I'm using my AX8 in a cover band...and both the band and the AX8 are new to me. We cover a wide variety of material from the 60s (e.g., Beatles, McCoys, Zepp, through the 70s (e.g., AC/DC, Bowie, Tom Petty, the Commodores), the 80s (e.g., Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Modern English) 90s (e.g., Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots, Metallica, Weezer) through a bit more contemporary artists (e.g., Kings of Leon, Black Keys, Velvet Revolver). In fact...this band is why I decided to try the AX8...I wanted an easy-to-setup-and-transport rig that was capable of producing a wide variety of sounds and stereo effects.
I haven't been at this long enough to have settled into a pattern that I use "all the time" and I'm not sure I ever will. But this is my basic approach. First I built a number of what I think of as multi-purpose utility presets that can be used for multiple songs and then a build a few scenes that enable me to use a slightly tweaked version of pretty much the same rig or additional scenes which are used largely to switch certain effects on/off and boost levels for solos. So on my typical "utility preset" I'll have some of the 8 buttons reserved for effects that I'm likely to want to turn on off and I'll have at least a Scene 1/2 button or often, Scene 2 and 3 buttons. I've not built only a couple presets that require 4 scenes.
I also have some presets that are pretty much dedicated to one or two songs. For example, I have one preset just for the Cult's Fire Woman. There's a real unique combination of effects that I only use in this tune...but I need several distinctly different tones/volumes too, that correspond to different parts of the song. I created Scenes for different parts of the song; so I'm switching between an X rig used for the intro part (which occurs several times in the song) and I use a Y rig for the other parts of the song...I have the three buttons on the bottom row assigned to the four Scenes I've set up (intro, verses & choruses, solos).
Another example of a preset dedicated to pretty much one song is one I use for Lonely Boy by the Black Keys -- I need that Whammy Ricochet momentary pedal effect--
but just for this one song. I need easy access to that preset so it's down in the lower row in button 4 where I can get at it quickly.
But in my typical preset, if it's one in which I'm using the scenes
to switch groups of settings and/or effects on/off within a song, then I assign the Scenes to the lower four buttons where they are most easily accessed. Conversely if I'm using the different Scenes in the utility patch
mostly for different songs (e.g., I use one patch for tunes by AC/DC, Jet, Bad Finger and Tom Petty), then I'll assign the Scenes to the top row and various effects to the bottom row, where I'm likely to use them more often.
I also use a Vol/Pan block in virtually every preset because I've relied on using a vol pedal in my rigs since back in the 70s. I have a second expression pedal which is almost always used as a wah, but on occasion, it's used for changing speed of a Rotary block.
Just posted a thread about my first gig with the AX8 which was this past Saturday.
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/first-gig-with-ax8.145104/