Preset Name Meanings

I'm not at my AFX, but I've added a couple of guesses:

Awesome! This is what I was hoping this thread would turn into. If it helps, here are some of the patch titles that need decoding:

Hell's Glockenspiel's - Hell's Bells - AC/DC
Djentlemanly - Reference to Djent in general
Machine gun - Machine Gun - Jimi Hendrix
Sweet Child - Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns n Roses
Jim and Leo - Jim Marshall & Leo Fender. The patch is a Marshall matched with a Fender.
I'm Nationwide - I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide - ZZ Top
Elegant Gypsy- Al Di Meola
So Many Roads - "Too Many Roads" Joe Bonamassa
Blues Aroncino - Blues Saraceno
Galaxy Formation
Pentalizer
Orient Express
Black Hole
Detuned Descent
Enumerating Ravens - Counting Crows?
Introspection
Meet the Cytherians
Pong Chorus
Emerald Ocean
Intrigue (C Minor)
Crawling in the Dark - Crawling In The Dark - Hoobastank
Ultraverb - no particular song, just stylized Fender reverb amp
Phaser Paradise 2
Smokey Jazz
Ballet Slippers - Ballerina - Steve Vai
Velvet Sun
Lonely Heart Solo - Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
A Major Harmony
Screaming Meanie
Asian Documentary
Wind Chimes 2
Valentine Massacre
Poltergeist Pig - no particular song - pig like grunt tones (kind of creepy....)
Organic - Hammond Organ type tone
Bohemian Rhapsody - Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Pitchmodtrem
Albert's Lead - Albert King? Albert Lee? Albert Collins? Fat Albert?
Centrifugue
Crystal Echos
The Wood Nymphs
Avant Garde Delay
MultiComp Plexi
Satan's Hollow - Arcade game from the 80's
regnalF esreveR - Reverse Flanger
Vertigo
Cavernous
Dream Sequence
Frenetica
Heavenly Echo
The Abyss
Rubber Biscuit
Watercolors
Event Horizon
Rainbow Splash
The Jupiter 2
Flangellation
Undulation
Serenity Now!
Haunting Echoes
Rockabilly Hot Rod - Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen
Ambient Swirl
6th Stone from Sun - Third Stone from the Sun - Jimim Hendrix
Echoes from God
In a Funk
No Quarter - No Quarter- Led Zeppelin
Surf's Up - surf tone; no special song - Beach Boys, Ventures, etc.
Flippin' The Switch
Ascension
Wandering Delays
Heavily Processed
Boutique Battle 1
Boutique Battle 2
Frogtown Irie
Nameless Streets - Where the Street Have No Name - U2
Rainy Nights
Bond… James Bond - Theme from James Bond -Henry Mancini
Zamfir?
Smokin' - Smokin'- Boston
Choral Canyon
Velvet Sun
Year of the City 2274
5 octaves of fun
Tape Distortion
Atmosphere
Dual Detune
Gamelan Night
Horror Movie
Echoplex
Funky Synth
Music Box - music box -like tone
Desert Breeze
Flashback
Squashed - heavily compressed tone
Lounge Lizards
By Your Command
The Planets
Glass Castles
Scintillating
Phenomena
Traffic Jam
Katie's Song
Bad - Bad - U2
Dripping Wet - heavy, soaking wet reverb
Rush Hour
Get Down Syndrome
New Country
In a Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another - The Fixx
63 Tube Verb Box
Yngwie - Yngwie Malmsteen
Syncopated
Run Like Heck - Run Like Hell -Pink Floyd
Bass Ackwards
Stratosphere
Melancholia
BandTaps
Modern Eddie - Eddie Van Halen
PCM70 Hall
Mr. Gilmour Lead - Floyd
Soundtrack
Ganymede
Forty Miles
Freeway Jam - Freeway Jam - Jeff Beck
Beef Supreme
Vintage Spring
2290 Delay
A Clockwork Banana
Thor's Hammer + Saw
East Wes
Bayou Country - Creedence reference - swampy
Prometheus WV
Ned Beatty
A Kind of Dream (C)
Spandex & Hairspray - 80's hair-metal tone
Opposed Notches
Shiva on the Rocks
Walking on the Moon - Walking On The Moon - The Police
Stone in Love - Stone In Love - Journey
DreamVerb
Forlorn
Ambient Guitar
Eruption - Eruption - Van Halen
Mr. Floyd - Floyd
Man In The Box - In The Box - Alice In Chains
Broken Heart
Solar Eclipse
Capricorn 1
Underwater
Blitz II
The Final Frontier
Fifths in Space
Sea of Tranquility
Corbomite Maneuver
The Infield - Your Love - The Outfield
China Syndrome
Clock Tower
Tumbleweeds
W@rped Vinyl (ABCD)
Sultans - Sultans of Swing - Dire Straights
High Landrons
Lunar Eclipse
2290 Delay 2
FilteRing Funk
PopGate '88
Echo Deva
Cliffs of Dover - Cliffs of Dover - Eric Johnson
Modulation Mayhem
Damage Nexus
Gnome-Mans Land
Night Creatures
Farfegnugen - reference to Steppenwolf - I forget the song, but something about earspliting fafegnugen....
Diamonique Rain
Tasty Brown - Walk - Foo Fighters (intro tone)
 
I've searched the forum and Wiki but still haven't found what I'm looking for. Is there a list somewhere that de-mystifies the veiled titles given to the Factory Presets? Some of the presets have been built with certain songs in mind while others were created for a particular sound but no particular song. Sometimes it's obvious to figure out like, well the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' patch for instance. Other times, not so obvious. Like 'Valentine Massacre' which I assume is a My Bloody Valentine patch ('Soon' perhaps?). Then there are others where I'm just not sure at all. Patches like 'Damage Nexus' and 'Cork Sniffers' and 'Ballet Slippers'- are those just cool patches or are they a pseudonym for a song that I don't even know exists? Is there a list somewhere for this?

I found this link to a list that GibsonLesPaul made but it's really screaming for another column that answers my questions I think.8)

http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-discussion/75470-patches-amps-revealed.html

I kindof like figuring them out. Some are puns, others are pretty much what you might think. Fun.
 
Here's an updated list based on people's comments and some thoughts of my own. I'm really enjoying this. Feel free to add to, make changes or disagree.

Hell's Glockenspiel's - Hell's Bells - AC/DC
Djentlemanly - Reference to Djent in general
Machine gun - Machine Gun - Jimi Hendrix
Sweet Child - Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns n Roses
Jim and Leo - Jim Marshall & Leo Fender. The patch is a Marshall matched with a Fender.
I'm Nationwide - I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide - ZZ Top
Elegant Gypsy- Al Di Meola
So Many Roads - So Many Roads - Grateful Dead or Too Many Roads by Joe Bonamassa?
Blues Aroncino - Blues Saraceno
Galaxy Formation - Ambient Sound Effect
Pentalizer - Play on comic character The Penalizer- Pitch Block creates pentatonic pitches from a single note
Orient Express - Ambient Sound Effect
Black Hole - Ambient Sound Effect
Detuned Descent - Ambient Sound Effect
Enumerating Ravens - Counting Crows?
Introspection
Meet the Cytherians
Emerald Ocean
Intrigue (C Minor)
Crawling in the Dark - Crawling In The Dark - Hoobastank
Ultraverb - Fender reverb styled tone
Phaser Paradise 2
Smokey Jazz
Ballet Slippers - Ballerina - Steve Vai
Velvet Sun - Velvet Sun - Majera
Lonely Heart Solo - Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
A Major Harmony
Screaming Meanie
Asian Documentary
Wind Chimes 2
Valentine Massacre - My Bloody Valentine? - Glider?
Poltergeist Pig - Creepy pig sound
Organic - Organ tones
Bohemian Rhapsody - Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Albert's Lead - Albert King? Albert Lee? Albert Collins? Fat Albert?
Centrifugue
Crystal Echos
The Wood Nymphs
Avant Garde Delay
MultiComp Plexi
Satan's Hollow - Arcade game from the 80's
regnalF esreveR - Reverse Flanger
Vertigo
Cavernous
Dream Sequence
Frenetica
Heavenly Echo
The Abyss
Rubber Biscuit
Watercolors
Event Horizon
Rainbow Splash
The Jupiter 2
Flangellation
Undulation
Serenity Now!
Haunting Echoes
Rockabilly Hot Rod - Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody
Ambient Swirl
6th Stone from Sun - 3rd Stone from the Sun - Jimi Hendrix
Echoes from God
In a Funk
No Quarter - No Quarter- Led Zeppelin
Surf's Up - Generic surf guitar tone
Flippin' The Switch
Ascension
Wandering Delays
Heavily Processed
Frogtown Irie - Frog sound bassline for a reggae song Matt worked on
Nameless Streets - Where the Street Have No Name - U2
Rainy Nights
Bond… James Bond - Theme from James Bond -Henry Mancini
Zamfir?
Smokin' - Smokin'- Boston
Choral Canyon
Velvet Sun
Year of the City 2274 - From the 70's movie Logan's Run (presumably the carrousel scene)
5 octaves of fun
Atmosphere
Gamelan Night - Sounds similar to an Indonesian gamelan orchestra
Horror Movie
Funky Synth
Music Box - Music box-like tone
Desert Breeze
Flashback
Squashed - Heavily compressed tone
Lounge Lizards
By Your Command - From 70's TV show Battlestar Galactica. Famous Cylon saying.
The Planets
Glass Castles
Scintillating
Phenomena
Traffic Jam
Katie's Song
Bad - Bad - U2
Dripping Wet - Soaking in reverb tone
Rush Hour
Get Down Syndrome
New Country
In a Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another - The Fixx
63 Tube Verb Box
Yngwie - Yngwie Malmsteen
Syncopated
Run Like Heck - Run Like Hell -Pink Floyd
Bass Ackwards
Stratosphere
Melancholia
BandTaps
Modern Eddie - Eddie Van Halen
PCM70 Hall - Based on the Hall Reverb from the Lexicon PCM 70 effects unit.
Mr. Gilmour Lead - Floyd
Soundtrack
Ganymede
Forty Miles
Freeway Jam- Freeway Jam - Jeff Beck
Beef Supreme
Vintage Spring
2290 Delay - Based on the TC Electronics 2290
A Clockwork Banana - Sound effect from the movie A Clockwork Orange
Thor's Hammer + Saw
East Wes
Bayou Country - Born on the Bayou - CCR
Prometheus WV
Ned Beatty
A Kind of Dream (C) - Hemishpheres (synth only middle section) - Rush
Spandex & Hairspray - 80's metal band tone
Opposed Notches
Shiva on the Rocks
Walking on the Moon - Walking On The Moon - The Police
Stone in Love - Stone In Love - Journey
DreamVerb
Forlorn
Ambient Guitar
Eruption - Eruption - Van Halen
Mr. Floyd - Floyd
Man In The Box - In The Box - Alice In Chains
Broken Heart
Solar Eclipse
Capricorn 1
Underwater
Blitz II
The Final Frontier
Fifths in Space
Sea of Tranquility
Corbomite Maneuver
The Infield - Your Love - The Outfield
China Syndrome
Clock Tower
Tumbleweeds
W@rped Vinyl (ABCD) - Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
Sultans - Sultans of Swing - Dire Straights
High Landrons
Lunar Eclipse
2290 Delay 2 - Based on the TC Electronics 2290
FilteRing Funk
PopGate '88 - Based on the Yamaha Rev7 gated reverb
Echo Deva - Matt's daughter's name. Also a VST he worked on in 2005
Cliffs of Dover - Cliffs of Dover - Eric Johnson
Modulation Mayhem
Damage Nexus
Gnome-Mans Land - Ambient Sound Effect (Your Echoes are 2x as fast as the original. Set the MTD to 100% wet for a treat.)
Night Creatures
Farfegnugen - German for 'driving pleasure'. Steppenwolf reference perhaps?
Diamonique Rain
Tasty Brown - Walk - Foo Fighters (intro tone)
 
Last edited:
I'm gonna take a guess at another one that just hit me. Not sure if this is right, and I'm going strictly off of memory of the sound of the preset as my Axe-Fx isn't in front of me. But "By Your Command" may be a reference to the 70's sci-fi television show, Battlestar Galactica. If I remember the sound of the preset correctly, it sounds a bit like a Cylon saying their famous line. Am I right? What did I win? LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ccKPSVQcFk
 
I'm gonna take a guess at another one that just hit me. Not sure if this is right, and I'm going strictly off of memory of the sound of the preset as my Axe-Fx isn't in front of me. But "By Your Command" may be a reference to the 70's sci-fi television show, Battlestar Galactica. If I remember the sound of the preset correctly, it sounds a bit like a Cylon saying their famous line. Am I right? What did I win? LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ccKPSVQcFk

Nice one. Didn't see that coming. Added to the list above (post #24).
 
Meet the Cytherians - From Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 4 Episode 19 - The Nth Degree. The alien race met at the end of the episode are the Cytherians. Cliff is a well-known Trekkie.

I just watched the whole episode after playing with the preset and didn't get the connection but hey that's his brain, not mine.
 
There needs to be a preset based on the spoked bicycle rim Spock played on "The Way To Eden"...and also the Vulcan Lyre...heh.
 
There needs to be a preset based on the spoked bicycle rim Spock played on "The Way To Eden"...and also the Vulcan Lyre...heh.


Just for giggles, I checked out that The Way To Eden episode. I think I spotted Beavis's father...

Beavis%20and%20His%20Dad.jpg
 
Hell's Glockenspiel's - Hell's Bells - AC/DC
Djentlemanly - Reference to Djent in general
Machine gun - Machine Gun - Jimi Hendrix
Sweet Child - Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns n Roses
Jim and Leo - Jim Marshall & Leo Fender. The patch is a Marshall matched with a Fender.
I'm Nationwide - I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide - ZZ Top
Elegant Gypsy- Al Di Meola
So Many Roads - So Many Roads - Grateful Dead or Too Many Roads by Joe Bonamassa?
Blues Aroncino - Blues Saraceno
Galaxy Formation - Ambient Sound Effect
Pentalizer - Play on comic character The Penalizer- Pitch Block creates pentatonic pitches from a single note
Orient Express - Ambient Sound Effect
Black Hole - Ambient Sound Effect
Detuned Descent - Ambient Sound Effect
Enumerating Ravens - Counting Crows?
Introspection
Meet the Cytherians - Refernce to ST:TNG s4e19 "The Nth Degree". The alien race met at the end are the Cytherians.
Emerald Ocean - weed reference?
Intrigue (C Minor)
Crawling in the Dark - Crawling In The Dark - Hoobastank
Ultraverb - Fender reverb styled tone
Phaser Paradise 2
Smokey Jazz
Ballet Slippers - Ballerina - Steve Vai
Velvet Sun - Velvet Sun - Majera
Lonely Heart Solo - Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
A Major Harmony
Screaming Meanie
Asian Documentary
Wind Chimes 2
Valentine Massacre - My Bloody Valentine? - Glider? Valentine's Day Massacre 1929 Chicago mob hit in a barber shop.
Poltergeist Pig - Creepy pig sound
Organic - Organ tones
Bohemian Rhapsody - Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Albert's Lead - Albert King? Albert Lee? Albert Collins? Fat Albert?
Centrifugue - Centri fugue - get it?
Crystal Echo
The Wood Nymphs
Avant Garde Delay
MultiComp Plexi
Satan's Hollow - Arcade game from the 80's
regnalF esreveR - Reverse Flanger
Vertigo
Cavernous
Dream Sequence
Frenetica
Heavenly Echo
The Abyss - James Cameron undersea aliens flick with Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio
Rubber Biscuit - Blues Brothers reference
Watercolors
Event Horizon - Space psycho thriller horror flick with Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne
Rainbow Splash
The Jupiter 2 - Lost in Space reference
Flangellation
Undulation
Serenity Now! - Seinfeld reference.
Haunting Echoes
Rockabilly Hot Rod - Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody
Ambient Swirl
6th Stone from Sun - 3rd Stone from the Sun - Jimi Hendrix
Echoes from God
In a Funk
No Quarter - No Quarter- Led Zeppelin
Surf's Up - Generic surf guitar tone
Flippin' The Switch - Possibly a ref to Sylvester Stallone's 1987 "Over The Top". He's an arm-wrestling truck driver trying to get his kid back from his evil father-in-law. When he arm wresltes h turns his meshie around and it's like "flipping a switch". This preset is over the top with trem/pan.
Ascension
Wandering Delays
Heavily Processed
Frogtown Irie - Frog sound bassline for a reggae song Matt worked on
Nameless Streets - Where the Street Have No Name - U2
Rainy Nights
Bond… James Bond - Theme from James Bond -Henry Mancini
Zamfir? Master of the Pan Flute
Smokin' - Smokin'- Boston
Choral Canyon
Velvet Sun
Year of the City 2274 - From the 70's movie Logan's Run (presumably the carrousel scene)
5 octaves of fun
Atmosphere
Gamelan Night - Sounds similar to an Indonesian gamelan orchestra
Horror Movie
Funky Synth
Music Box - Music box-like tone
Desert Breeze
Flashback
Squashed - Heavily compressed tone
Lounge Lizards
By Your Command - From 70's TV show Battlestar Galactica. Famous Cylon saying.
The Planets
Glass Castles
Scintillating
Phenomena
Traffic Jam - Useful for "Crosstown Traffic"
Katie's Song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXuQcMrJlnQ
Bad - Bad - U2
Dripping Wet - Soaking in reverb tone
Rush Hour
Get Down Syndrome
New Country
In a Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another - The Fixx
63 Tube Verb Box
Yngwie - Yngwie Malmsteen
Syncopated
Run Like Heck - Run Like Hell -Pink Floyd
Bass Ackwards
Stratosphere
Melancholia
BandTaps
Modern Eddie - Eddie Van Halen
PCM70 Hall - Based on the Hall Reverb from the Lexicon PCM 70 effects unit.
Mr. Gilmour Lead - Floyd
Soundtrack
Ganymede - one of Jupiter's moons.... ?
Forty Miles
Freeway Jam- Freeway Jam - Jeff Beck
Beef Supreme
Vintage Spring
2290 Delay - Based on the TC Electronics 2290
A Clockwork Banana - Sound effect from the movie A Clockwork Orange
Thor's Hammer + Saw
East Wes - Eric Johnson song
Bayou Country - Born on the Bayou - CCR
Prometheus WV - reference to "Prometheus" a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe?
Ned Beatty - possible "Deliverance" reference
A Kind of Dream (C) - Hemishpheres (synth only middle section) - Rush
Spandex & Hairspray - 80's metal band tone
Opposed Notches
Shiva on the Rocks
Walking on the Moon - Walking On The Moon - The Police
Stone in Love - Stone In Love - Journey
DreamVerb
Forlorn
Ambient Guitar
Eruption - Eruption - Van Halen
Mr. Floyd - Floyd
Man In The Box - In The Box - Alice In Chains
Broken Heart
Solar Eclipse
Capricorn 1
Underwater
Blitz II
The Final Frontier -ST reference
Fifths in Space
Sea of Tranquility - the moon
Corbomite Maneuver - ST:TOS s1e10 "The Corbomite Maneuver"
The Infield - Your Love - The Outfield
China Syndrome - 1979 Jane Fonda flick about an accident at a fictional nuclear power plant in California. Wish she was irradiated....
Clock Tower - Possible Back to the Future reference
Tumbleweeds - great for menacing single low note Good, Bad Ugly type stuff.
W@rped Vinyl (ABCD) - Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
Sultans - Sultans of Swing - Dire Straights
High Landrons - EJ song
Lunar Eclipse
2290 Delay 2 - Based on the TC Electronics 2290
FilteRing Funk
PopGate '88 - Based on the Yamaha Rev7 gated reverb
Echo Deva - Matt's daughter's name. Also a VST he worked on in 2005
Cliffs of Dover - Cliffs of Dover - Eric Johnson
Modulation Mayhem
Damage Nexus
Gnome-Mans Land - Ambient Sound Effect (Your Echoes are 2x as fast as the original. Set the MTD to 100% wet for a treat.)
Night Creatures
Farfegnugen - German for 'driving pleasure'. Steppenwolf reference perhaps?
Diamonique Rain
Tasty Brown - Walk - Foo Fighters (intro tone)


6/13/15 added a few more when I came across some Seinfeld clips and realized a few more connections...
 
Introspection - (disregard... that's what I get for not checking on my Axe first. I swear I remember a Greg Howe tone somewhere in the defaults, though)

Forty Miles - Forty Mile Town - Eric Johnson
 
Last edited:
I figured this, Adman, being guilty of being one of those cork sniffers myself I suppose (i.e. owning a Dumble clone). I just am never sure if there is some song the name is referencing that I don't know. Thus my question about a list.

"Cork Sniffing" refers to wine tasting snobs who sniff the cork of the bottle, as if that had some deep, informative impact on the taste of the wine. Thus, ported to guitar playing, people who spend lots of money on amps/pedals/etc and are obsessed with miniscule details (true bypass! PTP wiring! crystal lattice!) that have little to no bearing on the actual sound.
 
Back
Top Bottom