more convenient to listen/tweak the reamped track while in context of the entire mix. The Axe II alone as an interface does not allow this.

One thing to note: the Mac driver that's listed on the Support page caused problems with this setup (pops, clicks, etc). However, there was a new beta driver posted in the "Bugs" section awhile back that is working much better in an aggregate setup.
 
I use Digital Performer which eliminates the need for core audio aggregate devices to set up multiple interfaces. It's done within DP with less latency than aggregate as well. I'm sure there are other programs that do this as well, but I just don't know what they are.

Lion has messed up aggregate. But I heard that Apples working on fixing it.
 
I don't use an aggregate device using Logic 9. In fact, setting up an aggregate, I get no sound no matter what I do. This seems to work without a hitch.

I have a focusrite saffire pro 14, which is firewire.

Set my input to Axe-II
Set my output to Saffire
In Logic, I record my dry track.

1. I set the dry track output to 3 after recording.
2. I set no input on my dry track so that I don't cause feedback when I switch over to reamping
3. I then set my mix control (focusrites software mixer channel routing) line output 3 to DAW 3 - this will route my line output 3 (in mix control - you probably have some similar program) to my hardware output 3. Output 3 has already been routed to the back input of my axe-II. For stereo I'd just use stereo output 3-4, but think about it... it's much easier to output in stereo and input in mono, so yeah...
4. Set my axe-fx i/o to rear input from the second page of the i/o menu on the unit itself.

And theeeeen....

1. Create mono (or stereo) track with input as input 1, output as stereo output
2. Make sure that dry tracks you don't want to hear have no output, or you'll get crazy double signals through the axe monitoring.
3. I can then monitor my mix while I'm reamping guitars no problem. The one trick is if you have a bunch of dry tracks, make sure that you only have an output on the track you are reamping at the time. When you're done with reamping that track, select no output on it's dry counterpart. Also make sure that once you're done recording your wet track, you set the input of the wet track to "no input". Otherwise, every time you reamp you will hear the signal doubled through the already reamped wet track. There have been a few times I've sat and wondered for a minute why I'm hearing guitar through my bass reamp. Ha! Also, I have found that Axe-edit can cause some crazy glitches to happen while I'm reamping, I haven't yet updated to the new editor as I just got back from vacation, but be warned... if it's anything like previous softwares sometimes it'll just freeze your unit if you are running AE while reamping. This can be rather horrible if you are in the middle of things and haven't saved.

I hope that all makes sense. I'm a bit tired and getting ready to hit the hay. Good luck!
 
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