Favorite, well dialed-in amp blocks?

Dpoirier

Dpoirier

Fractal Fanatic
Other than the commercial offerings, is there somewhere a collection of well dialed in amp blocks? Some are perfect right out of the box at default (like the Atomica High, thanks Leon Todd for that tip!) but I'm looking for other gems. There was a great recent thread on favorite amp blocks, which I'm already finding very useful (several great discoveries in there for me) but I'm hoping for next level, where particular settings bring some of these to life. I know, use your ears, different for everyone, yadda yadda. But I'm on a constant learning curve with these wonderful tools and community input has been instrumental.
 
Dpoirier said:
Other than the commercial offerings, is there somewhere a collection of well dialed in amp blocks? Some are perfect right out of the box at default (like the Atomica High, thanks Leon Todd for that tip!) but I'm looking for other gems. There was a great recent thread on favorite amp blocks, which I'm already finding very useful (several great discoveries in there for me) but I'm hoping for next level, where particular settings bring some of these to life. I know, use your ears, different for everyone, yadda yadda. But I'm on a constant learning curve with these wonderful tools and community input has been instrumental.
Click to expand...

What genres?

My treasures could be another man’s trash 😅
 
The factory presets is a good start

But look at it this way…

A “well dialled” in amp block’s settings will be highly dependant on the rest of it’s signal path..

AKA

IR + FRFR speaker

Or

PA+ Guitar Cab + Speaker

An amp setting with high treble with a dark IR would balance it out, but if you took those “dialled in” trebly amp settings with a bright IR all of a sudden…. It’s not so dialled in is it.
 
Last edited:
ApocalypticKatana said:
The factory presets is a good start

But look at it this way…

A “well dialled” in amp block’s settings will be highly dependant on the rest of it’s signal path..

AKA

IR + FRFR speaker

Or

PA+ Guitar Cab + Speaker

An amp setting with high treble with a dark IR would balance it out, but if you took those “dialled in” trebly amp settings with a bright IR all of a sudden…. It’s not so dialled in is it.
Click to expand...
Individual “fingers” have a lot to do with dialing in a preset also.
 
Playback system matters too.

Imo its worth figuring out what sounds you gravitate to, what amps make sense for that, what cabs/speakers and then tweak to taste.

For me that looks like marshall or fender and gain from the amp or drive. Ive found most speakers/IRs work once I know what they do to the sound.
 
There's some general and practical advice on dialing some amps on the wiki but more would be welcome, especially for those less legendary amps. Probably everyone knows how you should try diming the gain, mid, treble, and presence while cutting the bass entirely on a Bassman and its ilk, but that kind of folklore knowledge is less readily available for other amps. I always find general guidelines far more useful than exact settings.
 
kvik said:
There's some general and practical advice on dialing some amps on the wiki but more would be welcome, especially for those less legendary amps. Probably everyone knows how you should try diming the gain, mid, treble, and presence while cutting the bass entirely on a Bassman and its ilk, but that kind of folklore knowledge is less readily available for other amps. I always find general guidelines far more useful than exact settings.
Click to expand...
there’s an affordable black panel bassman head for sale a few hours away and i’d probably start it with everything at noon and go from there haha. Some “common knowledge” isnt :)
 
TremoloFan said:
instrumental...I see what you did there! ;)

Seriously, I find that the patches @Burgs posts are some of the best out there. He usually puts them on AXE-change. I've learned a lot over the years dissecting his settings on both amps and effects.
Click to expand...
@Burgs presets translate perfect on my set up. I recently set up a series of his presets. I can spend a full day on one of his presets, playing along to backing tracks and switching scenes.

The Revv models seem to be perfect without any tweaks, assuming you have a go to IR you like. I spent a few years tweaking the deep parameters of my Marshall main preset only to find out one of the Revv models nails it without touching any parameter. Of course I can't bring myself to use it because I have so much invested in MY preset...lol. Ego is a mofo.
 
Bman said:
@Burgs presets translate perfect on my set up. I recently set up a series of his presets. I can spend a full day on one of his presets, playing along to backing tracks and switching scenes.

The Revv models seem to be perfect without any tweaks, assuming you have a go to IR you like. I spent a few years tweaking the deep parameters of my Marshall main preset only to find out one of the Revv models nails it without touching any parameter. Of course I can't bring myself to use it because I have so much invested in MY preset...lol. Ego is a mofo.
Click to expand...
Same here - even the volume settings seem to match exactly how I have my stuff set up.
 
Dpoirier said:
Other than the commercial offerings, is there somewhere a collection of well dialed in amp blocks? Some are perfect right out of the box at default (like the Atomica High, thanks Leon Todd for that tip!) but I'm looking for other gems. There was a great recent thread on favorite amp blocks, which I'm already finding very useful (several great discoveries in there for me) but I'm hoping for next level, where particular settings bring some of these to life. I know, use your ears, different for everyone, yadda yadda. But I'm on a constant learning curve with these wonderful tools and community input has been instrumental.
Click to expand...
Personally, I love the ODS preset. The only thing I occasionally change on that is the reverb or delay and that's it. It sounds so good with singles or humbuckers. Also love the BE 100 preset. There are many more imo. I love the factory presets.
 
Perhaps I am stating the obvious but the best thing about fractal is the ease and fun of dialing. Back in the day I had great amps, but I used to dial in an SRV sound, but then couldn't play the Scorpions, etc. etc. Whatever I dialed in I was stuck with as it took a lot of heavy gear, cords, and pedals to get where I was going. Now, even though I have the same gig every week I often change how I do it. My tastes change. It is so easy now. When I have the urge to change how I am going about it I hit another preset. It is very satisfying. I love the tweaking. To sum, my favorite today (Band commander with drives and various echos and levels of reverb) is not going to be my favorite next week.
 
Gonna assume well dialed in means many sounds from the same amp -

In this regard ac20 keeps getting better the more I dial it in for a specific guitar or sound I’m going for. Between bass/treble, preamp tube and hi cut, there is a lot to work with.

The 6g3 continues to impress with such a simple basic set of dials but clean to ZZ Top with some fiddling and everything in between.

Conversely I seem to use the Marshall’s more like one trick pony’s - they sound like a Marshall so I dial in what I’m looking for once and look elsewhere when I want something else.
 
Since many of you were wondering what I meant by "well dialed in"... I really meant that the default values rarely fall on the "right" sound (and of course, that's very subjective). It never occurred to me to check the factory presets - I was assuming (for no logical reason) that if the factory presets would also use default settings
 
Dpoirier said:
Since many of you were wondering what I meant by "well dialed in"... I really meant that the default values rarely fall on the "right" sound (and of course, that's very subjective). It never occurred to me to check the factory presets - I was assuming (for no logical reason) that if the factory presets would also use default settings
Click to expand...
Iirc default is everything at noon. Just like the real world that may or may not work.
 
Dpoirier said:
Since many of you were wondering what I meant by "well dialed in"... I really meant that the default values rarely fall on the "right" sound (and of course, that's very subjective). It never occurred to me to check the factory presets - I was assuming (for no logical reason) that if the factory presets would also use default settings
Click to expand...
I understood what you meant. I rarely touch anything on the ODS and Friedman presets. The ODS clean, ODS Ford, and ODS Ford PAB are perfect imo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom