Mastermind GT16 haunted!

[Lp59]

My GT16 started suddenly to change programs on it's own, totally randomly, making my Axe-FX follow the received PC like crazy. The GT will often go to preset 116 on it's own, this is an empty preset that I don't use... As long as I stay on this unused 116 preset nothing happened, but as soon as I call another one, it will switch again on 116. Though I saw it jumping on the 74 or other random destinations...

Powered off and on several times, same behavior. It was the 3rd song of the gig, and I couldn't use it further.
Went home plugged everything back, and guess what? Everything was fine! I had some rehearsal before the next gig and it worked flawlessly, yesterday I went for a new gig, and it did the crazyness again...

Went home, worked again... After 5mn of playing with the GT16 it did the random switching again, I saw the midi in led of the Axe receiving messages while I didn't touch the GT. I disable the bi-directionnal midi and suddenly it stopped acting weird.

This morning I checked the whole gear again, checking on the bi directionnal midi and it was working fine but after a few minutes failed again.

The MFC port is disabled, and the MFC echo is off on the Axe. I tested with different midi cables, same behavior.

Has anyone a clue?

 

[Lp59]

I checked with the different sysex options in the Axe, it didn't change. Latest firmware GT and Axe.
When unpluging the power on the GT I saw a longer reboot than usual sometime, like after a firmware update. What does this mean?

I noticed the GT send sysex continuously without doing something, see attached pic, is this the bug?

 

[rjmmusic]

The GT sends a Sysex message to the Axe-Fx every few seconds, so that's not a symptom of the problem.

The next time this happens, try this: unplug the MIDI cable from the GT. Does it stop switching at that point?

 

[Lp59]

Hi Ron, thanks for your answer, yes it stopped acting weird once midi is deconnected. I disabled midi bi, plugged 2 different midi cables on in and out and spotted that it's the midi out from the Axe that is sending clumsy messages, do you have an idea though I know I should ask on Fractal forum.

 

[Lp59]

Things seems to calm down with the haunted PC, probably because the RJM midi bidirectional don't work anymore (checked with other bidi cables). The GT don't reflect the IA status anymore, if I use 2 midi cables it works fine.

When checking midi merge on the GT (I use it with my iPad plugged in the GT USB port to send PC from the OnSong application) the Axe is acting weird: the midi in led stays green receiving data continuously, even with nothing connected to the GT USB port and the Axe screen go to Layout screen without me recalling it.

I'm afraid there's something wrong with the XL and/or the GT16.

I would be glad if I could isolate the problem, hopping I don't have both units down.

 

[rjmmusic]

Ok, one thing to check is make sure that MIDI Receive Channel is set to None on the GT. That causes all sorts of problems if it's set to the same MIDI channel as the Axe-Fx.

I'm not sure what would make the Axe-Fx switch to the Layout screen, that's an odd symptom and one that you should probably ask Fractal about.

You're going to have to test the GT and the Axe-Fx separately to figure out what's going on. Since you have a MIDI monitor, check to see what's being transmitted by the GT when you select a preset. Also, use your iPad to send MIDI messages to the Axe-Fx - without the GT in between - and see if you can successfully control the Axe-Fx.

 

[Lp59]

Thanks Ron, I'll investigate further. In the meanwhile is it safe to disable midi bidirectional in the GT and use my 5 pins wired midi cable from GT out to Axe in, and a regular 3 pins wired midi cable from out of the Axe to GT midi in?

 

[rjmmusic]

Yes, you can definitely do that and it will work fine.