[POLL] Do you buy or have you ever bought commercial presets?

Do you buy or have you ever bought commercial presets?

  • Yes

  • Yes but I never/rarely use them

  • No


Results are only viewable after voting.

DLC86

Fractal Fanatic
Since this subject was being discussed in another thread I thought it would be interesting to make a poll to see what's the approach to modeling for the majority of Axe FX/AX8/FM3 users

PS: if you think I should add other options to the poll just let me know
 
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I get the philosophy of cutting the time of creating your own presets but the Axe is so intuitive and if approached like a physical amp really doesn't take much to get a great tone.

The problem I had in the beginning (AX8) was overthinking and over tweaking trying to get the "perfect" tone. Major frustration and failure! I finally started from scratch with an amp model and factory cab and built from there, really focusing on what I wanted from the amp and overall tone. Using this approach I discovered a handful of parameters and tweaks that consistently give me the results I want without a lot of time spent.

The Block Library is another very useful tool. Finding effects in the Factory presets as well as saving effect settings from my own presets, using them as a base for other presets is a big timesaver.
 
I did buy AustinBuddy's in the past just because of the wonderful reviews. However, I never used them for anything other than an exploratory adventure. In reality, I should be in the No camp. I've never gigged with anything but my own.
 
I bought presets. I discovered fremen when I had the 2 and when I bought the three i had bought them before the three arrived. I do not think I cannot make presets myself. I just think Fremen is better at it than I am. I would never buy austinbuddy stuff. That is mainly amp settings and that I can do myself. Fremen also makes effects sound like I could never do myself. I copy and paste his presets into the presets I build myself with Stock or bought IRs.

Harm
 
Why buying the most advanced and awesome piece of gear created yet, if you won't use it make your own sound..or more... It's an waste of money...even if u can afford it...I would say get an kemper...this is not an louis vuitton so u can show off...sorry if I'm offending someone...but that's my take on all this
 
Not for me, really. I'm all about finding my own tones, or if I want to recreate a tone, figuring out how to do it myself.

I even wipe factory presets from whatever device I buy (Fractal stuff included).
 
Why buying the most advanced and awesome piece of gear created yet, if you won't use it make your own sound..or more... It's an waste of money...even if u can afford it...I would say get an kemper...this is not an louis vuitton so u can show off...sorry if I'm offending someone...but that's my take on all this

None taken. ;) 🤣

A while back I bought some ML Sound Lab Vox presets, kind of... they may have come free with an IR pack, I don't recall. Really good. Although Mikko hadn't done that all that much to make the models match the recorded amp sounds, I was really interested to hear his take on some classic Vox AC30 sounds. Given I no longer own an AC30 (did have 2 of them once upon a time), it was kind of cool to hear such familiar sounds coming out of my monitors.

So last year I did similar and bought some Marshall 4x12 IRs (cabs and speakers I have once owned, again), and out of curiosity got some presets at the same time. None of them I'd use just they are, but the thing I liked was seeing what someone else (and someone with a decent pair of "studio ears") did to get a sound that they liked, and matched some old amps that they could compare them with directly.

So while I take your point entirely, the presets I have paid for so far are, to me at least, not so much Louis Vuitton, as interesting steps in an education. No more or less valuable than a Leon Todd ( @2112 ) tutorial video, just totally different because they involve a bit of digging to get value from them.

I think the basic amp sounds from FW 15.01 are pretty amazing, and anyone that is making presets to sell might need to seriously up their game to be any noticeably better or more useful/accurate/great feeling that an Axe FX III straight out of the box, but I bet some will.

For me, so far, not sure if I'll ever buy more, but they have a place, either in education about what the Axe can do, or for someone that wants a particular sound without having to spend time on it.

Liam
 
I’m 56 years old and only picked up a guitar for the first time at 41. I’m not a musician, I don’t plan on writing my own music..wouldn’t even know how..., so I have no need to create my own tones. With fewer days ahead than there are behind me, I would rather spend my time picking up a guitar, plugging it in, pick a preset and learn how to play a new song than trying to figure what block goes where or what parameter does what.

I am a techie by trade, so I do enjoy learning how to repair, modify and maintain my own guitars. I also enjoy learning how to make all the devices (Axe-Fx, AX8, Mastermind, etc.) talk to each other with MIDI and automate things with BH.

Just my opinion of course. :)
 
I have, both for Helix (before I moved to AxeFx last year) and Fractal.

I think the argument for it is that I'm buying something the creator (should have) put hours upon hours into researching and recreating something for a modern modeler.
 
Why buying the most advanced and awesome piece of gear created yet, if you won't use it make your own sound..or more... It's an waste of money...even if u can afford it...I would say get an kemper...this is not an louis vuitton so u can show off...sorry if I'm offending someone...but that's my take on all this

Well I am offended and really think you are wrong. And who are you to judge. . Everybody that just buys an amp head, a speaker and a standard pedal is wasting money too because they aren’t creating their own sound? When they use the example settings that come with more sophisticated pedals then they wasted money too? When the studio engineer eq’s the sound to mix it in the bandsound better you would tell him not to because you lose your own sound?
I thought we were musicians. I can play over anyones presets and still sound as me.
And closing: the fact that you make your own presets doesn’t mean you make good presets. Maybe you do, I do not know. But I buy presets from guys who really know what they are doing. I can maybe get 85% great, but biying it gets me 95% and the I tweak it up 100 and be perfectly happy. Money well spent.

Pff
 
For me, the sound of my playing isn't separate from its musical content. That riff on an acoustic is a different musical idea than on a clean strat, which is different from it through a 100W Marshall about to burst into flames.

So, I've been modifying and building and hooking my gear up weirdly since forever, and of course I find creating my own presets a blast, right up there with playing through those rigs. Imagine you could modify your amp 17 ways from Sunday, set its knobs any way you like, put a gazillion customizable effects before and after it, and -- get this! -- the whole shebang remembers everything you did, and can switch between completely different setups with a footswitch! What's not to love???!!!

That said, I'm an exploratory guy, so checking out tones other folks come up with is big fun for me too. Sometimes I'll pull up an amp I've never heard of, try the default settings (somebody made those too!), and go from there. Sometimes I'll pull up a preset somebody else posted, to see if it's as fun much for me as it was for them. (Cliff's SRV preset is!)

And sometimes, though not very often, I'll buy presets. I don't expect to use them as-is necessarily, just want to see what they sound like, and how they're put together. I also have the problem of not really trusting my monitoring, so hearing what someone thinks is a reasonable tone helps me think about that too.

Anyway, like anything, YMMV, if they work for you, cool, if not, they're not typically that expensive.
 
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