Live Workflow for Cover Bands - Song Lists vs Complex Presets

Ventanaman

Inspired
I play in a 90’s cover band with about 60 or songs in the current rotation. I just finished re-creating all of my AxeFxII presets in the III, and the associated FC12 programming - and I am very impressed, especially withe the FC12 customization.

I have been able to get the 60 songs into 5 presets, if I really squeeze. But, just to experiment, I took some of the more complex songs and made song-specific presets.

After a couple of rehearsals, I am coming to the conclusion that song-specific presets may be the way to go, especially for cover bands. Since there is sufficient memory in the III, I can keep a Master List of songs, and then copy/paste into the first several banks for a gig-specific set list.

Who else is using this workflow/strategy, and am I missing anything?

-VM
 
I play in a cover band, and I make song specific presets with scenes for each part. I love the fact that when I play on stage or rehearsal, all I have to do is switch to the scene for the current part. I do not have to think about which effects to engage or stress over pressing three buttons at the same time - I just play :)

Rather than setting up the presets in order for a gig, I use an iPad running setlistmaker. There I make my setlist, and when I select the next song, the ipad sends midi (over bluetooth) to the Axe and selects the right preset on the Axe. When it is set up right, it is really easy to work with.
 
Back in my Ultra days I got into the habit of song specific presets since presets changed so quickly. I would usually set aside 4 presets per song. Intro, rhythm, lead and special. It worked so well It was a must for my Axe III as well... but using scenes instead of individual presets. So far I have been able to work one preset per song except for a couple of songs that use Poltergeist Pig and Chrystal Echos. They are just too special.

We are hybrid playing to a backing track so even if two presets are similar it allows custom volumes for each song. Since the backing track doesn't change we are able to fine tune our volume and EQ on a per song basis even if the preset is identical. Especially useful for leads because the dynamics of any two given songs will treat lead clarity differently.
 
I play in a cover band, and I make song specific presets with scenes for each part. I love the fact that when I play on stage or rehearsal, all I have to do is switch to the scene for the current part. I do not have to think about which effects to engage or stress over pressing three buttons at the same time - I just play :)

Rather than setting up the presets in order for a gig, I use an iPad running setlistmaker. There I make my setlist, and when I select the next song, the ipad sends midi (over bluetooth) to the Axe and selects the right preset on the Axe. When it is set up right, it is really easy to work with.
Super interesting, how do you connect via Bluetooth and the AXE. And how do you do that with the playlist and the preset assignments.
 
I've found that if you're playing in a cover band scenario with need for many types of tones, going with separate presets for songs is the way to go as switching between presets is very quick and you can keep each preset (fairly) simple. If you're in more of a jam / improv situation and are choosing your tones on-the-fly at your whim, then an all-in-one preset (or set of them) is the way to go.

I split the difference a bit in the cover band scenario. I try to keep some common presets that work for several songs (i.e. a classic rock Marshall tone for instance). If a song needs some specific sounds, I'll create a separate preset for it. This helps to keep your number of presets down as you will tweak them over time. So instead of 60 presets, one for each song, you may be able to get it down to 10-15 for instance, depending on the tones you need. I keep a common per-preset footswitch layout for each when possible, so I don't have to think too much during the show.

I use the MIDI mapping functionality in the Axe-Fx III with my FC6 to lay out the set and progress thru the presets during the show.
 
One preset per song just makes it so much easier to tweak the sound until it sits perfectly in the mix for that specific tune, that I never thought about doing it any other way.
 
I have this in the midi ports of the AxeFX http://quicco.eu/products/index.html - Yamaha makes similar products.

All the rest is actually set up on the ipad inside the SetListMaker app. In the app I have an entry for each song (sometimes I also have song lyrics and chord charts in those entries), and each song is tied to a set of midi commands that will be sent out, when that song is selected. When I make setlists, I make a combination of songs entries, so when I select the song during the set, the ipad screen will show chords/lyrics and a midi command is sent to the axe bringing up the chosen preset.
 
I play in a few bands, and one is a David Bowie tribute. In the Bowie tribute, I use a dedicated preset for every song (which makes set list management pretty easy). In my other bands I have a handful of presets that cover most of my sounds, with a few instances where I have a dedicated preset because the tone is specialized.
 
I also do one preset per song, with different scenes for different parts of the song. Like the OP mentioned I have a master list of presets, and copy them to blank space in setlist order before each gig. I REALLY miss the setlist functionality the MFC-101 offered with my Axe-Fx II.
 
When I had my AX8, I had a per song preset system (I play in a coverband as well). I’d use Setlistmaker on an iPad connected via Yamaha’s UD-BT01 and I used a Flic Bluetooth button to switch quickly to the next song / preset. I’d also have Fracpad running on the iPad.
When I got my FM3, I wanted to try another approach: much less presets, more generic so they can be used for multiple songs. Problem is: you end up needing to switch effects on/off and I don’t like having to switch to other banks on the FM3 to select scene 4-6 and 7-8 in the middle of a song. I miss the AX8’s footswitches... so now I’m thinking to either go back to a preset per song system or to add a MIDI controller to control effects. The only thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to use the FM3’s MIDI inputs to connect both an iPad and a MIDI controller. I actually just started a topic on that yesterday: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/connect-ipad-and-midi-controller.171487/
 
I'm also in the camp of song specific presets. I don't gig every week so I just go into preset manager and order them how I want them.
(I used to keep them in one spot and control with Ableton Live, but I no longer use Ableton, or anything like that in our live show anymore. 100% organic now.)

Also, even though I use one preset per song, a lot of my presets are simply clones of another with a different song name now. I starting doing this to reduce the number of sounds I use which makes my tone, volume, and mix more stable and predictable for a soundman, and also in my IEMs which can be a problem if your tone changes too drastically. I might have 10 sounds total... with 3 of them being 75% of our list, but I still enjoy having the setlist on my FC12 and the preset named for the song. I use 1 IR all night (for the same stability reasons listed above.)
 
I'm curious...do you guys use global amps for most/all of your various song presets or do you use a unique amp tweaked for each, or most, presets, etc.?
 
I use two global amp blocks for everything and one global cab block (+1 global cab block for acoustic sims)

Originally, I wanted to go with global FX as well, but I found I wanted to tweak FX on a song basis, especially drive pedals.

I do have a preset template I use for everything. It is very close to maxing out CPU, so I always start by removing the FX I know I will not use.
 
Like @Ventanaman I'm in a cover band with about 60 active songs so would prefer a per song preset set up. But pending the long time promised song / set list functionality to be implemented at the moment stick to a kitchen sink preset / preset template. As @Smittefar I run into the CPU maxing out issue so hope set / song list will be first after Cygnus.
 
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