How do I create a distortion tone?

often with cases like this, the most useful thing you can do is record yourself playing through one of the factory presets or a preset that's readily available, so that the people trying to help can hear what's going on. from what you say and the screenshots you've provided, something is wrong in your setup.
 
If the factory presets like the Friedman BE100, Herbie, and Euro Uber are not sounding heavy for you, something is definitely not set up right.

Doing a full system reset from the Utilities menu is probably not a bad idea. Wouldn't hurt to get the latest firmware version installed either.
 
I eventually sold mine for this exact reason. Seemed like every amp had to have a drive pedal in front of it to get a decent amount of gain and not be super flubby in the low end.
 
You've got gain staging issues at some point in your signal chain. Try looking at the block metering view on the hardware front panel (layout and then page over to the right). That should help you pinpoint if the issue if it exists within the preset. If that doesn't reveal the problem then I'd start checking cables and other hardware. As others have said, the settings you posted should yield a tone with a healthy amount of gain with a humbucker equipped guitar.
 
your experience is not typical
Agreed. Out of the box mine had a great sound. I have yet to find a reason to purchase a 3rd party preset pack. Fractal’s factory presets are very good.

I’d recommend reloading the system, then reloading the factory presets.
 
I don't know how to create a distortion guitar on my Axe FX III. Every time I make a new setting, it just sounds like a clean or moderately overdriven guitar. I watched a video from Leon Todd about the 2290 Delay Pedal and copied each block he had in the video and set mine up exactly the same down to the number - the sound isn't even close to his.

I'm not saying, "I want that EXACT tone". I know that's unrealistic. But it seems like every time I create a "heavy" preset, it just comes out like 1950s OD guitar.

I have attached some pictures of the setup.

Help?
Here is just a little sample of the tone. I feel like it should be stronger than this, no? I replaced the battery in my guitar which seemed to help a little bit. Am I just a newbie with dialing in tones?
 

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With the settings in the OP images, it should be way more saturated than that. Post the preset. Also what are your I/O menu Input level and Input Gain set to?
 
With the settings in the OP images, it should be way more saturated than that. Post the preset. Also what are your I/O menu Input level and Input Gain set to?
I hope these screen shots are what you're looking for.
 

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Your firmware is a bit outdated, don't know if that's the problem

I imported your preset and here is what it sounds like with my setup. As you can here, it's pretty high gain. Seems like a hardware issue


 
the first thing you need to do is confirm that your input level is in the right ballpark. you've been asked to do this already, but not responded. hammer on your strings with the bridge pickup selected and look at the "input" lights on the front of the axe. as you hammer away, you should see the top red light come on briefly. if you don't, your pickups may be too far away from your strings. also check that the input 1 level is above 50% in setup>I/O
 
I hope these screen shots are what you're looking for.

Nope, you need to check out my previous post on how to access the I/O levels menu from the front panel of the unit. You can do it via Axe-Edit too, look out for the "Setup" button on the top right.
 
Well, that's odd.. I just loaded your preset and sounds really saturated as it should be on those settings. Here is a quick test I did so you can see my I/O settings, and even with my Input 1 Level set as low as 10% (my highest output guitar has SD Blackout pickups, I did this test with a Dimarzio Crunch Lab pickup) the gain is pretty high.



Definitely there's nothing wrong with the preset per se, my recommendation as well would be to perform a System Reset (Setup -> Utilities -> Reset -> Reset System Parameters) as well as to update your Firmware to the latest one (14.05 as of now).
 
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