Austin Buddys Live Gold - Pack - Opinions, please ;-)

[Paultergeist]

This is a prime example. Austin Buddy documented this. Why rely on word-of-mouth in the forum when you can get it from the horse's mouth?

This comment of yours leaves me confused. I maintain that this issue in NOT adequately addressed -- if addressed at all -- in the "Read Me" PDF file included with the AB Gold Presets. So...what do you mean "from the horse's mouth?" Do you mean I should email AB directly? I kind of thought this was the sort of question for which the forum was a good spot to inquire?

 

[austinbuddy]

JRFarmer, I have read the three included "Read Me" files, but I confess that much of the content goes a bit over my head....hence my questions. More specifically, of the three "Read Me"files, only one document seems to be an instructional mini-manual of sorts. The other two are (a) a list of the Banks / Presets and (b) a single-page layout switch screen-shot. This brings me down to only the "README_LiveGold..." (July 2020) PDF file to search for answers. I am doing the best I can, but I believe the target audience of that guide is perhaps for more experienced users, not relative newcomers such as myself.

Watch this video and do exactly what it says to set up your FM3. It will also explain how to set up the FM3 so you can access that “Cs2” switch which is related to earlier posts. And thanks to this community for chiming in with help!

 

[JRFarmer]

I kind of thought this was the sort of question for which the forum was a good spot to inquire?

Please don't misunderstand me. The forum is a great place to ask questions. Sometimes the best answer is to tell you where to find the answers. I'm not giving you a book, I'm telling you where the library is.

Based on the questions you asked and the areas you are struggling, I believe you are missing the fundamentals. And because I believe that, I think your time is best spent watching beginner videos and reading through the manuals so you understand how to use the FM3 and the editor.

Right now you're reactive, trying to get answers to specific problems because you don't know how to use the FM3. You'll get more mileage by being proactive and learning more generally about the FM3 and Fractal gear. You'll even find yourself experimenting and answering your own questions.

 

[teddis]

I found the WAH to be quiet when engaged......after looking its level at is set to -2.6db. I need it to jump out when I auto engage it. so have set to +1.0 DB.
Is this a suit to test thing AB.....? for volume ?

thanks

 

[Paultergeist]

Please don't misunderstand me. The forum is a great place to ask questions. Sometimes the best answer is to tell you where to find the answers. I'm not giving you a book, I'm telling you where the library is.

Based on the questions you asked and the areas you are struggling, I believe you are missing the fundamentals. And because I believe that, I think your time is best spent watching beginner videos and reading through the manuals so you understand how to use the FM3 and the editor.

Right now you're reactive, trying to get answers to specific problems because you don't know how to use the FM3. You'll get more mileage by being proactive and learning more generally about the FM3 and Fractal gear. You'll even find yourself experimenting and answering your own questions.

You're right.....and my frustration level is getting higher. I apologize if that is trickling through. Truthfully, I HAVE read the manual -- in its entirety -- but I think there is a lot of ground to cover, and just because my eyes read it does not mean that my brain understood it all (far from it). It is probably just going to take time. Thank you for engaging in the dialog with me.

 

[JRFarmer]

Thank you for engaging in the dialog with me.

No problem.

Watch the video Austin Buddy just linked a few minutes ago, and also search YouTube for Leon Todd's tutorials. You should even watch the tutorials for the Axe-Fx or the AX8, because they will help you understand the FM3 as well.

 

[Paultergeist]

Watch this video and do exactly what it says to set up your FM3.

Thank you AB. I have watched this video a couple of times now (and I found your beginner's videos to the AXE FXIII really useful as well).

I think I have figured out -- from your video (and your recommendation to re-watch it) -- what I have needed to do, but please allow me to restate the objective/question explicitly, since the various instructions cited do not seem to be hitting this no-external-pedal point head-on:

Objective: What to do in the FM3 if one is using these Presets with NO external pedal....for Dummies:

From "Home" screen --> Press Knob E to access the "Setup" menu....

Use NAV buttons to highlight "MIDI/Remote" option, press "Enter"....

Use NAV buttons to highlight "External Control 1"....turn "VALUE" knob to set this at 100%.
Similarly, use NAV buttons to highlight "External Control 2"....turn "VALUE" knob to set this at 100%.

With both "External Control" 1 and 2 now set to 100%, press "Exit" twice to return to the FM3 Home screen.

If i understand correctly, that's the objective. With no external pedals used, having the "External Control" 1 and 2 both set to 100%, the FM3 will now play nice with the Presets.......do I have this correct?

 

[austinbuddy]

Thank you AB. I have watched this video a couple of times now (and I found your beginner's videos to the AXE FXIII really useful as well).

I think I have figured out -- from your video (and your recommendation to re-watch it) -- what I have needed to do, but please allow me to restate the objective/question explicitly, since the various instructions cited do not seem to be hitting this no-external-pedal point head-on:

Objective: What to do in the FM3 if one is using these Presets with NO external pedal....for Dummies:

From "Home" screen --> Press Knob E to access the "Setup" menu....

Use NAV buttons to highlight "MIDI/Remote" option, press "Enter"....

Use NAV buttons to highlight "External Control 1"....turn "VALUE" knob to set this at 100%.
Similarly, use NAV buttons to highlight "External Control 2"....turn "VALUE" knob to set this at 100%.

With both "External Control" 1 and 2 now set to 100%, press "Exit" twice to return to the FM3 Home screen.

If i understand correctly, that's the objective. With no external pedals used, having the "External Control" 1 and 2 both set to 100%, the FM3 will now play nice with the Presets.......do I have this correct?

The wah block is set to external controller 1 and it turns off when the value it sees is 95% or higher. So setting the Initial value as above makes sure the wah is off when you load the preset, since you don’t have a pedal connected.

 

[austinbuddy]

I found the WAH to be quiet when engaged......after looking its level at is set to -2.6db. I need it to jump out when I auto engage it. so have set to +1.0 DB.
Is this a suit to test thing AB.....? for volume ?

thanks

That is a default level value of that specifc wah in the wah block. Try a few other wahs blocks and you will see Cliff has different levels set. Change it as you see fit.

 

[Piing]

I've found another easter egg: "OD2 Bass JMP-1, Scene 3". Judas Priest Rhythm- You've Got Another Thing Comin'

I've never played that song before, but playing now these riffs that I heard 38 years ago is one of these little pleasures that make you happy of having learned to play guitar.

I am playing with headphones, but my wife had to close the door because the noise chugging the strings was annoying her

 

[Piing]

BTW. Having converted the presets to the Axe-FX III (I don't have FM3) I had to manually disengage Input Boost, Cut, Fat and Bright Switches. Otherwise it was too saturated. I imagine that this is caused by the Axe-FX III not having pedal switches. Are these switched supposed to be Off by default?

 

[austinbuddy]

BTW. Having converted the presets to the Axe-FX III (I don't have FM3) I had to manually disengage Input Boost, Cut, Fat and Bright Switches. Otherwise it was too saturated. I imagine that this is caused by the Axe-FX III not having pedal switches. Are these switched supposed to be Off by default?

@Piing - the CS2 switches are off by default (except bright switch which is amp-dependent) -- and work fine and come up off on my Axe-Fx III. If those presets ever touched FracTool it may have had an effect.

Take the download file you originally got and use Axe-Edit III Preset Manager to import them and they will work fine and just like on the Fm3. (Did you change any programming on a footswitch maybe?)

For now, any other way will mess them up...that may change later over time. Once I get to the Axe-Fx III version (i'm about 45% done with Bank 3), I'll save as banks and FractalBot will work with those files.

So you guys know, in Axe-Edit, you can see the Controller assignments here. Every presets was SAVED with all CS switches defaulting to "off" (save bright switch which is amp-dependent, and the modifier assignment overrides the value in the table below).

If yours "CS Per Scene" table looks different in Axe-Fx III (for example, saying all ON or LAST) -- then something happened when you converted presets that affected this - that's my best guess. They are all fine on my Axe-Fx III.

 

[austinbuddy]

I've found another easter egg: "OD2 Bass JMP-1, Scene 3". Judas Priest Rhythm- You've Got Another Thing Comin'

I've never played that song before, but playing now these riffs that I heard 38 years ago is one of these little pleasures that make you happy of having learned to play guitar.

I am playing with headphones, but my wife had to close the door because the noise chugging the strings was annoying her

That is one of my fav Live Gold sounds and a killer tune -- get that Chorus on, you can find backing tracks for the song to play along with, play it LOUD!

 

[Piing]

@Piing - the CS2 switches are off by default (except bright switch which is amp-dependent) -- and work fine and come up off on my Axe-Fx III. If those presets ever touched FracTool it may have had an effect.

Take the download file you originally got and use Axe-Edit III Preset Manager to import them and they will work fine and just like on the Fm3. (Did you change any programming on a footswitch maybe?)

For now, any other way will mess them up...that may change later over time. Once I get to the Axe-Fx III version (i'm about 45% done with Bank 3), I'll save as banks and FractalBot will work with those files.

So you guys know, in Axe-Edit, you can see the Controller assignments here. Every presets was SAVED with all CS switches defaulting to "off" (save bright switch which is amp-dependent, and the modifier assignment overrides the value in the table below).

If yours "CS Per Scene" table looks different in Axe-Fx III (for example, saying all ON or LAST) -- then something happened when you converted presets that affected this - that's my best guess. They are all fine on my Axe-Fx III.

Yes, it was my Control CS table. All is ON, and when I convert new presets it goes again to ON.

Note to the OP: I have only scratched the surface of this pack, but I am already satisfied with the purchase. I have spent many years with the Axe-FX series, since the first Axe-FX Standard was released, so I now something about how to bring good tones out of it, but having all these AMP/CAB combinations perfectly matched by Austin Buddy is priceless. It is worth the money for me.

 

[austinbuddy]

Yes, it was my Control CS table. All is ON, and when I convert presets it goes again to ON.

I am running 12.14 firmware and have no such problem with the Live Gold FM3 presets I imported using Preset Manager. All of my presets show this (below). Read on.





Again, do not "CONVERT" any presets. No FracTool. No FractalBot. Take the ORIGINAL downloaded presets.

Load them into your FM3 if you have one Do they work? (Yes). Good, now save them as a bank in Fractal Bot. If you don't have an FM3 , the following still works.

Make sure you have the latest version FractalBot.

Open Axe-Edit III. Click (under TOOLs) "Manage Presets" to open the Preset Manager.

Then on left , where it says "Browser", click the triangel to open the menu. You may need to select Show/Hide to "see" the browser window open (do it) -- screen shot photo below.

Now, pick BANK in that Browser menu, and then when it says CHOOSE FOLDER, point to one of the two FM3 Live Gold bank file. Click Ok.

It will read and find 128 presets.




Then, you will see the FM3 presets in the browser window now, sorted in order. See screen shot.

Now you can DRAG the presets from the browser window on the left into your Axe-Fx III's memory bank shown on the right. I like to clik the top one (turns blue), then hold shoft and drag the mouse dwon the list to the bottom and click again to "grab" all 128 presets -- then just pull them over.

Some people like to use the "Auto Audition" button an play presest to see what they like and only dag over what they want. If you go that rout,e make sure ot try all 8 scenes - you can change scenes still from front panel or foot controller while doing this.

After you drag them over, click SAVE and then leave the Axe-III alone while it saves all 128 presets (don't touch anything).

The presets are identical on both units - they copy fine. The firmware causes some difference sin tone, but many think those are minor.

In August (mid?) I'll have specific Axe-III banks made so you can just use FractalBot to do this and it will work right.

 

[TravisG406]

Okay.....I have had some limited success....I was able to simply drag-and-drop each of the groups of AB Gold Presets into the Tools-->Manage Presets-->Browser window. From there, I was able to audition a number of the AB Gold Presets. I consider that to be a BIG step forward for me, and I am grateful for the continued support. Many of the Presets sound really dark to me, but I think that is because of the "wah pedal issue," which I have read about a couple of times now. I have not yet figured out how to disable it, but I will.

I do have a couple of other questions, if anyone has an insight to spare:

1. In the Preset title, AB sometimes adds a suggestion to try:

a). "Try CS2" which I believe to stand for Control Switch 2. I confess I am having trouble finding this CS2. Where is this switch? What it is operating?

b). "Try Saturation" -- okay, I ran into this on a Trainwreck Rocket Preset....and I found the Saturation switch in the amp block. Weird thing is, I cannot hear a single lick of a difference between having that Saturation turned ON or OFF....maybe it is one of those subtle differences like NOS tubes which only some people can hear......or maybe I am doing something wrong?

2. I had read that the AB Gold pack had very balanced output levels between the Presets.....I am not finding that to be the case, as some are quite loud while others are very quiet. This makes me think I may have something configured incorrectly somewhere.....or that there is a global noise gate or volume pedal somewhere I am supposed to turn off?

Otherwise, I actually think I am making some good progress. This is my first time downloading Presets over the internet and auditioning them, so I am very happy that the process overall seems to be working. To my ears, some of the new Presets sound very nice, but it is too early for me to really render an option as to whether I like the AB Gold better than the factory ones. Still learning....and thanks to all for the continued support.

You can drag presets you want to save from that browser window to empty slots or over presets you would like to overwrite. Then you can save them. Then if I were you and not having an expression pedal I'd turn the wah block to a shunt to free up cpu.
1. The settings configured as control switches cannot be clicked on in the amp block anymore. They are waiting for a control switches at that point or a scene to tell it a control switches is enabled. You can right clock on the setting in axe edit to remove the control switches and then you could try the settings out in axe edit with a mouse.
2. These are leveled for live sound levels. At bedroom levels the cleans will not seem loud enough. Modify this for your own uses. For home practice I'd make one version with the output of the clean scene louder.

 

[Piing]

Thank you for the explanation. That is the procedure that I have followed, opening the Bank from Axe Edit III manager.

This is how it looks. CS per scene are either on "Last" or "ON". GEC, OUT3 and OUT4 are missing (anyway, I don't use them)


But don't worry about this. I will patiently wait for the Axe-Edit III edition. In the meantime I am having fun with this preview, after correcting some minor details.

 

[austinbuddy]

Thank you for the explanation. That is the procedure that I have followed, opening the Bank from Axe Edit III manager.

This is how it looks. CS per scene are either on "Last" or "ON". GEC, OUT3 and OUT4 are missing (anyway, I don't use them)
View attachment 70663

But don't worry about this. I will patiently wait for the Axe-Edit III edition. In the meantime I am having fun with this preview, after correcting some minor details.

If you click the button in the lower right of the screen shot you shared, that says "SET ALL OFF" and then save the preset, that will fix the problem you have -- but it has to be done preset by preset. I have no explanation why you are having this issue though. No one else as of yet has reported this.

 

[Simon Godden]

I just have to put out a bit of love for these patches as a whole. I've spent a lot of time over the years trying the different amps in the AX8, the III and the FM3. But I'm not an experienced tweaker, I always used to be more a Bernie Marsden "plug me into any decent valve amp" kind of person. I always struggled to get tones I liked at rehearsal / gig with modellers.

My experience and worflow has been transformed with these patches. I just cycle through trying the different amps and find what I like, and then I'll copy whichever one is flavour of the moment (currently JMP-1 OD2) up to where I keep my user patches in the 400s, and quickly modify the patch to include the effects I tend to use. I don't change the amp or drives at all though, just change a bit of layout and routing.

The great thing is, I now have the confidence to throw things away because I know I can just load up the live gold presets again and quickly recreate. Before, I used to have lots of user patches where I saved decent sounds because I was scared of losing them, and they cluttered up my user banks. This has really freed me up.

These days I'll frequently reload the factory presets because there are some great effects combinations in there to learn from. Then reload the live gold presets if I want to play around with finding a new template live tone.

So just a thank you @austinbuddy - this is the best money I ever spent, and I really appreciate the huge amount of time this must have taken, and the experienced ear that you clearly have.

 

[MrCrossroads83]

I agree, Simon!

Yesterday I played some blues stuff with my band (Mustang Sally and Sweet Home Chicago)
and the Tweed Deluxe patch from Austin Buddys Gold Pack just blewed me and my bandmates away, they still could not believe that this dynamic, great tone came out from a Seymour Duncan Powerstage 170 and a digital amp modeler, my Stratocaster was made for that preset !

Thanks again to all users that helped me to pull the trigger and buy the AB gold pack, best purchase for the FM 3!

Now I got a different question:
I do not understand the routing with send and return in FM 3 edit.
Will all presets have the cab sim on through out 1 XLR of the FM 3?
I disabled the cab sim in the general settings as I am using the mentioned powerstage and a 2x12 guitar cab so that out 2 will not have the cab sim.

My goal is to have the cab sim disabled through out 2 but enabled through out 1 so that I do not have to mic up my guitar cab in our rehearsal room.