Axe2 Preset building

thanks dude...
the band is called Syberian.. it's a little project I'm doing with a few friends..
this band is all about us guys having fun.. so we're after writing nice songs with good grooves..
and just for a change, everything is in 4/4.. which makes for a nice change..
so this is music purely for the love of creating and performing it..
it's all good ol' skool Hard Rock / Heavy Rock
this particular song is only our first one.. we have others in the pipeline and we'll be squeezing them into the gaps of our schedules..
so this album will take a while to complete..
got to say though that this has been a fun one to work on..
I'm hoping this will be the first of many..

I went straight to 7.0.. the prospect of the Diezels was way too much to make me even consider holding back..
I had no issues.. all of my presets worked just as before.. they required no tweaking at all..
in fact, I'd have to say they sounded better..
so... erm... yup.. you're missing out... needlessly so...
and if you do encounter issues at 7.0 you can always roll back..

it's always wise to back any machine before any kind of upgrade..

my personal experience with 7.0 has been nothing but good and I've never considered going back
 
Been messing with the various amp possibilities
winning so far for my right side riffers are:
- VH4 ch3
- 5153Blue

I got to say that I am seriously struggling to choose between them
 
Use both. One extra preset ain't gonna hurt ya. :)

Practice and gig with both. They'll decide among themselves who wins.
 
that's not a bad idea....
it'll actually be 6 presets...
so I could create an St4 and St5 series of presets and just live with them for a while

functionally the 5153Blue and VH4 ch3 are the same
the differences are very very slight..
if anything I'd say the Blue is marginally tighter and the ch3 is marginally beefier..

I think I've decided on the solo amp now
it came down to the 5153Red and Herbert ch3

the Herbert being slightly more aggressive means I'll use it with my Riff/Solo presets
the 5153Red being sweeter means I'll use it in the Clean/Solo presets

that said... I still have to fully integrate these new amps into the presets..
so it's not a done deal until I'm certain that I can make these new amps work the same way that the St3 presets work right now..
 
did some experiments last night regarding my soloing tone

5153Red vs the mighty Herbert ch3

for the full-on hi-gain shred tone the Herbert is amazing....
but don't forget that I morph to clean and do all sorts to the tone

result

5153Red KO'd the Herbert within 10 minutes

I so expected this to be a very very tight contest..
and if I were only looking for hi-gain it seriously would have been [maybe with the Herbert just edging it]
but I need much more versatility than just full-on blood and snot
this being the case, it wasn't a tight contest at all
Red totally walked it..
so much so that I need a rematch cos I'm convinced that I must have missed something
 
what I found [at least so far] is:

- when the Herbert is full-on hi-gain I love it..
it sounds amazing.. screams like a banshy.. and feels amazing.. really responsive...
in this mode, the Herbert3 and 5153Red are real tricky to choose between

- when the Herbert morphs to clean, it seems not to work so well
the tone gets very brittle.. this means that I'd need to perform more extreme processing to sort it all out..
and I'm not sure that's such a good idea..
by comparison, the 5153Red retains more tonal thickness.. of course it still thins out some [which needs fixing up], but it's less extensive..

thinking about it.. if I didn't need to clean the soloing tone, I'd have most likely switched to the Herbert cos it wins out in aggression..
but then... the 5150 works well in this area too..

the 5153Red though is a little more versatile..
I've already decided to keep it in my Clean/Solo presets because it sings beautifully for the ballads..


what I may try is a comparison between the 5153Red and the old 5150..
whichever wins, I reckon I can dial the extra aggression in with the GEQ yet still be able to morph back to a sweet clean..
 
well... just as I made a start on my St3 series presets, a job came in to the studio that took priority..

so right now I'm reamping the guitars I recorded on an album last year
it's all funky / rocky pop stuff

this is in fact really interesting because it means that I'm having to create a whole new bunch of presets:

for the clean funk playing I use the following:
left side - clean funk: Hiwatt Normal
right side - gritty funk: JCM800

for the power chords [medium / low gain crunch]:
left side - 5153Green
right side - Herbert ch2-

for the soloing tone:
5153Red <------ is there really an alternative?? lol...

there are a few other songs that'll require a little more gain in the power chord department. For these I'll use:
left side - 5153Blue
right side - Herbert ch2+

interestingly..
for all of my 'driven' requirements I just keep finding myself [after plenty of testing / trying out] returning the 5153, VH4 and Herbert tonal offerings..
these amps are rediculously versatile..
and for a lil' grit / crunch, the JCM800 seems to be really effective as a 'contributing tone' to blend with clean and driven tones.. it just seems to be the adder of a lil' sparkle and magic..
and for the cleans, the Hiwatt just keeps fending off all competition
 
I can but to be honest... these are real basic...
just amp / cab cos they're used for recording rather than for live..

once recorded they get a smidge of LA2A compression to glue them into the mix and a hint of ambience from Space Designer
and that's it...

and....
some of these are designed to work together.. these two for example
left side - clean funk: Hiwatt Normal
right side - gritty funk: JCM800

if you still want the presets I can post them.. but I'm just letting you know that they're not 'stage worthy'

to reproduce the cool funk tone live I'd combine the clean presets into a single one
and then add a touch of cab: room

and for performance reasons, I'd either pop a compressor in front of the amps, or trying turning up the compression in the amp blocks to about 40% [so they feel a little more slick]
 
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Here's my 8 St2 presets for V7.0

View attachment RiffSolo6 St2.syx
View attachment RiffSolo5 St2.syx
View attachment RiffSolo4 St2.syx
View attachment RiffSolo3 St2.syx
View attachment RiffSolo2 St2.syx
View attachment RiffSolo1 St2.syx
View attachment ClnSolo2 St2.syx
View attachment ClnSolo1 St2.syx


Note: these presets have had the amps reset and have been re-saved in 7.0
Note: these presets do not morph quite so clean as they did in 6.2 because the preamp is hotter in 7.0.
And to be honest, it's not worth me fixing them to do this because I'm in the process of creating the St3 series presets.
This means that some amp choices may be different and there will be some general improvements made to them.
 
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just had a thought...
when I've completed the St3 series presets [that will be fully optimised for 7.0]
I'll sling them in Axe-Change
 
just been messing with Riff/Solo1St3

an all Diezel version
left = Herbert Ch3
right = VH3 ch3

and all 5153 version
left = 5153Red
right = 5153Blue

jeez... love em both but for different reasons..

the 'all Diezel is real fat and aggressive
the 'all 5153' version is super slick and sweet sounding

jeeez...
 
this has got me thinking about trying different permutations of

Left amps
5153Red
Herbert ch3
VH4 ch4

Right amps
5153Red
Herbert ch3
VH4 ch4
5153Blue
Herbert ch2+
VH4 ch3

thing is...
all of these amps are so good that I'm finding that mixed up they all have some awesome qualities, yet all quite different

I think this is going to end up being quite a protracted trawl...
I'm hoping that it'll end in a showdown between just two or three combinations...
 
clarky said:
just thought it through... of course you're right....
I just tried your suggestion

my MFC is set preset=10 so my IA switches start at switch 11
I set IA 11 function to none, CC 20
when I hit the switch my preset goes into solo mode.. which is cool...
when I hit the switch again it calls up another preset in bank C.... no idea why just yet..
I can only guess that it's not sending 'off' over that CC but is sending a pgm number instead..
I checked and IA 11 is set to 'toggle'

right now I can't see why the MFC is doing this...

but barring a few extra MFC config clicks.. your idea is looking good..
Click to expand...

Hello, first of all: I very much appreciate this thread. Took me a few hours to find out what was really going on but then I got it (sort off). Total different approach to preset building in general and to what I was used to. It is a real goldmine of information and finally good sounds as well. Thanks for sharing all this. Anyway I've downloaded your latest presets and everything looks fine. I did program two IA switches on my MFC to none and CC 20 for solo and 21 for other stuff as described. It works but the other way around. Non activated it sets the preset in solo mode and activated into non solo mode. Of course I can program the switch to make it work properly or reprogram all the attached modifiers. Before I go into that; Is there something I am missing or do wrong here?
 
I don't think you've done anything wrong...

My presets were created to work with my Boss FS-6
you hit switch A, the LED lights and you go into solo mode
you hit switch B, the LED lights and the 'misc' functionality / effect goes active

with A and B off [LED's unlit] you are in the standard riffing / rhythm mode

the default behaviour I have is that when the preset is selected, the MFC informs the Axe of the state of the XP switches

this means that if I'm in riff mode for Riff/Solo1 and switch to Riff/Solo2, I'll still be in riff mode
and likewise, if I'm in solo mode, when I change preset I'm still in solo mode..

there's an option in the MFC you have to set for this..
can't recall off hand what it is.. it's in the manual, I can look it up if you wish...

so basically... I don't really care what the default state of the presets are because the MFC: XP and XS states at that time determine it..
I like this behaviour because it means I have complete control and predictability
 
clarky said:
there's an option in the MFC you have to set for this..
can't recall off hand what it is.. it's in the manual, I can look it up if you wish...
Click to expand...

MFC manual section 8.2 - External Switch MIDI Functions where Type is set HDW?
"In this mode, whenever a new preset is loaded, the switch state will be polled and the corresponding MIDI message sent. This allows “what you hear” to be kept in sync with “what you see” if the switch has an LED, for example."
 
hmmmm... this poses an interesting question....

can IA's be made to behave the same way???

EDIT: thinking more on this, when you change preset via the MFC, do the IA's automatically assume the off state??
or do the blocks fire up as programmed??

what this may mean is that... to make my presets work with IA's correctly, the parms under the control of modifiers extern5 and extenr6 may need their min / max settings looked at
because they may need to be reversed...

given that I've been working with external switches that have their state polled, it's not something I needed to worry about
 
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