Michael

I'm not upset, but I admit I am a little annoyed. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm hoping this short opinion piece will motivate anyone with a digital effects processor to discover that they have the ability to do anything and improve their skills along the way.

Line 6, Fractal and many other companies have improved their technology over the years. They have allowed the masses to replicate the tones of the masters and create new tones. The exponential increase in microprocessor / computing power has given us more than just speed and flexibility in "modeling", but instant "tone" gratification. No surprise given today's generation is generally a "want it now" generation.

When I started U2GT in about 2008, I was one of those "got to have it now" beginner guitarists. I couldn't wait to sound like the Edge after seeing them live for the first time on the Vertigo tour. So many other tribute band guitarists sounded amazing and I wanted to sound like them as soon as possible. As I followed the U2 boards, I absorbed as much info as I could and asked a lot of questions. I bought a Line 6 Pod pro and tried some presets and I sounded like crap. Hmmm... what was wrong? A couple of the "experts" in the community helped me learn over time to be patient and experiment with what I had. I saw posts on boards of people getting annoyed when others kept badgering them for presets. In time, I got the message. It's about the journey, not the preset.

I noticed a few posts recently on both the Fractal and U2GT forums where people were requesting my preset(s) or a preset from someone else. So I decided it was time to remind everyone about the journey you are supposedly undertaking. Please don't take this the wrong way. I don't mean to talk down to anyone and I don't mean to come off as some sort of arrogant expert, but as someone who has spent hundreds of hours (maybe thousands?) learning to play guitar and build presets, I thought that the community needed a little perspective. So here it goes.

You don't learn how to play guitar from a preset. You also don't learn how to build a preset from a preset.

I didn't learn this myself, but I pieced together the big picture with some help from some amazing people who were kind enough to politely point me in the right direction without giving me the preset. They did me a big favor. Just look at the number of views on my YouTube channel. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging, but trying to point out ANYONE can do this. It's a matter of investing some time. When I picked up my guitar in 2007/2008 to relearn the basics (i played some from when I was 8 yrs old until about 18), I could play a few things but I had a lot of trouble playing an entire song (any song) through to the end with no mistakes. I was following the U2 board on Yahoo religiously and practicing as much as I could. I don't read music, so I starting watch YouTube videos (Pat, Mick, etc. etc.) to try to learn the songs, but the vids were either too dark, didn't cover the entire song or were out of focus. I got frustrated. I was loading presets into my Line 6, learning a few parts of songs and sounding ok, but nowhere close to what I heard from Mick and others. I would load a different preset and it was worse! Finally I started adjusting knobs and stuff and figured out that I could take a preset and make it better. Still not perfect, but I started to learn about the effects and controls.

I eventually did a recording of BDay (my first full recording) using my old Ibanez Explorer with my Line 6 Pod Pro. I had medium power pups in the Ibanez and it came out ok. Here is a link to the song (and some other old recordings):

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=076e1...DE94BF32%21111

It's not perfect, but it received great reviews at the time. It was not recorded in one take. I recorded each track with a different preset separately and edited in Pro Tools. This was all done with a Line 6 Pro. The pitch shift part certainly isn't close to what I can do now, but the rest came out pretty well. And I was able to improve my playing and presets over time.

When I did this song, I focused on my own presets by listening to the Live in Chicago version and learning every note and constantly trying different combination of parameters in the effects. I would try every drive and use the closest one that sounded like what Edge was using and then spend even more time changing all the parameters to converge to something that seemed right. It took time and patience. I had to learn the parts, build the presets for my guitar/pups, learn Pro Tools, use Pro Tools to pull all the pieces together and then adjust volumes, pans etc. to get to a finished product. It took me many hours/weeks/months. The result speaks for itself. A 40 something year old who was playing guitar not even 2 years produced this cover. Don't get me wrong, I had help. Lot's of help from reading the many posts on the U2 boards. I was absorbing the basics, but it took years to be able to apply them.

YouTube wasn't working out for me, so I discovered slow downer software and starting dissecting the songs myself. I learned about delay times and BPM so that I could mentally understand what notes were picked notes and which where delayed notes. At some point someone asked me how I played some part of a song and I posted a crappy webcam video on my personal YouTube channel. The person appreciated the close up I did and then it hit me... ah...I'll just create a channel and share what I learned from my slow downer and preset building. U2 Guitar Tutorials was born.

What I learned over all these years is that I'm not a great guitar player, but I'm persistent. I don't read music. I don't know my scales. I can't improvise. I can't play a lead riff for the life of me. But I have a good ear. Anyone who says, "Well, I don't have a good ear" is generally lazy. Sure there are some people with tone issues, but it's a small percentage of people. You have to train your ear. My ear improved as I concentrated and experimented. I worked hard at it. I sing infinitely worse than I play guitar, but I can now tell when a singer is off tune / out of pitch (I might not know if they are sharp or flat), but I know when they are off. I swear I could be a great judge on American Idol.

It's now 2013 and a beginner guitarist like me who knows so little about music has the #1 tutorial site for U2 songs. It's just crazy. Seriously? Compared to Mick and so many other great guitarists out there, I'm a hack. But I did it with hard work! And anyone in the community can do the same thing. It's an amazing feeling to figure something out by yourself and produce a piece of music (whether you wrote it or not). Companies like Fractal give you the tool to do this!

So to my point. It's ok to ask for a preset. But why buy an Axe-Fx II and not spend the time to learn how to use it? I know why - it's the "want it now generation." That's one of the byproducts of technology. The Axe is the most powerful digital processor on this planet. Big time musicians and recording engineers are using it. You think Dallas asks me for my presets? Of course not. They build their own. If you really want to learn about the Edge's tone, then I suggest the following:

1. Commit - spend a lot of time on one song you really like. Listen to many live versions. Pick one. Use my tutorials but also watch videos of Edge. I'm sure you will catch a mistake I've made somewhere. But learn the song first. Forget about the preset (just use something close to make it fun). You have to get the notes and timing/rhythm down first. If you play off time with the best preset in the world, you will sound like crap. I hear too many clips/covers of great presets and awful timing.
2. Try building your own preset (just once!) - come on guys/gals! You are sitting in front of a processor with exponentially more processing power than the Space Shuttle's computer and you want someone to just hand you a preset? If it doesn't sound right, what are you going to do? Ask someone to go through every parameter online and change it for you? You are missing so much more. If you spend the time learning the effects and how they work, experimenting with all the controls etc. you will be able to do anything by yourself. Don't get me wrong, I ask for help sometimes, but at least I've invested time in understanding what the controls do and how the change the tones. It takes hours/weeks/months, but it's a fun journey and then you can build presets for your gear that will sound so much better. If you use someone else's preset, then spend time playing with every single parameter and try to improve it. In fact, you owe it to the person who shared it with you do to that. Respect the amount of time and effort that goes into building these presets. I've taken what sounded like some of the best presets and couldn't get them to work for me. I then started to build my own from scratch, which takes time (a lot of comparisons to live tracks over many days because you have to step away and take a break because your brain starts hearing things). My current Axe-Fx AC30 model was built from scratch. i've been tweeking and upgrading it for at least two years! I keep comparing it to the "It Might Get Loud" deleted scene and other favorite clips. I'm always testing and challenging my ears/brain. It makes me better at using the Axe-Fx. BTW, there are many ways to get the same effect on the Axe. I can get the exact same drive tone by using two different drive models (by changing the EQ, clip types and other parameters). The combinations are limitless, so you can do this and sound like a pro!
3. Practice - over and over and over again. Someone on this board did a great sounding cover of a song, but certain parts were just not played correctly at all. Why all the focus on the tones and not the notes? It doesn't make any sense to me. Record yourself and then A/B compare your clip to your favorite clip of Edge playing it. I promise when you do this you will say, "Holy crap, I sound horrible! That's not what I heard when I was playing." It happens to me all the time. Back to the drawing board!
4. Wash, rinse, repeat. It's a journey. If you want to learn to play your favorite songs and sound like your favorite guitarists, then stop taking short cuts.

I'm not saying that I won't share my presets anymore. I'll always share, but I think I've invested enough hours into this hobby to say that I have no respect for those that ask for presets and haven't even tried to build one (especially if you own an Axe super computer). Of course I can't judge any specific person because I can't prove whether someone tried to build a preset, but my guess is very few who ask for them try to build them. At a minimum, one can download my older versions, load them and then adjust them for their gear. You don't need my "latest preset."

Anyone who buys an Axe-Fx II or other powerful processor as a plug-and-play device is not only missing out an a great opportunity to learn about effects and sound engineering, but they are short cutting their ability to become a better guitarist. The Axe-Fx doesn't make you a good guitarist. Your hands and ears make you a great Axe-Fx preset builder. The best clips in this community are those that focus first on the guitar playing (especially timing and rhythm).

So, please... if you have an Fractal, Line 6 pro unit or similar processor, spend many hours/days/weeks/months/years learning how to use it - meaning every effect. I still haven't mastered everything in the Axe-Fx but at least I try a little every week. Experiment with every single parameter. Invest time in your ears/mind. In the end you will be able to dial in almost any tone you want for not just U2 songs, but any song.

I've built awesome presets for Rush, P!nk, Boston, Keith Urban, and others, (and no, don't ask me to share them, LOL). From whom did I learn how to create these other presets?

.... the Edge, of course.

Michael

PS - One of my next tutorials (not promising it will be THE next one, but within the next several months), will be The Fly - Boston version. Everything else about it is top secret until it comes out. But what I will say is that with a few hours of work, I think I have come closer to replicating the shimmer at the beginning of the Boston version (that ethereal, swirly, lush shimmer) than anyone else I've heard in the U2 community (and I'm still tweaking it). How did I do it? Read everything above again. It's a process of experimentation and determination. Will I share it? Not sure yet. Might keep this one to myself in the spirit of my rant above. BTW, there is no one answer. It can be done in many different ways. Happy preset building!

;-)