Donations

I used to share my presets for free, but now I'm doing it commercially, so I removed all the download links for older firmwares. Check my quantum 2.0 thread for the details. However, if you want the presets for an older firmware you're still using, send me a message on d3usxm4ch1n4@gmail.com

Saturday, 26 April 2014

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.

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

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


Friday, 28 February 2014

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.

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.

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Bank A update for firmware 12.02

How 'bout a little update ?


Check the screenshot for the cab used in user spots 60 and 79, and this link for more details : http://axefremen.blogspot.com/2013/10/axe-fx-ii-presets-v-1105.html

What's new (note that I use display offset = 1) :

presets 001-063 : no big changes but some small ones here and there

preset 064 : alternative to 018 (still working on it)

065 : another test of the new scenes feature

066-068 : try these with your expression pedal of choice ! You'll need to play in stereo for the full effect. I'll test other ideas in that vein soon.

069 : hum...  see for yourselves :) Still working on it. The envelope settings are tricky on that one.

070-072 : searching for new flavors for my Jazz Chorus sound, as used in presets 003 and 011

073-081 : testing somes alternatives for my main lead preset, with various cabs and settings tweaked for those cabs. 076 is the original one with some minor tweaks. You'll need the two third party free IRs (Catharsis & Framus) I included in the rar file ; but you'll also need commercial IRs : The Messiah 1 & 3 ( http://www.criticalcabs.com ), SA Freddy + Jimmy ( http://signalsaudio.com/site/simpulse , I mixed Freddy TWO-TWO and Jimmy 3 in equal amounts) and a free Bogner cab from Ownhammer which unfortunately isn't available anymore (Ownhammer : http://tinyurl.com/ac8vblm )

082-083 : testing some clean fenderish sounds (use X/Y on the amp block)

084-089 : like for 073-081, I'm using various third party cabs with the Recto amps. Probably my tightest recto sounds to date. Next, I'll combine some of those in stereo dual amp presets (like presets 014 and 015)

090 : A work in progress ; following the thread on the Strymon Big Sky pedal, I wanted to try to find the sound displayed at the beginning of the youtube video. I'm not there yet, and I also need to check Java Junkie's settings suggestions.

111 : latest version (tweaked again after I uploaded it to Axe Change) of "AtmoSynth lead 5 scenes", as used in this video :



The lead sound in preset 111 is also my main lead sound (although I think I didn't implemented it in preset 009, my main lead preset - must check)

112-113 : I changed the lead sounds

Enjoy !

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Axe Fx II presets v 11.05

Here's the firmware v 11.05 version of my presets


Demo - Watch in HQ for a better sound !





Banks organization

Bank A

001-063 : Presets I use live. I use bank size = ten on the MFC. So the first group of ten presets (1-10) has 4 cleans, 3 crunch, 1 rhythm and 2 leads, from cleanest to dirtiest.
After that, most of the presets are song specific.

064-111 : empty presets. That's where I test new presets from other users, or develop new presets/new versions of existing presets.

112-128 : Presets I keep in bank A for the fun. Many special fx here, like looper lead (127), AtmoSynth Lead, Double clean+shimmer… Presets 117 and 118 uses custom harmonies (like preset 017), see my firmware 10 blog post for details. “Cheesy whammy” is a new, fun preset, don’t forget to try it with an expression pedal. I also reworked my three morphing presets (121-123). When I have a gig,  "Brian May Delay" (124) is perfect for testing the stereophony on a FOH system.

Bank B

129-202 : High gain presets, sorted by amp model. Those presets are either mine (sometimes with the prefix TDR), or stock, or from other users. An asterisk indicates that I edited the stock/other user preset a little (*) or more (**). Many of those other users prests are from older versions of the firmware so I had to adapt them (like those from Devin Townsend, Ola, Periphery, Marco Sfogli, Larry Mitchell…). In some cases, I combined different presets into one (Ola, Periphery, Sfogli), using or not using scenes (again, see my V10 video for details). 148, “leathers” is from Stef Carpenter (Deftones), but rearranged, as I wanted only his basic high gain tone. I also normalized his IR as it was too quiet.

204-215 : Vox and Vox-like amps

217-256 : blues and rock/fusion presets. Again, there’s stock or other users’ presets, most of the time tweaked to my liking. Example : 217 "Little Wing" is originally from Tyler Grund ( http://www.tylergrund.com/axefx2.html ) ; I kept his amp and cab settings, edited the reverbs, added a delay, a mid boost and a compressor, and changed the drive pedals. The preset uses 5 scenes, from clean to dirtiest, and was inspired by a youtube video of Andy Timmons covering that Hendrix song.

Bank C

 257-288 : Marshall and Marshall-like amps (except the Friedmans which are in bank B)

292-302 : Special fx with distortion

305-384 : Cleans, special fx


Here's some more infos about the video demo and the corresponding presets :

1) For preset 002 (071 in the video), I used a new source for tonematching an acoustic guitar. Having just read that Alex Lifeson tonematched a Black Crowes song, I used the same. All my other presets containing the acoustic simulator chain (multicomp-GEQ-Para EQ-Tone Match blocks) still uses my previous tonematch settings, which was a recording of a friends electro-acoustic guitar). Those presets are 021, 062, 115, 128, 331.
Presets 001 and 114 are specifically for the acoustic model of the Variax JTV guitar

2) preset 321, "Marillion Clean", is originally from another user but I changed it a lot over the various firmwares, and the JC120 model itself changed a lot too

3) Preset 331, "Triple clean + Shimmer", combines three different clean sounds (the three lines that goes into the mixer block) and a shimmer effect. I had to edit that one while recording because when the Axe is used as a DAW interface, I had a CPU warning.

4) For preset 335, "The Wall pt 1", I modified the stock preset "Velvet sun". I use my own amp/cab/delay/flanger/reverb settings over the line with the wha/reverb

5) "Crystal echoes V11**" (preset 347) is a stock preset in which I use my own amp/cab/multicomp settings. I do that a lot on the special effects presets

6) The three "Astral flight" presets ( N° 362, 305, 306) originates back to 1993, that's a song I wrote back then (it's on youtube :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlq6GJUDBxE - sorry for the cheesy clip!). At the time I programmed those effects on a Boss SE50

7) Preset N°125 is originally from Yek, N°126 from Simeon and Clarky ; in both I use my own lead sounds. Again, see this video for more details on those presets, on N°127 "TDR's looper lead" and on most of my go to presets : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV6I7GqiO2c

8.) Preset 117 "Arabic harmonies" and 118 "Major penta harmonies" both uses custom scales. On the video @ 5:38 you can see my expression pedal moves on preset 117. 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"

Arabic harmonies : Custom scales 3 (Voice 1) and 4 (voice 2)
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 scale 6 : starting from 'A' SHIFT : 8 semi, 7, 8, 7, 8, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 8, 7.

9) Preset 20, "TDR FAS Modern LEAD", also uses two custom scales, to play Scorpions' "Rock you like a hurricane" leads in Eb. Watch the video at 6:02, scene 5 is for a small part, scene 4 a longer part, and scene 1 for the straight (no harmony) part.
Custom scale 9 : 4 5 4 3 4 3 3 4 3 4 3 5
Cutom scale 10 : 4 5 4 3 5 3 3 4 3 4 3 5

10) I double tracked the heavy rhythm presets (13, 14, 159, 15, from 06:16 on the video) to show how they would sound with standard recording techniques. All those riffs are from songs I wrote

11) For preset 122 (7:08-7:22 on the video) I'm morphing between two amp sounds, and changing the pickup selector between 4 and 5 (bridge) a few times

12) I got the Cab settings on preset 261, "Fat Plexi 100W Jump", from user Tonic (Nabstud on the French guitariste.com forum)

13) Preset 235 (7:37 on the video) is of of the few where I use an IR I captured from a Kemper

14) Preset 252 is originally from Swedish Chef of the Fractal forum, I didn't change that one a lot


Monday, 22 July 2013

presets update : firmware 10.12





First video is a short demo of two delay in series, varying delay times or feedback settings. The second one is a demo of two new presets, then an IR shootout using a single preset, with stock IRs, my usual custom IRs, other IRs captured from a Kemper and Ownhammer V2 MesaV30 IRs


Here's how everything is organized :

Bank A
001-062 : my main presets, for live use. Many changes, some small, some more substantial, since 10.02 version.
065-080 : tests ; mostly new presets using Kemper "Amp Factory" IRs (read below for more details). Preset 078 is from Steph Carpenter of the Deftones, with some tweaks (See http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-discussion/67140-working-stephen-c-deftones-week-check-out-our-progress-9.html )
107-128 : Other presets, some of which I sometimes uses live.

Bank B
129-209 : hi gain amps, sorted by model. Personal presets, tweaked or untouched stock presets or patches from other users, most of the time tweaked. Some new sounds since version 10.02.
203-216 : Vox amps. The Morgan preset (214) uses an IR from the popular Kemper Morgan AC20 profile (which I'm not sharing ; with it, the sound is, imho, 98% close to the original).
219-256 : Mostly boutique amps, for blues/fusion.

Bank C
257-291 : Marshall and Marshall-like amps (except the Friedman models which are in bank B)
292-302 : special effects with distortion
303-327 : cleans
328-384 : special effects


For more details about my presets and user cabs, see my post about 10.02 firmware presets : http://axefremen.blogspot.com/2013/04/presets-for-firmware-10.html

Note that I'm also sharing some Kemper IRs, made (with some EQ tweaks) from Amp Factory profiles. I got the permission from Andy of Amp Factory to share those, a big thanks to him !