Presets MASTER THREAD - AustinBuddy 1000+ LIVEGOLD TonePack for Cygnus X2

Third party presets and packs for Fractal Audio products
I`m on the FM9 Waiting List. And my plan is to keep my Live Gold Cygnus loaded FM3 until the new AB FM9 Live Gold is ready and installed in my FM9. Once this is achieved, I`ll reinstall the FM3s stock default software, and She goes up for sale. Can`t wait to see what you do with the new FM9.... AustinBuddy!
 
If you like the Bogner Ecstasy amp model as much as I do, then highly recommend you check out Justin York of @York Audio 's Bogner 4x12 Cab Pack. I dug into them tonight.

Here's a link to it. This Cab Pack also happens to be on sale, $14.99.

Just go to the Mixes folder in it, there are 12 of them. They are spectacular sounding!

I'm personally groovin' on Mixes 1, 2, 5, 7 and 11. Thick bottom, woody, with both cutting mids and balanced highs. Killah.

For the record, I have no business affiliation with Justin and no contact with him about this.

Just think his Cab IRs are among the best I've ever heard, and I rarely need to stray outside his pre-made mixes.

I'm going to check out, as time permits, some of the others he offers in conjunction with LiveGold amp sounds. But the Bogner Ecstasy never sounded better with his IRs, truly - it really completes the tone, my Cygnus Fractal Ecstasy presets really sound and feel just like the real Ecstasy 101b I own here in the studio. Mind blowing.
Hi AustinBuddy, I have bought some York Audio cab packs (Marshal M25, VLUX, M65 Cream) and I am struggling to find IR choices that pair well with the AB LiveGold patches. My initial thought was to leave the Amp block alone because you have done your magic there.

I tried the mixes and have moved on to pairing some mic captures together. I am finding that the results sound like they have more gain and less definition and either low booming or too much treble.

I am wondering if you or anyone else had some recommendations on which mics would be closest to what you might use to do this. There are so many choices and if you have a character of cab/mic you gravitate towards to build presets that may pair well with your dialed in patches.

Thanks for any help
 
Hi AustinBuddy, I have bought some York Audio cab packs (Marshal M25, VLUX, M65 Cream) and I am struggling to find IR choices that pair well with the AB LiveGold patches. My initial thought was to leave the Amp block alone because you have done your magic there.

I tried the mixes and have moved on to pairing some mic captures together. I am finding that the results sound like they have more gain and less definition and either low booming or too much treble.

I am wondering if you or anyone else had some recommendations on which mics would be closest to what you might use to do this. There are so many choices and if you have a character of cab/mic you gravitate towards to build presets that may pair well with your dialed in patches.

Thanks for any help
Hi @PaulC :

How and where are you listening to the presets? That makes a difference in terms of the bottom end you will hear.

On studio monitors, headphones? FRFR playback like floor monitors? The room you are listening in - at home/small, near a wall, or big room away from wall?

(Room modes are a problem in rooms with even measurements (can divided dimensions, example an 8 by 12 room versus a 7 by 13 room) and will cause low frequency build up for some notes).

A cab IR will NOT change amp gain at all. It's just moving frequencies around, that's all it does. Think about it like this: a Cab IR is just a 1024 discrete EQ plot (1024 slices of EQ), captured from a source.

You may need to go into cab block and change some settings I make there in terms of overall Lo Cut and Hi Cut, or Air. I mess with all of that stuff when I make presets to get them to not be too bassy or too bright.

My favorite guitar mic is the vintage grey-sliver (not black) M160 ribbon mic, which is what Eddie Kramer used on the Hendrix/Zeppelin/Stones etc. albums. An SM57 plus an R121 together will work well to get close, provided the R121 is not mixed so high it becomes too bassy.

I really like the York audio Cab pack "Mix" files folders, and always start there in his mix folder to try them out, before spending anytime going done a rabbit hole for individual mics or making my own. Justin and the Nashville guys know what sounds right.

For example, try his Bogner 4X12 Mix folder IRs with the Fractal XTC Bogner or Uberschall amps for example. Works fine for me/love them.

Hope that helps!
 
Thank you for the quick response. I should have been more clear. I am talking about practices and gigs meaning at gig volumes. This issue doesn't seem to depend on the room either. I didn't mean that there is more gain, just that the tone sounds like a higher gain tone. Less clear and bell like.

I am usually playing with another guitar player that has a Marshall or Fender style amp and their tone is always more present and pleasant than mine. I get buried in the mix and my gig level tone is uninspiring at best. By itself it sounds OK but when the band starts ...

My situation is that where I live I can not play loud, I have to try to tweak at home and hope my changes sound OK when I get to the jam. It has been a really frustrating problem to deal with. I have tried many things that never seem to pan out for me. I bought the Live Gold presets and they got me closer than anything I have done by far.

There is a "quality" to the other amps that I just can't dial in, I know it is there and that others find it but I don't seem able to. I was hoping to learn something that would help. I am thinking my tone has too much of something in it if that makes sense. The real amps seem clearer and I may need to dial something out.
 
Thank you for the quick response. I should have been more clear. I am talking about practices and gigs meaning at gig volumes. This issue doesn't seem to depend on the room either. I didn't mean that there is more gain, just that the tone sounds like a higher gain tone. Less clear and bell like.

I am usually playing with another guitar player that has a Marshall or Fender style amp and their tone is always more present and pleasant than mine. I get buried in the mix and my gig level tone is uninspiring at best. By itself it sounds OK but when the band starts ...

My situation is that where I live I can not play loud, I have to try to tweak at home and hope my changes sound OK when I get to the jam. It has been a really frustrating problem to deal with. I have tried many things that never seem to pan out for me. I bought the Live Gold presets and they got me closer than anything I have done by far.

There is a "quality" to the other amps that I just can't dial in, I know it is there and that others find it but I don't seem able to. I was hoping to learn something that would help. I am thinking my tone has too much of something in it if that makes sense. The real amps seem clearer and I may need to dial something out.
You didn't answer a few key questions....what are you playing through, what is your playback system? They are not all created equally.

Guitar is all about mids. From 200=500Hz is th emeat and from 500 to 2.2kHz is the definition.

You can use the Global Output GEQ/PEQ to "tune" your FRFR playback system for that in one step, instead of preset by preset. I have to do that on my Mission 2x12 Gemini FRFR, I use a steep slope to cut out lows under 150Hz (else too boomy) and above 3.3Hz (else too bright otherwise) -- then boost gently 250Hz to 1.2kHz about a 1 db or so, or so and it makes it sound like a real amp here for most amp types.

The more gain you have in the tone, the thinner the individual strings will sound. The gain compresses the tone/individual string separation closer together. Try lowering the gain scene you are using to something lower. I am a very big fan of Scene 2 LiveGold low gain tones, then using the CS2 boost.
 
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Some great info here to help me move forward. I monitor through a CLR and have a PEQ before the output of each preset where I low and high pass. I currently high pass at 100hz but will bump that up. Did I read right that you low pass at 3.3khz? I have it around 7khz but will try this suggestion.

I agree with you about the scene 2 Low being the ones I gravitate to as well. Edge of breakup is what I like.

Thanks again for your help and presets.
 
may I suggest you persuade your bandmates to devote an entire session to getting you property tweaked at gig volume together, they will hopefully be appreciative.
 
Some great info here to help me move forward. I monitor through a CLR and have a PEQ before the output of each preset where I low and high pass. I currently high pass at 100hz but will bump that up. Did I read right that you low pass at 3.3khz? I have it around 7khz but will try this suggestion.

I agree with you about the scene 2 Low being the ones I gravitate to as well. Edge of breakup is what I like.

Thanks again for your help and presets.
If it’s too brite start pulling it out under 7kHz down. Very few guitars speakers put out any info over 6.hkHz. You can usually cut even at 4.5kHz or less and it will kill spikey top and smooth sound out the lower you go, depending on the amp settings. I do this with Tweed amps, cutting at 4.5 kHz in Cab block. But not much below 3.3 because you loss the pick attack pretty quick after that.
 
Hey ABuddy, are the presets all uniformly leveled to the specific scenes within a preset? Or is every one of the presets in the pack uniformly leveled or closely leveled all in all? Feel like experimenting and want to do some copy and pasting of blocks
 
Hey ABuddy, are the presets all uniformly leveled to the specific scenes within a preset? Or is every one of the presets in the pack uniformly leveled or closely leveled all in all? Feel like experimenting and want to do some copy and pasting of blocks

Hi @Jipps0525:

They are very close in terms of what the preset out signals look like level-wise on a digital console (I use UAudio Apollo) - that is how I level them, I literally have a post i note with a range between -12db and -9db stuck to my monitors so i can see if the level is under or over. Low Es always will be louder than leads play up higher on the neck.

The frequency content of an amp/preset can fool you and make you think something sound louder than another preset is, yet their visual signal levels on a digital console can be virtually identical. A Dizzy model will sound a lot louder than a Fender Blackface amp, but they may hit the meters pretty close comparing the presets, as an example.

So use your ears - but also your eyes on a DAW channel strip level - to monitor the levels between patches, as you make your custom amp patches. That 3rd video on Youtube LiveGold I did shows how to cut and paste. And remember, you want your lead patches (Scene 4/8) to be a little louder so you cut through -- those are a little hotter by design than Scenes 1-3/5-7.
 
Hey ABuddy, are the presets all uniformly leveled to the specific scenes within a preset? Or is every one of the presets in the pack uniformly leveled or closely leveled all in all? Feel like experimenting and want to do some copy and pasting of blocks
The presets are as well-leveled as they can be. There are too many variables to guarantee that any group of presets can be perfectly leveled:

1) Guitar — I have presets that are perfectly leveled on my Les Paul copy, but not on a Tele.

2) Different definitions of “leveling” — presets that look perfectly level on the meter can sound very unleveled to your ear, and vice-versa.

3) Different uses — I don’t even want my hard-driving rhythm preset (or scene) to be the same level as my laid-back arpeggio preset.
 
The presets are as well-leveled as they can be. There are too many variables to guarantee that any group of presets can be perfectly leveled:

1) Guitar — I have presets that are perfectly leveled on my Les Paul copy, but not on a Tele.

2) Different definitions of “leveling” — presets that look perfectly level on the meter can sound very unleveled to your ear, and vice-versa.

3) Different uses — I don’t even want my hard-driving rhythm preset (or scene) to be the same level as my laid-back arpeggio preset.
+1000 to Rex's great points.

I level everything on some medium output humbuckers (unless it is a Strat or Tele specific preset). If you use single coils, be sure to use Scenes 5-8 instead/that filter block ON, to up the signal hitting the amp.
 
Hey guys -- sorry if this got covered as the thread is a massive 38 pages...

I own this pack and an FM3 and just secured my FM9 order. @austinbuddy what do you recommend for us moving to FM9 if we want to make best efforts to keep your awesome presets in this pack (outside of "Just wait for the FM9 version). Thanks in advance for your awesome work!
 
Hey guys -- sorry if this got covered as the thread is a massive 38 pages...

I own this pack and an FM3 and just secured my FM9 order. @austinbuddy what do you recommend for us moving to FM9 if we want to make best efforts to keep your awesome presets in this pack (outside of "Just wait for the FM9 version). Thanks in advance for your awesome work!
You can import them now using FM9-Edit’s Preset Manager BUT the tap tempo delay or delay time will be messed up in all presets if you do. It’s a bug in FM9. You just need to go into delay time and fix it to your liking for any single preset. Then I would try changing the Cab block settings from
standard to Ultra Res and see if you like that better. Will sound better, but uses more CPU. That’s really it.
 
You can import them now using FM9-Edit’s Preset Manager BUT the tap tempo delay or delay time will be messed up in all presets if you do. It’s a bug in FM9. You just need to go into delay time and fix it to your liking for any single preset. Then I would try changing the Cab block settings from
standard to Ultra Res and see if you like that better. Will sound better, but uses more CPU. That’s really it.
Do you mean manually editing the delay block on any preset?
 
Do you mean manually editing the delay block on any preset?
Yep. Until the editor bug is fixed, if you import,the editor can incorrectly cut preset delay time in half and can mess with how the tap tempo works. That is the hold up for me to get an FM9 version out. It’s a known bug and on the Fractal team’s list. So if you import a LiveGold preset into FM9 now, you need to reset the delay times and unhook and re hook up tap tempo.
 
Hi AB, just a note to say that this pack is simply amazing!!

I have been struggling with the FM3 in either 4CM or indeed direct with preset levels etc etc and was beginning to lose faith in the complete thing and was going to move away from it all and go back to pedals.

I stumbled across Burgs’ demo vid and quickly realised that this is what I was missing!!

Spent most of this morning choosing out my favourite presets/amps and reconfiguring them for Output2 to SD170/cabs and Output1 to FOH and at this point without too much more deep diving I’m finding sounds that I knew were in the box somewhere!!

I could have cried when I cranked the rig up on the CAE++ presets!!

Thank you!!
 
Hi AB, just a note to say that this pack is simply amazing!!

I have been struggling with the FM3 in either 4CM or indeed direct with preset levels etc etc and was beginning to lose faith in the complete thing and was going to move away from it all and go back to pedals.

I stumbled across Burgs’ demo vid and quickly realised that this is what I was missing!!

Spent most of this morning choosing out my favourite presets/amps and reconfiguring them for Output2 to SD170/cabs and Output1 to FOH and at this point without too much more deep diving I’m finding sounds that I knew were in the box somewhere!!

I could have cried when I cranked the rig up on the CAE++ presets!!

Thank you!!
So glad you are loving like others! It's just such a great and comprehensive "base amp tone" tool for you to then make your own tones/rigs creatively!
 
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