How to use this guideIn this guide, we'll be going through a full product tour for BIAS FX 2, covering all the essential functionalities. It should help you navigate through the program with ease and better understanding. |
Signal Path Management
1. Add / remove effects
You can click the “Add” button right below the top bar to open the effects menu.
Double-click on the desired effect or drag the effect pedal to anywhere on the signal path to add.
To remove an effect, simply hover the mouse cursor over the effect and click the "x" button.
2. Replace, engage, and bypass amps and effects
To engage or bypass an effect or amp, you have two options. You can either click the green button when the cursor is over the effect or amp, or you can click the LED light on the control panel.
If you want to replace a specific amp or effect in the signal path, simply double-click on the item and the item menu will open, allowing you to choose a new one.
3. Drag and drop items on the signal path
If you want to change the sequence of the signal path, just drag and drop any effect to the place you want. When in dual path mode, dragging the item to the middle of 2 paths lets you drop it into the “middle FX”, in case you want to run the same setting in both paths in the FX loop position.
4. Single/dual path
You can click on single/dual to set up a single or dual signal path, if you run a dual signal path routing, it will automatically add a splitter and a mixer in the front and back of the amps.
You can select each path’s volume/pan/delay in the mixer, and how the signal is split in the splitter. Please notice that if you want to add delay in the mixer, please pan the 2 paths to L and R in case of phasing issues in your overall sound.
5. Clear/Undo/Redo
To create a new preset from scratch, simply click on the "Clear" button. This will remove all effects from the signal path, leaving only a noise gate and an amp.
While editing the signal path routing, you can also use the "Undo" and "Redo" buttons to easily revert or redo any changes you've made.
6. Cabs and IR Loader
In the Cab module, you can easily select different cab models by clicking on the cab. You have the option to choose between Celestion cabinets or IR loaders. BIAS FX 2 comes with 3 Celestion official mix IR files as the factory default, and you can also import your own IR files if desired.
*IR Loader currently supports only .wav files in 44.1 / 48 / 88.2 / 96 kHz, 16bit / 24bit format, with a maximum length of 500ms.
7. Scene mode
A brand new feature in BIAS FX2 that fully utilizes our pedalboard style presets is the Scene mode.
When scene mode is entered, you have 4 scene slots to use: you can turn on/off the effects/amps on the signal path and save it as a scene to quickly toggle and switch from different scenarios in a song. For example, you can use a clean setting in your intro, turn on a distortion pedal when going into the chorus, and turn on boost and delay for your solo. You can set them as different scenes in the same preset and switch very quickly just as if you’re using a physical pedalboard. Everything you change in scene mode will be automatically saved.
Preset Management
1. Browsing presets
To the left of the top bar is the preset display bar. It shows the current bank name and preset name, and you can use the left/right arrow to quickly browse through previous/next presets. The preset save menu gives you options to overwrite the preset / save it as a new preset or share this preset with ToneCloud.
You can click the preset bar to enter preset browsing mode. In the traditional view, you can view by different banks and presets, you can choose from different preset sorting methods, or search directly by name. If you click the star in front of the preset it will be stored in the favorites bank where you can find your favorite presets very easily.
You can also use spread view to manage all banks and presets. You can simply drag and drop to copy or move presets to the target bank which makes managing presets during different gigs extremely easy. You should try this now!
2. Editing Banks / Presets
When you hover the mouse cursor over a bank or preset, it will display the edit and delete buttons for you to delete the bank/preset or change the name of the bank/preset. Please note that you can’t delete factory banks/presets.
Guitar Match
1. Match source guitar
The entry point of the Guitar Match is in the middle left of the bottom bar. This is the first stop of the signal flow in shaping your guitar input and matching it to another guitar’s sound characters. If you want to engage this module, please remember to turn the flip switch to “ON”.
The first step is to match your instrument. Please select your body shape to create a match page (you can refer to the graphic to see which type your instrument is). Here we take an LP-style guitar as an example:
Then select the correct pickup configuration according to your instrument:
And choose a pickup position to begin the matching process.
When measuring your pickup output, please turn the volume on your guitar to the maximum, and play several notes using your usual single-note articulation until it shows “Complete”
If you encounter the 'No Signal' message, please navigate to the Audio Setting tab and ensure that the Input is set to 'Mono' instead of 'Stereo'.
In the matching step, please follow the instructions on the screen. Play an arpeggio in different positions on your guitar. If your input is successful, you’ll see the dot of each string become solid. Repeat the process from the open position to the 12th fret and the matching step will be finished.
2. Select the target guitar
After successfully matching your instrument, you can match another pickup position, or go to the target guitar page. On this page, you can select up to 18 different boutique guitars (Elite license) to choose from, and you can adjust some details to suit your personal preferences. Please find the full list of all the target guitar specs we provide in this link: Guitar Match List.
ToneCloud
1. Download/preview / like / comment on a preset
You can click the icon to the left of the top bar to access ToneCloud. You’ll see thousands of presets on the cloud: In each block, you can click icons for corresponding actions such as download/preview / more details/comment / like. If you would like to download a preset, please remember to log in to your ToneCloud account first.
If you only want to see the presets downloadable for your BIAS FX2 license tier, please click the filter icon next to Preset and choose "Available for Download"
When in preview mode (by hovering the mouse cursor over the pedalboard), you can temporarily play through the selected preset to see if you like the sound of it.
2. Search / sort / multiple download
On the top left is the search bar, where you can search by preset title/description, and sort all the presets by upload time or popularity. In BIAS FX2, you are also able to download multiple presets at once: just click the “multiple download” button on the top right and select all the presets you want to download.
Window Size
You can choose between different window sizes in BIAS FX2 by selecting “Preferences -> Screen Size” in the settings menu (Mac and Windows operating systems will behave a little differently from each other).
1. Mac
On the Mac, you can choose between “Standard” mode or “Responsive” mode. In “Responsive” mode, the software automatically adjusts the window size to 80 percent of your screen size. However, be aware that on some displays this proportion will reduce your window to smaller than “Standard” mode, so please choose according to your device’s display.
2. Windows
In Windows, you can choose between 1.25x or 1.75x larger than the standard window size:
Looper
Find the Looper in the Toolbox from the top right corner.
1. The top left of the Looper menu is where you can select the total length and tempo of your recording. You can select up to 16 bars of recording length or set it to free (which will record until you manually stop it). For tempo, you can directly input the BPM or tap out the tempo you want, and clicking the lock icon will lock the speed at the global setting for the plugin/standalone.
2. On the top right is the metronome setting for the Looper. You can set up the count of each bar, the count-in to the recording, and the sound of the click during recording.
3. On the middle left is the Looper recording/playing/dubbing control panel. You can click the circle to start recording your first loop, and after recording the first loop, you can play along with it or click the circle to dub another loop on top of it. Undo clears your last loop, while Clear clears the whole recording.
4. On the middle right is the volume adjustment of the metronome(click) and the Looper.
5. On the bottom you can choose your action after recording and when to record your dub (right away or when the next loop starts). If you select looper location to the “pre” position, this looper will become a re-amp machine: it will loop your last recording and you can dial in your tone in the signal path without playing your guitar.
6. The Export button allows you to export the current recording to a 24-bit, 48kHz wave file.
Utilities
1. Tuner
Find the Tuner in the Toolbox from the top right corner.
The default setting of Tuner is muted (click to unmute). The Tuner range can be set between 430Hz and 445Hz (the default value is 440Hz).
2. BPM
BPM is in the middle of the top bar. You can directly input the BPM or tap out the tempo you want. Clicking the lock icon will lock the speed at the global setting of your DAW (this doesn’t affect anything in the Standalone version).
3. Quick Snap
Quick Snap is in the middle of the bottom bar. This feature allows you to quickly compare different signal path settings to determine the perfect tone for you.
To save a snapshot from a signal path, press and hold on the desired number of quick snaps (about 1 second) until it shows “Quick snap captured”, and you can click back and forth on the numbers to compare them. If you feel a particular quick snap is tonally the best fit for you, just click “Apply” on the top right to apply this signal path setting to this preset.
4. Output Setting
*We recommend you leave the Output Setting turned to OFF unless you know what you're doing.
The entry point of the output setting is on the middle right of the bottom bar. This is almost the last stop of the signal flow (just right before the output volume) where you can shape your overall EQ and control the amp module according to different environments/purposes. If you want to engage this module, please remember to turn the flip switch to “ON”.
We have 4 default settings for different connections and scenarios. You can turn on/off any module and adjust EQ compensation, and any edits will be saved immediately.
- Direct Out: For the users who want to use BIAS FX 2 with an audio interface and a pair of studio monitors/headphones. You can also connect the output on the audio interface to the DI box and send the signal from BIAS FX 2 to the front of the house.
- Combo Poweramp & Stack Poweramp: For users who would like to use a Combo/Stack power amp as the output source, choosing two of them will toggle off the virtual Poweramp & Cab to avoid the signal going through the duplicate parts. (virtual & physical power amp & cab.)
- Amp Front: If you want to send the output from your audio interface to the input on a guitar amp, please select Amp Front to bypass the preamp/tone stack/power amp/cab in BIAS FX 2.
Further Reading
Complete Guide from Downloading BIAS FX 2 to Getting a Sound