Simultaneous Reamping and Midi Control from DAW

[Dale Rehbein]

Hi All,

Quick question and if anyone has managed this before without locking the Axe FX II.

I'm running Pro Tools as my DAW (2 seperate machines MacBook Pro 12.3, MacPro 9.06)
Axe FX II (Mark II) (Quantum 8.02)
MacOS (Macbook Pro 10.12.5, Mac Pro 10.7.5)

Basically:
I can Re-amp via USB no problem
I can send the Midi data to the Axe no problem and all programming is solid.

However;

Is it possible to re-amp and send midi modifiers (Global BPM, CC and PC as well as external control for wah) whilst recording to a fresh track at the same time? Everything seems to start fine, however after 5 or 6 PC or CC changes the axe stops responding to MIDI. The only fix is to reboot the AXE, which in turn means, restarting pro tools etc etc.

During this period AXE-EDIT (Prior to AXE reboot, but post closing pro tools) will try and communicate with the AXE but will only return an error. I also have Axe-edit closed during this time so it is not effecting this midi communication lock up.

I can re run this time line with MIDI commands over and over again with out the re-amping or even re-running the timeline with the pre-recorded audio from pro tools outputting via the USB stereo in of the axe fine as well. So this rules out poor programming or presets which are too CPU heavy.

Has anyone had any success with this in the past? Am I pushing the USB to its limits? Would this be more successful if the MIDI was coming down the MIDI ports or if the audio was via another interface and connected by copper? Or have i just reached the limits all together.

Reasons for wanting to achieve this, is basically tidying up some recorded MIDI expression recording and wanting to add some modifiers (like wah or whammy) into pre existing licks to add some body and layering. And no, don't really want to track it again, haha! (which is the obvious answer).

Looking forward to any feedback or advice,

Cheers,

Dale

 

[Admin M@]

Am I pushing the USB to its limits?

That may be the case but it may also be your computer or DAW. I'll try to reproduce this—though I only use ONE computer and I run Logic, Live, or Reaper. I wonder if anyone else here might volunteer to do the same.

 

[Dale Rehbein]

Update: I ran this test again a few more times this evening looking at the Axe usage meters. My maximum on CPU hit 78% and USB was sitting at a constant 49-50%. Without having the Axe as the hardware I/O for pro tools I was able to randomly bounce around the timeline with ease and cues were correct everytime. On Mac there is no longer a need for setting up Pro tools as an aggregate with the Axe is there?

I'm very interested if anyone has any success with another DAW, it would be a nail in the coffin, but time to learn something new.

 

[Lvdb]

I made a thread about solving this with ableton at some point, you either need to relay midi via midi ox or iac on Mac from a plugin that can specify independent midi controllers. Or more simply, send midi through a separate interface. I only use USB for axe edit, so this may not solve the problem for you as you are running it as an interface as well. I had so many problems trying to use it as an interface on my mk1, don't know if it's better on newer models.

I currently house an audio/midi interface in my rack to relay midi, allowing me to control ableton with my controllers as well as the afx as ableton has been dialed to relay the messages.