Hi guys, a big thanks for the kind words ! It heartwarming to see that my work is appreciated
I wanted for a long time to share a little more words about my preset making experience, so here they are !
First, read my review of the Axe-Fx standard (the original version) :
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/after-four-months.18910/
This is important because it will put things in context (why I used digital signal processors instead of real amps since roughly 1990 etc.). That was nine years ago, and things for Mauritians musicians have been a little better since, thanks to online stores like Thomann and gear4music that delivers to Mauritius.
I need to add to my review that unlike most of you, I had very little experience using real amps from 1982 (my debuts as a guitarist) to 2007. But in the last couple of years, along my digital processors, I've been able to buy a few tube amps : EVH 5150 III 50 W (and the LBX II version), Victory V130, Bogner Atma, Peavey Valveking 20MH, and the two I still own, Friedman Runt 20 head and Mesa Boogie MK V:35. My understanding of tube amps benefited a lot from owning Fractal Audio products, reading this forum, and playing with those amps.
So, regarding presets making... When I'm in programming mode, I'm a a workaholic, I can work for straight 12 hours and forget to eat and drink. I've always loved to experiment, try new things including crazy ideas, think out of the box etc. Boss products, specially, were great at the time to learn about real time control of parameters, and what can be done with them. I also discovered the power of IRs a long time ago, around 2004, and quickly started mixing different IRs and making my own - they're a really important part of my presets ; even with my own IRs, btw, my approach is unconventional, but what works, works !
When I started to use digital processors, guitar players in Mauritius noticed my guitar tones, and I became "the guy to see" to tweak their own multifx. I've done that for many musicians here, often on multifx I never used. In the 2000 decade, my presets for Boss GT8 and POD XT live got good feedback on the forums where I posted them. But it's really with the Axe-Fx standard that I became noticed on a larger scale. Those who are on the Fractal bandwagon from the beginning may remember that I started sharing full banks of presets not long after my first batch of youtube videos, in 2009.
I kept the habit of sharing everything with the Axe-Fx II, which I got in 2011. I also kept on posting videos, and one of them, in September 2012...
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...was so well received that some people started threads about it... As my internet provider FTP, where I usually posted my bank of presets, just went offline, I invited those that wanted my presets (still for free of course) to sent me an email, and I received over 400 emails in less than one week, including from some Fractal beta testers and other big guys, which was encouraging
That video prompted me to launch a blog (
http://axefremen.blogspot.com/2012/09/ ), and I kept sharing my full banks of presets through it for years. At some point, another popular preset maker, Singtall, encouraged me to ask for donations, which I did. I finally decided to sell my presets in 2016. First, I was reluctant to do it, but considering the amount of time I put in it + my decades of experience etc., it was a logical step to take, and I'm glad I did. Mauritius is an emerging country, and the salaries here reflects that. I worked 30 years in a newspaper as a journalist, and the last 17 as a sub-editor, and that's a sector in crisis, with low wages. So my presets sales (for Fractal, but also other brands of processors) are definitively a big plus. Else, at retirement age (I'm 52), I would be left with almost nothing... This year, I finally decided to quit journalism and do presets programming full time, and I learned that my retirement pension (which I'll receive when I'll reach 60 years) will be less than 100 $ (because I quit at 52) ; this will put things in perspective for you all ! Btw, I know about the low price of my presets, I've been told that many times ! They reflects the cost of living in Mauritius. I raised my prices quite a big from the beginning (when I sold the full three banks of my Axe-Fx II for 30 $... I was crazy) but they're still low.
A few more words about my presets themselves. They are from many different categories : (1) basic multi-purpose presets for live playing (cleans, crunchs, leads, for rock, hard-rock, metal, heavy blues) ; (2) presets with various amount of gain through the different scenes (the "5 scenes" pack, the High Gain Starting Pack (HGSP) presets) ; (3) special effects of all sorts, with synth pads, drones, intelligent harmonies, looper stuff, or complex delays/reverbs ; (4) song-specific presets, which are almost always meant to be "in the ballpark" rather than exact copies, because I believe that exact copies doesn't work that well for live, and doesn't "feel right" under my fingers.
A few years ago I posted this in another thread :
Trying to nail a recorded sound exactly is often detrimental to the feel, probably because of the extreme settings necessary. There's an explanation for that, it may be not universal but it's what I feel about it. "The systematic mixing guide" by Ermin Hamidovic has a great explanation about that. When we play guitar, we often crave for the biggest, largest sound possible, and we do the same when recording. However during the mixing stage we need to poke holes in the guitar sound, to make space for other instruments and vocals. So the recorded, mix-ready guitar sound (and all the stems we download) is not the original sound at all, it's a post-production processed sound. It's how I approach preset programming : instead of making record-ready sounds, I always try to make sounds that feel and sounds great. (...) This is one of the reasons why I almost never try to nail a recorded sound exactly (some people are good at tonematching recorded sounds from specific artists, however the resulting presets never works for me - the feel isn't there imho). When covering a specific song, I'll make a preset which is in the ballpark, and which suits me, rather than using the exact amp model with the same settings with the same IR with the same effects etc etc of the original. So, not 100% authentic ? I don't care, for what it's worth, I've lost count of times that after a gig I was told by someone from the audience "dude, you have nailed the sound from [insert song name here]" - I know it's not true, but if the audience buys it
And that's what I still do today for my Pink Floyd tones. For drive tones, instead of using a drive pedal into a clean Hiwatt amp model, I use a distorted Friedman BE. For crunchy tones with just an amount of gain, I use the Matchless amp model. It's not "authentic", but I'm still in the ballpark, and those presets work extremely well in my Tribute to Pink Floyd band
That was with the Axe-Fx II ; I'm basically done with the Axe-Fx III versions and I'm amazed by how much I was able to actually improve some of the presets !
One last point, and it's an important one : for me,
a great preset is one which inspires me to play. Some preset may work great in a mix but will leave me cold - too harsh, too stiff... Most of the time, my presets may need a little less low end and a little more high end to work in a recording - a thing that I think I fixed successfully with my amp packs, that are generally brighter than my other presets. The amp packs are meant to be great both for recording and playing live, and use a new set of IRs made for this. My go-to IRs are still the older ones, and I can't wait to release Axe-Fx III versions of my older Axe-fx II packs ! But I will also release much more "song specific" presets than before, I need to put a recently acquired extensive collection of high quality guitar stems to good use...