Best 1 Preset does All for Covers band

[CiliaGuitar]

What is the ultimate setup,that you gigging Muso's have

Love to see how you guys playing in a covers band, are utilising one preset with 8 Snapshots to cover your sets. I'll see if I can download mine,but basically I've got on the bottom four clean,clean/ chorus,Chr/Dly,

Clean solo

On the top Four,Crunch,Overdrive,solo 1,& solo 2

Great if we can all download our One Preset does all

[DunedinDragon]

This may be a situation in which "If all you know is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail".  Snapshots are a great addition to the abilities of the Helix.  However they aren't a great fit for some things.  Particularly for a lot of cover bands.

 

Of course not all cover bands are the same.  For example tribute bands that focus on one artist would benefit from something like this because they're dealing with one predominant type of sound.  But in most cover bands the range of material really precludes a single snapshot as a viable alternative and is the reason many of us prefer to have a preset for each song.  Or sometimes a preset for each style of song at least.

 

For example, look at a set that might contain songs by Bad Company, Steeley Dan, AC/DC, Green Day, Johnny Cash, Elvis, James Taylor, Funkadelic, The Ramones, The Who, Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rolling Stones, and the Beatles.  To do this group of songs justice you're probably looking at at least two guitar changes, but probably three, and likely four or five different amp models.  You can see how you would quickly run out of DSP in a single snapshot just to cover this one set.  And once you add in the need to change guitars, unless you have a Variax in the picture the principle value of snapshots which is no delay in switching becomes less of a factor.  And that's just one set.  You still have 3 more to go.

 

To me the value of the Helix is that I can provide authenticity in my sound for different artists songs and that's a LOT easier to do with individual presets than it is with a snapshot when dealing with a wide range of material.

[jbuhajla]

Agreed. Having 1024 preset slots available at a push of a button and then saying you want to use just one of them for all of your cover songs is painting yourself in a corner. You will be very limited even with 4 paths of different models.

[ncockerill]

I tried this (one preset for the whole night) --- just didn’t cut it.  That said, I do use one preset for about 70% of the tunes we play.  It has 2 amps/ 4 snaps (clean, crunch, drive, and solo) and a bunch of stomps to craft other tones for everything in between.  It works great.  However, there was no getting around having “specialty presets†for some tones – such as Hendrix, U2, SRV, Gilmour, Acoustic, etc.

 

As stated in the other post, it really depends on your set list and your motivation to cop the original artist’s tone authentically.  More varied set lists = more presets.

[specracer986]

I'm in the one preset for each song, several snapshots for different sections of that song, club.

I admit, I use the 2204 and Litigator for a lot of songs. But there's quite a few songs where those amps just don't work.

Plus, I'm a tweaker, so I don't mind putting in the time to know that I'm giving the audience a wide variety of tones over the course of the night.

[TLF2007]

In my last gig, I had 5 basic presets. I use the same amp in most of them but flavor with effects as needed. Its less about 'exact' tone but more about getting the base signature cover sound but also giving sound support a bed that sits in the mix consistently more than anything else. 

[cdiddy5000]

As of now, I have 1 preset that I use for pretty much everything. I am more or less setup like a traditional amp / pedalboard and using in stomp mode. I have every intention to eventually go the path of preset for each song, but my situation might only be marginally improved by doing so...

[chasseurdedahu]

Hello,

Can you share your presets? I just received the Helix, and it would give me a working base for my presets for my group of covers.

[jbuhajla]

I tried this weekend using just one preset for just 4 songs, and it was a challenge even in the contemporary worship music genre. I am going to take that single preset, and make 4-5 out of them using the same basic setup/workflow, but with different amps and cabs/IRs so it gives me a greater range of core tone. That way I can use for song 1 the Plexi based preset, AC30 based preset for song 2, etc...

[pilottes]

My latest goto preset is all about vesatility.

 

Path 1A + 1B is wah + 3x different dist (minotaur, vermin and Fuzz) feeding dual amps( Litogator+Divided DUO). than on the Path 2A IRs + chorus merge from 2B that handle my piezo pickup from Return 3 (+ EQ+ Ir + 2e Chorus). The result feed the last bit that has 2 verbs (plate + particle) and 2 delays (Simple and transistor). The delays are set up on 2 footswitch, one controls which one is active and the second the amount of Mix and Time. That gives 4x differents delay possibilities.

 

As for the layout. 4 stomp on top, 4 snapshots on bottom (clean, rock, drive, SOLO).

 

The real eye opener for me was when I realized the power on the recall setup in the global settings. This way you alter the snapshots before or during a song to better suit the song. For example. you migth use more reverb (I have a footswitch for that) for a clean part than the previous song. Or more delay and drive. 

 

I love my Helix and I I could talk about it for hour as you may see right now.. sorry

[billlorentzen]

I play covers, and with a very wide variety, but I don't try to cop original guitar tones. I go for approximations, but they're my sounds that I like for the particular song. I do use one particular preset for about half my tunes, and maybe 4 others for almost everything else.