Axe2 Preset building

ahhh.... so this is effectively a vol boost on the preset... I understand now...
is this for your soloing tone?
 
clarky said:
ahhh.... so this is effectively a vol boost on the preset... I understand now...
is this for your soloing tone?
Click to expand...

Hey fella, yes - it's a volume boost on the preset but JUST for the crunchy amp, as the level in the block is tied to the expression pedal and only increases the level at toe-down.

No - not for a soloing tone, just for those patches where I need the crunch to come in louder than I normally would - in this case, for the very distinctive chugga, chugga that kicks off the chorus for Creep.

Would also use this for something like 'I bet u look good on the dance floor' by the Arctic Monkeys (which is also in the set next week) to go from the clean-ish verse to the loud crunch of the Chorus where an un-boosted tone gets lost against the loud-ass drumming in that bit!

Just gives me the option to go to a normal or a boosted crunch, dependent on the song. I'll have a separate soloing patch which will have 'special moment' effects at the toe-down position. :)
 
"I will dine on honeydew, and drink the milk of paradise!"

clarky said:
Halenesque - before you start on your preset you need to create individual presets of the tones you are wanting to combine into a single preset..

in Xanadu I hear the following guitar tones:
- bowed intro with distortion and a big reverb [Alex is either bowing with the guitar's vol knob or a vol pedal - you can do it the same way or use a gate to do it for you]
- a slightly dirty but heavily compressed rhythm tone
- solo tone is similar to the rhythm tone
- there's another tone like the solo tone which what sounds to me like a phaser
- a clean, strongly compressed, strongly reverbed tone

there are real synths in there..
sounds like Taurus bass pedals at the start
and later there's a part with bells playing in unison with an analogue lead synth

you'll certainly be able to squeeze all the guitar tones into a single preset..
funnily enough, the old stomps and amp setup will most likely handle all of that..
and you can add the gate to do the bowing for you [the intro part] which can be switched on/off via an IA, EXS or EXP..
don't know about the real synths though..
you may find you can do some stuff with the synth block to get the analogue lead tone.. but I don't know about the bells..
thing with the synth block is that it chews up cpu... so we may struggle to do all this in a single preset if we include the synth block..

you have research to do... find out as much as you can about Alex's setup, use this info and try to recreate something similar to his main guitar tones..
create them in individual presets first but try to keep the amp / cab choices the same in all presets..
once we've nailed the basics we can look at combining them and see if we can get more out of them..
Click to expand...

clarky/halenesque,

There's an AMAZING live version of "Xanadu" from Rush's "Exit Stage Left" LP and tour (which to me is superior to the studio-version, but that's just IMO!) Anyways, the video-footage of that tour (I believe it was recorded when they were touring the "Moving Pictures" LP - and of course they were in KILLER-FORM at that point...they're still great!) I used to own that concert on VHS (Yeah, yeah...I know - I'm OLD - LOL!) and I vividly remember Alex:

- Definitely used an actual volume-pedal (not manual via-the-guitar.)
- I believe after all the delayed volume-swell parts in the intro, Alex simply disengaged his delay and used the volume pedal to VERY SLOWLY ride his volume from minimum-to-maximum, as he played that repeating "E-Major Melody/Riff," thus he (clarky-approved) "morphed" his tone from clean-to-dirty with an extremely gradual volume-pedal fade-in!

I hope this helps a bit, and best of luck!

Bill
 
Thanks for the advice on where to start. I admit I havent done much research on Alex lifeson's rig as of yet. Its a great starting place. I totally agree on making separate presets first and then attempt to combine them. I cant think of anything which has his basic rhythm,lead to tone match that has just guitar. It may have to be totally by ear after I see what he used at that time. I do also agree that Exit Stage Left was an incredible album and it is the one which has the best version of Xanadu. I plan to start on this over the weekend. Thanks for the input all.......




i Stage Left was an incredible album and its the version I was originally referring to
 
I've never tried to recreate Alex's tones.. and they're unusual for sure..
the thing with all this is not to try to nail everything in the final preset in one go.. you'll tie yourself up in knots..
so by making individual presets first you have references..
and you don't need to store them on the Axe..
my Lab presets are in my Mac in my preset folder

when it comes to creating your final preset, start simple and add to it little by little
 
Yek / Bakerman - the IA PC is off for all IA's [factory default I guess]
so something else is doing this..

hitting IA 11 once trigers MIDI CC 20
hitting it again changes preset to 292
 
clarky said:
Yek / Bakerman - the IA PC is off for all IA's [factory default I guess]
so something else is doing this..

hitting IA 11 once trigers MIDI CC 20
hitting it again changes preset to 292
Click to expand...

Hmm, strange....
Did you check in the Preset menu for custom MIDI commands, regarding this switch?
 
not tried that.... I have changed a lot of things in the MFC to get my own setup running..
I don't recall setting up and customer MIDI stuff though - unless of course I've set something in error when sorting all this out..

so everything in the MFC should be defaulted apart from the bank size and the addition of the EXP1, EXS1 and EXS2

thinking back though... I did briefly experiment with an 'all CC' config [and didn't like it much], but even then I don't recall setting anything up for IA 11..
time to dig out the manual and look for everything that can be set to transmit MIDI: PC..
 
guys... I've been through all the PC related settings and I cannot see anything that points to preset 292...
I've got absolutely no idea what's causing this...
 
I downloaded successfully the two presets (RiffSolo1 and RiffSolo 4). As Antiprism I have no sound at all from RiffSolo 1 while everything is perfect with RiffSolo4. I did not find any block being bypassed with Mute enabled ... Both pedals and External Switches work well with RiffSolo4, so I imagine they are correctly set also for RiffSolo1. Any idea on what to check ? Thanks.
 
I believe that the problem lies with AmP2 in the preset as it downloaded : 59 BassGuy with all settings to zero ... ? Could it be linked to Global Amp/Axe Edit bug ? (But I still have no sound even when trying to bypass Amp2)
 
I was just going to look into this when I saw your post...
amp2 is sposed to be a VH4..
no idea what happened there...
I'll resave the preset in my preset folder and bung the fresh one up in here...
 
Yek / Bakerman: I found the prob with my MFC

I got to say this one is real subtle...

EDIT: MIDI: IA11 pOF PC OFF Ch01

I changed pOF to pON and found that it was set"
IA11 pON PC 292 Ch01

I set it to:
IA11 pON PC OFF Ch01

and everything works fine..

so I can make IA11 switch me in and out of solo mode in the same way as my EXS1 does

what I didn't realise is that the pOF and pON settings are both active..
I thought [in error] that seeing pOF PC OFF meant that this was not doing anything

this is the thing I missed in the manual
"A setting of “OFF” for either state will cause it to send no data."
 
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Thanks Clarky. Preset arrived OK this time. Extremely good tones and nice transition. I am glad you shared it: you opened my mind on promising new avenues. Thanks.
 
that's cool.... glad it's all working now...

when you examine the preset you should find:
extern1 - everything assigned to this is related to clean<- ->dirty morphing
extern5 - everything assigned to this is related to switching between 'riff mode' and 'solo mode'
extern6 - turns on the uni-vibe

when you get used to performance with a preset like this you may find your tone switching to be smoother [not only clean to dirty but also riff to solo and back]..
delays / reverbs continue to sound after tone changes [no cutting off / speeding up / shortening] so it all sounds more natural

creating 'all in one' presets like this though do have limitations...
you have to make amp choises that can serve all purposes [can riff, solo and clean up]..
this means stepping away from presets that have different amp / cab combinations for each job..
and also you need to look harder to find amp / cab combinations that can offer everything you want [which is time consuming research]..
personally though, I find the all-in-one benefits outweigh the limitations..
 
the next preset to build is a pure clean.. maybe morphs to a synth like pad.. with solo...

first thing though will be the choice of clean amp...

I fancy trying out the Hiwatt models
 
billmeedog said:
clarky/halenesque,

There's an AMAZING live version of "Xanadu" from Rush's "Exit Stage Left" LP and tour (which to me is superior to the studio-version, but that's just IMO!) Anyways, the video-footage of that tour (I believe it was recorded when they were touring the "Moving Pictures" LP - and of course they were in KILLER-FORM at that point...they're still great!) I used to own that concert on VHS (Yeah, yeah...I know - I'm OLD - LOL!) and I vividly remember Alex:

- Definitely used an actual volume-pedal (not manual via-the-guitar.)
- I believe after all the delayed volume-swell parts in the intro, Alex simply disengaged his delay and used the volume pedal to VERY SLOWLY ride his volume from minimum-to-maximum, as he played that repeating "E-Major Melody/Riff," thus he (clarky-approved) "morphed" his tone from clean-to-dirty with an extremely gradual volume-pedal fade-in!

I hope this helps a bit, and best of luck!

Bill
Click to expand...

I was kinda having the same thoughts [possibly memories] about Alex with the volume pedal....
from what I hear.. Alex was one to really explore fx and their possibilities...
he has an unusual approach too.. very distinct tone and style..
on occasion I'm sure I can hear glimpses of Steve Howe and Steve Hackett in him..
 
I'm really liking the Hiwatt normal channel...
it's real clean but has nice fatness to it..
some sparkly cleans can sound pretty but in a mix they can get brittle..
the Hiwatt though seems to have more body..
liking this a lot...
I can really see why Cliff raved about it...
 
FAS have gone and thrown the best possible curve ball...

the 5153 Red....

I need to make some changes....
cos it's wonderful... absolutely wonderful....
 
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