Recommend a preset pack for a newbie?

Fro68

Fro68

Experienced
New guy here with an AX8. Besides playing thru the Jamup app on my iPhone this is my first real experience with modeling. I'm not into recording and haven't played out in years. I play at home for my own enjoyment. I bought the AX8 for a low volume solution to playing while the kids are in bed.
This thing sounds awesome out of the box but I'd like to try some of the presets I've been looking at here on the forum. I've seen preset packs from Singtall, Freman and Austinbuddy. I'll probably end up trying them all but which one do you guys recommend I try first?
 
Welcome to the forum Fro68!

Other users will chime in here, but IMHO there are some pretty great preset collections out there to consider (and you should include Moke in your list) -- it all depends on what you are looking for.

My 700+ Naked Amps TonePack is really all the available Fractal amps dry, mono, and "naked" -- so you can hear what every one of the 259 Fractal amp models sound like "already dialed in", with several tones for each, from vintage to boutique, to moderns to cleans.

They are organized with real life amp name and paired with cabs, making it easier to find specific amps. But they are not gussied up with wet or dry effects (besides drive block) -- you choose and add your own echos, reverbs, wah, etc. You get get over 700 tones/sounds, using the Scene 1/2 switch for each preset. So that's real good place to find out what each amp sounds like/find your own favs, and covers lots of genres and styles.

It also has a "bonus" classic rock and blues TonePack that is about 40 presets that are dialed in to emulate certain artists sounds, with some especially killer tones from Jimi H's first album. Many of the preset packs out there tend to go in this direction -- trying to give you a killer U2 or Van Halen or (name a band here) sound.

So if you gravitate towards a certain genre or band sound you like, you should look into those -- post what band sounds you want to hear and others can chime in. Axe-Change is useful place to browse sounds (for free!) but can be inconsistent -- usually the levels of user-created presets are all over the place, so you have to be ready to turn the level down fast.

Use this forum, research your questions as you dive in -- chances are, there is already a thread post with the answers you seek somewhere, as well as some good YouTube videos out there by moderator Chris and Cooper Carter (his CreativeLive Axe-Fx class is very good primer) among others.

Have fun!
 
I will definitely check out Yek's amp guide. Thank you for that one, I hadn't seen it.
Your description of the Naked Amps sounds really appealing to me. I like the idea of having presets of just the Amps dialed in and tweaking from there and adding my own effects. I'll check out your 40 presets.
Like most guys pushing 50 I'm mostly a classic rock and blues player who's trying to trying to learn some chicken pickin and some finger style acoustic.
 
Welcome Fro. +1 on the factory cabs. Lots of great cab pack out there, but I would definitely start with the factory stuff. There are many great sounding cabs. I suggest that you start by listing the presets you like and check out which cabs are used in those presets. Again, welcome.
 
@Fro68
I need to add to my post #5. I have been here for a very long time. I never bought presets. Actually at the beginning they were always free. That being said as of late, last year or so, I have purchased Fremens Presets for AX8 and Austinbuddys naked amps. One issue I always have with this is MOST are made using Humbuckers, free or paid for. I am a Single coil guy.

I figured after 8 years let me try some of these packages. I am in a home studio mostly these days. No regrets on the 2 package purchases....
 
Stratman68 said:
@Fro68
...One issue I always have with this is MOST are made using Humbuckers, free or paid for. I am a Single coil guy.
Click to expand...

This is my same dilemma, although I have yet to actually pull the trigger on a pack. Did you find the Fremen and AustinBuddy packs still worked out alright with single coils, or did it require additional tweaking?
 
It's hard to answer this precisely because we don't know what tone is in your head and hands. That said, I have learned a ton from studying other people's presets. For dark djenty tones, I like the ML-Bulb-Zilla and ML-US-Djent Cab Packs. Each has about 8 Ax8 presets which are simple, but great intro studies for preset design. I didn't grasp the necessity of noise gates and how to use them with overdriven presets until I delved into these.

I also have AustinBuddy's which are stellar. The bonus, Classic Rock presets, tell you what guitars they were created with. I use a Telecaster and have found a wide variety of good starting tones there.

All-in-all I'm really happy to see more preset packs coming out. I think the mystique of a pedal isn't so much in what it does but that it gets you steered towards a certain sound very quickly. Well-crafted presets have that same quality about them. Studying them and the yek's guides have made me a better connoisseur of guitar tone.
 
DanielB said:
This is my same dilemma, although I have yet to actually pull the trigger on a pack. Did you find the Fremen and AustinBuddy packs still worked out alright with single coils, or did it require additional tweaking?
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Yes. They both have some for sc folks like us. I have posted this before, but years ago the Hi rez setting in the amp block speaker tab was defaulted to 2.52. As time when on it changed to 6.67 or so.
For my strats lowering this back to 2.52 helps me greatly. Every preset I have has the change back to 2.52.
 
DanielB said:
This is my same dilemma, although I have yet to actually pull the trigger on a pack. Did you find the Fremen and AustinBuddy packs still worked out alright with single coils, or did it require additional tweaking?
Click to expand...
I think it works well with the single-coil guitar, my Strat has Kinman's PU-s with the K9 circuit, only minimal changes are needed. That's my own opinion, of course. I play the AX8 with the Atomic Monoblock MB 50 tube amp and Atomic Cab
 
Curious why some of the AX8 factory presets are not good enough. What Fx,technology, are tweekers adding that are not already available on the AX8 and/or what do they know that the Fractal engineers do not? Thanks.
 
G Man said:
Curious why some of the AX8 factory presets are not good enough. What Fx,technology, are tweekers adding that are not already available on the AX8 and/or what do they know that the Fractal engineers do not? Thanks.
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The Factory presets are fine. They include a lot of innovative effects presets demonstrating what the unit can do that are not your average guitar sounds. That makes them less useful for people aiming just to play gigs with factory presets . But the first 100 factory presets are mainly amp sounds with reverb or delay.
 
One thing I want to add is make sure what you are playing it through is doing the unit justice. I just spent 3 months tweaking mine(new user also)through a QSC K10 and finally pulled the trigger on a real FRFR Xitone powered cab and everything I did is out the window. Huge difference with the right monitor. The guys on this forum can steer you in the right direction as to how you want to use it and what you should be playing it through. My use is with a band live gigging. Good luck
 
throw my 2 cents in... I have yet to try any paid presets (it's going to happen, just occupied with other adventrues up till now) there are rave reviews for austinbuddy, moke, and freeman (I know they all have good ears based on reviews and some sparse freebies). Do not want to discourage you from going any of those routs as I'm certain they will result in hours of delight.

that said... go download everything from 2112, and camilovelandiamusic, and mark day from the axechange and put it on your axe fx permanently. These won't require any translation and are AAAAA. There are also some AAAAA stuff from burg... but he puts out so dang much free stuff and you don't have a huge amount of slots so... you'll have to make difficult/stressful decisions and I don't wish that on you.

Also... glenn delaune offers a free axefxII set that is a fav (requires conversion). yek/coopercarter/more all have some amazing axfxII stuff... on second thought if I start listing everyone who gives away awesome free stuff we are going to be here a while so... sorry to all I haven't listed!
 
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