Presets for firmware 17.02

Here's my three banks, updated for firmware 17.02

As usual I do not share the commercial IRs, and as I use a lot of them, the presets will not sound as intended without them. For the high gain ones, I use many variations of the free ASEM Recto mixed with other commercial IRs. You can replace the missing IRs (26, 31-32, 34) by the IR 33 (ASEM Recto alone) but the sound will not be exactly the same ; it will be more scooped, brighter, and less thick than the mix I use. The missing IRs combines ASEM Recto with commercial IRs (from FAS pack 7, Ownhammer HGE and Redwirez Mesa V30) to keep the cutting and modern sound of ASEM and bring in more low mids. The tonal variations between these various mix are not very big but bring the nuances which I look for - 32 is more cutting and therefor better for rhythm, 34 fatter and therefore better for leads etc etc.

Besides the ASEM mixes, I also uses three mixes from FAS cab pack 7 (with the "CK" prefix) and many Ownhammer HGE mixes. I don't have the recipes ; sometimes they are indicated in the name of the IR, most of the time they're not. When I'm mixing IRs with Cab-Lab, usually I record the session with a desktop video capture process, that's how I can find how I did a specific mix if needed. So if you want to know how I did a specific one you can ask. Or, just watch that video :





My banks also contain nine tonematches of Kemper profiles, identified by the "KP" prefix. I share the IRs for only two or three of them, those who are free, the others profiles being commercial (from Michael Britt and Amp Factory). These non-shared IRs are essential, thus you will need to disregard the corresponding presets, as even with other IRs there's little chance that they will sound like in my own Axe. I did many more tonematches of the "best" Kemper profiles (to my ears/taste etc.) but kept only those. To my ears, they are as close to the original profiles than the profiles I made from my presets in a Kemper - with the advantage that the amp in an Axe preset is tweakable like the real amp. The key here was to capture the Kemper IR first, then to do a careful amp matching (gain and EQ) by ear before doing the "live" tonematch. If you want to know more about it, there's a thread here :
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1508372&page=2

Some other relevant informations :

– I now have Bare Knuckle on my Ibanez : Holydiver in bridge and Emerald in neck. I tweaked my clean sounds accordingly, as they are brighter sounding than the DiMarzio Norton/LiquiFire couple I had before

– I now use the rear input of the Axe and the presets were tweaked accordingly.
 
– Besides the update necessary for some amp models, I tweaked many presets at the end of bank A. Some of them had mistakes, like a stereo harmonizer going through a mono-in parallel cab block. Putting a single note harmonizer through a enhancer is also a fun new trick.

–  I had to remove many presets in bank B, and so there are many more "blank" presets than before. These were mostly presets made by other users, or stock, which I had tweaked. With the changes in the amp models (USA mainly), those removed presets weren't relevant anymore and I didn't have the time to tweak them. I have many tonal variations for high gain in bank B anyway. Presets 139 to 163 are from the "high gain starting pack" I talked about in previous posts.
 
–  In Bank A, presets 001 to 069 are those I use live, 103-128 "fun" presets. Forget presets 72 to 92, I use them with a band I'm currently recording, they're for specific songs and guitars and doesn't match my personal taste.

For the really curious, here's a video of a tweaking session. That's how I usually work. It's of no musical interest, as I'm only playing specific licks and riffs that I use to test an amp sound and response :

Update : presets for firmware 16.01

Bank A
001-052 Live presets
053-065 Other Lead and Rhythm presets
071-080 Presets used for a pop-rock band I'm currently recording
089-098 Acoustic tonematches
099-128 Various "for the fun" presets ; beware, the amp/cab block for most of them (101-105, 11-120...) hasn't been updated to my current EQ settings (they may be too bright or whatever)

Bank B
129-163 Hi gain sorted by amp model (not updated since 15.02)
164-188 High gain starting pack presets ; has not been updated since 15.02 so I would trust/use most of them
190-196 Tests
197-204 Other users presets
205-209 Tests
(preset 225 shouldn't be there but in bank C)
226-256 Blues and rock-fusion presets (not updated since 15.02)

Bank C (not updated since 15.02)
257-275 Marshall presets
277-285 Marshall clones and Vox clones
287-296 Special effects (with gain)
301-331 Clean presets
332-384 Special effects and synth presets

What's new, specially in my live presets : I now use the Mesa Mk IIC+ as my all around amp model, with the "ASEM Recto" IR, instead of GuitarHack "ThisOne" as before. That's, by far, the most important change I've done in a while ; "ThisOne" is nice for smooth leads but doesn't sound as natural as ASEM Recto. I also use some room ambiance in the cab block. Check preset 034 for some cello/string fun (use the exp pedal 1). Preset 006 is inspired by the "Plexi Monster" S-Gear preset ; one one of the cabs, I used the same Redwirez combination, as I have the Big Box. I really love the Plexi 100 W high in 16.01 !

I also updated my user cab selection :

Axe-Fx II presets for firmware 15.02

Here's a quick demo mostly focusing on the newest additions to my Axe-Fx II presets, for firmware 15.02.

Rundown :

00:16 Various electro-acoustic simulation presets (made for my Ibanez RG520)
01:40 Eighties style pristine clean sounds
02:14 Punchy clean sounds
02:40 Vox like crunch sounds
03:35 Marshall crunch sounds
04:34 Dumble lead (see video below)
05:01 Mid & high gain lead sounds
08:50 High gain user cabs shootout, using the same preset and a reamp. Check this part if you don't own the commercial IRs I use in my presets ; it will either help you to choose close sounding IRs from your user cabs, or convince you to buy those IRs !

Presets V15.02 : what's new - highlights

Besides updating the amp blocks to firmware 15.02, a few months of work have gone in this new collection of presets. Talking about them all would be too long but here's the main changes.

– Preset naming convention : presets with ** in their name are from other users or stock presets which I modified. Presets with only one * means that I didn't edit them. No * is a total creation.

– I added a volume block in all my live presets (ext pedal 3) ; previously I used a CC attached to the cab block level.

– Acoustic sim presets : more versions available, using various sources for tonematch. One version use the "Tube Pre" amp model.

– I tried many things for my "Eighties clean" preset (#003 and #011). Previously I used the Jazz Chorus model for it, and no cab block. This preset is now in Bank C (#318), with a new parametric EQ setting. In #003, I don't use an amp block, just EQs, and in #011, I use the "Tube Pre" amp model.

– Clean sounds : various refinements in the modulation blocks settings (chorus, flanger and phaser), crystals or shimmer effects added to some of the presets.

– Totally revamped "Vox" and "Marshall crunch" presets (#004 and #005). #004 in fact uses DC30 and Morgan amp models (alternatively in scenes 1 & 2, combined in scene 3), not the AC30TB. #005 is almost a do-it-all preset with it's five scenes, from crunch (scenes 1 & 2 - and almost clean if you lower the volume pot on the guitar) to rhythm (scene 3) and lead (scenes 4-5).

– For consistency, all the ambiant presets I kept from the stock banks or from other users (#332 to #359) now uses my own amp and cab settings (from my preset #004).

– Many presets from other users have been removed. This is a "collateral damage" of evolutions in amp modeling ; these presets weren't sounding like their authors wanted them to in previous firmwares and I didn't want to spend a lot of time trying to recreate them in 15.02. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it gave me empty spaces for new presets.

– Many new lead presets (#060 to #073), most of them from my "high gain starting pack" (see this link : LINK). Some of those presets uses new IRs. The"high gain starting pack" (#163 to #188) presets also uses different IRs now, not just "016 GH ThisOne" which still is my go-to IR for high gain.

– Many new IRs added ; I removed almost all the old ones who weren't used in a preset (also see below for more on my user cabs).

 

Presets organization :

BANK A

001-064 : Live presets

The first two banks (001-010 and 011-020) has most of my basic sounds :

Cleans : 001 to 004, 011 and 012. 001 is for my Variax acoustic model, 002 for my Ibanez.

Crunch : 005 to 007.

Rhythm : 008, 013, 015.

Leads : 009, 010, 019, 020. I usually have my lead sounds at the end of a bank so I also uses 029, 030, 039, 040, 049, 050… From 054 to 073, there are more lead sounds, using different IRs.

Some details on other presets :

014 Diary of Jane : for the Breaking Benjamin song. Scene 5 for the intro, scene 1 for the main riff and chorus, scene 2 for the verses. I use a guitar in dropped C# for that one (I tune in Eb).

015 : A stereo metal rhythm preset. One unusual setting is that the enhancer block is before the amp blocks ; I use input left in one amp block and input right in the other, this works very well for expanding the stereo spread.

016 Sweet child : Scene 2 for the leads, scene 1 for everything else (raise the exp pedal 1 for the verses)

017 A tout le monde : Scene 1 rhythm, scene 2 lead, scene 5 chorus. I use scene 3 and 4 for the end solo harmony when I'm playing without a rhythm guitarist.

018 Dumble lead : my blues-fusion main preset. Some radical reverb settings on that one (100 % mix in parallel ; there's also some short reverb in the cab block). Inspired by Robben Ford sound on his “Robben Ford and The Blue Line” (Live in Rockpalast) DVD. That's the preset I'm using in this video :

019 Blu & Red XTC whammy : Scene 1 Bogner XTC blue, scene 2 Bogner XTC Red, scene 3 both. I use that one for whammy.

020 Fas Modern Lead : also has harmonies for the solo on "Rock you like a hurricane", first three notes of the intro on scene 5, the others on scene 4.

021 Boulevard of broken dreams : for the Green Day song. See the end of this video for details : 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV6I7GqiO2c

025 Enjoy the silence : Lacuna Coil version of the song. Scene 1 rhythm, scene 2 synth (for verses), scene 3 both, scene 4 tremolo on the guitar + synth, scene 5 tremolo on the guitar and no synth.

026 Black hole flange : scene 2 for the intro bottleneck lead

028 Talk box : For Bon Jovi's "It's my life". Scene 2 lead

029 BE Ld + raygun + ringmod : use exp pedal 1 or 2 for some fun.

031 Wowy+Str+Still+Pr+AIWIY : five U2 songs in one preset. Scene 1 With or without you, scene 2 Where the streets have no name, scene 3 I Still haven't found what I'm looking for, scene 4 Pride, scene 5 All I want is you. Use the exp pedal for more gain and leads.

036 Ashes : see this video :

037 Hallelujah : for the Pain of Salvation live version of the Leonard Cohen song.

039 5153 Red MV test : master volume is controlled my envelope. I need to test this idea with another amp model where different master volume settings have a more pronounced effect on the sound.

041 Open your eyes : for covering Alter Bridge's song. Scene 1 rhythm, scene 2 rhythm + enhancer (for when the other guitar player takes the lead), scenes 3-5 cleans. Exp 1 lowers the gain

042 Blurry : for the Puddle of Mud song. Uses the exp 2 for the intro "tremolo melody", exp 1 to raise the gain (it's reversed) for the chorus.

043-045 Numb : for the Linkin Park song. The synth preset is originally from user Simeon.

046-048 : For Metallica "Nothing else matters" and "Enter sandman".

088-128 : misc presets

088 to 097 : various acoustic simulator presets, using different tonematch source material. #093 is an alternate version of #001, using the tube pre. #096 and #097 uses a sample from the Devin Townsend "Unplugged" album ; #096 is the normal version, #097 the ambiant version, like on Townsend's album. Both use radical compressor settings on purpose.

098 Nylon string electro : for a friend's electro acoustic classical guitar ; I'm currently recording songs for him.

099 Belew wave pressure : inspired by an Adrian Belew song.

100 Magnificent 2 : my band stop playing that U2 song but I kept it because of its various gizmos. Uses various scenes.

101-106 : presets where the Axe also process my backing vocals (through effect return).

107 Cathedral : you know the Van Halen song, right ? I used a tweaked version of Yek's autoswell settings on this one.

108 The Wall Pt 1 : check this video : 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOq4vxtNDbw

109 Fix you : check this video : 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR937sP5-r4
110 Mike + Benyo : a preset for two guitar players. I made that for two friends who played a full gig with it. Input 1 is for a Ibanez RG type guitar, input 2 for a Les Paul type guitar. Exp alternates between drive and clean for guitar player 1, exp 2 does the same for guitar player 2. Scene 1 is the normal rhythm settings for both, scene 2 lead setting for guitar player 1. Scene 3 and 4 trigger the tremolo for each of them on specific songs. Note : It was made in firmware 14.02 and I didn't update it as I would need their guitars for that.

111-113 : variations on a preset originally made by Clarky and modified by Simeon. Uses exp pedal 1 or scenes to change the synth chords.

116 Firth of fifth : for the Genesis/Steve Hackett song. Originally made by Simeon ; I changed almost everything, amp model included.

114, 115, 117, 118, 119, 120 : variations on the whammy effect.

121 Friedman BE - 6 scenes : a do-it-all preset. scene 1 rhythm, sc 2 crunch, sc 3 lead, sc 4, 5 and 6 various cleans.

122 SLICER : a preset by Simeon, which I uses as a starting point when needed.

123 Trem test : I made that one to test the then new scenes controller. Each scene trigger a different tremolo speed.

124 Brighton rock : for the Brian May solo on "Live killers". I use that one to test the stereo of PA systems. The preset was originally made by another user but I cannibalized it.

125 PinkFloyd G ctl (yek) : a Yek preset, with my own lead sound

Some presets uses custom scales in the pitch block, see my previous blog posts for details

BANK B

129-188 : mid and high gain amps presets.

163-188 are my "high gain starting pack" presets, updated to firmware 15. Different IRs used this time. See this video to understand the concept : 

226-256 : Blues, blues-rock, fusion presets, using mostly boutique amps. Preset 230 is from Tyler Grund, I edited it to give it an Andy Timmons vibe. I use the looper to record the chords of "little wing" and then solo over them. From scene 1 to scene 5, there's more and more drive added.

BANK C

257-282 : Marshall and Marshall-like, Vox and Vox-like amps.

285-294 : Ambiant & special effects (drive).

301-314 : Clean amps, same principle as for my high gain starting pack.

315-331 : Other clean presets.

332-362 : Ambiant & special effects (clean). As said above, they use the same amp and cab settings for consistency. 360, 361 and 362 is for one of my instrumental song, see this video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlq6GJUDBxE

363-384 : Special effects with synth sounds, bass presets (not updated since many firmware as I don't have a bass guitar).

USER CABS

Here's my current selection of IRs :

A few words about user cabs

It has been said many times that the cab is at least half of the sound. Two months ago, I spent a few days testing litteraly thousands of IRs, free and commercial, and making mixes with Cab-Lab. These last days, while working on the firmware 15.02 presets, I again checked some new IRs (FAS cab pack #5, the latest Ownhammer, and some free ones) and made new mixes. I also found a recipe that works for me almost all of the time for high gain sounds. A classic combination of two mics on a cab is Shure SM57 for brightness+Royer R121 for fatness ; for authenticity, the logical step is to combine two IRs from the same cab, but it doesn't always works for me, specially when the provided R121 doesn't deliver the lows/low mids I want. 

So a few months ago, I started to use a Redwirez IR from a Mesa V30 or an ENGL V30 cab. It wasn't the Royer but the Beyerdynamic M160 then (in cone position, 0 inch or 1 inch), as I wanted to add low mids warmth, not lows, to some free IRs from Alu or GuitarHack which were a little too scooped for me. It works very well, and some of those IRs are still in my Axe (#017, #023, #35, #36...). A few days ago, I tried using a Ownhammer R121 IR from the High Gain Essential cabs (either OH MES-ST V30-EN 5881 121 HG or OH DZL-RL V30-EN 5881 121 HG) and it was a revelation. Instead of combining a SM57 and a R121 from a Ownhammer V30-CH8, for example, I use the SM57 from the CH8 but the R121 from the EN cab, which is darker/warmer sounding. The end result is less scooped and more pleasing to my ears, it's the best of both worlds ! In fact, I liked this so much that I tried the Ownhammer R121 with a SM57 IR from various sources (free IRs, FAS cab pack 5 IRs...) and it works very well with them too. So it seems I have a winning combination here, and much more tonal options than before for my high gain sounds.

Firmware 14.02 presets : update 26.04.2014

Here's a new version of my three banks. In the previous version I wanted to keep all my high gain amps pool (bank B), all my clean amps pool (bank C) too - check my previous post for more information about these - and all my U2 presets.This time, I'm keeping only those I intend to use. So I deleted a lot of presets, and more important, I tweaked the clean presets pool a lot too ; imho, they're much better now. I now use the tweaked clean amps I like the most in my live presets (4, 12, 44, 46, 51).
Some other changes :

Bank A

preset 003 (JC120 clean) : brighter than before
preset 031 (Wowy+Str+Still+Pr+AIWIY) : This one combines five U2 songs into one, as I deleted the individual presets for U2 songs (my band doesn't cover U2 anymore). From scene 1 to scene 5, these are With or without you, Where the streets have no name, I still haven't found what I'm looking for, Pride, All I want is you. Pride normally uses two delays in series but it's not the case here - I don't play it anyway.
preset 036 (Ashes) : a new preset to cover a Pain of Salvation song, see this thread: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-preset-exchange/85179-ashes-pain-salvation-5-scenes-preset.html and this video :



preset 037 (Hallelujah) : a new preset to cover Pain of Salvation's version of "Hallelujah". Scene 1 verses, scene 2 chorus, scene 3 lead, scene 4 "organ". I took the "organ" from the "organic" stock preset. I also uses that organ sound with scenes 1 and 1, its level is controlled by expression pedal 2.
preset 040 (Angle severe lead) : a new preset based on the lead scene of preset 036. I'll tweak it some more.

Bank B

presets 161-162-163 are new, from other users. The high gain amps pool starts at 164. Like said above, I kept the ones I like the most.
My Vox and Vox clones presets are also in bank B now.

Bank C
Check presets 298 to 307 ; they are much improved from previous versions. They all use custom commercial IRs so you'll need them (I don't share them but there's screenshots of the recipes in my .rar file).
I also added 2 presets from RACA, 2 from Yek and 1 from Simeon in the "special effects" presets (325 to 384)

As you will see, there's much more blank presets in all three banks. I need those spaces for future presets, specially as my band added many new songs to its setlist.

The other big change : I review my custom IRs selection and organization, here's a screenshot :

There's some empty slots here too for futur IRs, like the metal IRs Ownhammer are going to release soon (see this thread: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-recordings/84678-first-ur-clip-review-sick-new-metal-ir-pack-coming-sooooon.html )

See my previous post for other details about my user IRs. Unfortunately, I didn't keep a recipe for the IR 004, which I like a lot for clean sounds.

Firmware 14.02 presets

Here's my presets for version 14.02 of the firmware.

There's been a lot of changes from the banks I uploaded before. First, I decided to integrate the hi gain presets I released for firmware 13 in my normal bank B. For that, I needed to keep only the first group of presets, those using the same IR. Of course I updated those presets for firmware 14, with the new models (Savage, Triaxis Red...) and the revamped Rectifiers.
I also integrated my clean presets (previously in bank A) in bank C. But the biggest change of all, and it's a major one for me, is that I almost completely reviewed my custom IRs selection. More on that below.

Bank organization :

Bank A

1-72 : Presets I use live. I use 1-50 the most. I will soon remove many U2 presets as I don't cover most of these songs anymore.
79-80 : A quick test of two of the latest amp models, to complete my "clean presets pool" which is in bank C
81-89 : Various presets using the Vox and Vox-like models, which I use essentially for U2 covers
91-128 : Tests, presets I use for the fun, some presets from other users that I couldn't put in bank C due to lack of space... presets 102-108 are used to process my backing vocals through the Axe (I use a DigiTech Vocalist and a TC Helicon pedal). They are controlled via MIDI by the MFC-101 too.

Bank B
129-160 : Hi gain presets sorted by amp model from various sources : stock presets and presets from Axe Change tweaked to my liking, and my own creations.
162-223 : My "high gain amps pool", which was previously in my hi gain bank for firmware 13. See this post for details : http://axefremen.blogspot.com/2014/02/fremens-high-gain-starting-pack-bank.html
225-256 : Blues, blues-rock & fusion presets sorted by amp model from various sources : stock presets and presets from Axe Change, again tweaked to my liking, and my own creations.

bank C
257-277 : Marshall & Marshall clones presets sorted by amp model from various sources : stock presets and presets from Axe Change, again tweaked to my liking, and my own creations.
278-284 : Special effects presets, stock or from other users
285-311 : My "clean amps pool", which was previously in my bank A for firmware 13.
312-384 : Cleans, special effects from various sources, again tweaked to my liking.

Now the biggest change : IR selection. Here's my user cabs :

"ThisOne" is still my main hi gain IR but it's in ultrares now. Although the original .wav file is quite short, in ultrares there's a small difference from the normal version which I like.

Organization :
001-004 : IRs for Vox amps
005- 009 : Clean amps
010-015 : Marshall amps
016-048 : high gain amps
049-053 : Boutique amps (for blues-rock and fusion ; think Dumble and the likes)
054-069 : Some more Marshall and high gain
084-100 : IRs used in specific presets only

Fremen's high gain "starting pack" bank

Fremen's high gain "starting pack" bank

Some preview demos I uploaded to Youtube ; soon, I'll upload a demo of the final version of the bank, with some tweaking examples

Two more videos on Facebook :

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151883048017245
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151864870307245

Firmware used with the final version of the bank is 13.07 ; these videos were made with older versions, not the final one.

This bank is the result of rethinking my method of presets programming. I followed this basic goal : one amp suitable for hi gain playing = one preset. Each preset should have roughly the same volume level, and all of them must meet my requirements for heavy rock/metal playing. Definition of "hi gain sound" is of course subjective ; I'm not a br00tal, 7/8 strings modern metal player (I listen to some of it but I don't play it), but not vintage hard rock player either, although I have my roots in the eighties. Let's say that my ballpark is progressive metal à la nineties Dream Theater, although this is restrictive.



Some facts :



All the presets were tweaked for an Ibanez RG520 with a DiMarzio Norton in bridge, tuned in Eb. I tested all of them with the same stupid palm-muting lick on lower strings, then six strings basic chords, power chords, and a little bit of lead playing. It's not always easy to have enough gain to help legato playing (which I uses a lot because of my terrible right hand ;) ) and at the same time no mud in the lower strings palm muting. These presets are for rhythm first, but being usable for leads is a desirable bonus. Of course some amps are better for rhythm, some for lead.



All the 56 presets uses the same cab, without any room level : GuitarHack ThisOne (from a Mesa 4x12 with V30, a standard "metal" cab). Why this ? First, it has been my go-to hi gain IR since almost the beginning, I was already using it in the Axe Standard in 2009 so I know it well. Second, my objective wasn't to find a variety of tones/colors ; it was to find, for each amp model, the best way to achieves a tight, punchy hi gain sound, as detailed below. I tweaked the Low Cut and Hi Cut in the cab block when needed, and often used the new "NULL" mic type to be able to use the Proximity parameter.

get the cab here : http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?cab=86

It should go in user spot #16

Soon, I will release alternative versions of that go-to cab.

Of course, many of these presets sounds very close to each other because of the importance of the cab in a guitar sound. In some rare cases, I had to use radical settings to make the amp work with the IR. I'm aware that using the same IR won't always give an "authentic" sound (many amps don't uses V30 speakers) but I needed that common factor here to really focus on the amps.

As said above, the key thing with the first 56 presets was to find the optimum gain staging for each amp model. So for each amp, I had to test those different scenarios :

- More input drive and no boost (besides the TS808 which already acts as a booster) ?

- Less input drive but boost switch on (or input trim raised, which I like more because I can control it with an expression pedal) ?

- Saturation switch on or off ?

- Bright switch on or off ?

- Master volume at default level or not ?

First I tested all that, and then used the tone stack, Depth, Presence, and Dynamic Presence/Dynamic Depth to fine-tune. I used the Graphic EQ of the amp block only when needed, like the advanced parameters. Many times I tweaked the speaker page Low Res Freq to put it to at 125 hz ; in some cases I left it at default to respect the amp characteristics (especially with very low default settings). I also raised Thunk in most presets ; this is the only parameter I touched in the "Dynamics" tab of Axe Edit.

In the "Tone" tab, in some cases I lowered the Bright Cap ; in the same tab, I also discovered that boosting the MV Cap is helpful for brightening dark amps.

Each preset uses 5 scenes.

Scene 1 = heavy rhythm

Scene 2 = crunch (less gain than in scene 1)

Scene 3 = lead 1 (with Drive block on – tighter sounding)

Scene 4 = lead 2 (with Drive block off – fatter and warmer)

Scene 5 = "record ready" sound, using the Multiband Compression block (read more on that below).

The amp gain is attached to scene controller 1 and changes accordingly in each scene.

In "Y" of the amp block, most of the time there's the initialized version of the amp, for comparing purposes.

Some words about the grid and the blocks used (besides amp and cab).

The chain is Gate/expander => Wah => Comp => Parametric EQ 1 => Drive => Amp => Cab => Multiband Comp => Parametric EQ 2 = Parametric EQ 3 => Enhancer, with Delay => Reverb in parallel.

Gate/Expander : tweaked for my guitar. Its on in scene 2 (where it's not needed) and 4 (to allow for more dynamic playing)

Wha : off by default in all scenes but attached to external pedal 1, with auto-engage.

Comp : off in all scenes, but can be used in scene 2. The output level will affect the drive of the amp.

Para EQ 1 : used as a mediums booster (instead of the drive block) in scene 4. Also used in scene 2.

Drive : I always use a TS808 as a booster, I like how it tightens the amps. Here it's off in scenes 2 and 4. Scene 3 uses Y, Full Overdrive, which is fatter that the TS808.

Multiband comp : used in scene 5, to gives a more record-ready sound (more compressed lows, more high end). Note : I didn't tweak it in each preset, only in some of them. In the video demo I'll upload for this bank of presets, I'll show some multiband compression tweaking on some bass heavy amps.

Para EQ 2 : used in scene 2 to cut some bright from the amp, as I like my crunch sounds fatter and warmer.

Para EQ 3 : used in scenes 3 and 4 ; gives the volume boost needed for the lead scenes + some mid boosts (I like leads with less highs than rhythms).

After the cab, there are parametric EQ, multiband compression, delay, reverb and enhancer blocks, all bypassed. The delay and reverb settings are the same, but the parametric EQ and multicomp settings have been altered in many presets, even if left bypassed afterwards.

Enhancer : used in scene 4 but can of course be used anywhere, or bypassed in scene 4.

Delay : used in scenes 3 (X, stereo tape mode) and 4 (Y, dual delay mode). I probably use more delay volume than most users.

Reverb : used in all the scenes except scene 4. X (shorter) is for rhythm, Y (longer) is for crunch and leads. The reverb in gain parameter is attached to Scene Controller 2, that's where you need to tweak the reverb volume.