How many presets do you use?

jdosher

jdosher

Inspired
This question is mostly directly towards people in "traditional" band settings playing original material. I suppose I could further refine the question to be directed at people who are going for a core sound across songs, rather than lots of different amps and cabs and sounds.

Do you have a dedicated preset for each song?
Or do you have a couple core presets that cover most of the material and a couple song-specific presets for the songs that require something additional?
Or ?

Before I switched to the Axe-Fx I had rigs that I ran in mostly a "one bank per song" setup (GSP1101 then t.c. g-system). It made preset managment a nightmare, plus all the inherent issues of latency, dropout, effects tails, etc. Scene switching was a huge selling point for me going the Axe route and I suddenly found I could have one patch per song. But now I wonder if even that is overkill. (NB: I use global amps, and a number of global fx blocks.)

Just curious what other people's approaches are.
 
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I use about 10 presets and they are based on different amps. scenes are set up with a clean, distorted, lead, special effects. I used to use 1 preset per song and scenes for changes in the song, but that is to much to deal with!
 
I use 10 presets per bank and 7 IA. My first bank is main 10 and use for 75% of tunes. Then I have four more banks that have song specific patches for each tune.
 
Have you guys had any issue dialing in patch levels across all the presets? I've always felt like the more non-global amps and blocks I use the more work it is if I want to change something across the board. For example, when I switched to the 2x12 guiltar cab I'm currently using, I made some tweaks to my global amp, but I didn't have to go into each preset and adjust the same thing over and over again.
 
This is what I wrote in a recent, similar thread:

adew said:
For my originals band, I work on the principle of one song = one preset. Each song's preset is based on the same template of WAH > COMP > PHASER > DRIVE > AMP > PEQ > CAB > DELAY > FIL. My MFC is set up with Bank Size 0 and the bottom row of IA's mapped to Scenes 1 to 5.

Rather than using scenes for clean / crunch / dist / solo, I generally use them for parts of the song, ie Scene 1 is Intro/Verse, Scene 2 is a Verse alt (eg with Phaser or Comp, or both), Scene 3 is Chorus, Scene 4 is "something loud but different to Scene 3" and Scene 5 is for Solos. Not all songs use every Scene., so for some I may only ever use Scene 1, for others maybe Scenes 1, 3 and 5, and for others perhaps only 1,2 and 3, etc. However, I find it easy to keep track as I am consistent in always using Scene 1 for verses, Scene 3 for choruses, etc.

To keep preset management a bit easier, I use Global Blocks in every preset, and then use Scene Controllers to manage different parameters within those blocks. For example, I use a single Delay block and use Screen Controller 1 for managing the Mix parameter across all presets. As there are only 2 Scene Controllers available, this does have limitations, but it's fine for my current needs. I don't need a huge variation in sounds in this band, so this system works. Probably would not work if I was playing in a covers band and needed a wider variety of tones. Of course, each Scene has different bypass states for the blocks in the FX chain, depending on the song.

Although Scene Controllers make block management easier, they are not super-intuitive to use, nor is it quick to determine what value a parameter has in any particular preset as the front panel shows the start value not the modified value. (I wish it did show the modified value in the block - it would be much quicker to review presets and make sure I've set up the Scene Controller correctly. Also, I could do with more Scene Controllers as 2 is rather limiting.)

Remaining rows of IAs on the MFC are mapped to either X/Y or on/off for the blocks. For example, I have one each for Delay X/Y and Phaser X/Y, and then on/off for COMP, DRV, PEQ and FIL. Others are unused.

Overall, this setup is designed to minimise tap-dancing, be easy to manage (eg blocks, various block parameters), and allow easy updating of tones across all songs.
Click to expand...

Just to add:
- Effectively, the main reason for one preset = one song is to have the tempo programmed at preset level, and no two songs have exactly the same tempo.
- Balancing levels is very simple for me as I only use one amp and it's a global block.
 
adew said:
This is what I wrote in a recent, similar thread:



Just to add:
- Effectively, the main reason for one preset = one song is to have the tempo programmed at preset level, and no two songs have exactly the same tempo.
- Balancing levels is very simple for me as I only use one amp and it's a global block.
Click to expand...

Nice. Thanks for the input. I do a very similar approach, except scene 1 and 2 are clean or clean-ish (depending on the song), 3 is usually medium dirty, 4 is solo, 5 is "special" - a big tremolo in one song, or a big reverb+delay in another where I do some volume swells. I did forget about the tempo differences per song; I do that as well, which does drive me to keep the one patch per song approach now that I think about it. Our drummer is spot-on with the tempo and often has a metronome in his ear, so it's nice to have well-aligned delay repeats.
 
I play mainly P&W and use one preset per song; however, the presets are all based on the same 'main' preset. The only difference is the tempo and any effects I need on or off for the start of the song.

As all the presets are a copy and paste of the same preset, I don't need to worry about volume matching or anything like that.

I prefer to not make drastic changes within a set so stick to the same amp+cab setup.
 
adew said:
This is what I wrote in a recent, similar thread:



Just to add:
- Effectively, the main reason for one preset = one song is to have the tempo programmed at preset level, and no two songs have exactly the same tempo.
- Balancing levels is very simple for me as I only use one amp and it's a global block.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information, friend, very helpful.
 
live, usually about 4 or 5.. but it really depends what's in the set list..
worst case scenario… I reckon it'd never be more than 6 or 7
 
About 85. I program to 99 but there are some blanks here and there. Normally 4 or 5 per song not counting adding effects or scenes. It's a sickness.
 
Tough question as having a core sound certainly works, and its how I've typically always recorded, so its my normal.

With the Axe though, its so easy to have a different sound for each song, or match older amp models you may have previously used for older material etc.

Kind of cool and all, but then again, does the audience really care or even notice that much ? Maybe not...
 
In my cover band I am at 30 so far. 2 general purpose presets with 8 scenes that cover about 15 songs and the others for specific songs. 1 preset per song. Since the introduction of 'scenes', 1 carefully planed preset can handle even the most demanding song (so far) :eagerness:
 
zecure said:
Playing in a cover band. 1 preset per song.
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Hey zecure.

I've been playing in a cover band for 30 years and I only recently bought the Axe Fx 2 XL+. I've been deciding which way to go in regards to set lits and songs - Scenes, presets, presets per song (like you) etc.

At the moment I have this:
1 = Clean 2 = Clean/Crunch 3= Crunch 4 = Dirty 5 = Metal
6 = Clean Solo 7 = Clean/Crunch solo 8 = Crunch solo 9 = Dirty Solo 10 = Metal solo

So I have the solo for each preset from 1 - 5 above it. I do it that way so then I have complete control over each preset. Scenes don't work coz I need 10 sounds, as above. I know I can use the X/Y state
in each scene but.........
I thought of doing what you mentioned you do but how do you organize your night? Do you use the 'Song Mode' on the MFC laid out as your sets are written in order?
If so, what happens if someone in the crowd or your lead singer calls out a song that's not in your set list on the night but it is in your arsenal of songs, how do you go about finding that preset in your MFC quickly?
Do you have to do a lot of tap dancing?
Thx in advance for any info.
 
In a cover band, and I use about 30 presets. The first ten are different amps and cabs, each with a bunch of standard effects (compressor, reverb, chorus, phaser, flanger, one or two drives, one or two delays. For about half our songs, I just pick an amp I want to use and bring effects into and out of the signal path as needed. I also have set up scenes with each of those presets where I can X/Y different cabs and/or add a bit of additional gain to the amp. My other 20 or so presets are song-specific, most of which have multiple scenes. I'm just now getting into the use of scenes and such, so my whole approach has been changing about once a month.
 
I go the preset per song approach for both covers and originals.

Even if I use the same core amp/cab tone, I always have different effects for songs. I am a user of scenes and heavily deep into modifiers and controllers.

I phucking love the Axe FX II
 
I use up 5 presets when playing in the worship band at church, mainly because my foot controller has 5 presets per bank. Usually based around the same core amp/cab with different mods and delays that I can bring in via IA switches or scenes. Depending on the set I'll switch in various special presets to that bank. e.g. I've got a crazy synth arp for one of the Young and Free songs. Also one of the presets is usually the "pad" which is a wash of crystals (pitch) and heavy delay/verb. (Which sounds amazing with 10th intervals)
 
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