Axe Fx presets - a presentation

Because of my youtube videos, available at http://www.youtube.com/user/thibderob , I got a lot of requests for my Axe Fx II presets. I got a little more than 400 requests since I uploaded that video :




Although I share everything for free, presets and free user IR (impulse response) for the cabinet block, I will gladly accept any donation via Paypal from users which find my presets useful to them. This will help me buy a better MIDI foot controller for my Axe Fx. Right I'm using a Rocktron MidiMate and I'm considering buying something more professional, with metal switches, more expression pedals sockets etc... 
Please use this email for paypal donations : karinedr_1@hotmail.com 
It's not mandatory of course :)


So, let's talk about the sounds now. My banks always are a work in progress : I love to tweak and I update my banks constantly, following firmware updates of the Axe Fx, adding/customizing presets from other users, programming new sounds for songs I need to cover with my two bands... In this blog, I will constantly update the links to allow anyone to download the latest versions of my three banks. Here's the latest one, right click, save as :

So here's how my presets are organized :
Bank A is for live use (note that all my U2 presets from 035, "Magnificent 1", to 049, "Pride", have not been updated to V7 ; I was about to complete this this when the flu caught me)

My banks B and C are some sort of archives of sounds, classed by genre. Hi gain and blues/blues rock in Bank B, Marshall, Vox, cleans and special effects in Bank C. Those banks contains presets from all sort of sources : stock presets, presets from other users that I've tweaked or left untouched (quite rare), personal experiments...
The first presets in Bank B, starting with the filename "TDR", are recreations of my favorite presets of my Axe Standard years, I compared them using an Ultra I borrowed from a friend.

You'll also notice that I use a lot of delay and reverb, a David Gilmour influence probably :)

Be sure to test your expression pedal (external 1) on every preset, at least for bank A. I spent a lot of time adding fancy tricks to my presets that way. As I have only one expression pedal on the Midimate, I do everything with one pedal. Because of that, I don't have a volume control on my presets but I tweaked them to be well balanced for live use. Here's a video I did with the Axe Standard a while ago, showing some expression pedal use (I translated those presets to the Axe II since) :




Important : note that for most of the covers I play, I'm programming sounds that suits my ears, my playing technique and my guitar for the song, and not a wannabe perfect tonal recreation of the original sound. Not also that I tune in Eb, and always play in stereo, on a FRFR setup. Output 1 of the Axe FX goes to FOH (Global EQ untouched), output 2 to a Matrix GT800FX into a Harley Benton 2x12 cabinet with Beyma speakers ; Glogal EQ settings : -2 @ 2k, +6 @ 8k, +12 @ 16k, every other EQ band at 0).
Here's a video of this setup :



Let's talk a bit more about my "live" bank now, bank A.

There, presets are organized in banks of ten - except the first one which has only nine presets : the button "0" in the Rocktron MidiMate's first bank is inactive.
So, the first bank contains my 9 basic sounds. Besides preset 005, based on a preset by Fractal user Simeon (which I just added to this bank ; not long ago I was using preset 269 of my bank C, "TDR JCM 800 crunch"), these are original sounds, based on what I was using on the Axe Standard.
These 9 sounds are also classed from cleanest to dirtiest, starting with my Acoustic clean preset and ending with a high gain lead.

Here's a description of some presets, and what the expression pedal controls on those :

1st bank (001-009) :
001 Acoustic clean : brings the rotary effect. This preset is for simulating an electro-acoustic guitar with a standard electric guitar (non piezo) ; it's tweaked for my Ibanez RG520QS with DiMarzio Norton in bridge position, DiMarzio Liquifire in neck position.
002 JC120 Ultraclean : allows me to do swells and add spacious reverb and delays. But fully pressed, the delay disappears, and the reverb is quieter. For the effect to work, use the expression pedal from 0 (toe up) to almost full, but not full.
003 Dual punchy clean : the exp. pedal morphs between a normal clean "fendery" sound, a tremolo and a rotary.
004 AC30 CLN/crunch : My basic Vox (not so) clean sound, the exp. pedal adds drive.
005 SH Plexi 2 : The exp. pedal adds drive. This is a preset by user Simeon.
006 Friedman crunch : The exp. pedal lower the drive
007 Friedman rhythm : idem. This is my main rhythm sound for mainstream rock.
008 Cornford lead II : wha.
009 TDR USA LD2+ LEAD : wha.

2nd bank (010-019) :
010 JC120 phaser : based on my preset 002 ; this time, the exp. pedal adds a phaser
011 Vibrato verb clean : another clean "fendery" preset, less compressed than preset 003 ; the exp. pedal controls a filter which acts as a soft wha wha, which don't suck the meat (low mids) of the sound, like a real wha wha would.
012 Friedman heavier rhythm : exp. pedal lower the drive. This is a slightly heavier version of preset 007.
013 Metal rhythm DRY : a bare bones dry metal rhythm sound. The exp. pedal alternates between two gate settings (I did that before knowing that the expander/gate's threshold was now controllable via CC ; Axe Edit didn't display the parameter). I use the pedal toe up for tight djent rhythm. Important note : there's a mistake in the version I uploaded or sent to many users, the controller on the drive mix should be removed ; the mix in should stay at 100%.
014 Metal rhythm WET : a wetter version of previous preset. Exp. pedal controls the drive. But I'll soon change that to add the trick I use in "Faster" (see below)
015 Sweet child rhythm : Exp. pedal controls drive. I play the intro melody toe down, the backing toe up.
016 Sweet child lead : wha.
017 Fusion lead : drive again. I use this sound for jazz rock or warm, not so gainy leads.
018 Bogner whammy lead : whammy obviously. The effect disengaged in toe up position with the pedal.
019 Friedman BE Lead 01 : drive - using both the mix of the compressor, the mix of the drive pedal and the imput trim of the amp block.

I won't enter into the details for all the sounds for the remaining banks, but here's some :

3rd bank (020-029) :
021 Boulevard intro : I start the song (only the sliced electric guitar) toe up, then bring the acoustic toe down.
022 Boulevard verses : toe up adds in a delay which repeats the chords of the two previous measures, allowing me to play the melody on top. Quite fun !
025 Black hole clean : controls the rotary mix.
027 Talk box rhythm : Controls the formant filter. I use this for "It's my life" by Bon Jovi.
029 Autowah lead : this is the lead sound for "Boulevard of broken dreams". Recently I added my "delay's feedback controlled by envelope" trick for the fun, the lead repeats while I switch on the acoustic sound (020) before the end of the song.

other banks : 
030 With or without U2 : controls the shimmer level. I adapted the drive and amp settings from user Simeon for V7 ; before I was using cleaner settings, as shown on this video : 



Yes, I love to improvise on that one ;)

031 Streets have no name : controls the drive level ; I had a bug with that one when I tested it in V8, it should not be "gainier" than preset 30, there's a CC mess up with the drive. Will check that soon. Here too I adapted the drive and amp settings from user Simeon.
032 E-BOW : for the intro of "With or without you". Play a note with the exp. pedal toe down, then raise the pedal for infinite sustain.
033 One clean : exp. pedal lower the rotary and add some dirt.
034 One lead : lower the drive

Note : the following U2 presets have not been updated to firmware 7 yet ; they are too compressed
035 Magnificent 1 : whammy
036 Magnificent 2 : toe down clean, toe down drive (for the breaks, and the solo)
037 Magnificent 3 : uses this for the verses (toe down). Obviously I didn't copied the original, instead I add some crystals, which gives a huge stereo sound. Use "toe up" for the break before switching back to preset 036 for the chorus.
043 Vertigo : adds delay for specific parts of the song
048 All I want is U2 : adds drive for the lead part of the song.

Presets from 050 to 059 has not been updated to V7 either, but should sound fine.
053 A tout le monde harmony : alternates between two custom scales of the harmonizer, for the end of this Megadeth song. Here's the custom scales, starting from 'A' SHIFT :
custom 1 : 3,3,5,5,4,3,4,3,3,4,3,4
custom 2 : 3,3,5,5,5,3,4,3,3,4,3,4
Remember that I tune in Eb ; this is for playing the song in F# on an Eb tuned guitar.

054 2nd chance crunch/hard : alternates between crunch and heavy rhythm sound, this is for a Shinedown cover.
058 Bogner XTC Blue : This is originally a preset by user mattfavs :



I tweaked it to adjust it to my guitar and changed the layout.

059 Shadow of the day : toe down for the softer part of this Linkin Park song, toe up for the lead and the ending.
060 Faster RTM -4 : I use this to play "Faster" by Within Temptation on a Eb tuned guitar, with a -4 transpose in the pitch block. Expression pedal toe up gives me a "telephone" sound for the intro.
061 Faster RTM -2 : I  use this to play "Faster" by Within Temptation on a Eb/drop C# tuned guitar, with a -2 transpose in the pitch block. Expression pedal toe up gives me a "telephone" sound for the intro.
062 Faster LEAD : My lead sound for "Faster." No transpose via the pitch block this time, so I play the solo part in C and the rest of the song either in E (preset 060) or D (preset 061). Expression pedal controls the wha.
063 Run to you crunch : One of those presets I need to work on more. Exp pedal alternates before the clean/crunch arpeggios and the lead.
064 Sultans of swing : toe up adds drive, which I need for the end of the song (live Alchemy version).

065 Shimmer : I use that preset to play some string melodies in the "There is no pain you are receding" parts of "Comfortably numb" by Pink Floyd.
066 Comfortably rhythm : rhythm sound for "Comfortably numb" by Pink Floyd. Delay is in the tempo. Exp. pedal alternates between drive (verses) and the "There is no pain you are receding" parts.
067 Comfortably lead : Lead guitar sound for "Comfortably numb" by Pink Floyd.
073 Numb : Toe up I play the synth melody (a big thanks to user Simeon who helped me get closer to the original synth sound), toe down, a clean counter melody backing.
Here's a "special" version of the song, shot during a rehearsal at home :



075 Nothing else matters CLN : I use this for the Metallica song. Toe up adds shimmer.

Presets 082-089 are temporary test presets. Preset 082 may soon replace preset 019 as a lead sound, I like it a lot.

095 Ultimate Dumble : My favorite Dumble preset yet. I started from another user's preset for that one (see preset 105 below) but I can't remember who :/
096 AtmoSynth Sim : A preset from user Simeon. I put my own hi gain lead sound in and tweaked the chords played by the synth as I tune in Eb. The exp pedal alternates between two chords. Video on facebook :



097 Lukather Lead : A work in progress ; I programmed that while learning the solo from "Rosana".
098 Pachelbel : See this video :



The backing "cello" notes are controlled by the sequencer. I needed a lot of trial and error to get those right. The two delays plays the role of the second and third violin. See an older, but complete, version on the Axe Standard here :

 

099 Firth of Fifth : Again, a preset from user Simeon, which I tweaked a little. See a video on facebook :



I went a little crazy with this one, as usual

Bank 100-109 is for blues and fusion. I did a video for that too :



Presets in this bank are from various sources : stock presets, users like Buddy Gill (Austinbuddy in the FAS forum - presets 107 and 108) or Tyler Grund (Gamedojo on the forums) ( http://tylergrund.com/axefx2.html - preset 101, and in bank B, presets 226-227-228). I use a couple of his user IRs too, be sure to visit his blog and donate if you find them useful. For comparison purposes, here's a video I did while testing blues presets on an Axe Standard. That was with a really bright Strat so it's not really a valid comparison :



Yeah the Axe Standard rules too ;)

110 Touching Tongues : This is for a Steve Vai song. exp pedal controls the wha.
111 Touching Tongues 2 : exp pedal controls the whammy.

112 Major penta harmonies, 113 Arabic harmonies :
These two presets uses custom scales in the harmonizer. Hear the effect here : Custom harmonies
Here's the custom scales for them, for a guitar tuned in Eb. If you tune in E standard, you'll need to play in Eb arabic for preset "Arabic harmonies", and Ab major for the "Major penta harmonies"

113 Arabic harmonies : Custom scales 3 (Voice 1) and 4 (voice 2)
112 Major penta harmonies : Custom scales 5 (Voice 1) and 6 (Voice 2)
Custom scale 3 : starting from 'A' SHIFT : 4 semi,3,4,4,3,4,4,4,3,4,3,3.
Custom scale 4 : starting from 'A' SHIFT : 7 semi,9,9,8,7,6,7,7,8,9,6,7.
Custom scale 5 : starting from 'A' SHIFT : 3 semi,3,3,3,4,5,5,4,5,4,3,4.
Custom sclae 6 : starting from 'A' SHIFT : 8 semi,7,8,7,8,7,7,8,7,7,8,7.

114 Brian May delay AC30 : I think I got the basic AC30 settings from another user. I tweaked it and added the stereo delay of  the "Live killers" version of "Brighton rock". I always use this preset during soundcheck to check if the sound engineer is panning my sound in stereo in the FOH like it should be.

115 Bag pipes MC A Drone : this is a preset from another user, Mark Cullen ( http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-recordings/53087-bagpipes-attempt.html ), I just changed the drone note and control it with an expression pedal to play songs like "Biko" by peter Gabriel.

117 Slicer tests : A preset originally by Simeon, to show an example of a slicer effect, an effect available in Boss GTx series pedals. I kept his phaser and vol/pan settings and added my own drive/amp/cab. I used the phaser/vol block settings as a basis for my "Boulevard of broken dreams" presets.
118 velvet sun : tweaked stock preset. I added a delay which is controlled by envelope : the repeats are audible only when I play staccato.
119 The Wall pt 1 : For the Pink Floyd song. Based on the tweaked velvet sun preset.
120, 121, 121, 124 are tweaked stock presets.
123 SuperMoog Filtatron : A Simeon preset, left untouched.
125 Violin ensemble 2 : A Simeon preset, tweaked a little.
126 Violin3 : Another user's preset (I unfortunately can't remember who, maybe Simeon again), which I tweaked a little.
127 Looper test : One of my favorites. I tweak/demonstrate it in real time in my latest video, and talk about it in the dedicated thread ( http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-recordings/57766-video-farewell-v7-nice-idea-delays-feedback-controlled-enveloppe.html ). Soon, I'll work further on it. How to use it : put the guitar's volume pot on 0, strum a chord, open the volume pot an hit the "record" button of the looper. Record something like 5-10 seconds. Hit stop. Then lower the expression pedal and solo on top. Each time you stop playing, the echoes will haunt you ! :) You can also play with the clean sounds (toe down)
128 Double clean + shimmer : Another one of my favorite original sounds. I combined my acoustic preset (left channel) and a clean "fendery" sound (right channel) with shimmer. I did a video with that preset :



Here's also a dedicated thread ( http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-preset-exchange/46172-clean-spacey-preset-shimmer.html ). As shown in my 38 minute video, there's another version of this preset in bank C (preset 317, "Triple clean")

Well, this is it for bank A !

Fremen