Published: Wed, 04 Jun 2025
In: Stvari
Tags: ableton
Translations:
bs
Someone requested updated presets on this
this article .
I noticed that it still contained instructions on how to create the
"old" type of racks: with multiple amps inside one preset.
It's time to post an update to those, showing a better way to approach it.
I might create a video showcasing this, but for now this text guide
will have to do.
The new way
In the old article, the amps were all inside one audio effect rack. The
other audio effect rack contained the guitar cabs. Having one rack
per amp and cab enables you to mix and match them in different ways.
The good Neural Amp Modeler captures come with a bunch of different
settings for an amp, enabling you to basically have a complete amp
as a preset.
Add an Audio Effects Rack. Show the Device Chain list and add an
instance of Neural Amp Modeler to it (see 1. ). Inside of Neural
Amp Modeler adjust its settings that you want the default instance
to have. For example I turn off the EQ and the noise gate. The Input
and Output parameters will be useful. Turn on the Macro controls and
map the Input and Output parameters to them. Additionally, map the
Chain Selector to a macro (see 2. ). You will also need to map the
Neural Amp Modeler Device's On/Off switch to the same macro you mapped
the Chain Selctor to. Finally, add one Macro
variation (see 3. ). You can colour code it and rename your macros.
If you rename the unused macro to just a " " (space), it will look nicer.
That's the preset for your amp. Save it and whenever you want to add an
amp, use it as a starting point. Let's do that now.
Open the Neural Amp Modeler instance in the chan. Load your first
capture and rename the chain to something relevant (here it's Crank Low Gain).
Duplicate the chain. Open Neural Amp Modeler again and load a different
capture. Rename its chain, duplicate add a new one, etc. Do that until
you've added every capture you want your amp to have.
The next step involves opening the Chain Select Editor and adjusting
the zones that every chain occupies its own. Make the zones as narrow
as possible (1 width, see 4. ). The old way distributed the zones equally
amongst the chains, but that's not necessary. This way it's easier to add
new captures without adjusting everything.
In the Macro Mapping window adjust the Device On parameter for every chain:
set it to the zone value from before, in both the Min and Max fields (see 5. ).
Now you can add a Macro variation for each chain. Set the "Setting"
Macro to each chain number and save it, starting from 0 and keep
increasing it.
For the cabs, it's the same principle. Just that instead of Neural Amp
Modeler, you can add an IR loader. Ableton Live has an IR loader natively,
with the Hybrid Reverb effect. Unfortunately, it's only available in
the Suite version. I am stuck on Standard, so I'm using a 3rd party
IR loader: Lancaster Audio's Pulse. You can use any you'd like though.
Instead of the Input and Output parameters of Neural Amp Modeler,
I mapped the IR loader's high and low-pass filters. You can add anything
you think you'll tweak often.
Once you're done, it should look like on the picture above. You can
combine your amps and cabinets however you like. You can add effects,
built in Live effects or plug-ins. You can even simulate something
like an effects loop by adding the effects between the amp and cabinet.
Ableton Live 11 Amp Preset
Ableton Live 11 Cabinet Preset
The Ableton devices above require Neural Amp Modeler and Lancaster
Audio's Pulse installed.
Comments
