Question regarding copy and preset sequence

[Glennski]

I am using an axe fx ii. It sounds like i will not be able to have midi clock sent to both the axe fx and tc nova system. At east not if I want the IA button states to update with axe fx preset or scene changes. I tried a midi splitter cable and that did not work.

Most if not all midi splitters would only pass midi in one direction per cable - no bidirectional communication in other words. Ron, how about a custom splitter box that splits/duplicates the midi out from the GT side of things? Would such a thing even be possible or worth it from a market point of view? How about modifying an existing splitter box? Would it work if you were to take an off the shelf midi splitter and run a couple of wires from the unused pins on the input plug and run them to one of the thru outs?

As Toasterdude said the axefx ii won't pass midi clock information through, but according to the release notes the support was added in FW 9.01 but removed again in 10.02 because it was apparently causing performance issues with MFC101s. If you were desperate and wanted to get it working in the mean time you could try downgrading to 10.01.

Just a hunch but I guess if the thru port on the XL is hardware then it would be passing the exact signal that it received so clock would be there too. If this is a must-solve issue you could think about upgrading. Contact Fractal Support to get a definite answer on that though.

 

[toasterdude]

I am using an axe fx ii. It sounds like i will not be able to have midi clock sent to both the axe fx and tc nova system. At east not if I want the IA button states to update with axe fx preset or scene changes. I tried a midi splitter cable and that did not work.

Most if not all midi splitters would only pass midi in one direction per cable - no bidirectional communication in other words. Ron, how about a custom splitter box that splits/duplicates the midi out from the GT side of things? Would such a thing even be possible or worth it from a market point of view? How about modifying an existing splitter box? Would it work if you were to take an off the shelf midi splitter and run a couple of wires from the unused pins on the input plug and run them to one of the thru outs?

As Toasterdude said the axefx ii won't pass midi clock information through, but according to the release notes the support was added in FW 9.01 but removed again in 10.02 because it was apparently causing performance issues with MFC101s. If you were desperate and wanted to get it working in the mean time you could try downgrading to 10.01.

Just a hunch but I guess if the thru port on the XL is hardware then it would be passing the exact signal that it received so clock would be there too. If this is a must-solve issue you could think about upgrading. Contact Fractal Support to get a definite answer on that though.

Yep. I have a Mk I Axe FX II, and use with the RJM XLR breakout for phantom power, then from that box to a Midi Solutions T8. I have never gotten tuner to display on RJM, and since I added the breakout and T8, get preset names has not worked.

I got impatient waiting for XL invite and jokingly bidded on an XL on ebay for 3000, never thinking I would win. I did. Then, when I got an invite 2 weeks later, I bought a second XL. Sp now in stead of using a MK I and XL I will use two XLs and sell the MK I.

I just received a new breakout from RJM that uses the 7 pin DIN. Apparently that may once again allow two way communications between Axe and GT. I need to see if the T8 still causes issues. I gues worst case I can go GT to Axe XL, then out of XL into T8 to split to all the rest.

My backup scenario is a Polytune coming out of my switchblade or maybe an XLR out of a POD HD Pro and mounted on my GT pedalboard. I would prefer just a single cable from GT to breakout in my rack, but we will see what works.

 

[rjmmusic]

I am using an axe fx ii. It sounds like i will not be able to have midi clock sent to both the axe fx and tc nova system. At east not if I want the IA button states to update with axe fx preset or scene changes. I tried a midi splitter cable and that did not work.

Ok, I tried your settings and was able to get my Axe-Fx II to always be within +/-1 of the rate reported by the GT. If I programmed the tempos into the GT presets, the Axe-Fx would always be the exact same tempo number, leading me to believe that any discrepancy is due to the GT and Axe-Fx rounding off fractional tempo numbers differently.

Now, we still have to figure out why yours is seeing discrepancies greater than 1bpm. If you program a preset to have a 240 bpm preset on the GT (not tapping in the tempo), what does the Axe-Fx report?

Since the Axe-Fx doesn't send clock, it does make it difficult to send to multiple devices. You would need some kind of MIDI Thru box with bidirectional support for one port. It wouldn't be too hard to do, but it's hard to allocate time for anything else these days...

 

[seattleguitarist]

All the tempos that i posted in my previous post were done by setting it on the mastermind gt, i did not use the tap tempo on the pedal. I went into edit presets and set it there. When i set the tempo to 240 on the gt i get a tempo of 236 for the axe fx ii. When the GT is 97bpm or less the difference is 1bpm from the Axe Fx, when the GT is 98bpm the Axe Fx bounces between 96 and 97bpm. When the GT is at 99bpm the Axe Fx stays steady at 97bpm.

I will tried to find a midi thru with bi-directional support.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[rjmmusic]

I would be extremely surprised if you found such a specialized thru box, but if you do, please let me know.

Are you using a phantom power box? Integrating a thru into that would probably be the best way to do it for us.

Please try 2.0 beta 3 if you have a chance - maybe we'll get lucky and it'll work better for you.

 

[seattleguitarist]

I actually upgraded to 2.0 beta 3 prior to replying to your last post, as you see it did not change my results. I am not using a phantom power box. I have contacted Midi Solutions with a request for a custom midi thru with bi-directional support. Hopefully I hear back from them on Monday.

 

[rjmmusic]

Hmm - if that's the case, then it may be a hardware problem. Do you have something that can generate a MIDI clock? It would be interesting to see if the GT reports incorrect tempos when it's a clock slave.

 

[Gibertoni]

Recently I contacted MIDI Solution asking if them Mid Thru Box (QuadThru) had support for bidirectional messages. Below is the response that I received from John Fast:

"The MIDI Solutions products do not have the outer pins of their MIDI DIN jacks connected to anything, however we recently modified the MIDI Solutions Quadra Thru to connect these pins between the Quadra Thru's MIDI input and its first MIDI Thru output, Thru1. We have been shipping these modified versions of the Quadra Thru for over a year now so if you purchase a new unit and not a used unit it should include this modification."

The problem is that all MIDI Solutions products are powered from the device connected to their MIDI Input, which in our case is the MMGT through the Midi Out port that receives phantom power, do not send.

 

[seattleguitarist]

Gibertoni thanks for the reply, i never received a response from midi solutions (which is strange since it says on their website contact them for custom work). Looks like i will have to keep searching.

 

[seattleguitarist]

Hmm - if that's the case, then it may be a hardware problem. Do you have something that can generate a MIDI clock? It would be interesting to see if the GT reports incorrect tempos when it's a clock slave.

I don't have anything to test this with. I can tell you that if i connect directly to my tc nova system the midi clock works perfectly. Something between the axe fx and mastermind gt is not quite right.

 

[Gibertoni]

Gibertoni thanks for the reply, i never received a response from midi solutions (which is strange since it says on their website contact them for custom work). Looks like i will have to keep searching.

seattleguitarist, I also contacted Kenton (http://www.kentonuk.com/products/items/utilities/m-thru-5.shtml) that makes a great Midi Thru Box however also does not support bidirectional MIDI messages. If you find something please do not forget to post here, I'm also looking for it.

 

[toasterdude]

Had a few minutes to mess with the GT this weekend. I can now use the editor where in the past I had to update via flash drive. Not sure if the midi clock chatter was the culprit or if switching to midi din vs XLR did the trick.

Just tested clock with two axe XLs and POD HD Pros. All 4 are slightly off. 2-3 BPM< but all have the same BPM, so that is a good sign.

I can also confirm that Axe FX XL does indeed pass midi clock to it's through port. When I get back home I may try going from RJM phantom power box to Axe XL then from that Axe to midi solutions T8 to see if I can get tuner to display.

 

[rjmmusic]

Hey toasterdude,

Can you get one of your devices to generate MIDI clock and have the GT run in slave mode? It would be very interesting to see if the GT's incoming clock measurement is off.