Strange crackle - unit defective?

guitardoc

guitardoc

Experienced
My AFII delivers a strange very harsh crackling sound when the tone rings out. I do not remember having this horrendous sound before. Running FW is 15.06 which I installed once it was launched.
Being in hospital and not having access to a laptop for the near future I cannot provide a sound sample but I can hardly get a clean not distorted sound out of amps meant to be clean like the double verb with corresponding cab (and nothing else in the chain) even with input drive at 0.2 and input trim at 0.2. I tried different patches, used monitors and headphones, checked system options to be at default values and reset them, etc., to no avail.

Is there some possibility to check whether there is a hardware issue somewhere myself before sending it in or do I have to send it in for a checkup in any case? I am situated in Germany and the vendor was g66.

Thanks in advance.
 
I realize this is happening across multiple patches, and that makes this relatively unlikely, but double check to make sure you aren't bumping up against the CPU limit. I find whenever I get into the low to mid 90% range, I get crackling, etc. because the CPU is freaking out. Maybe you had pretty full patches before, and when you updated to 15.06, something is using a little more CPU than it was before, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak... Just a guess- I've had it happen! Sorry to hear you're in the hospital! Get better soon.
 
My unit was great until i loaded 15.07. I now get a grainy toppy sound in the high gain settings. Its a separate sound/noise from the note im playing. Argh!



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Any crackling I've ever experienced has been due to a dead 9v in active pickup systems. Might could check that.
 
As crazy as it sounds I was getting some serious pops and noise in my rig (Ultra & Soundcard). I tore apart a few dozen cables in my patch bay checking everything. This went on for a week. I was about to pull my hair out. One night I went to put on my tennis shoes from my big brown bear feet house shoes my sweetheart had gotten me and the crackling stopped. I put them on the crackling started. It was causing a static buildup…lol.

Just saying because you mention hospital. If you been jamming with fuzzy slippers, cozy robes and flannel pajamas it may be causing some snap, crackle and pops.
 
Thanks for the wishes and the help. I suffer from burnout and anxiety attacks and am in a rehabilitation centre to get back on track. It comes close to a hotel with psychologists trying to fix the loose screws... ;-) Anyway, the surrounding is just the 'normal' surroundings you would find at home. I don't think anything here creates distorting statics.

I reset the amp (selected a different one and reselected the originally selected one) and double clicked bypass.

All presets use less than 50% CPU. Some of them I built from scratch in order to check what is going on and they contain only amp1 and cab1 with default values (apart from the lowered input gain and input trim and raised output level for volume compensation in some levels). There is nothing connected to the AFII apart from the power cord, the guitar cable, the headphones, and some small monitors at Out1 (which are crappy and I don't rely on them but my headphones are not - Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro - and they deliver the same distorted sound).

The PUs are passive with medium output.
 
Still two blocks left. Did you try a line of shunts, then the amp block alone, then the cab block alone and so on?
 
Yes, I tried this. The Double Verb without a cab block had this strange distorted crackle too. Even with input gain and input trim lowered to about 0.2.

Didn't try the cab block alone though but will do tomorrow. A line of shunts without any blocks sounds fine.
 
Tested the cab block today and it sounds OKish on its own. No distorted crackle there.

It must be in the amp block then - this was the only block which had it in it (see above).

I fear that the amp simulation processor might have a defect. Afaik one processor is for the amp simulation only and the other one for all that remains. Does anybody know if there is a way to check if there is a hardware defect somewhere? I ruled everything else out (guitar, cables, headphones, clipping the input and output transformer, etc. etc.). Because if there is I would send it in for repair immediately because I need it for upcoming shows at the beginning of October.

Can anyone help please? Thanks in advance!
 
I know this isn't an ideal solution for you, but people experiencing similar issues in the past have resolved by re-flashing the firmware. Kill two birds with one stone by flashing to 15.07
 
Thanks for the heads up. Will update to the new firmware tomorrow - provided someone here will lend me their laptop for it. I only have iPad and iPhone with me and unfortunately can't flash the firmware with those...
Btw, it would be a great feature if the axe was capable of being flashed with firmware releases by just connecting a USB stick containing the latest release(s). This way one could always re-flash without having to lug a computer around. Just thinking...
 
Maybe something in the memory is corrupted. To check that you need to delete everything and reset everything to factory values. If even that fails, then it's times to send to a repair.
I have no clue how you set back all content. When you restore the presets from the flash ROM, is that a reset? I think the easiest way is to ask G66 for help now.
 
Yesterday I flashed the unit with FW 15.07. I could not say if there was a difference to the sound I had before - the amps that are supposed to be clean still deliver this strange crackling distortion. I even checked the factory presets some if which I still have stored on the unit and experienced the same issue.
I reseted the system parameters but to no avail. Dies anyone know how to reset the whole unit to some kind of 'virgin state' and start afresh?
Thanks in advance.
 
It's hard to zero in on the problem without hearing it. One man's "crackling" is another man's "interference from a nearby lamp."
 
Rex said:
It's hard to zero in on the problem without hearing it. One man's "crackling" is another man's "interference from a nearby lamp."
Click to expand...
That was sort of my thought too. Different location and electricity supply than normal ..... might be something to do with it.
 
guitardoc said:
... Dies anyone know how to reset the whole unit to some kind of 'virgin state' and start afresh?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

How to get the Axe-Fx II back to a virgin state has been decribed by yek some time ago: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-discussion/77576-wicked-wiki-16-virgin-axe-fx-ii.html

I don't know if it would be useful to revert to firmware version 11 at frist and then to follow the instructions in the thread "Wicked WIKI 16..." before updating to firmware version 15.07 again.
 
Today I flashed FW15.07 on the unit again courtesy of a fellow 'inmate' who was so kind and lend me his laptop again. I have no clue what went different this time. I honestly don't. The unit is still in the same place within the same surroundings and has never left its place in the last few days. Once the firmware had programmed itself into the unit everything was back to normal. The computer inmate and I wouldn't believe what we were hearing - a difference like night and day. I swear I never touched anything. I don't get it. Come to think of it, what I did was have a look at the 'secret menu' in utilities, but didn't change anything before flashing the FW again. I'm still as happy as cowsh*t that the axe works as it is supposed to. What led to the strange distortion and what remedied it - not a clue. Obviously something was corrupted and updating with the same FW version twice did the trick, for whatever reason.
Thanks again to everyone who helped!
 
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