Global amp parameter....what do you do with it?

R

randombastage

Experienced
I'm studying the manual and wiki and I'm not clear on how you would use the global parameter. It says " the amp will load the parameters from a "global amp parameter list". This parameter allows you to have 10 amps, each with different customizable settings, available to use in any preset."
I think I under stand what it implies generically but just how does that come into play as far as how you guys use it on a regular basis?
Do you have maybe 10 favorite 'go-to' amps that you usually use so you can call one up quickly as a starting point for building a new patch without having to set up every facet of the way you like those 10 amps? Or is the global amp parameter also global in the sense that picking one of the ten will affect any amp in the buffer but not on a permanent level...ie; power down and presets are un-affected by that global change next time you power up?

I've read where new users build a preset somehow in the wrong way, perhaps using the global setting and then can't save their work so they have to start all over again because you can't copy to a preset location...
Something like that, memory is fuzzy with information overload.

Clue me in on some of this if you can so when I get my Axe I'll avoid some of that heartache.
Thanks!
Craig
 
Although I am not currently using Global Amps, they are exactly as you say, your prime "go to" amps that you can use in any preset. I am currently working through that myself but see this as a major time saving feature.
 
I use it to set amps with special sounds, clean, crunchy, heavy, metal heavy. May some different voicings of certain amps to get a crunchs of a different vibe. I use them because I play in a cover band and have lots of song specific patches, so when I adjust my 'base' patches, it affects all patches using that global amp. Makes tweaking time less....
 
The Kid has it right.

You set an amp to global, tweak it to your liking then reuse that amp in other patches. It's the equivalent of having a favorite amp and changing up your pedal board to your liking for additional patches. It works great to have a a patch with the same amp and different effects for solos, different colors etc. and be able to do an amp tweak on the fly and have it show up in all the patches. It's also great for experimenting with different cabs, drives, etc. and know that the amp is constant from patch to patch.

Global amps is an under appreciated and a misunderstood feature, IMO.
 
wow, didnt think of that one Mark, setting up different cabs with the same global amp to really A/B them. I struggle with the cabs/mic sims. I tend to use the same 1 or 2....usually a brit 4x12 with 57. maybe I'll change it if I cant dial something in/out with the amp parameters, but that is usually my stock, unless the wiki says otherwise, I'll try that first.
 
Thanks guys, I thinking I'm getting a grip on this..
Test my understanding here if you will:

I receive the Ultra and find that, of all the factory presets, a certain number of them are built using a certain amp, lets say the Marsha BE for example.
Now I go into one of those factory presets that has the Marsha BE, go to it's amp settings and set it for global...go to a second factory preset that uses the Marsha BE and set it for global...now, what.... go into global amps and with the Marsha BE designated as a global amp if I change some parameters on it then the two factory presets that I enabled the global amp parameter in will be effected by whatever changes I make in the Marsha BE global amp? And the other presets that have the Marsha BE as an amp won't be?

And am I right that there is a place where you adjust a 'global amp' outside of a preset or is it just that once you enable a particular amp type in a preset as global then any other preset that has an amp of that type, that is also global enabled, will be linked to changes made in any global enabled preset that has that amp type?
 
Nothing. It's something others have found useful, and its presence is not objectionable. Just be careful not to inadvertently select "global" in a preset if that's not what you want.
 
you just adjust it in a parameter....

thats partly why I have my main 'goto' patches, and those are 4 of my global amps....I have 2 or 3 more setup, but havent gotten the tones where I want. I just adjust in my main patches themselves and it affects the song specific patches automatically...I just quickly audition to make sure they sound good, but generally no tweaking. If I need tweaking on a song specific patch, I'll add a eq with slight boost or cut to adjust to the songs flavor.
 
It's a way of interconnecting amp blocks through several presets. Change one and all presets using the same global amp get changed. Saves you from having to change all the presets that use the same amp. That's all. Set two presets to the same global amp, go into any of those presets amp block and change some parameters. The parameters in the other preset will be changed and saved also.

Currently I use several presets that are setup virtual floorboard style, so I don't have many presets using the same amp...
 
Is there a way to assign the current amp to a global amp slot without switching to a different amp?

Let's say I have Global amps 1, 2 assigned. Then I go and tweak my marsha crunch patch and decide that I like it so much that I'd like to make it Global #3. What happens when I turn the global knob is that I'll switch to amps #1 and #2 before I get to slot #3 and by then I've lost my current amp settings.
 
you could set the amp up in a different patch, patch 10 say. Then in the 'new patch', patch 11 with global amp 3 setup, you could recall 'amp 1' from patch 10 and copy it into patch 3. I'm not with my axe, but this may copy the settings directly into the global amp 3....

...otherwise you may need to write the settings down and transfer them that way.
 
The whole global amp idea is really brilliant when you think about it. Have a favorite amp/setting combo? Make it global and call it up any time you want. Want to set up the Axe-Fx to use a single virtual amp in several patches? Make it global so that when you adjust it, all the patches using that amp get adjusted too, so it's like you have one amp but can instantly switch in and out entire pedalboards and effects racks just by changing patches.

Man, this thread is really making me want to go home and make a few new patches with some global amps.

***Edit: Nothing below this line is meant as a complaint, I'm just thinking out loud. Just thought I'd mention that***

Now if only we could have global effects. It would probably take up more memory than the Axe has to spare, but imagine something like 10 global settings each for drive, reverb, delay, and parametric eq. Once you customized (and named??) each of those global settings, even if you started with a blank patch, you could pretty much call up any sound you wanted almost instantly. No tweaking, no nothing. Just select the Block type, then the Global setting, then move to the next block, repeat until done.

Think about it. Go to blank patch and select... Drive Block, Global 1 -> Amp Block, Global 1 -> EQ Block, Global 1... and you're done. If you had 10 global settings for each one of those blocks, you could dial in any one of 1,000 different combinations in seconds. If you really wanted to get crazy, you could add in a global delay or reverb block and it would probably take you, oh, 4-5 more seconds per block, but now you can build 1 of up to 100,000 different patches in basically no time at all.

Basically, what I'm saying is that if the whole "Global Setting" idea was expanded upon, the possibilities would pretty much be endless (and instant).

And, this would also counter one of the biggest complaints about the Axe-Fx. "It takes too much tweaking." Well guess what. Now, you just have to tweak once per sound and you're done for good. Think about it, how many people, even if they use a ton of patches, really regularly use more than 10 variants of a single given effect block? I'd bet money that the vast majority of most people's patches are just variations and mixings of the same set of sounds.

For example, personally, I use lots of different amps, but most of my individual effects are just one of a couple of different settings. If I'm using delay, I'll almost always use either the standard "500ms, 10% feedback, 20-30% mix solo style" delay, a dirty, slightly more quickly repeating analog delay, or a simple slapback. With reverb, it's usually either a small spring/room verb, a mid-length tailed plate verb, or a big huge cathedral verb. With the Drive block, it's most always either a simple FET Boost, a T808, or a Hard Fuzz. I'd bet most people's usage patterns are similar to this as well. That is, one or two areas of significant variability, but most other areas just being extremely slight variations of the same handful of sounds.
 
tgunn said:
Is there a way to assign the current amp to a global amp slot without switching to a different amp?

Let's say I have Global amps 1, 2 assigned. Then I go and tweak my marsha crunch patch and decide that I like it so much that I'd like to make it Global #3. What happens when I turn the global knob is that I'll switch to amps #1 and #2 before I get to slot #3 and by then I've lost my current amp settings.
Click to expand...

That's the fatal flaw, IMO, with global amps. I would love to use them but the way they're implemented makes them nearly useless for me. The Kid's idea is a good one but doesn't work. They'd be so much more useful if you didn't have to select the global amp slot before programming your settings.
There's a wishlist thread about this very thing that you guys can vote for if you want. viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5072
 
campersand said:
tgunn said:
Is there a way to assign the current amp to a global amp slot without switching to a different amp?

Let's say I have Global amps 1, 2 assigned. Then I go and tweak my marsha crunch patch and decide that I like it so much that I'd like to make it Global #3. What happens when I turn the global knob is that I'll switch to amps #1 and #2 before I get to slot #3 and by then I've lost my current amp settings.
Click to expand...

That's the fatal flaw, IMO, with global amps. I would love to use them but the way they're implemented makes them nearly useless for me. The Kid's idea is a good one but doesn't work. They'd be so much more useful if you didn't have to select the global amp slot before programming your settings.
There's a wishlist thread about this very thing that you guys can vote for if you want. viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5072
Click to expand...

So if I have an amp set up like I want I can't turn it into a Global amp?
 
mesiebooga said:
So if I have an amp set up like I want I can't turn it into a Global amp?
Click to expand...

You can still turn your favorite amp into a global amp, but it takes a bit of manual labor. Just edit your favorite amp and write down all the parameter settings. Then create a global amp and set each parameter by hand. It's a bit tedious, but it only takes a few minutes, and you get to keep your favorite amp as a global.

There may be some magical mojo in there that lets you avoid this hand-tweaking, but I haven't found it yet.
 
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