The 'Preset per song' trap. Yuck.

[Baba]

I can make on the fly decisions, in the heat of the moment. I can quickly bend down and just change a thing. When I'm writing I can more easily explore sounds and combinations of pedals and amp tones, and get inspired.

It helps me remove a load of nonsense real-life pragmatic/workflow issues that otherwise would prevent me from just making progress.

Understood

There's No Position 4 On A Flying V™

That's awesome! We do "Feel LIke A Woman" and "Any Man Of Mine". I petitioned for "Don't Impress Me Much" but it got veto'd

The beginning of "Feel Like A Woman", my guitar with a gain sound, period.

#getridofthetrumpets

my point is more that MOST real acoustics, in a live setting, don’t sound any more “real” and often less real than the various ways to fake it with a solid body.

Agreed

Removed all the filler words for you.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Understood



The beginning of "Feel Like A Woman", my guitar with a gain sound, period.

#getridofthetrumpets

Agreed

Thing is; I like making trumpet noises with my guitar If it's just all guitar stuff; I'll go start an original death metal band

 

[metropolis_4]

my point is more that MOST real acoustics, in a live setting, don’t sound any more “real” and often less real than the various ways to fake it with a solid body.

Yeah, and I was agreeing with you

 

[molul]

@ op: It depends on what kind of music you write or play. In my case, I prefer that each of my songs are different. I can share some common fx here and there, but to me it's much more fun, creatively showing, when each song has a different sound landscape.

If you don't enjoy designing presets per song, just don't do it. It doesn't have to be a PITA, it's meant to be fun.

 

[JiveTurkey]

@ op: It depends on what kind of music you write or play. In my case, I prefer that each of my songs are different. I can share some common fx here and there, but to me it's much more fun, creatively showing, when each song has a different sound landscape.

If you don't enjoy designing presets per song, just don't do it. It doesn't have to be a PITA, it's meant to be fun.

I like to keep it grumpy!

 

[ragingplatypi]

my point is more that MOST real acoustics, in a live setting, don’t sound any more “real” and often less real than the various ways to fake it with a solid body.

I’m dealing with this right now. Once I started using IRs the X-Bridge on my strat sounded as good as the pickup on my low end acoustic, so I’ve just been sticking with the comfort of my electric. The setup even fooled my friend who is blind.

 

[Mikael Dez]

I'll go start an original death metal band

I just need to get passed “riff salad” which is a difficult thing to do in my opinion, and then I’ll be trying to start an online death metal band

 

[duzie]

I just need to get passed “riff salad” which is a difficult thing to do in my opinion, and then I’ll be trying to start an online death metal band

Rat salad

 

[la szum]

You lost me at bagpipe section.
No offense to you bagpipers out there.

Malcolm Young would like to have a word with you outside.

 

[TSJMajesty]

see if I can fake an acoustic.

A Majesty does better than 'fake an acoustic.'

I'm leaving...

 

[FuzzyAce]

Malcolm Young would like to have a word with you outside.

AC/DC is the only exception -- they get a pass.
Bon could also play a recorder...

 

[Mikael Dez]

A Majesty does better than 'fake an acoustic.'

I'm leaving...

It’s true lol

 

[yek]

Which brought me to the thread title. I HATE managing multiple presets. I don't even do a kitchen sink; I just create what I would do with a real amp and some pre and post FX as needed and call it good for the whole night with that. Now I'm going to have to blow up my footswitch config and enable switch between presets and blahblahblah. I feel like once you go down that rabbit hole; you are screwed. Way too much time curating a bunch of nonsense.

I do both: kitchen sink and preset-per-song.

Preset-per-song:

• lets me add scene titles that fit the particular song
• lets me set the tempo for the particular song
• sends MIDI to the iPad app to display song notes and lyrics.

"Global blocks" on the Axe-Fx make maintaining multiple presets easier.

But the kitchen sink preset, combined with the RJM GT/22 (22 buttons + additional 4 switches), is where the real power and flexibility is kept. It lets me select presets in multiple ways AND it offers the instant access experience.

Kitchen sink, page 1:

Kitchen sink, page 2 (instant access to effects types):

Kitchen sink, page 3:

Example of Presets menu:

Example of easy switch between channels of a block:

 

[Ljislink]

To the OP if it hasn't been said your over thinking it, no body in the audience is gonna miss a bag pipe intro you couldn't cop with your normal set up. We do Copperhead road & 2nd guitar does something with His meager setup to get a strange bagpipey riff & so far we get great response to that tune. 1/2 way decent vocals, good timing in 5 piece band live setting is pretty much going to get you great response tone is probably last on the list. I know this is a gear forum but what I've found playing live is keeping it simple is the way to go.

 

[JiveTurkey]

To the OP if it hasn't been said your over thinking it, no body in the audience is gonna miss a bag pipe intro you couldn't cop with your normal set up. We do Copperhead road & 2nd guitar does something with His meager setup to get a strange bagpipey riff & so far we get great response to that tune. 1/2 way decent vocals, good timing in 5 piece band live setting is pretty much going to get you great response tone is probably last on the list. I know this is a gear forum but what I've found playing live is keeping it simple is the way to go.

We already dumped it

 

[Someoldqueenorother]

We do everything from Shania to KC to Tone Loc to Neil Diamond to Iron Maiden (once in a great while). I just use the JVM for everything

Just do the bagpipe thing in every song. One preset, one world, one vision.

 

[la szum]

Played with a Bagpiper once upon a time doing "Long Way To The Top."

I was so hosed, because none of us anticipated what Key the Bagpiper would
be playing in----which ended up being something weird like Bb, as I recall.

He wore a Kilt, too, and had the correct attire. It was a St. Patrick's Day party,
which I am guessing made it even weirder. Americans, eh?

 

[dk_ace]

Bagpipes… now there’s something I’ve never played with or tried to make my guitar sound like…

I’d just tell them to play the pipes off a track I’m not reprogramming to cover that lol.

I used to try to cover crazy stuff with my guitar. I think tracks have made me lazy in some ways.

D

 

[ucnick]

Pretty mediocre syncing...

 

[Sascha Franck]

To me, the whole “preset problem” lies in the fact that you switch “everything” with a preset…and it’s impossible to (for example) keep amp/cab/verb consistent across your sounds.

Unless you use a Boss GT-1000. Or a hybrid setup. *Check* on both accounts for me.

When using snapshots inside my "one gig = one single preset" kitchen sink patches back in my HX Floor days, lack of CPU juice has never been a real issue, but I was running out of switches all the time and didn't feel like adding a MIDI controller to an already huge unit.

1 preset is all I use, super easy to do quick adjustments at soundcheck. I don’t do the typical cover and thing anymore…but it’s more capable then the setups I used back then.

Ever since I switched to the GT, snapshots aren't an option for me any longer, so I'm using exactly one bank (5 patches) of presets now, and as all of them are based on the same main patch structure, patch switching is gapless and all delays and the reverb spill over just nicely, too. All important parameters are globally accesible. The advance over the HX Floor being that I never run out of switches.

Otherwise, I can play entire gigs with just the HX Stomp and a dirt box plus a boost in the loop. Gives me clean/dirt on one switch, rhythm/lead on another switch and the third switch is usually used for a deeper delay should I want to do some nice swells and what not.
If that was all I had for the rest of my life, I would easily get along and could play each and every gig (all "functional" ones included).
Of course, the synth-y stuff debated in this thread could not be covered.