GenoBluzGtr Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Just asking. I'm learning more and more every day with the Helix and, as such, I'm finding that my presets are getting so much better. That makes me think that it's not worth hanging on to the ones I built last month that just sound like, well, like crap compared to my newer ones. I'm learning which parameters have the most effect on the parts of my tone that are pleasing to me (lowering Sag, Hum, Ripple, etc...; Adding a Opti-Trem with speed and intensity turned down; using a para EQ after the cab block to smooth things out and fine-tune my frequency curve; which OD/Dist blocks sound best with which amps; how to use "assign controller" to avoid having too many blocks for gain and volume boosting, etc...) and I really don't think I will need those old presets to even us as a starting point. Do you guys hang on to things or do you toss them to reduce the amount of carp you're storing on the computer (or on the helix?). Just curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specracer986 Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 If they were just an experiment to see how a particular combination of amp and effects would sound, I discard them. If the patch was made for a specific song, which most of mine are, I keep it. You never know when a future band will say, lets do that song and I'll have a good starting point, even if I have to tweak it some. But I keep all old patches on my computer, not the Helix. I don't like scrolling through a bunch of stuff that I'm not using. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verne-Bunsen Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 I always maintain a backup of my presets, and when I take the nuclear option and start rebuilding everything over from scratch I do not necessarily go back and delete the backups. So in that way, I do have a record of most all of my past presets. And more than a few times I've gone back and reloaded one of them for a reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunedinDragon Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 Since my patches are all specific to a song I tweek them pretty much every time I use them in order to improve them or include techniques I've found to be useful. I back them up after every modification, but I don't keep any history backup of older ones. The longer I have a patch the less I tweek it as many tend to be exactly what I want. I still back them up after every use to ensure I have the latest innovations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 I have all mine bronzed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willjrock Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 Theres really no reason NOT to keep them...... or even think about it for that matter. At 7 or 8 KB per, even if you had 1000 of them, youre still not even at 1MB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterHamm Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 I got rid of all the early ones that I made before I figured out how to best use Helix for my sound. I’ve kept nearly every one since, but only use recent ones. I should really throw them all away, re-make the few that I actually use, and be done with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachdanan0121 Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 I have all mine bronzed... lol, and showcased with focused bright lights! To the OP if I use it in a project then I keep it. You have virtually limitless storage of these things on any decent capacity thumb drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncann Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 You have virtually limitless storage of these things on any decent capacity thumb drive. Possibly at the cost of one's sanity though. I know I wouldn't want to look through 64GBs worth of presets! You might as well Count To A Trillion. I'm the same as you. I only keep presets if they're used somewhere in my songs. I do keep multiple versions of each preset, for each Helix firmware version going back as far as 1.04.3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterHamm Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 A quick note to anyone using thumb drives as primary storage for anything. Don't. They are the least reliable storage out there. Backup or transfer only. And in fact, not even backup. Just for transferring stuff imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzumwalt Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 I keep them all, and all revised versions of them, identified by 8-digit date in yyyy-mm-dd format, in a folder that syncs to the cloud and also to an external hard drive. I'm also for the most part insane. I think "under-medicated" is the technical term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfsup1955 Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 I get rid of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brue58ski Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 I keep 'em all. I still have patches from my Pod XT. And I rarely, if ever, go back to 'em. What's wrong with me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredRex Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 I am very simple....I have one electric preset and one for acoustic that is it. I tweak as required based on guitar etc. But I don't keep them, I treat it as my virtual rig and pedal board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verne-Bunsen Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 I am very simple....I have one electric preset and one for acoustic that is it. I tweak as required based on guitar etc. But I don't keep them, I treat it as my virtual rig and pedal board. My approach has been just a couple of steps away from this basic platform. I essentially only have 4 presets: a Twin, a Deluxe and Bassman in parallel, a JTM-45 and a Plexi; and I treat them just like they were a traditional amp-and-pedal-board. In order to eliminate having to tweak amp and pedal settings when switching guitars I have these same 4 presets built for each guitar, each tuned to the specific guitar. So it looks like I have 36 patches, but it's really just 4, basically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachdanan0121 Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 A quick note to anyone using thumb drives as primary storage for anything. Don't. They are the least reliable storage out there. Backup or transfer only. And in fact, not even backup. Just for transferring stuff imho. You could always put it on a USB external HDD. A bit more reliable than the thumb drives. My point was is that the presets are so small in size you have multiple avenues of keeping libraries of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterHamm Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 You could always put it on a USB external HDD. A bit more reliable than the thumb drives. My point was is that the presets are so small in size you have multiple avenues of keeping libraries of them. This is true! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexKenivel Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 A few firmware versions back my Helix crashed and I lost every single one of the presets I built. I was pretty miffed about it at the time but it wasn't hard to recreate those patches for the better with the knowledge I gained along the way. For the past few months I've been making free preset packs so everything gets saved and archived in my computers these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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