How I use Axe Fx III for Skype guitar lessons

Today is Aug 22, 2020.

High level overview

Here I'll explain the setup I have that allows me to have silent guitar lessons. Silent here means that the only people who hear my guitar are me and the recepient of the Skype call. You'll need the following components to proceed:

Hardware:

Axe Fx III
MacBook
1/4 jack headhpones
guitar cable
guitar

Software:

Skype
loopback https://rogueamoeba.com/loopback/
optional: Axe Fx III edit https://www.fractalaudio.com/axe-edit/

I plug in guitar and headphones into the front panel of the Axe Fx, chose my preset, create a stream of audio [mic + Axe Fx] and route that into Skype.

Axe Fx configuration

The preset I use looks like this in Axe Fx III edit:

You can ignore the presence of in 2 and out 2 for now.

Loopback configuration

I have configured the loopback the following way:

Here 1 (L) and 2 (L) outputs of the Axe-Fx III device are the left and right streams of the processed guitar sound, and Internal microphone is the macbook's mic. This essentially allows me to mix in my voice and guitar. I have the flexibility of adjusting the levels if, for example, my voice can't be heard by the recipient.

Skype configuration

In [Skype] --> [Audio & Video settings] I configure Microphone and Speakers like this:

I also use Test call during which I say something and play a little to understand what the recipient will hear.

A note about metronome

Back to Axe Fx preset. One constant struggle I have with Axe Fx III is metronome. There are numerous threads (e.g. here) where others describe inconvenience of the stock metronome, but I haven't seen any improvements recently. If I use the standard metronome from Axe Fx III, I need to keep in mind that the Output 1 level controls what *I* hear, and USB / Digital controls what *recipient* hears. So using metronome like this results in wasted time for adjusting levels (again, I can't hear what recipient hears. Is it too loud for them? Or they can't hear it at all? I will never know - I can only adjust following their suggestions). Let's say I don't need a metronome for few minutes. Then I need to remember to turn off volumes on both knobs and I need to remember the values we have found so that I can restore it when needed. Obviously the values of USB / Digital are always configured on the spot since even my proximity to the microphone will influence what level I should set the metronome too.

In addition, the metronome of Axe Fx III doesn't support placing various accents (e.g. 3/8 with accent on 1st or 5/8 with accents on 1st and 3rd) - every click of it sounds absolutely the same. Given all of the above, I decided it's worth the complication to use the external metronome from the phone - I'm connecting the phone to the Axe Fx III with Y-cable and that's where In 2 comes in. Out 2 is used to have a separate audio stream with external metronome - which I can then capture in the DAW.

Observed problems

Sometimes - under conditions which I have been too busy or lazy to pinpoint exactly - the Axe Fx stops being treated as a sound card completely. And some other times the recipient can only hear my voice (but not guitar) or vice versa. In these cases I have found that unplugging Axe Fx and plugging back into a *different* USB port does the trick.

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