Purchased Patches

I found Austin Buddy's Naked Amps pack to be a waste as well. I'm done buying patches. They all lack that "chug" or "balls" for lack of a better term. To me they sound like crappy practice amps and get harsh when volume is remotely high.

I'm honestly overwhelmed by the # of Amps and Cabs which is why I started buying packs. I know very little about cabs since I went from owning combo amps to the Axe. Is there a way to narrow down the IR list so I'm not scrolling through thousands of cabs?
If you find multiple preset packs to lack "chug" or "balls" then the issue most likely is not the presets but your own setup. Room issues, output system used, not playing loud enough are common reasons why people have less than stellar experiences with modelers.

If you are coming from combos then your point of reference is most likely cabs blaring at your knees. Your knees have very bad hearing so a lot of that high end you would hear if you had your ears at the speaker level would be lost. So now you have fullrange monitors on your desk, at ear level, reproducing the sound of a miced cab and then wonder why they sound so much brighter.

For picking cabs, it's a lot of personal preference involved and the best way is to just try thing out. You don't need to try every possible mic but just try a few to get an idea of the cab flavor. For the tones you seek you can probably exclusively stick to the 4x12 cabs.

The ones with a 313 mic are often a great starting point where just that single IR will sound pretty nice. Otherwise try building a combination of two IRs where you have two different mics, maybe even different cabs. My go-to is a 57 + 160. The SM57 provides high end detail and the M160 fills in the sound, making it beefier. Add a bit of low cut to 80-100 Hz to reduce muddy frequencies and adjust high cut to taste. For an experience more like hearing a cab on the floor, try putting high cut somewhere in the 5-7 KHz range and experiment with the slope values.

With digital modelers the cab sim setup is extremely important and you will probably spend more time messing with that compared to messing with the amp settings.
 
I have purchased multiple patches online with limited success (Lasse Lambert from STL Tones, Metal Pack from Choptones, Rock & Metal Pack from Fremen, etc.). These have all been a letdown. I play a lot of Killswitch / Lamb of God -- these packs produce "flubby" soft rock sounds at best. I'm running my Axe Fx 3 through HS8's using a Caparison Dellinger guitar. Everyone seems obsessed with Fremen's material, and I found it to be garbage. Am I doing something wrong?
Your best bet is to make your own presets, I learned this a long time ago. If there's someone you're trying to emulate, research their rig and try to replicate it on the Axe and it will sound in the ballpark out of the gate. Then tweak with IRs and you should be very close. You could even use the tonematch block to get spot on.
 
Are purchased presets the modeling equivalent of processed, pre-packaged frozen meals?

Microwave 2 minutes on High. Rotate. Peel plastic film back. Microwave 2 more minutes on
High. Eat before it is cooled. Burn tongue. Can't taste. Consume anyways. ;)


<joking> :)
 
I asked not for building a patch but because I had 150 presets that goes from light blues to death metal . So if you are in “light stuff” I won’t send you a patch to play cannibal corpse 😅. I have all the Marshall heads presets . Marshall sounds good in the unit .
Maybe a SG will be my next one to complete my collection . After a life with fender I am considering the others brands since a few years . A black SG with chrome pickups hmmmm
IF you felt good about sharing your Metallica or Nirvana patch you might find a lot of new customers :cool:. Obviously, this is your business, so if it doesn't make sense to you, I completely understand.
 
I just realized that while I'm not really interested in full presets, if the price was right, I would probably try individual blocks (like, block library style) that were pre-tweaked for a specific sound if it appealed to me. There's a lot of depth especially to the amp models and a lot of controls I don't understand (yet)....but a handful of the deeper options made a huge difference to how much I like what's become "my" amp (bias, speaker compression, output compression, impedance curve, etc.) that it makes me wonder how much "better" someone with more experience could do....if we could ever figure out how to actually discuss what I wanted. But, that would also require someone who managed to interpret my vague and weasel-y terminology.

....things like "Here's a Rotary block similar to the Leslie Clapton uses on Badge....put it in parallel with your amp & cab". That, I'd buy, depending on the price, of course.

the unit itself, even if you approach it as minimal as I do (amp, cab, delay), is extremely easy to use.
Yeah....that's kind of how I feel about it. I have other things in my one preset and am currently approaching it like a traditional rig just adding things to that core sound. But, when I cleared the slate and just started with amp+cab+delay....that was when I realized how good this thing was. As fancy as all the factory presets (and demos of commercial ones) were, they weren't nearly as impressive as starting with "a good amp" and adding the one thing I really love that's kind of a pain to get IRL (a simple delay after the power amp).

Yeah, I think I'm the only vendor who offers this. It seems like the most logical solution for someone looking for a specific sound. It's a bit more expensive than "regular" presets, but one gets 1:1 what one is looking for.
I'll definitely keep it in mind.

If you're customizing things to the individual player as opposed to building something and then putting it on a web store for download whenever by whoever....it absolutely makes sense that it would be more expensive, especially if you guarantee exclusivity and/or satisfaction. It's at least as much work, probably significantly more, and you "can" sell it once as opposed to dozens or potentially hundreds of times.
 
To date, I have taken Carter's class and purchased tons of presets from Austin, SinMix, Fanton, WT and Dave Hislop. They have all been tremendous products and I am very happy to have a "preset library". I tweak quite a bit, but not always. I also build my own from scratch on occasion. But, once I have a song and/or amp in mind, it is very powerful to have a foundation preset already or to draw from three or four examples. I have a lot of presets "built" and ready to go, and find having vendor resources a timesaver and a learning tool (still and always). Your mileage may vary, but I am very grateful for the hard work these guys put in to make my life a little easier and spend more time playing.
 
This thread smells like TROLL !!!!!!!!!!

OP busts and runs
Yes I am getting that feeling also. So many discussusions about factory presets, some hate them, some, like me, like them. But iirc he never mentions playing\trying a preset. That's somewhat weird.
Hope he isn't a troll and decides to come back because this forum will help him regardless of his few choice words in op.
 
I just realized that while I'm not really interested in full presets, if the price was right, I would probably try individual blocks (like, block library style) that were pre-tweaked for a specific sound if it appealed to me.
I actually agree with that. It's a pain taking elements of presets and making a single preset. Purchasing blocks allows, for me anyway, for you to store the block settings in a logical order outside of the Axe FX.

Also agree, I am terrible at dialing in effects as I don't use them, but it would be great to purchase a block that simulated a Whammy pedal for example.

Gave me a great idea of saving all my amp and cab blocks as a library though. Much easier to use with a template.....that's my evening sorted.
 
I stand by what I said...I at least got a little value out of it. But, I'm new to Fractal....so that might be why.
 
The content that was originally put out isn't new. Purchase something...not happy for a multitude of possible reasons. That's a good thing overall when it's discussed with earnest because it creates learning points for those who don't comment often and experience some of the same issues. Being part of this group, I enjoy learning from the tidbits of experience and knowledge and put forth the effort to apply it.

The issue that really "grinds my gears" was the delivery. This vendor is "garbage", that one is "worthless", etc. Why not just come out with, "I purchased this pack and I have issues with it, can anyone help". From the 4 pages generated from this topic, it's obvious that it's a decent workshop/locker room of people with experience in fixing the issue or at least willing to help. These are people from AROUND the world.

The issue needed help with is normal but the smearing out the gate is revealing. If there is a decent bottom line that may help is ...MANY people make real money using these presets. Please consider why your success doesn't equal that of others before trying to cover people's work with crap-scented perfume.
 
OP, the fact that so many people have jumped in here to try to help you despite the fact that you badmouthed some of the most respected members here, just goes to show how polite and tolerant most of the people on this forum are.

Fixed that for you. Based on the amount of positive feedback many of the preset sellers get on their work, I'd say your original statement is misguided, if not patently incorrect.
Don't change my words. I stand by what I said, If you want to pay somebody to set your amp without knowing how/what you play or what amplification solution your using that is up to you. There are people here who are happy with a Headrush FRFR too but not me.
 
A thought I had while catching up on this thread is that the reason I personally don't enjoy going through the factory presets, shared presets, or commercial presets that much is because I don't play a huge variety of presets at all. I have 3 main sounds that I've continuously evolved since when I first got my AX8 in 2016. Sometimes I like loading in others' presets or factory presets to just get different tastes, but I never really click with them, probably because it's not MY sound. It would be like opening your mouth to sing but get someone else's voice. It's interesting but just doesn't feel right to me.

I play in a Top 40 cover band but I just stick to a couple main sounds (clean, broken-up, distorted, and ambient). I'm too lazy to have a different preset per song and making sure it's in an accessible order based on whatever the setlist is. I also like having my sound. I always thought it was cool that you could immediately tell when Slash or EVH was playing by their sound. Of course they have their style, but I feel like they have a tone that comes with that as well. I'll never be at their level, but I like the philosophy, even if I'm just playing Shut Up and Dance for the 300th time.

That said I also find immense value in looking at others' presets to see HOW they do things. I like YouTube videos of people showing them build their presets because you actually see their thought process. I've found much more value in seeing that and then applying it to my few presets.

But either way, what works for me might not work for someone else and vice versa. Just happy to have such awesome gear to play with and a whole community to discuss it with.
 
A thought I had while catching up on this thread is that the reason I personally don't enjoy going through the factory presets, shared presets, or commercial presets that much is because I don't play a huge variety of presets at all. I have 3 main sounds that I've continuously evolved since when I first got my AX8 in 2016. Sometimes I like loading in others' presets or factory presets to just get different tastes, but I never really click with them, probably because it's not MY sound. It would be like opening your mouth to sing but get someone else's voice. It's interesting but just doesn't feel right to me.

I play in a Top 40 cover band but I just stick to a couple main sounds (clean, broken-up, distorted, and ambient). I'm too lazy to have a different preset per song and making sure it's in an accessible order based on whatever the setlist is. I also like having my sound. I always thought it was cool that you could immediately tell when Slash or EVH was playing by their sound. Of course they have their style, but I feel like they have a tone that comes with that as well. I'll never be at their level, but I like the philosophy, even if I'm just playing Shut Up and Dance for the 300th time.

That said I also find immense value in looking at others' presets to see HOW they do things. I like YouTube videos of people showing them build their presets because you actually see their thought process. I've found much more value in seeing that and then applying it to my few presets.

But either way, what works for me might not work for someone else and vice versa. Just happy to have such awesome gear to play with and a whole community to discuss it with.

I agree with you almost completely. The only difference is that I've always preferred using volume controls to significantly changing sounds. But...same idea.

And, yes, watching people make presets, even those I don't really like, can be fascinating for the same reason. That might be why I don't feel lost....I probably watched 15 or 20 hours of videos on building fractal presets over the last few years before I thought seriously about buying the thing....it's going to keep evolving, but I think it was about an hour between when I gave up on even listening to factory presets and when I was happy enough that I knew it was staying.

It's been a long time since I decided to keep a piece of gear that quickly, and I don't think it's ever happened with "an amp", let alone an "amp" with a bunch of effects (which is mostly how I think of it).
 
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