Live performance presets

J

John Barry

Member
Anybody have any live performance presets they'd like to share? Spent some cash on some presets from someone on the forum that I am very disappointed in. Probably would have sounded a lot better if I bought the cabs he used but oh well. If I can't get something I can't tell is a molder off this thing I am strongly considering just going back to my Boogie rig. So any and all help would be appreciated! :)
 
Hard to use others presets if you do not use the same cab IR's, and monitoring. You will get the best tone if you build to your own specs. I have down loaded many presets for the axe fx and most do not translate well with my rig. Even with your boogie, if some one had the same amp but different cab, guitar, hands, and pedals there amp settings probably would not jive either.
 
None of the 'Factory' presets are even close to what you want as a starting point? Have you tried replicating your 'Boogie Rig'? Maybe even use your 'Real' guitar cabs at first. Would need a lot more info before anyone can help.......type of sound you need?, guitar?, pickups?, traditional guitar cabs or full range? etc.........

You paid money for presets? The easy path is never the best path......Put in some time, learn the unit, ask for help here when you get stuck. It's worth the journey IMHO.
 
Cliff, M@ and everyone at fractal has said it many many many times. The IR (Cab block) is THE most important part of the overall tone of any preset. If you aren't using the Cab IRs from the person you purchased presets, you're basically buying the car without the engine.

The IRs are the most crucial element. The factory cabs are pretty good, but there's definitely gold in the FAS and Ownhammer IRs. If you're a boogie guy, I'd recommend the cab packs from ML sound lab or using his factory cabs that are in the factory list. (The Boogie ones and Marshall ones are great)
 
Think of IRs as speaker cabs a 2x12 open back vs 4x12 closed back and different speakers all sound different with the same head I find that I make my
Presets with a amp and cab only try out many! Different IRs till I find the one I like than build from there also as many people said on this forum play at gig volume to set your patches! VERY IMPORTANT! I did it played my first fly date last week with my AX8 I was very happy with my sound 1st show I have ever did without a amp in 30 years I was nervous about it but once I heard the tone I was happy
 
Dont forget you can use almost any Axe Fx presets on the AX8. Use the Axe Send utility to convert them.
 
I try Axe Send for Jazz Fusion by Anouck and it don't translate it correctly. Reverb is "abmient like' for example...
 
Try another one... probably faster than waiting for someone to export the blocks and then building the patch from blocks.
 
I'm finding for live presets you must build them at performance level. Otherwise I find that they are too boomy and bright when built at room level (if that makes sense). So turn it up and give a listen. You may be surprised at what you find in those presets - with the correct IR's of course.
 
You might want to share what tones your looking for and if your running real cabs or frfr?
I have a monsterous HBE amp that I dialed in over the weekend that I will use live all day long -Matrix power amp into two 4x12 Marshall cabs!
 
Thanks for replies everyone! I do struggle with making these preset blocks though even in the edit! But I suppose I should learn. Don't know where to start. The manual online, I feel like, it assumes you've used other fractal units before. And My rig that I played before this was a Mesa Boogie Mark V. A Petrucci-esque tone. But one project I'm in is a band that plays top 40 stuff. One of the presets I liked and tried using it to base some of my own patches on. Its what I believe is the replica of the triaxis?
 
Hey @John Barry,

There's always people here that are willing to help, but we need some more detailed info on your 'Fractal' setup before we can really go forward.......Maybe a list of 'Factory' presets that are in the ball park, guitar?, pickups?, traditional guitar cabs or full range or both? etc.........
 
John Barry said:
Anybody have any live performance presets they'd like to share? Spent some cash on some presets from someone on the forum that I am very disappointed in. Probably would have sounded a lot better if I bought the cabs he used but oh well. If I can't get something I can't tell is a molder off this thing I am strongly considering just going back to my Boogie rig. So any and all help would be appreciated! :)
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if it's the ones I'm thinking of, then the supplied free alternate cabs sound very close to the commercial IRs suggested by the creator. I've bought them, so I'm very familiar with this. The alternate IR is not as good as the commercial IR, or the mix of them, but it gets you close enough. You do have to understand the building blocks of a Fractal preset and how to load the most important part - the IR.

As the others have suggested, the main challenge I find on constructing a good preset is the cab IR. I personally find that presets shared by others do not translate very well to my setup. That being said, I've usually found some very useful ideas within those presets, which have taught me how to do things for my own presets.

We do need to understand what you're playing through as well as that will have an impact on what you're hearing. I found the transition from a "real" amp and cab to the Axe-FX and FRFR cab took some adjustment and understanding why that adjustment was necessary. You wouldn't catch me going back for anything now!
 
I've contacted John by PM ; I still don't know what he plays through but he didn't knew the FRFR acronym
 
RoshRoslin said:
Cliff, M@ and everyone at fractal has said it many many many times. The IR (Cab block) is THE most important part of the overall tone of any preset. If you aren't using the Cab IRs from the person you purchased presets, you're basically buying the car without the engine.
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True. I downloaded Mokes eruption preset and week ago , and even though it sounded very authentic to the VH sound off the album , it wouldn't fit in MY mix , so I created a stereo cab , kept his original , and added my own personal FAS factory cab , and mixed them to taste. Kicks AZZ.
I took the same preset and swapped out my other 2 favorite amp models and made 2 more similar presets too. Couldn't be happier.
 
Does this mean that the cabs which you get with AX8 are good and if you want the top you have to buy cabs?
 
nebbi said:
Does this mean that the cabs which you get with AX8 are good and if you want the top you have to buy cabs?
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The factory cabs in the AX8 are great. If you want other flavors, you have to buy other cabs. Those other flavors may or may not be more suitable to the specific amp and specific tone you're trying to create.
 
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olorin said:
I'm finding for live presets you must build them at performance level. Otherwise I find that they are too boomy and bright when built at room level (if that makes sense). So turn it up and give a listen. You may be surprised at what you find in those presets - with the correct IR's of course.
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Exactly, Use your live rig if possible. I've gone as far as to dial in the tones using the live PA completely set up so I actually can hear what it will sound like to an audience.
 
olorin said:
I'm finding for live presets you must build them at performance level.
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this goes for ANYTHING audio. you must build it at the sound levels you will perform at. with real amps, we don't always face this issue because we tend to turn them loud because "they need to be loud anyway." with the axe or anything that can use headphones or quiet speakers, we develop at 2am while the baby nextdoor is sleeping, then turn up 50dB more at the gig and wonder what's going on :)
 
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