How complex are your go-to presets?

[la szum]

My ultimate goal in life is to dumb everything down. I know the end user in this case.

 

[la szum]

Actually, the opposite is happening for me.

Gapless switching, setlists/songlists, and the ability to assign any footswitch to do anything per preset mean I no longer need single presets that try to do everything. So my individual presets have gotten smaller.

I’ve been basing presets around core amp tones and then adding variations of effects as the songs/shows call for.

That's really smart. No need to pack a preset for every use scenario when you
can use Scenes, or Presets to navigate to new sonic terrain.

 

[la szum]

My Main Presets on the FM3 are 67%, 73%, and 73% respectively. The last one
uses Pitch Block/Virtual Capo for different tunings. Same Preset. 3 Scenes with
altered tunings. Running Delay, Verb, Drive, Phaser, Chorus along with Amp
and Cab Blocks. What more does one man really need?

I do run an external Wah out front and am thinking of pulling the Whammy out
of retirement to run in front, too, because live all of those annoying Morello-isms
make people think you are way cooler and far more skilled than you actually are.

 

[djd100]

This is for blues rock on a OG FM3 with a UA OX Stomp (cab/mic(s)/room mic(s)/delay/reverb), including a Moskey Dual Switch; 8 scenes plus foot control of the tuner, a boost, big echo, bigger echo (OX Stomp), auto-wah, scene increment/decrement, virtual capo, Ableton LIVE's looper plugin and session loop (most of the FX changes and tempo settings are automated). The clean is created via scene controllers manipulating the amp's gain and master volume and/or amp block level, and all scene changes have always provided pristine tails and/or cross-fades. I have a few of these kitchen sink presets with different amps, and which one for the show is decided at sound check with regard to the venue's acoustics and FOH system, along with my my mood (they're all basically modded Marshalls for that blues rock vibe, Cameron, Splawn, Peavey, various Marshalls, Cornford, Freidman).

For blues, Americana, and jazz etc presets are of course much simpler.

 

[la szum]

I just re-did my main FM3 live preset;

View attachment 22808


I bypass the pitch block and use sum L+R if I'm playing in mono. Reverb is mostly used to add a bit of thickness rather than for a big ambient wash and the Multiband comp is a subtle "chug tightener".

FM9/Axe-Fx III version has a few added extras like the synth for a freqout sim, Plex/Trem combo copying the Eventide undulator effect and the filter for a timed lo-fi sweep.

View attachment 22807

Most of the recording presets I use are amp-cab with the cab filters wide open.

Mind telling us what your Cab Block is like with the FM3? Your IR, by chance? Thoughts
on Dyna Cab usage live with the FM3?

Was going to ask you on you YT Channel for the Q & A, but why not here?

 

[TSJMajesty]

I only play for myself, so whichever one sounds good today.
Right now it's:

IN
PIT (drop 5)
CMP (Dynamicomp)
DRV (TS808)
AMP (JP2 Red)
CAB (YA Rec Str SM7 4x12 + USA Trad 121 4x12)
PIT (dual detune)
ENH (stereoizer)
CHO (stereo Tri-Chorus)
MTD (PCM Pan) in parallel w/
DLY (dual delay)
OUT

It's a version of Petrucci Rig 2023 (duh!)

 

[TSJMajesty]

My Main Presets on the FM3 are 67%, 73%, and 73% respectively. The last one
uses Pitch Block/Virtual Capo for different tunings. Same Preset. 3 Scenes with
altered tunings. Running Delay, Verb, Drive, Phaser, Chorus along with Amp
and Cab Blocks. What more does one man really need?

Amp	2	4	290+
Cab	2	4	2237+
Chorus	2	4	14
Compressor	2	4	13
Crossover	2	2	1
Delay	4	4	27
Drive	4	4	59
Dynamic Dist	2	4	7
Enhancer	2	4	2
Filter	4	4	15
Flanger	2	4	31
Formant	2	4	1
Gate/Expander	4	4	3
Graphic EQ	4	4	15
Input	5	4	1
IR Player	2	4	1
Looper	1	1	1
Megatap	2	2	20
Mixer	4	4	1
Multi-Delay	2	4	33
Multi Comp	2	4	1
Multiplexer	2	4	1
Output	4	4	1
Parametric EQ	4	4	1
Phaser	2	4	16
Pitch Shift	2	4	16
Plex Delay	2	4	44
RTA	1	1	1
Resonator	2	2	1
Return	2	1	1
Reverb	2	4	66
Ring Mod	1	2	1
Rotary	2	4	1
Scene MIDI	1	1	1
Send	2	1	1
Synth	2	4	1
Ten-Tap Delay	2	4	2
Tone Match	1	1	1
Tremolo	2	4	2
Vocoder	1	1	1
Volume/Pan	4	4	1
Wah	2	4	8

 

[@danserrano]

Fm3 mk ii turbo. Cpu right around 76%

In - Wah - Comp - Drive - Filter - Amp - Cab - Peq - Mcomp - Send

Return - chorus - vol - (2 delay blocks and plex delay in parallel) - Out

 

[dk_ace]

I’ve simplified it a bit since this pic, I replaced the parallel modulations and mixer with a single delay block that is channel switching to accomplish the same thing. I did that because I had the audio lock up at a gig. Word to the wise, that dsp guidance in the manual should be followed even if it seems fine at home…

I’ve come up with a way to simplify this further and use the songs and setlists feature, but then I found out you can’t set the tempo for the songs so that idea fell apart as I do a lot of tempo synched stuff. It’s all good, this setup does a great job for me as it is.

I guess it’s pretty complex, but I like it. There isn’t much I can’t do with this patch (it covers 100% of what I frequently use live), and with the gapless switching I plan to make a few more presets that cover the few things I want that this one preset won’t do. Those presets will have simpler signal chains for the most part as this one does all the heavy lifting.

I make multiple copies of this preset for the songs in a set.

D

 

[2112]

Mind telling us what your Cab Block is like with the FM3? Your IR, by chance? Thoughts
on Dyna Cab usage live with the FM3?

Was going to ask you on you YT Channel for the Q & A, but why not here?

Usual IR with the can high cut somewhere between 5khz and 6.5khz. If it ain't broke...

 

[riffy]

I have a drive pedal-amp-cab -delay-verb. The drive , delay and verb are on separate foot switches to be turned on and off at will. I also run a stand alone wah up front.

 

[ian_dissonance]

For one band, I have one one kitchen sink preset and do everything from snapshots, probably using about 85% of the Helix DSP. Another band is one preset with like two stomps because it’s deathcore and I’ll I need is heavy, filtered heavy, and washed out ambient heavy. For the OTHER band, I use a bunch of single DSP presets with stomps because I’m changing up pitch/synth/fx settings for several songs with various momentary switches or different things on different stomps.

 

[OneEng]

I am a Kemper rack user (with foot controller).

The lions share of my tones are generic:

• Chimey Fender Clean
• Acoustic type clean
• SRV / Bluesy breakup
• AC/DC Classic Rock Distortion
• Modern Rock Mesa type Distortion

I use performance banks (5 slots in a bank) for different combinations of these sounds that are used in different kinds of songs so I have everything I need for a song without changing banks.

Using the 4 efx assign buttons on the foot controller, I do the following:

• The right most button is ALWAYS a pure boost of ~4db that simply raises the volume output (no more gain)
• The left most button is ALWAYS a pure boost preamplifier to raise gain a specific amount
• The middle two buttons are different things, but mostly I use them to either add an actual distortion pedal, turn on or off a special effect like chorus, or to increase/decrease the reverb a certain amount.

Using this setup, I have a very wide range of tones I can quickly achieve using only 3 or 4 banks of performances.

All of my rigs have reverb (not alot) and some have delay.

I have a handful of special banks with much more elaborate, song specific setups. Two examples would be U2 songs, and "Money For Nothin". I have about 10 of these rigs that are setup specifically for an unusual song sound that I needed to achieve.

Some touring players I know have a performance bank for EVERY song with each bank tweaked specifically for that song. That is just too much for me to try to setup for every gig (must be nice to have someone setup all your gear for you for each gig and song :) ).

This approach gives me the ability to cover most songs with a standard set of rigs that I am very familiar with. All I need to know is the type of sound a song has and I can get something very close (or at least within the realm of "it sounds good in the song") with almost no effort.

Having the "special cases" is for songs that have a signature sound that is unique and would be missed if the guitar didn't have it for the song.

I find that (for me, a non-touring musician), this gives me the right amount of work-per-gig effort. It also lets me sit in with pretty much anyone and sound good doing it.

 

[dronerstone]

My kitchen-sink band preset on the Helix Floor, off the top of my head, but I believe I got the chain right:

Input gate > Feedbacker > Parametric EQ > Parallel Drive (A: fuzz, B: octave fuzz into overdrive) > synth > two pitch blocks (octave down > octave up, both on the same switch, octave up mix on a separate toggle to mute if wanted) > wah (auto on/off via ext. expression) > mod > volume (internal expression) > slapback delay > longer delay > amp > spring reverb > split (A: straight to 1/4" out, B: stereo dual cab > tile reverb > stereo widener, then to stereo XLR/headphone out)

I'll try and post a screenshot at some point.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

First -- go-to preset isn't really the basis by which one should be making a choice in terms of "how much CPU do I need?" Think about the most complex patch you are likely to make (and use) and weigh the value of being able to make that patch against the cost of the extra CPU overhead you need to have in reserve to allow for that. For me, the "something that's a bit more complex than my go-to, but still something I want to have accessible badly enough that I'm willing to pay for more than Stomp/FM3 levels of CPU" is:

drive1 -> drive2 -> delay -> spring reverb -> tremolo -> amp -> cab -> room/hall reverb -> tape saturation

I just got my new-to-me Axe III yesterday and just had enough time to turn it on and flip through what was on it. Previous owner was a P&W player with the usual stuff. A couple drives and massive compression in front of amp, and tons of stereo goop, with all of the stereo goop after the amps. Yet, despite everything in front of the amp being mono, he still had the signal split into two separate amp/cab blocks panned left/right, with each amp and cab block being set identically. The patches sounded mega -- dude had good taste and good ears. But it was a prime example of what one often sees when downloading presets from various exchange sites in terms of "give people tools, and people will use them whether or not their efforts are actually doing something."

 

[JiveTurkey]

First -- go-to preset isn't really the basis by which one should be making a choice in terms of "how much CPU do I need?" Think about the most complex patch you are likely to make (and use) and weigh the value of being able to make that patch against the cost of the extra CPU overhead you need to have in reserve to allow for that. For me, the "something that's a bit more complex than my go-to, but still something I want to have accessible badly enough that I'm willing to pay for more than Stomp/FM3 levels of CPU" is:

drive1 -> drive2 -> delay -> spring reverb -> tremolo -> amp -> cab -> room/hall reverb -> tape saturation

I just got my new-to-me Axe III yesterday and just had enough time to turn it on and flip through what was on it. Previous owner was a P&W player with the usual stuff. A couple drives and massive compression in front of amp, and tons of stereo goop, with all of the stereo goop after the amps. Yet, despite everything in front of the amp being mono, he still had the signal split into two separate amp/cab blocks panned left/right, with each amp and cab block being set identically. The patches sounded mega -- dude had good taste and good ears. But it was a prime example of what one often sees when downloading presets from various exchange sites in terms of "give people tools, and people will use them whether or not their efforts are actually doing something."

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

dad-duty was in full force yesterday...

 

[yek]

I like 'all-in-one' presets.
The RJM GT22 allows total control.
75% (Axe-Fx III, non turbo).

 

[Jarick]

Pretty simple and much like a real life signal flow if you were running effects in the loop.

Input > Gate > Compressor > Boost > Overdrive > Amp > Cab > EQ > Chorus > Delay > Reverb

For analog pedals, I don't have a compressor, EQ, or reverb pedals so it's more like:

Boost > Drive > Chorus > Delay > Amp

 

[dk_ace]

I like 'all-in-one' presets.
The RJM GT22 allows total control.
75% (Axe-Fx III, non turbo).

View attachment 22891