Creating Presets From Scratch...Wow So Much To Do!

frankencat

frankencat

Inspired
So I spent an hour or two with the FM3 tonight and the presets sounds good and I was going through finding ones that I like like the Shiver and AC30 ones. I was able to dial in some decent sounds there. Then I decided to start a preset from scratch and holy crap, there is SO MUCH to dial in to get sounds from scratch. After an hour of trying different amps and cabs I need a break and maybe a sedative lol. I feel like I can dial in great tones in minutes with the Kemper and the Helix because I know those platforms but this is another dimension of tweaking and I am not sure I want to invest that much time...

How about this? When you fellas create a new preset do you start with an amp and then just pick a cab to go with it from the list? There are so many it's insane. Also there is a "Speaker" setting in the amp parameters that shows a "Speaker Impedance Curve" for a specific speaker. Do you need to consider that when choosing a cab? What is the purpose of that setting?

Or maybe you just start with a preset that is already there and just tweak that to your liking. At this point I think that is probably the best approach for me and what I want to get out of this box.

Anyway I am going to call it a night. I will not be defeated by this or any other box lol. I will be back tomorrow. ;)
-Frank
 
Don't overthink it... Every knob and setting doesn't need to be touched.

Use them to fine tune if required.

Imagine you have a real amp. How many knobs do you have? Anything outside of those would typically require a modification of some sort

I personally stick to a few IRs that I like. I tend to use them with everything.
 
It is like being alone in a guitar mega-store having at your disposition all the amplifiers, cabinets, speakers, microphones, pedals, rack processors, and a magic wand (a magician's wand, not the round-headed wand that is powered with batteries) that can tweak the internal components of the amplifiers. What would you do if you were there? :p
 
Pick an amp. Add a cab block. Choose cab/mic choice that gets you as close to what you want. Then dial the amp in using the authentic controls. Done.
It helps to put a looper block in front and record a little medley so you can set the guitar aside while you adjust things.
The speaker impedance in the amp block can be used to further fine tune the sonic character.
Generally you would choose one that matches your cab choice or leave it as is.
You may also base your cab choice off of what the speaker impedance of the amp defaults to.
Referencing the cab model list helps https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Cabinet_models_list#Factory_Bank_1
Also referencing the amp list and subsequent write ups linked within.
https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Amplifier_models_list
There are some great cab suggestions there.
Once you find some choices save them in your channel library so you can easily pull them up on new presets. You’ll find sticking to a few select choices will simplify things for future presets.
Subsequently you may find picking a factory or a axechange preset and adjusting to your liking and getting on with playing is the way to go.
The Fractal modeling sounds freaking awesome either way. Enjoy!
 
@frankencat A lot of us feel and have felt exactly like you describe. Take it a little at a time.
You can base you own preset off of a factory one to get started if it helps.
Welcome to the family & enjoy the ride, you are in for some great tones and lots of fun!
 
Piing said:
magic wand (a magician's wand, not the round-headed wand that is powered with batteries)
Click to expand...
The good ones run on mains power....

Echoing what Unix Guy said with slightly more specifics, start on the authentic page and dial in a sound. Fine tune on the other pages if needed. Diving in the deep end, it is easy to cross all the i's and dot all the t's....
 
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frankencat said:
So I spent an hour or two with the FM3 tonight and the presets sounds good and I was going through finding ones that I like like the Shiver and AC30 ones. I was able to dial in some decent sounds there. Then I decided to start a preset from scratch and holy crap, there is SO MUCH to dial in to get sounds from scratch. After an hour of trying different amps and cabs I need a break and maybe a sedative lol. I feel like I can dial in great tones in minutes with the Kemper and the Helix because I know those platforms but this is another dimension of tweaking and I am not sure I want to invest that much time...

How about this? When you fellas create a new preset do you start with an amp and then just pick a cab to go with it from the list? There are so many it's insane. Also there is a "Speaker" setting in the amp parameters that shows a "Speaker Impedance Curve" for a specific speaker. Do you need to consider that when choosing a cab? What is the purpose of that setting?

Or maybe you just start with a preset that is already there and just tweak that to your liking. At this point I think that is probably the best approach for me and what I want to get out of this box.

Anyway I am going to call it a night. I will not be defeated by this or any other box lol. I will be back tomorrow. ;)
-Frank
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Personally....what I did was to narrow it down to a handful of amps in styles I knew I liked or was curious about and set them up on channels into a cab that sounded at least okay with the first one and claimed to be similar to a cab I've liked IRL.

From there, I dialed in sounds I liked for each and set a button to change channels on the amp. It wasn't long before I decided on my favorite. Then, I basically did the same with the cab block.

It wasn't that different from shopping for an amp....just quicker.

Once you've decided on the amp you want to work on, the Fractal Wiki is decent about the deeper editing options. There's also a thread around about resetting amps if you need it. I've done some tweaking, with positive results. But, I started from an amp I liked a LOT.

The impedance curve adjusts how the virtual output transformer responds to the virtual load, which affects the frequency response and dynamics of the amp. I think it's a big deal and actually a significant part of the reason I bought my Fractal.....but I didn't "tweak" it. I just pinned the window where you select them and jumped through them...narrowed it down to 2 or 3 that I liked, and then picked one. Which, ironically, happened to actually more-or-less match the cab IRs I also picked from the factory library basically the same way (plus some searching for speakers I know I like). I'm really happy with how it's turning out.

And, no, I don't feel like I'm missing anything, yet, by only using 1 amp and 1 cab. That's all I've ever really owned at once unless I was demoing something. And that was way more of a PITA than changing channels on a fractal.

Did I make the best choice? Who knows?! But, I'm happy with it.
 
While making them from scratch can be done, it's well worth your time to slowly wander through all the factory presets. They were carefully tweaked after Cygnus was released, and they're good. Even if they're not to your taste, there's a lot to learn from them and knowing what's there is useful for future tweaking. It's also really good to be aware of the Wiki's pages, especially the factory presets, amplifier models list and cabinet models list. It's important to listen to the factory presets at louder volumes because of the Fletcher-Munsen effect; They're made for live band situations, not quiet bedrooms.

Once you get more comfortable with the system and how the editor works you'll find that it doesn't take that long to do a medium complexity preset. Then it's a matter of turning it up and fine tuning, and, as you learn you'll iteratively visit old presets and touch them up. It's work, but it's fun.
 
frankencat said:
Or maybe you just start with a preset that is already there and just tweak that to your liking. At this point I think that is probably the best approach for me and what I want to get out of this box.
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This is what I do. I have had some really good tones as a result of taking a factory preset, then swapping in a different tone stack type, on the Advanced page of the Amp block.
Having all these amps & cabs to choose from, and combinations thereof, can easily become overwhelming, and cut into your playing time, so I'd recommend starting with your go-to amps, and wring them out before you move on.
For example, I like Mesa high gain-type tones. I have a real Dual Rectifier that I can't seem to replicate in the Axe, but that's cool, because I've found the Triple Crest to be one of my favorites. (Maybe because I used to play Marshalls before switching to Mesa, so my ears still like the sound of EL34-based power amps.)
Once you've played around with it for a while, you may find in your exploring other amps, that you keep coming back to a few certain ones. If that happens, don't sweat it. You like what you like. I try not to think of having a unit that has all these different choices, means that you have to try to like many of them, but instead, that all these choices exist because of all the different types of guitar players out there. There's indeed something for everyone!
Just wait til you start tweaking the effects!!
 
You can buy 1 or 2 preset packs from the professional preset makers in the vendor section of your choice.You can take this as a foundation to create your own preset by performing minor tweaks.This is what I did when I got my FM3.
 
frankencat said:
I can dial in great tones in minutes with the Kemper
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I came from Kemper and I spent hours trying new profiles that after I bought didn’t sounded good even after tweaking.

At least with Fractal you spend time but you don’t lose money, I had almost all of the ones from MBritt just to find my top 10. Almost 400€ in profiles in the 3 years of Kemper use.

If you are lucky, you get what you need fast enough. But if later you need a different tone for different scenarios you need another profile, rarely you can tweak the one you had.

I know, there are a lot of free ones, but…once you try the ones from the top profilers, you hardly come back to the free ones.

Plus, you invest in something that is just in the Kemper ecosystem. It’s not like IRs you can move to the next modeler you get.

Helix, I have that too, and…well…no. Not at the same level of Kemper and Fractal.

Anyway. Generally speaking I start from a preset and I tweak to my liking. Except for 2 I started from scratch:

  • JP-2C that I didn’t find accurate in factory presets. I got mine with the exact same values JP uses (you find it in axe-change). Here I copied the exact settings I saw on pictures or rig videos or manuals (ie the wha settings)
  • Dumble nothing like Larry Carlton available so I had to make mine. Here I worked by ears trying to get close. I used only the Authentic page.
 
try some of leons 5 minute tone videos specially with amps you have some familiarity with
you may find a few parameters that you tweak but most may stay stock
 
I am starting to get some good results with my basic tones - Bogner Shiva, Plexi 100 and AC 30. I found out how to go through the cabs and group the ones together that I like - red = "Marshally" type cabs. There are so many holy crap. What is the difference between the F1., F2. and the L. cabs?
BTW the York IR's that I have sound great with this! Not that you need them lol.
 
I guess its the way you look at it , pick a amp , speaker cab and treat it as a tube amp ,gain, bass, mid , treble, if you don't like the sound ,move to another amp. don't look at it there's so many parameters to change .after you find the tone ,then maybe go going deep into stuff .But I find (keep it simple ) it a rabbit hole if you don't :cool:
 
frankencat said:
I am starting to get some good results with my basic tones - Bogner Shiva, Plexi 100 and AC 30. I found out how to go through the cabs and group the ones together that I like - red = "Marshally" type cabs. There are so many holy crap. What is the difference between the F1., F2. and the L. cabs?
BTW the York IR's that I have sound great with this! Not that you need them lol.
Click to expand...
F1, F2 and L are Fractal banks. What Fractal gives us. Check the cab list link I posted earlier. It lists all the basic info on them. They give us a lot to work with.
York IRs are great. The mixes Justin puts together are excellent.
 
kptkarl said:
F1, F2 and L are Fractal banks. What Fractal gives us. Check the cab list link I posted earlier. It lists all the basic info on them. They give us a lot to work with.
York IRs are great. The mixes Justin puts together are excellent.
Click to expand...
Factory bank 1
Factory bank 2
Legacy bank
 
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