This ever happen to you?

Alabama man

Inspired
1)I create a patch and it becomes one of my go to sounds for a few months

2)New update comes out

3)create duplicate patch, but reset the amp block on one of them

4)compare the two and think . . .

"Wow, what the hell was I thinking? The default amp sounds way better."

Just did that with the HBE

#mylife
 
Yes! I've had this experience many times. I've decided to mostly stop adjusting advanced amp parameters because of it.

I'll only adjust the controls that were on the original amp, plus occasionally low frequency resonance and transformer match (and those only because I think I fully understand what they do). If I can't get the sound I like, it means I don't like the amp or I'm using the wrong IR.
 
Yes! I've had this experience many times. I've decided to mostly stop adjusting advanced amp parameters because of it.

I'll only adjust the controls that were on the original amp, plus occasionally low frequency resonance and transformer match (and those only because I think I fully understand what they do). If I can't get the sound I like, it means I don't like the amp or I'm using the wrong IR.

Makes sense - almost all of my patches that I changed to default parameters involved me shooting in the dark with the advanced parameters trying to get what I wanted. Going to go with your method for a bit and see where that gets me.
 
How exactly do you reset the amp to default parameters in a patch. Is is by patch or my amp block and where is the control to reset it?
 
How exactly do you reset the amp to default parameters in a patch. Is is by patch or my amp block and where is the control to reset it?

I did it through the front panel on the amp edit screen. I go to the page where you can choose the amp type, change it to a different amp and then back to the original amp I had for the patch.
 
"Wow, what the hell was I thinking? The default amp sounds way better."

Yep. Since Q1.0 I have found that getting "that" tone is much simpler without requiring adjustments. It has been blissful and much more fun to discover the right AMP + CAB combo for my presets. "WTH was I thinking" entered my mind a few times ;)
 
Correct me if I am wrong here, but the adjustments like "Crunch", "Harmonics", "Tube Bias"...etc...those are not usually available on the original amps...and those are what you are all referring to when making amp adjustments?
 
Correct me if I am wrong here, but the adjustments like "Crunch", "Harmonics", "Tube Bias"...etc...those are not usually available on the original amps...and those are what you are all referring to when making amp adjustments?

Correct. If you are unfamiliar with the amp that any particular model is based on, you should take a look at this very handy amp guide: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/new-version-fractal-audio-amp-models-pdf-guide-v2.115889/

Adjusting any parameter that wasn't on the original amp is essentially like modding the amplifier. It's very cool that we have this ability and that it is so accessible and easy to use; but, it also makes it very easy to screw up awesome tones.
 
I don't think that there are advanced settings that you'd better don't touch. In the real world amp designs with a hundred knobs make no sense because of weight, form and costs and so amps with lots of fancy knobs don't exist. Instead of knobs the amp designer has to make decisions for some fixed settings to have the amp sound good with certain guitars and certain cabs and all that meant for a certain style. That does not mean that it fits your gear and your style everywhere.

Many models sound good out of the box with my strats or my PRS SAS but with special guitars like the Music Man JP6 many don't.
 
I also tend to change amps from time to time due to certain amps just sound better with different firmware versions.


Yup, with Q4 must admit that Recto Modern is killer ... making me question the Carol Ann OD2 damnit! I can't tell what changes, me or the models?
 
For me, I almost always crank the sag way up, and adjust the negative feedback to get the right kind of "tightness" to the distortion. I'm fully aware, though, that the distortion tightness is usually a characteristic of the amp the model is modelling - so fiddling that is going to take my patch away from the most realistic experience.
 
For me, the Friedman HBE keeps getting better with each update. So good. If I end up getting some extra cash in the future, I may buy the real thing since that's what I use mostly. That, and a Twin.

Still though, I feel Like I need to do more tweaking with the clean amps to get them sounding as "full" as the real thing. Not sure what the deal is with that. Lots of good information giving here, so I'll check out some of the parameters mentioned.
 
How about this theory: We tend to perceive "different" as "better", so you may end up with an improvement that is actually worse. When going back, the default setup is objectively better (e.g. done by professionals) and different.

I largely stopped editing my keyboard patches a long time ago, stick to presets with minor modifications where I trust my own judgement (reverb, chorus, EQ) and still often scratch my head at those that I bothered to save...
 
I tend to avoid the advanced parameters, as my goal is to achieve the most natural/organic sounding tone possible. Adjusting the advanced parameters often means, that I am going beyond physics.
 
I usually try to mess with the xfomer match just to "open up" the sound a little bit.

Yup, a go to "must" for a bit of character-control over your distortion as far as "grit" ... hard to describe, but when the distortion is too smooth or indistinct, dialing this back to ~0.8 up to +/- 0.15 can do wonders. I have never yet found a situation for adding more in however ... ie. 1.1, 1.2 - just too mushy.
 
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