Saving complete AxeFX II presets for use with FM9

T

tone.room.tape

New Member
Hi there,

I've owned the Axe FX II ultra now for a while and would like to upgrade to the FM9. But I'd like to sell my AxeFX II first, so I would need a safe way to safe everything from it, so I can then load it to the FM9, when I get one.

I don't have a whole lot of presets, so my current thought was just to export them all separately.
Or is there some sort of optimal way to do that?
Do I need to consider something especially, when exporting to a different unit? Are my IR's exported automatically as well?

Sorry, I'm sure some of this has been discussed before. I just wanna make sure, that I don't loose my presets and then I sold my old unit. I just don't have about any knowledge about how to use features like these. Till now I was just using it to set up some tones and play guitar really, without getting into it very deeply.
 
I'm going through this process now.
I was going to do what you're thinking of doing but I'm glad I didn't.
I have a program called Fractool installed which is a little indie program that will convert your presets however I've had trouble doing so.
To do the whole back up process you will need to get Fracal Bot. Set it to receive mode and follow the on screen information.
I had issues with Fractal Bot where it would crash the Axe FX so I had to back up every bank one by one A, B, C, D etc
Even if you get your presets into the Fm9 successfully they won't sound the same.
I'm trying my hardest to resurrect this one patch from my Axe FX 2 XL+ on Ares firmware and I'm getting closer using the AXE FX 2 as reference, so I'm glad I still have it to trouble shoot.

To be honest once the absolute essentials are transferred it's probably best to just move on and build new patches from scratch.
 
HarrySound said:
I'm going through this process now.
I was going to do what you're thinking of doing but I'm glad I didn't.
I have a program called Fractool installed which is a little indie program that will convert your presets however I've had trouble doing so.
To do the whole back up process you will need to get Fracal Bot. Set it to receive mode and follow the on screen information.
I had issues with Fractal Bot where it would crash the Axe FX so I had to back up every bank one by one A, B, C, D etc
Even if you get your presets into the Fm9 successfully they won't sound the same.
I'm trying my hardest to resurrect this one patch from my Axe FX 2 XL+ on Ares firmware and I'm getting closer using the AXE FX 2 as reference, so I'm glad I still have it to trouble shoot.

To be honest once the absolute essentials are transferred it's probably best to just move on and build new patches from scratch.
Click to expand...
Hey, thanks a lot! :) Sounds good. Yeah, I'm aware that it will sound different. I don't need them to sound exactly the same (I just assume, that they wont sound much worse, hehe). I'm just looking to have my basic setups again and can tweak from there. Of course, I am also looking forward to just create new ones with the FM9!
So the FM9 will just be able to read those Fractal-Bot backup files? That's great.
 
Not gonna nitpick, but there is no Axe-Fx II Ultra :)
It is either an Axe-Fx Ultra or an Axe-Fx II.
I don't think Ultra presets can be transfered, but II presets can be done with Fractool if irc.
 
Ole said:
Not gonna nitpick, but there is no Axe-Fx II Ultra :)
It is either an Axe-Fx Ultra or an Axe-Fx II.
I don't think Ultra presets can be transfered, but II presets can be done with Fractool if irc.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the hint. I just checked on my unit and it's the Axe-FX II XL. I was kind of confused with that ultra, turbo and xl, hehe.
So the II XL presets can be transfered, right?
 
tone.room.tape said:
Thanks, @lscottk !
Click to expand...
@AlGrenadine is the Fractool developer. He has been a contributor to this forum for many years. He is very helpful and gives a lot to this community. Fractool is free to use, but I highly recommend giving him some bucks if you find Fractool useful. He put a PayPal link for donations in the first post. And no, I don't work for him or get a cut. I just appreciate what he gives to all of us.
 
tone.room.tape said:
Thanks for the hint. I just checked on my unit and it's the Axe-FX II XL. I was kind of confused with that ultra, turbo and xl, hehe.
So the II XL presets can be transfered, right?
Click to expand...
They will be transferred...

Will they sound good? Likely not...

If you want to maintain the "layout" or "design" of your presets it's a good idea.

If you want more than that I'd suggest starting over. There have been significant changes to the Amp modeling and major changes to many effect blocks.
 
One of the problems I think you will run into with Fractool, especially going from Axe II blocks/presets to the new generation, is that some of the parameter names have changed and it is hard to figure out what new parameters equate to the old ones. This has presented a problem to me even with different firmware versions with the Axe-III and FM-9.

For instance, in the amp block on the newer units in the power tube menu, excursion time and recovery time are parameters you can tweak. They are not listed anywhere within the Fractool Amp resetter function and I have found that incorrect data seems to be recorded when you use that function--excursion time expecially seems to be doubled most of the time from the default value. Several other parameters go by different names in the Amp resetter than what they are currently called in the unit itself and it can be hard to figure out what old name corresponds to the new one without some research.

I would certainly start from scratch if I was coming from an XL, or at least use your ears instead of just transferring from the old machine via Fractool.

No offense to Al intended and I do support his program with contributions. He works hard for the community and I use Fractool a lot. Just a little wary of the Amp resetter from past experience.
 
tone.room.tape said:
Hi there,

I've owned the Axe FX II ultra now for a while and would like to upgrade to the FM9. But I'd like to sell my AxeFX II first, so I would need a safe way to safe everything from it, so I can then load it to the FM9, when I get one.

I don't have a whole lot of presets, so my current thought was just to export them all separately.
Or is there some sort of optimal way to do that?
Do I need to consider something especially, when exporting to a different unit? Are my IR's exported automatically as well?

Sorry, I'm sure some of this has been discussed before. I just wanna make sure, that I don't loose my presets and then I sold my old unit. I just don't have about any knowledge about how to use features like these. Till now I was just using it to set up some tones and play guitar really, without getting into it very deeply.
Click to expand...
unix-guy said:
They will be transferred...

Will they sound good? Likely not...

If you want to maintain the "layout" or "design" of your presets it's a good idea.

If you want more than that I'd suggest starting over. There have been significant changes to the Amp modeling and major changes to many effect blocks.
Click to expand...
As @unix-guy said, starting over will work better. There’s a world of difference between the old firmware and the current generation.

A translation tool, like FracTool is literal, it can result in the basic presets being transferred, but all the hand-tweaked nuances will be gone because parameter ranges have changed and the algorithms under them behave differently, so you will have to adjust everything anyway. Starting from scratch will quickly seem to be the better use of your time.

When I got my FX3, which was pre-Cygnus, I’d occasionally download older presets from Axechange and try converting them via FracTool. They’d load into the FX3 OK, but I had to adjust a lot, and eventually decided it wasn’t worth the time. Instead I purchased a couple of Austin Buddy’s packs, watched videos by @2112, @Burgs, @Cooper Carter and @Marco Fanton and started building my own based their ideas and raiding Austin Buddy’s presets.

Cygnus sounds so much more realistic and is more usable right out of the box, I find more defaults sound how I want that they need a minor adjustment and I can move on.

My recommendation would be to take screenshots of the editor for the presets layouts as reminders, and of specific settings, use them as references. The knob positions won’t be the same and many names will have changed or been removed or the functionality moved or incorporated into something else, so you will have to figure those out, but you will love the new sound.
 
tone.room.tape said:
Thanks a lot to all of you! Doesn't sound super promising but yeah, we'll see. But you still think it's worth the upgrade, sound-wise, right?
Click to expand...
Soundwise no not really , it’s large similar and different in equal measure, I’d be quite happy with an fm9 with ares.
The upgrade in functionality and seamless switching and gui updates are well worth it. It really is like going from Megadrive to Xbox 360
 
HarrySound said:
Soundwise no not really , it’s large similar and different in equal measure, I’d be quite happy with an fm9 with ares.
The upgrade in functionality and seamless switching and gui updates are well worth it. It really is like going from Megadrive to Xbox 360
Click to expand...
I disagree... There are definitely major improvements in sound/feel.

But we're all allowed to have our own opinions ;)
 
Actually, almost one of the main reasons for me switching is that the AxeFX II's ultra-bulky rack form factor always bugged me. I even thought about the FM3 because of that but unfortunately it's not quite powerful enough.
So, if I can get sounds on the same level I am happy. If I find some improvement in tone and feel, even better! :)
 
tone.room.tape said:
Actually, almost one of the main reasons for me switching is that the AxeFX II's ultra-bulky rack form factor always bugged me. I even thought about the FM3 because of that but unfortunately it's not quite powerful enough.
So, if I can get sounds on the same level I am happy. If I find some improvement in tone and feel, even better! :)
Click to expand...
if your wondering how powerful an fm9 is in comparison to the axe 2 then I have the same like for like preset running at 75% cpu on the axe 2 and 52% cpu on the fm9. It’s everything you need and more.
 
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