Best Current Recording Presets Free of Paid (Americana/Modern Country)

R

RussellCreek

Member
Hey All,

Just got an FM3 recently for studio work. I've viewed many threads regarding presets but a lot of them seem to be older and/or geared toward heavy rock and beyond. Thought I'd poll the forum to see what ya'll might think are the best current presets for studio work within the genres of Americana/Modern Country. Thinking like Chris Stapleton, Jackson Dean, Cadillac Three, Zach Bryan, etc. Open to paid, free or stock. Great to hear what other producers in these genre's are using at the moment...love to find stuff that sits well in the mix with as little tweaking as possible, other than rolling off some lows and highs. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Russell
 
Not a producer in that genre...but I'd take a look at these presets trying out all scenes real quick before buying anything:

7 Prince Tone
17 AC-20 Deluxe
57 5F8 Tweed
66 Wrecked Express
71 Bassman About 2 Explode

Should be able to make some minor tweaks based on the guitar used and you're ideal response/tone and get some pretty great tones pretty easily.
 
Also give the Texas Star Clean (256) and Texas Star Lead (257) a try. Did a gig this weekend using only those amps.

Below are some of the songs we play:

Tennessee Whiskey - Chris Stapleton version
1, 2 Many - Luke Combs
My Kinda Party - Jason Aldean
Boot Scootin' Boogie - Brooks and Dunn
Drinkin' Bone - Tracy Byrd
 
Thx for all the suggestions, gonna go through each on in the studio today! DC30 seems to be getting a lot of love, looking forward to trying that one first.

WK, appreciate it, will keep an eye out. I'm new to the modelling game, used to working with real amps so I don't really understand IR's or if I have to purchase those separately and then use them with custom presets that people post...anyway, I'll do some reading and figure it out.

Also, I see a lot of YT vids where people change up cabs, if you have preferred cabs for say the DC30 (or other suggested presets), love to hear them as well! And any other recording tips for the FM3...i.e. I notice the presets have almost uncomfortable highs for the genre's I work in...I find going through the Neve pre's is a nice way to smooth that out and take off the digital harshness. Anyway, stuff like that.

Cheers!
 
RussellCreek said:
Thx for all the suggestions, gonna go through each on in the studio today! DC30 seems to be getting a lot of love, looking forward to trying that one first.

WK, appreciate it, will keep an eye out. I'm new to the modelling game, used to working with real amps so I don't really understand IR's or if I have to purchase those separately and then use them with custom presets that people post...anyway, I'll do some reading and figure it out.

Also, I see a lot of YT vids where people change up cabs, if you have preferred cabs for say the DC30 (or other suggested presets), love to hear them as well! And any other recording tips for the FM3...i.e. I notice the presets have almost uncomfortable highs for the genre's I work in...I find going through the Neve pre's is a nice way to smooth that out and take off the digital harshness. Anyway, stuff like that.

Cheers!
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Seriously, try all the recommended presets first. Everyone's ears are different and you're going to get a million different recommendations once you go down the "what IR is best" path (for the DC 30 recommendations, try out preset 78). A great many of the Fractal presets are great starting points, a great many of my presets started off as Fractal presets which I've morphed over time changing little things here and there.
 
RussellCreek said:
Thx for all the suggestions, gonna go through each on in the studio today! DC30 seems to be getting a lot of love, looking forward to trying that one first.

WK, appreciate it, will keep an eye out. I'm new to the modelling game, used to working with real amps so I don't really understand IR's or if I have to purchase those separately and then use them with custom presets that people post...anyway, I'll do some reading and figure it out.

Also, I see a lot of YT vids where people change up cabs, if you have preferred cabs for say the DC30 (or other suggested presets), love to hear them as well! And any other recording tips for the FM3...i.e. I notice the presets have almost uncomfortable highs for the genre's I work in...I find going through the Neve pre's is a nice way to smooth that out and take off the digital harshness. Anyway, stuff like that.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
I recently bought the York Audio MTCH 212 IR pack. It does not have the harsh highs like several I have tried. It is my favorite Class A type cab by miles.

For taming the high end... I usually grab the High Cut control in the cab block and pull it down to noon (ish) . The York IRs don't need this. I run them set to 20k on the cut.

I also use the stock Matchbox 121 and the 121B AB, or use a Fractal Cab Pack (10 I think ) Matchbox 121 and 121 B
 
My main advice is to not be a slave to presets. If your experience is with real amps (per your comments above), do the same here as you would with a real amp - plug in with your guitar(s), your recording rig, your monitors, and tweak the amp settings until you get what you want. Start with the first page - i.e., the controls that are on the real amp - and dive deeper only if you want to change what you're getting from the amp's stock controls. That said, I encourage you to explore the preamp boost feature - I almost never use drive pedals in the FM3 (fuzz being an exception ...), as I find that the preamp boost almost always gives me a sound I like better - similar to modding a tube amp for an extra gain stage rather than adding a stomp box out front.

As for cabs, just like with real amps try a bunch and see what gives you the sound you like. If you're looking to make the amp models sound more like 'amp in the room', increase the 'room level' in the cab block.

In all cases, once you find and tweak an amp model or a cab model to your liking, save the block to your library using the editor. I find that after a bit of time exploring amp and cab blocks, I now just create presets from scratch (or from my own templates) and typically start with one of my saved amp/cab blocks and tweak from there.
 
Rumbletone said:
My main advice is to not be a slave to presets. If your experience is with real amps (per your comments above), do the same here as you would with a real amp - plug in with your guitar(s), your recording rig, your monitors, and tweak the amp settings until you get what you want. Start with the first page - i.e., the controls that are on the real amp - and dive deeper only if you want to change what you're getting from the amp's stock controls. That said, I encourage you to explore the preamp boost feature - I almost never use drive pedals in the FM3 (fuzz being an exception ...), as I find that the preamp boost almost always gives me a sound I like better - similar to modding a tube amp for an extra gain stage rather than adding a stomp box out front.

As for cabs, just like with real amps try a bunch and see what gives you the sound you like. If you're looking to make the amp models sound more like 'amp in the room', increase the 'room level' in the cab block.

In all cases, once you find and tweak an amp model or a cab model to your liking, save the block to your library using the editor. I find that after a bit of time exploring amp and cab blocks, I now just create presets from scratch (or from my own templates) and typically start with one of my saved amp/cab blocks and tweak from there.
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Totally get it and appreciate the advice, but for me the main reason for purchasing the FM3 was with hopes of saving time when producing for clients…always trying to speed up the process and reduce fiddling (as much as possible) with amps, mic’s, mic setups, preamps, and settings, while still getting good tones. Hence this thread, I figured the combined knowledge on this forum would get me there much faster…and after going through the suggested presets today, I can say that is definitely the case. Thanks for the the tip on the preamp boost, I will use that for sure!

Dave, thx for the link, will check that out shortly!

WKSmith said:
The DC30 and especially the DC30 ef86 with a compressor in front. Slapback delay and spring reverb.

It's the secret sauce for me 👍
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WK, loved the Dee Cee 30 but didn’t see an EF86 tube option…perhaps because I’m on the FM3 (vs FM9) or am I missing something?
 
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RussellCreek said:
WK, loved the Dee Cee 30 but didn’t see an EF86 tube option…perhaps because I’m on the FM3 (vs FM9) or am I missing something?
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There are two Matchbox DC30 amps in the FM3, both the DC30 and DC30 EF86.

Load up any preset in FM3 edit and click on the amp block and you will find them in the drop down menu. You can choose different amps for each ABCD channel to compare them.

I used the FM3 for live shows and session work with the ef86 channel for modern country, rock, and Sunday morning gigs.. before I got the FM9.
 
Ahh gotcha, my bad, will find some time this weekend to go deep into the manual :D. Just picked up the York Matchless cab (as per your suggestion) and the York Bassman (since it’s my real world favourite), looking forward to trying them out…figured why not, only $12 each with the Black Friday sale. Thanks again for the tips!
 
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