Factory Presets....

RickTN

RickTN

Inspired
Ok....I'm relatively new to the Axe. Only had mine about 2 weeks and of course still figuring things out. Question is about the factory presets. Some of them are very good, some of them are maybe good starting points to begin modifying certain sounds I might want, some are sort of goofy, and some are about useless. But they take up 384 spots. I can start saving new patches and modified factory patches above 384 but that's a lot of "Bank Up"s to go through on my Mastermind pedal board. Would it be the right thing to do to save all these factory presets up in the higher numbers....say starting at 400 or so... and then erase/over-write all the lower number patches for ease of use? What do some of you do? Am I thinking about this wrong?

And thanks for all the help so far...this forum is fantastic. I have gotten a lot of good answers to some probably simple and dumb questions getting started out.
 
I use the Swap function on the front panel or axe edit to swap presets that I like to the first presets in on the Axe. Then I overwrite them with my settings.
 
Don't worry about saving the factory presets. You can grab them from by the bankful from Fractal's website. Audition them from the banks whenever you want with Axe-Manage, save the ones you like to whatever preset you want.

Bottom line: it's not like you have to preserve them. Put the presets you want wherever you want.
 
Not sure if you have an XL or not, but with over 700 preset slots (or something like that), you have room to spare.
Here is what I did (a long time ago).
1. Use Axe Edit "Manage Presets" (tools menu) to move all of the factory presets to the highest numbers leaving me with like 400 free spots (or something like that.o_O)
2. Copy factory presets I like to around 200 or so, to start conducting evil mad science experiments on them.
3. Go out and get yourself some Tyler Grund and Yek presets. And Chef. And....oh heck, who am I leaving out here... there are some preset gurus walking the halls around here. Load those...somewhere. Continue laboratory madness.
4. Watch some Cooper Carter and Chris Katsuri vids.
4. Once I closed in on what I really wanted, I created a number of templates, and some global amps, and built my set of go-to presets in the first 50 slots, with plenty of room to grow.
5. You can always delete factory presets, since they are on the website and you can get them anytime.
 
I moved all factory to the top. Then I have divisions. My priority zone for known good in use presets is the first 128 slots due to ease of MIDI control. Then I've have a workspace area where I modify factory, create scratch, experiment or try out 3rd party presets until they are known good. Then I have FX areas, acoustic areas and bass areas. In spite of factory being readily available I never modify the presets at the top therefore I can do a quick 15 second restore if necessary.
 
Fastest way to move them I've found is to download the presets from the Fractal website then use Fractal bot to upload each factory preset bank to a new location. The zip file from Fractal has 4 syx files, 1 that has all of the presets and the other three are for banks A, B, and C separately. Use the three separate bank files. Fractal bot will prompt where to put them. Instead of A, B, and C, put them in D, E, and F. Then you can do whatever you want with the first three banks. You can move them in preset manager in Axe Edit too, but it was very slow on my system. Fractal bot was faster for me. Remember that preset scrolling loops in the Axe, so it's often faster to scroll backward from preset 1 after you move them. I use this all the time since the last factory preset is Bypass, a blank grid full of shunts. Fast way to start a preset from scratch.
 
I have an early Mk I Axe FX II so I'm "limited" to the 384 preset slots. If I had the XL w/ 700 slots or whatever it is, I would probably do as you mentioned and save the factory presets to the later slots. My approach is to have banks of presets for each guitar, so 1-19 for a Les Paul, 20-39 for a tele, etc. That allows me to have my main presets available up front for use w/ a band. I tend to use only 1 or 2 guitars though when rehearsing/playing live.. at home, the sky's the limit.
 
I have to say that even though I have been using the Axe for a few years, I am still a little hesitant to mess with the presets in "Preset Manager". I don't find it at all intuitive. I have about a 100 presets for songs saved in the first 128 patches that need to stay exactly where they are as they are all documented in Bandhelper with midi numbers etc. and MFC101 controls. Since I have updated to quantum I have just tweaked patches as required. When I try any of the factory presets they sound like shit but I presume that this is because they are three years out of date?. My issue is how do I try out the new default patches without overwriting my existing patches? I know I can do a complete save/restore from Fractal Bot, but that is not convenient at all. All the new default presets seem only to be published as a bank of presets not individuality? Basically What I am asking is how do I save my existing presets so that they are easily retrievable. and how do I load a bank of new default presets to a location where they don't override my existing presets? I know I sound like a newb, but I am actually a programmer and have done hundreds of gigs with the Axe. The Preset Manager interface needs work!
 
SimonDreyer said:
...I am still a little hesitant to mess with the presets in "Preset Manager". I don't find it at all intuitive...My issue is how do I try out the new default patches without overwriting my existing patches?
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Get over the hump, my brother, and learn Axe-Manage Presets. That's the tool to use.


SimonDreyer said:
I know I can do a complete save/restore from Fractal Bot, but that is not convenient at all.
Click to expand...
It's actually very convenient. It only takes a few minutes, and most of that time is spent drinking your coffee while Fractal-Bot does the work.

SimonDreyer said:
Basically What I am asking is how do I save my existing presets so that they are easily retrievable. and how do I load a bank of new default presets to a location where they don't override my existing presets?
Click to expand...
Same answer—Axe-Manage Presets. Its Auto-Audition feature alone is worth the effort to learn it. Dive into it. You'll figure it out quickly. Then you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. :)
 
thanks guys....I have the XL+......With Fractal Bot I just uploaded the A, B, and C, banks of presets from the website to the D,E, and F banks....actually loaded A to B.....B to C....C to D...that way I can overwrite A...the 1st 128 presets.....that gives me PLENTY of blank spaces to use......was easy to do.......then I went to about 15 presets I initially liked and saved them to the 1st 15 preset spaces......easy.......still have 113 spaces to use without overwriting any of the factory presets now.....you guys are great teachers.....thx
 
FWIW, even owning an XL with tons of available space, I just dump my factory presets. Like @Rex said, you can always get them later.

The most useful thing about the presets is that they serve as templates for the routing options. As far as dialing tones . . . . for my purposes I prefer dialing by ear. I'm sure that's just me.
 
I'm too new with the Axe to do it all from scratch......I need the presets....at least for now.......I need to have something that definitely works so I can make SOME noise.....lol
 
RickTN said:
I'm too new with the Axe to do it all from scratch......I need the presets....at least for now.......I need to have something that definitely works so I can make SOME noise.....lol
Click to expand...
Totally. In fact, my first 60 days with the unit I would have been totally overwhelmed without the presets.
 
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