I've been gigging these patches for a few months now and after Thursday night's show I felt like they're dialed in well enough now to share them. So here's my monster post on my main patches.
My general gig setup for every patch is five scenes, going from clean to heavier as you move up scenes, with the fifth scene being reserved for something special. The something special depends on the patch.
I gig with an MFC-101 and two Mission EP-1 expression pedals: one is spring loaded, one isn't. The non-spring loaded pedal is assigned to Extern 3 in the Axe-Fx II and is always attached to a volume block in my patches. That volume block is always placed post-CAB, pre-REV/DLY so I can use it to adjust my overall patch volume on the fly, but keep reverb and delay tails when I roll things off. The second Mission pedal is a spring loaded number and is assigned to Extern 1 in my Axe-Fx II. What that pedal controls depends on the scene. In most scenes it controls a wah block. But in some patches, on scene 5, it controls a pitch block setup for classic whammy +1 octave mode. When I list the scenes for each patch, the block controlled by Extern 1 in that patch is noted in brackets and, what ever it happens to be, it's always auto-engaged because it's attached to my spring loaded Missing EP-1.
On my MFC-101 I have IAs 1-5 assigned to scenes 1-5. And the remaining IAs are: Compressor, Drive 1, Drive 2, Phaser, Chorus, Delay 1, Delay 2, Reverb, Rotary, Filter (used for a +4 dB boost), Tap tempo with hold-to-tune, Pan/Trem. I'll use scenes to turn on effects in some patches that aren't directly accessible via IAs on my MFC.
I gig primarily with my PRS Standard 24. It has custom made JS Moore pickups in it and they're hooked up with an RS Guitarworks Premium Modern PRS kit. I don't use the pulled tone pot, single coil sound very much. But the patches are dialed in to work equally well with my Schecter Custom California strat that's got very hot Anderson pickups in. The patches sound a touch bit cleaner with the strat, but not much.
I run mono, (with Copy L->R) direct to FoH live and, if I need to, I'll self-monitor with an EV Live X 112 P wedge. At home I generally build and tune my patches with headphones; my choice of cans being a set of Sennhesier HD 280 Pros.
So that gives you the reference point for how I feed sound in to and monitor the sound out of these patches. Now for the patches. Described in the order I have them saved in my unit for no particular reason whatsoever.
You'll see that I lay out my patches with a fair bit of similar components. That's by design. I treat the Axe-Fx II, for gigging, largely the way I would a standard pedal board and amp rig. I try to keep permutations of effects and effect ordering to have to remember from patch to patch to something minimal and manageable. I play largely original music so it helps that I'm not trying to cop the specific tones of 100 different songs in a cover band set list. But still, I believe a lot in the "find your own sound" approach to guitar playing so I never really try to get too specific (with the Trey A patch being the one exception to that statement of course).
Click on any picture to see the full size version.
And most of all: enjoy!
- Ian C.
Trey A
This is the latest version of my Trey Anastasio patch and I use it live for a tight, American clean tone and nice, singing lead sounds. I'll also use the looper in longer jams to loop weird space noises behind the rest of the band. This patch aims to cop Trey's tone from the Summer 2013 tour and it does a pretty darn good job when I'm using my PRS with it. One of the parameters introduced around V10 that really pushed the Trey tone in to the "holy cow that's close" range was Pick Attack. Dialed up a touch, it does a great job of getting a nice chuck-chuck attack out of my solid body PRS that Trey gets from his hollow body guitar.
Both drive blocks are TS 808s and you stack them, Trey A style, to really get sustain and gain. The compressor is run post-drive blocks, pre-amp just like Trey runs and it acts as a leveler on the overall volume of the signal as you bring the drive blocks in and out and stack them. In all cases, I've tried to capture Trey's settings and sounds for the effect blocks, not just the amp and cab combination.
I've talked at length in other threads about this patch but I should say something about my CAB choice here: I picked the Supremo 2x12. Not because it matches what Trey runs, but because I fell, following my ears here, that it gets closest to his sound. Trey runs V30s in 2x12 cabs live, but there isn't a V30 2x12 IR option out there that's worth paying attention to and all the 4x12 V30 IRs I've tried are just too bassy to match Trey's sound in my opinion. I encourage you to tune to taste using your own ears and guitars.
The rotary in this block is really something else when you use it in a stereo setup. If you have the means I highly recommend checking it out in stereo.
Scene 4 and 5 are for Trey's "space sound" stuff. In particular, I use Scene 5 with the looper to do First Tube type whammy dive loops that we jam over.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavier overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavier overdrive + delay (wah)
Scene 5: Heavier overdrive + delay (whammy)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Trey A - by iaresee
Plexi/Plexi+
Two, two, two amps in one. Patch that is. I get higher gain sounds in this patch by changing the AMP block in use instead of adding DRV blocks to the signal chain. I switch between a Plexi 50W Normal model for the clean and mid-gain sound to a Plexi 50W Jumpered model for the all out rock and roll gain sounds. That jumpered model sounds absolutely massive and stepping scenes that call that model up is a huge rush. The 50W Normal's clean tone is tamed a bit with a compressor in the first scene -- it's got this nice, woody and round clean sound. Dropping the compressor in the second scene lets the guitar signal hit the amp a little bit harder and pushes it in to a nice overdriven sound.
If I could only take one patch to a gig this is the patch I'd take. I can stay on this patch all night and be a happy, happy guitar player.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Clean, auto-wah, +5 dB output boost to normalize the level (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Plexi/Plexi+ - by iaresee
Deluxe Reverb
This is my delicate clean tone. I use it for one song that we don't play terribly often, but there it is when I need it. It's my Wicked Game patch, just stripped of it's Wicked Game-ness for the first four scenes. The foundation of that patch is your quintessential black face Deluxe clean sound: scooped in the mids, a little peaky, a little prone to breaking up if you dig in. I get mid-gain sounds by bringing in a Zen Master model and higher gain sounds by bringing in BB Pre. Both of those seems to work really well with the Deluxe's scooped mids. Scene 5 gets you my Wicked Game sound, with the 2290 in to reverb expansive sound an all.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Wicked Game (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Deluxe Reverb - by iaresee
Acoustic Badger
This is a modified version of Cooper Carter and Larry Mitchell's Acoustic Badger patch which is in turn a modified version of Fremen's awesome acoustic simulator patch. The difference in my patch is, using scenes, I can get to a sound that's just Badger amp. So I can start out playing acoustic and end playing just regular electric guitar. In scenes 1 and 2 the spring loaded Mission pedal on Extern 1 mixes in overdriven Badger sound up to a 50/50 mix. In scenes 3, 4 and 5 the pedal does nothing. I boost the Badger with the Zen Master in some scenes and it sounds fabulous.
The routing on this patch can look a little dauting. The VOL 3 block after the Badger line is there to allow me to switch to a pure-Badger sound via scenes but still mix in Badger on the Acoustic scenes.
Scene 1: Acoustic (mix Badger in 50/50)
Scene 2: Acoustic, boosted + delay for solos (mix Badger in 50/50)
Scene 3: Badger (does nothing)
Scene 4: Badger boosted by Zen Master (does nothing)
Scene 5: Badger boosted by Zen Master, solo delay (does nothing)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Acoustic Badger - by iaresee
Gives Me Shivas
I wanted a clean sound that was chimey like a Vox, but big and round like the Plexi. Impossible you say, right? Not a chance! Bogner has you covered! The Shiva Clean model in to a cab running the 2x12 Blues does the trick for me. You get a little AC-30 and a little Plexi all in one tone. Gives me shivers just thinking about playing it. I don't generally kick in the other scenes on this patch so they're not tuned as well as scenes 2-5 tend to be on my other patches, but they're there if you want them. Higher levels of gain are courtesy a Tube Drive model and a BB Pre. That BB Pre really does a spectacular job of taking clean, chimey amps in to Marshall teritory.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Clean, auto-wah, +5 dB output boost to normalize the level (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Gives Me Shivas - by iaresee
A-Class 15
We're a vain lot, guitarists. I built this patch because, during a rehearsal, I was messing around with the factory A-Class 15 patch on a tune and my bass player said my sound was really excellent. So of course I had to make a proper, customized version of the patch and gig it right? Vanity, thy name is guitar tone chasing guitar player...
The amp and cab models in this are pretty close to the factory settings. I use the producer pack blue mix cab IR because...well...it's so goddamn good sounding. And the amp block is tweaked a bit to work with my higher output guitars and the humbuckers on my PRS in particular. It's got the big, round, overdriven thing going on. Roll off the volume and it cleans up but it stays fat. You can almost feel the heat from the tubes running in Class A mode when you turn it up loud.
The rotary block in this one is also a total gem and works unbeliveably well. Especially in stereo.
Boost and higher gain come from an 808 and Eternity model respectively.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Clean with rotary (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] A-Class 15 - by iaresee
Top Boost
Well, if I was going to roll with an AC-15, I should probably have an AC-30 in my gig patch stable too, right? At least, that was my thinking when I dialed in this patch. And what do you know: that chimey, edgy, clean tone really cuts through the mix when there's piano and keys and vocal and bass happening. I've got the dotted eigth delay setup on delay 2 for those times when I want to channel The Edge and play less, but hear more notes.
I also use this one on one of the few covers we do. We do this kind of amped up version of The Way it Is and I rip a nu-country type solo at the end and man does it ever work nice with this patch. Switch to middle + bridge on your Strat or outer both pickups on your PRS and channel the triplets and double stop bends.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Clean with rotary (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Top Boost - by iaresee
My general gig setup for every patch is five scenes, going from clean to heavier as you move up scenes, with the fifth scene being reserved for something special. The something special depends on the patch.
I gig with an MFC-101 and two Mission EP-1 expression pedals: one is spring loaded, one isn't. The non-spring loaded pedal is assigned to Extern 3 in the Axe-Fx II and is always attached to a volume block in my patches. That volume block is always placed post-CAB, pre-REV/DLY so I can use it to adjust my overall patch volume on the fly, but keep reverb and delay tails when I roll things off. The second Mission pedal is a spring loaded number and is assigned to Extern 1 in my Axe-Fx II. What that pedal controls depends on the scene. In most scenes it controls a wah block. But in some patches, on scene 5, it controls a pitch block setup for classic whammy +1 octave mode. When I list the scenes for each patch, the block controlled by Extern 1 in that patch is noted in brackets and, what ever it happens to be, it's always auto-engaged because it's attached to my spring loaded Missing EP-1.
On my MFC-101 I have IAs 1-5 assigned to scenes 1-5. And the remaining IAs are: Compressor, Drive 1, Drive 2, Phaser, Chorus, Delay 1, Delay 2, Reverb, Rotary, Filter (used for a +4 dB boost), Tap tempo with hold-to-tune, Pan/Trem. I'll use scenes to turn on effects in some patches that aren't directly accessible via IAs on my MFC.
I gig primarily with my PRS Standard 24. It has custom made JS Moore pickups in it and they're hooked up with an RS Guitarworks Premium Modern PRS kit. I don't use the pulled tone pot, single coil sound very much. But the patches are dialed in to work equally well with my Schecter Custom California strat that's got very hot Anderson pickups in. The patches sound a touch bit cleaner with the strat, but not much.
I run mono, (with Copy L->R) direct to FoH live and, if I need to, I'll self-monitor with an EV Live X 112 P wedge. At home I generally build and tune my patches with headphones; my choice of cans being a set of Sennhesier HD 280 Pros.
So that gives you the reference point for how I feed sound in to and monitor the sound out of these patches. Now for the patches. Described in the order I have them saved in my unit for no particular reason whatsoever.
You'll see that I lay out my patches with a fair bit of similar components. That's by design. I treat the Axe-Fx II, for gigging, largely the way I would a standard pedal board and amp rig. I try to keep permutations of effects and effect ordering to have to remember from patch to patch to something minimal and manageable. I play largely original music so it helps that I'm not trying to cop the specific tones of 100 different songs in a cover band set list. But still, I believe a lot in the "find your own sound" approach to guitar playing so I never really try to get too specific (with the Trey A patch being the one exception to that statement of course).
Click on any picture to see the full size version.
And most of all: enjoy!
- Ian C.
Trey A
This is the latest version of my Trey Anastasio patch and I use it live for a tight, American clean tone and nice, singing lead sounds. I'll also use the looper in longer jams to loop weird space noises behind the rest of the band. This patch aims to cop Trey's tone from the Summer 2013 tour and it does a pretty darn good job when I'm using my PRS with it. One of the parameters introduced around V10 that really pushed the Trey tone in to the "holy cow that's close" range was Pick Attack. Dialed up a touch, it does a great job of getting a nice chuck-chuck attack out of my solid body PRS that Trey gets from his hollow body guitar.
Both drive blocks are TS 808s and you stack them, Trey A style, to really get sustain and gain. The compressor is run post-drive blocks, pre-amp just like Trey runs and it acts as a leveler on the overall volume of the signal as you bring the drive blocks in and out and stack them. In all cases, I've tried to capture Trey's settings and sounds for the effect blocks, not just the amp and cab combination.
I've talked at length in other threads about this patch but I should say something about my CAB choice here: I picked the Supremo 2x12. Not because it matches what Trey runs, but because I fell, following my ears here, that it gets closest to his sound. Trey runs V30s in 2x12 cabs live, but there isn't a V30 2x12 IR option out there that's worth paying attention to and all the 4x12 V30 IRs I've tried are just too bassy to match Trey's sound in my opinion. I encourage you to tune to taste using your own ears and guitars.
The rotary in this block is really something else when you use it in a stereo setup. If you have the means I highly recommend checking it out in stereo.
Scene 4 and 5 are for Trey's "space sound" stuff. In particular, I use Scene 5 with the looper to do First Tube type whammy dive loops that we jam over.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavier overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavier overdrive + delay (wah)
Scene 5: Heavier overdrive + delay (whammy)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Trey A - by iaresee
Plexi/Plexi+
Two, two, two amps in one. Patch that is. I get higher gain sounds in this patch by changing the AMP block in use instead of adding DRV blocks to the signal chain. I switch between a Plexi 50W Normal model for the clean and mid-gain sound to a Plexi 50W Jumpered model for the all out rock and roll gain sounds. That jumpered model sounds absolutely massive and stepping scenes that call that model up is a huge rush. The 50W Normal's clean tone is tamed a bit with a compressor in the first scene -- it's got this nice, woody and round clean sound. Dropping the compressor in the second scene lets the guitar signal hit the amp a little bit harder and pushes it in to a nice overdriven sound.
If I could only take one patch to a gig this is the patch I'd take. I can stay on this patch all night and be a happy, happy guitar player.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Clean, auto-wah, +5 dB output boost to normalize the level (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Plexi/Plexi+ - by iaresee
Deluxe Reverb
This is my delicate clean tone. I use it for one song that we don't play terribly often, but there it is when I need it. It's my Wicked Game patch, just stripped of it's Wicked Game-ness for the first four scenes. The foundation of that patch is your quintessential black face Deluxe clean sound: scooped in the mids, a little peaky, a little prone to breaking up if you dig in. I get mid-gain sounds by bringing in a Zen Master model and higher gain sounds by bringing in BB Pre. Both of those seems to work really well with the Deluxe's scooped mids. Scene 5 gets you my Wicked Game sound, with the 2290 in to reverb expansive sound an all.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Wicked Game (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Deluxe Reverb - by iaresee
Acoustic Badger
This is a modified version of Cooper Carter and Larry Mitchell's Acoustic Badger patch which is in turn a modified version of Fremen's awesome acoustic simulator patch. The difference in my patch is, using scenes, I can get to a sound that's just Badger amp. So I can start out playing acoustic and end playing just regular electric guitar. In scenes 1 and 2 the spring loaded Mission pedal on Extern 1 mixes in overdriven Badger sound up to a 50/50 mix. In scenes 3, 4 and 5 the pedal does nothing. I boost the Badger with the Zen Master in some scenes and it sounds fabulous.
The routing on this patch can look a little dauting. The VOL 3 block after the Badger line is there to allow me to switch to a pure-Badger sound via scenes but still mix in Badger on the Acoustic scenes.
Scene 1: Acoustic (mix Badger in 50/50)
Scene 2: Acoustic, boosted + delay for solos (mix Badger in 50/50)
Scene 3: Badger (does nothing)
Scene 4: Badger boosted by Zen Master (does nothing)
Scene 5: Badger boosted by Zen Master, solo delay (does nothing)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Acoustic Badger - by iaresee
Gives Me Shivas
I wanted a clean sound that was chimey like a Vox, but big and round like the Plexi. Impossible you say, right? Not a chance! Bogner has you covered! The Shiva Clean model in to a cab running the 2x12 Blues does the trick for me. You get a little AC-30 and a little Plexi all in one tone. Gives me shivers just thinking about playing it. I don't generally kick in the other scenes on this patch so they're not tuned as well as scenes 2-5 tend to be on my other patches, but they're there if you want them. Higher levels of gain are courtesy a Tube Drive model and a BB Pre. That BB Pre really does a spectacular job of taking clean, chimey amps in to Marshall teritory.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Clean, auto-wah, +5 dB output boost to normalize the level (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Gives Me Shivas - by iaresee
A-Class 15
We're a vain lot, guitarists. I built this patch because, during a rehearsal, I was messing around with the factory A-Class 15 patch on a tune and my bass player said my sound was really excellent. So of course I had to make a proper, customized version of the patch and gig it right? Vanity, thy name is guitar tone chasing guitar player...
The amp and cab models in this are pretty close to the factory settings. I use the producer pack blue mix cab IR because...well...it's so goddamn good sounding. And the amp block is tweaked a bit to work with my higher output guitars and the humbuckers on my PRS in particular. It's got the big, round, overdriven thing going on. Roll off the volume and it cleans up but it stays fat. You can almost feel the heat from the tubes running in Class A mode when you turn it up loud.
The rotary block in this one is also a total gem and works unbeliveably well. Especially in stereo.
Boost and higher gain come from an 808 and Eternity model respectively.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Clean with rotary (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] A-Class 15 - by iaresee
Top Boost
Well, if I was going to roll with an AC-15, I should probably have an AC-30 in my gig patch stable too, right? At least, that was my thinking when I dialed in this patch. And what do you know: that chimey, edgy, clean tone really cuts through the mix when there's piano and keys and vocal and bass happening. I've got the dotted eigth delay setup on delay 2 for those times when I want to channel The Edge and play less, but hear more notes.
I also use this one on one of the few covers we do. We do this kind of amped up version of The Way it Is and I rip a nu-country type solo at the end and man does it ever work nice with this patch. Switch to middle + bridge on your Strat or outer both pickups on your PRS and channel the triplets and double stop bends.
Scene 1: Clean (wah)
Scene 2: Light overdrive (wah)
Scene 3: Heavy overdrive (wah)
Scene 4: Heavy overdrive, solo delay (wah)
Scene 5: Clean with rotary (wah)
Patch: Axe-Change - Download Preset - [iaresee] Top Boost - by iaresee
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