Axe-Fx III Factory Presets v1.07

[Rex]

I have not loaded these new ones yet, nor have I fully toured the ones that came with the unit... But even in the 25-30 I went through I found a LOT of disparity in the levels.

How well the presets are leveled depends a lot on your guitar. I’ve tested presets that were leveled perfectly for moderately-hot humbuckers, but were all over the place with a Tele. And vice-versa. It depends on how hard your pickups push the various blocks into gain and/or compression.

When you consider that some presets were tailor-made for a Strat, while others are just begging for high-gain ‘buckers — and some of them are used for rhythm, but other people will use them for lead — it’s easy to see that it’s impossible to make presets that are perfectly leveled for everybody. We do the best we can, which turns out to be pretty darn good.

 

[unix-guy]

How well the presets are leveled depends a lot on your guitar. I’ve tested presets that were leveled perfectly for moderately-hot humbuckers, but were all over the place with a Tele. And vice-versa. It depends on how hard your pickups push the various blocks into gain and/or compression.

When you consider that some presets were tailor-made for a Strat, while others are just begging for high-gain ‘buckers — and some of them are used for rhythm, but other people will use them for lead — it’s easy to see that it’s impossible to make presets that are perfectly leveled for everybody. We do the best we can, which turns out to be pretty darn good.

Sure... That makes sense.

I almost never use them anyway, except when getting a new unit

 

[electronpirate]

Sure... That makes sense.

I almost never use them anyway, except when getting a new unit

Thanks for these.

I will comment that many of the existing presets are very close to gig-ready. Especially the Fenders. Minor modifications on taming low/high end for me and gain to taste, but these seem like a much better effort than previous presets.

 

[camilovelandiamusic]

Probably a stupid question, but my presets saved from 384 and on should be okay, right?

 

[austinbuddy]

I have not loaded these new ones yet, nor have I fully toured the ones that came with the unit... But even in the 25-30 I went through I found a LOT of disparity in the levels.

I have learned that different pickups/guitars work differently with different amps and can cuase wide variation in leveling. Counter-intuitively, there are a few amps (designd with single coils in mind) where humbuckers will be smooth in response while A single coil can spike it with transients... something about how the preamp interacts with the pickup. Opposite true too. Take a Shiva amp with neck Tele pickup and level it. Then try a medium neck humbucker — widely different dynamic response that affects levels. Just putting this info out there.

 

[austinbuddy]

How well the presets are leveled depends a lot on your guitar. I’ve tested presets that were leveled perfectly for moderately-hot humbuckers, but were all over the place with a Tele. And vice-versa. It depends on how hard your pickups push the various blocks into gain and/or compression.

When you consider that some presets were tailor-made for a Strat, while others are just begging for high-gain ‘buckers — and some of them are used for rhythm, but other people will use them for lead — it’s easy to see that it’s impossible to make presets that are perfectly leveled for everybody. We do the best we can, which turns out to be pretty darn good.

This is exactly right!

 

[austinbuddy]

I will also add that two different amps (presets) can come in exactly at the same VU point, but because of the frequency content in one versus the other, our ears will “hear” one as louder than the other, or it seems more dynamic to player technique, but still the VU level is the same on average as the other. Just something I have observed doing presets for all 260 amp models.

 

[GuitarNut]

Thank You

 

[Rex]

Probably a stupid question, but my presets saved from 384 and on should be okay, right?

If you load the "all banks" file, your presets above 384 will be untouched. If you load the individual bank files, it depends on which bank you tell Fractal-Bot to load the file into. You can shoot yourself in the foot if you want to...or not.

 

[unix-guy]

Probably a stupid question, but my presets saved from 384 and on should be okay, right?

If you load the "all banks" file, your presets above 384 will be untouched. If you load the individual bank files, it depends on which bank you tell Fractal-Bot to load the file into. You can shoot yourself in the foot if you want to...or not.

But I suggest to always backup before loading firmware or preset banks, just to CYA

 

[trancegodz]

I have not loaded these new ones yet, nor have I fully toured the ones that came with the unit... But even in the 25-30 I went through I found a LOT of disparity in the levels.

There still is. I just loaded the new presets and tried up through the Friedman BE-100 so far. Try going from Double Verb to the next preset A-Class 15. Try going from Princeton to Plexi 50W. Try going from Brit 800 to Hipower. Try going from USA Mk IV to USA IIC+. Try going from AC-20 Deluxe to Shiver. Try going from Super Reverb to Friedman BE-100. That's as far as I have checked down Bank A so far. All examples of wide disparity in volume levels. This is not a big issue to me at all as I will be creating my own presets, or tweaking existing ones, but it is very clear to me that the preset levels are still all over the place.

 

[Rex]

Try going from Double Verb to the next preset A-Class 15. Try going from Princeton to Plexi 50W.

I just did. All four presets are running very close to 0 VU. Double Verb and A-Class 15 are freaky close, on both the LP and the Strat.

Higher-gain tones will have more perceived volume than low-gain tones will, even when both levels are identical. But that difference tends to get reduced at gig volumes. The zero-VU target gets you in the ballpark. Beyond that, differences in preset leveling are highly dependent on context — what you're playing, and with whom.

 

[trancegodz]

I just did. All four presets are running very close to 0 VU. Double Verb and A-Class 15 are freaky close, on both the LP and the Strat.

Are you saying they sound the same volume to you as each other? They look the same on the VU meter to me, but they are not the same perceived loudness to me.
I also noticed when I created my first few presets and used the VU meters to match their volumes, that even though they all were exactly the same according to the VU meters they were not the same in volume. I had to adjust them by as much as 2 db up or down to get them to match in perceived volume.

 

[chris]

2 dB is not a large degree of difference.

There will be variance due to the guitar used, pick used, how you pick, how you fret, and many, many other factors. My leveling procedure was pretty meticulous and we compared results and all fell within a particular “acceptable average” (my term) across various guitars and techniques.

There’s just no way everyone in the world will plug in and be solidly at 0 on the VU meter. That’s the beauty of guitar and amps though.

From there, you might need to balance even more. VU meters are always a visual reference and may not correspond 1:1 to the perceived sound.

 

[trancegodz]

Actually what I meant was that I had to turn up the amp block level by 2 numbers. I played a riff into a looper and switched between presets to level the volumes, so there was no variance in what was being played with each preset. I am curious, when you switch between the presets I mentioned do you think they sound the sound the same volume to you?

 

[chris]

Actually what I meant was that I had to turn up the amp block level by 2 numbers.

I don’t understand what this means. 2 numbers?

I don’t use a looper when leveling presets. I don’t play different amps the same way, so a looper would be too sterile for the way I would actually play the different presets/amps.

 

[yek]

Are you saying they sound the same volume to you as each other? They look the same on the VU meter to me, but they are not the same perceived loudness to me.
I also noticed when I created my first few presets and used the VU meters to match their volumes, that even though they all were exactly the same according to the VU meters they were not the same in volume. I had to adjust them by as much as 2 db up or down to get them to match in perceived volume.

By “perceived volume” you mean: by ear, through studio monitors?

That would explain it. These presets are leveled through the VU meters to be accurately leveled, when played at medium to loud volume.

The perceived levels al low volume will be totally different, because of dynamics and compression and Fletcher-Munson.

 

[Rex]

Are you saying they sound the same volume to you as each other?...They look the same on the VU meter to me, but they are not the same perceived loudness to me.

No. See my post:

Higher-gain tones will have more perceived volume than low-gain tones will, even when both levels are identical.

I also noticed when I created my first few presets and used the VU meters to match their volumes, that even though they all were exactly the same according to the VU meters they were not the same in volume. I had to adjust them by as much as 2 db up or down to get them to match in perceived volume.

Same thing.

Actually what I meant was that I had to turn up the amp block level by 2 numbers.

Two whole numbers on the Amp block Level equals 2 dB.


Bottom line: variances between guitars, guitarists, music genre, song structure and bandmates will have a much larger effect on preset leveling than the 2 dB you discovered. Sometimes you want to perceive that clean tone as a few dB lower than the lead tone. Sometimes not. We chose to level the presets at 0 VU to minimize noise and maximize headroom, giving the player plenty of room to move his perceived levels around to find the sweet spot, knowing full well that there's no way to level them perfectly to meet everyone's needs. And as it turns out, the factory preset leveling works pretty well at gig volume.

 

[Rex]

The perceived levels at low volume will be totally different, because of dynamics and compression and Fletcher-Munson.

This. If you level your presets at modest volume and then take them to the gig, the clean tones will be too hot.

 

[trancegodz]

Thanks Chris, Yek, and Rex. I was listening to the Factory presets at a low volume through my studio monitors because it is the middle of the night, so maybe that explains it. I will compare them again when I am able to crank up my studio monitors.

So if I am creating new presets and want the clean and distorted presets to be balanced I should create the presets at a medium to loud volume if I am listening through studio monitors. What I usually do for presets I am going to use live is to create them through the same powered PA cabinets I am going to be playing them through live, at a loud volume. That's what I did with the Axe FXII.

I have never tried to create presets using headphones. Are there any headphones that would be good enough to create good presets?