Sunday Morning Music Disaster!!

S

seanadoyawanna

Member
Hi everyone.

Had the worst worship leading day ever. First off, Video system program feed fitzed out on one of our feeds. Didn't work all service. Then setup for soundcheck and In-ear monitor started humming. I was
the only one that had the problem. Intermittent so couldn't trace source. AND THEN.... Axe FX II Output signal started to stop playing at random times. Turned on and off again to fix. Kept happening the entire morning. The Input lights kept on lighting up when i played so it was getting signal in. I tried switching the Output's in the back and that didn't help either.

I now have it in my office and can't recreate the problem.. I did reinstall the latest firmware again before i tried to recreate the problem in my office so "MAYBE" that fixed it.

Has anyone else had this problem. I can't run the risk of it crapping out on me again.

And NO the sound guy wasn't randomly pushing the suck button ;)

Sean
 
Do you have any midi devices besides the Fractal hooked up? Another midi device can transmit messages that can affect the Fractal output.

Do you have a foot controller hooked up? Likewise a foot controller or extern controller pedal plugged into the Fractal can affect the output level.
 
What is the analog signal chain like between the Fractal and your monitor system? Fractal XLR Out -> Stage Box -> desk -> Aux Send -> Monitor system -> ??
 
Do you know whether the signal disappeared at the AFX output or somewhere between the snake and the board? Thinking of a bad cable, snake, channel strip, etc...

Did you check the AFX VU meters when the sound disappeared?

If rebooting the AFX to get the sound back wasn't a coincidental "fix", maybe there was a power problem. I think the power'd have to be *really* low to cause a problem (doesn't the AFX have a "univeral" 100-240V power supply?) but a loose or flaky power cord or plug might glitch the processor just enough to make it stop working properly.

If this a recurring problem, consider carrying a test-tone generator with you. Behringer's cable tester has a tone generator and only costs about $30 new. That'll help you rule out (or confirm) the AFX as the origin of the dropout by letting you send a test tone to the board.
 
The first meter page in the Utility menu shows all the output levels. This is useful for these scenarios.

Also a set of headphones to quickly test via the headphone output. This is good when you are getting sound but it doesn't appear to sound correct. The headphone output gives you the preset sound without any external factors.
 
I will keep all your comments for next time. I have had it on for the last 2 hours and can't recreate the problem. I haven't hooked it up to the ground control pro but I'm doubtful this was the issue. UNLESS. i am running wall-wart power through a 7 pin midi cable. (phantom power to midi plug on axe) Maybe the wal-wart was starving the ground control pro and screwing it up. I don't know. I'm grasping at straws here.
 
seanadoyawanna said:
Hi everyone.

Had the worst worship leading day ever. First off, Video system program feed fitzed out on one of our feeds. Didn't work all service. Then setup for soundcheck and In-ear monitor started humming. I was
the only one that had the problem. Intermittent so couldn't trace source. AND THEN.... Axe FX II Output signal started to stop playing at random times. Turned on and off again to fix. Kept happening the entire morning. The Input lights kept on lighting up when i played so it was getting signal in. I tried switching the Output's in the back and that didn't help either.

I now have it in my office and can't recreate the problem.. I did reinstall the latest firmware again before i tried to recreate the problem in my office so "MAYBE" that fixed it.

Has anyone else had this problem. I can't run the risk of it crapping out on me again.

And NO the sound guy wasn't randomly pushing the suck button ;)

Sean
Click to expand...
Brawtha...It sho' sounds like ole' "Slewfoot" payed yua'll a visit!
 
seanadoyawanna said:
I will keep all your comments for next time. I have had it on for the last 2 hours and can't recreate the problem. I haven't hooked it up to the ground control pro but I'm doubtful this was the issue. UNLESS. i am running wall-wart power through a 7 pin midi cable. (phantom power to midi plug on axe) Maybe the wal-wart was starving the ground control pro and screwing it up. I don't know. I'm grasping at straws here.
Click to expand...

If your controller is the culprit, then the Utility -> Meter page will show no output.

If that page is showing output, then it's something outside the Fractal.
 
No it was definitely in the Fractal. I have 2 units, One that is used at church and my own personal one. I had to race home and get my own between sets and it worked fine.
 
Just a suggestion: any way to meet up with the sound tech midweek, and see if things are working?

Could be a branch circuit at the building. I've definitely had electrical circuit issues, although none in the last few years, w/ the AFX. Picked up radio stations, air traffic controllers, hums, buzzes, computer hard-drives, etc.

Also, flourescent, and I think halogen, lights can be really noisy into electrical circuits. Try turning the lights off for a second, and see if it goes away. Sometimes a transformer going bad on a light can feed hum back into the circuit, which can be picked up at the amp.

I've had certain multi-outlet extension cords that caused issues.

If your speaker cables are running near a transformer (i.e. wall wart) that can cause noise. If you have a wall-wart to power your MFC-101, take a look at where it's sitting, in relation to your signal cables. Also, check that you have the correct wall wart. I've had pedals make noise from low power or noisy transformers.

The keyboard players rig always put hum into my rig - I had to be sure to plug into a different circuti than he was into. If we were on the same line, I got tones of hum & buzzing. If I plugged into another circuit all was fine. Of course, I was the one who took all the flack from the sound tech, since I was humming. I spent a chunk on noise isolators, transformers, extension cords, tubes, and such trying to solve it on my end, until we figured out it was his rig.

Several of these thought come from analog amp days, but no doubt some of them could apply to your situation.
 
barhrecords said:
If your controller is the culprit, then the Utility -> Meter page will show no output.

If that page is showing output, then it's something outside the Fractal.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I had some bad programming in my LF+ (mine, not FAMC's) mute the AFX output. The problem didn't resolve until I power-cycled the AFX (and, of course, corrected my programming error on the LF+).

IIRC, the bad MIDI was something like sending CC#0 value 0... (But don't hold me to that...)
 
Sounds more like whatever you were outputting to was on the fritz, particularly if those vid feeds etc were. Doesn't sound like your problem was with the black box.
 
Yeah, I'm sure it was within the Axe FX II. I am assuming the firmware update i did before the performance went bad. I just recreated the exact thing with everything setup and can't make it happen again. (I did redo the firmware update after my disaster so i'm assuming that the firmware update i did before the performance didn't update properly. I will be playing again this Sunday so wish me luck!!!
 
seanadoyawanna said:
Axe FX II Output signal started to stop playing at random times. Turned on and off again to fix. Kept happening the entire morning. The Input lights kept on lighting up when i played so it was getting signal in. I tried switching the Output's in the back and that didn't help either.
Click to expand...

Had this once a few days ago, posted in another thread about it, hasn't occured anymore since.
 
Okay i have finally narrowed it down!!!

It was a tap tempo pedal controller attached to the Ground Control Pro. Everything looks like its properly setup on the Ground Control and Axe (proper midi config). However, when i tap tempo it shuts off volume. The Edited light comes on. I can't tell what it's doing to Axe but it is more than just the midi data its sending. It's also intermittent which is weird! As in that it sometimes controls the tap tempo.

In addition, this used to work fine.

****UPDATE****

So I have a volume pedal on Control 1 Port on Ground Control Pro. Which is set to CC#11 which is Output Volume 1.. This is all correct. However, when i use the pedal the "edited" light shows up after a while. Is this correct?? It doesn't show up immediately and not all patches. Sometimes i can get 10 - 15 swells out of it before light pops on and sometimes 3 - 4. And there is no switch on pedal its just volume.

Please help
 
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