Preset Management and Organization

Jarick

Jarick

Experienced
How is everyone managing and organizing their presets in the Axe 3? Do you have a "working" bank of top presets? Do you have a section of "in progress" or experimenting presets? Or are you just adding new presets sequentially with no order?

I've been doing the latter and I think I want to take some time to better organize. I want to have a main bank of my top presets, another section of presets where I'm set up with individual amps, and another set of tweaking/experimenting presets.

So here's an example:

Main Bank:
  • Kitchen Sink
  • Dual Amp
  • 80's Rock
  • 90's Rock
(etc)

Amp Presets:
  • Morgan AC20
  • Friedman HBE
  • EVH 5153
  • Mesa JP IIC
(etc)

Experiments:
  • High Gain Test
  • Clean Amp Test
  • Effect Test
(etc)
 
I've just recently started in on the Ax III, but I would say I'm moving toward an organization like you've described; a set list section, a section to experiment with amps, and a section to experiment with scenes and effects. On the AX8 I had similar sections, but it was a bit messy. Have been thinking about kitchen sink presets, but I'm still early in the thinking stage.
 
I am not very organized but have ended up with five general sections, using the same basic concept I used with the AX8.
  • Preset #442+ - Factory presets that have been tweaked - deleted those that weren't wanted.
  • Preset #026+ - Basic Amp model or effect specific.
  • Preset #056+ - Experimental or works in progress.
  • Preset #078+ - Songs - usually have @30 in this section, periodically weeding out songs that are no longer used.
  • Preset #000+ - Set list bank - drag-n-drop from the song section.
 
I currently use approx. 75 presets to perform the songs in my covers band.
Some of those presets do get used for more than one song, but the vast majority are tailored for individual songs.

They aren't organised in any particular order, I just keep adding them to the list as new songs come in, so it's just a case of remembering which bank each preset belongs in, and I'm pretty good at that.

For example, I know that my preset for 'Dakota' is bank 9, preset 5 due to the fact it's resided there for such a long time.
 
Jarick said:
How is everyone managing and organizing their presets in the Axe 3? Do you have a "working" bank of top presets? Do you have a section of "in progress" or experimenting presets? Or are you just adding new presets sequentially with no order?

I've been doing the latter and I think I want to take some time to better organize. I want to have a main bank of my top presets, another section of presets where I'm set up with individual amps, and another set of tweaking/experimenting presets.

So here's an example:

Main Bank:
  • Kitchen Sink
  • Dual Amp
  • 80's Rock
  • 90's Rock
(etc)

Amp Presets:
  • Morgan AC20
  • Friedman HBE
  • EVH 5153
  • Mesa JP IIC
(etc)

Experiments:
  • High Gain Test
  • Clean Amp Test
  • Effect Test
(etc)
Click to expand...
I like your basic design and think it makes sense. I’m also in a cover band. I use about 10 presets to cover our set list. Most presets are used for more than one song so those would be Bank 1. I have 4 presets that are song specific so those go in Bank 2 with the remaining being specific amp presets when I want to get a certain tone. I plan to limit the range of my FC-12 during shows so I can only scroll through Banks 1 and 2. I’m also creating my own layout for presets on the FC because I use scenes but also need control over specific effects.
 
i went thru the factory presets and blew away about 130 of them (no offense) - mostly stuff with over the top effects or harmonization... I never use that stuff. I have a section of leon/2112, milo, mark day, others, section of 30+ triaxis, 30 presets for condensed "all 200+ amps" in scenes, bass section, and a 'work in progress' area at the end. I generally only keep presets with all/most scenes filled out. I color code all my presets so it's easy to skip across the entire length by looking only at blue (for instance) = featuring ultra clean tones, or red = featuring/fav solo tones.

I should probably say that I never gig... only play from my office chair (perhaps that is obvious/implied from my playing - hehe)
 
Tommy Tempest said:
I moved the entire set of bank 1 presets to bank 2, bank 2 2 to 3, etc. etc., freeing up bank 1.
That gave me freedom to put my live presets starting in bank 1, in order, and give me plenty of room to copy from factory presets and tweak, or create from scratch.
Click to expand...

I like that idea of moving the factory presets. I know we have lots of room for them but I wish we had more folders or banks available. When I used Austin Buddy presets I couldn't load everything in there and still have room to work.
 
My cover band is at 75+ songs at the moment as well. I use one preset with 8 scenes for many songs. I'll have to count, but think I'm using about 13 specialty presets as well. I don't have them organized in a specific way in my axe iii since I use set list mode in my liquid foot jr+
 
I use bank A as my working and go-to bank. This is the one for live gigs and curated favorite presets - the go-to bank of always-theres, plus some flavors of the day/week/month to try out. I'd put a band set list with songs by preset and scenes covering sounds in order in this one.

Bank B is whatever I'm working on that aren't my main ones. It could be someone else's preset bank, or a bank I'm making new presets in, or something else. Maybe Leon Todd, Brett Kingman, or Fremen presets are in there. This one gets changed a lot - added/subtracted. An "stuff to audition' bank. Or It may be one of the three Factory banks if I'm looking for super cool effects.

I use Banks C and D to hold the 1400+ Naked Amps TonePack presets. That way I can get them anytime I like, ready as-is or for a base preset to build on.

Works for me!
 
I have two global blocks. One for amp, one for cab. The amp block has 2 variations of two amps each. Two each of clean-ish and dirty. The cab is the same cab for everything. Presets are song based with different tempos and effects. I keep a master list of songs up in the last few banks and pull them into set list order in the first few banks. I could probably get away with one or two kitchen sink type presets but having tempos and song names for the patches is helpful.
 
Started to reorganize last night. Deleted about half the factory presets, moved the factory amp-focused patches (first ~125 or so) down, and started to move mine up. Hoping to put a little more focus in my tweaking and stage them up when I'm happy.
 
Tommy Tempest said:
I moved the entire set of bank 1 presets to bank 2, bank 2 2 to 3, etc. etc., freeing up bank 1.
That gave me freedom to put my live presets starting in bank 1, in order, and give me plenty of room to copy from factory presets and tweak, or create from scratch.
Click to expand...

Awesome idea. Gonna do that to.
 
I would still like to have a set list methodology. Fortunately I don't have 75 patches in an evening performance. All of m patches are in a linear fashion and I use one patch for a few songs. Not any of them are specific to any cover songs, but for original song performance.

A set list would allow me to have banks with clean, crunchy and high gain patches that I can have set for different guitars and their EQ settings.

Minimal coordination right now, but once I get the patches settled, I would surely use that set list with multiple guitars.
 
This is an excellent discussion, thanks to everyone contributing. UPS delivered my new FX3/FC12 yesterday and between FW11 and the new/updated presets my head is spinning. I have until Saturday night to learn the hardware, create presets, and get my set list together. I’m not ready to delete any Fractal content so I’m going to use the bank B/C/D approach and clear A to store my creations. Good times!
 
Bank A is for selected factory presets.

Banks B and C are for accumulated presets from various sources.

Bank D is for my personal presets which I use in the bands I play in.
 
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I just spent 3 hours updating presets to the new firmware. I had presets scattered all over the place and from various builders. That was a chore. I was always leery about saving and loading presets to my computer, mainly because my file system was scattered everywhere too. I have sense fixed and organized all of that. I am currently contemplating saving all my banks to my computer and only having my working presets, about 25, and a half dozen or so that I am working on. Then I can pull a bank and just audition if I need something new.
 
Tommy Tempest said:
I moved the entire set of bank 1 presets to bank 2, bank 2 2 to 3, etc. etc., freeing up bank 1.
That gave me freedom to put my live presets starting in bank 1, in order, and give me plenty of room to copy from factory presets and tweak, or create from scratch.
Click to expand...
Could you please describe your "banks" approach more detailed?
I started to search "banks" term in my axe edit and found nothing except A-D Channels.

I see just 512 linear presets and that's all.
 
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