The controls of the ENGL FX Rack
3. RECORDING CHAINS (Speaker Selection)
REC CHAINS:
Simply select a speaker and a complete studio setup by browsing through the REC
CHAINS pull-down menu!
In the past two decades Brainworx owner Dirk Ulrich has produced and recorded
with members of DREAM THEATER, TOTO, MICHAEL JACKSON, and with many
more famous and infamous acts. The Brainworx Studio in Germany (
www.brainworx-
studio.de
) is equipped with one of only nine NEVE VXS 72 consoles ever made, and it
also hosts some of the finest outboard EQs and mic pre-amps available.
Using this impressive setup Dirk has produced a huge variety of customized ‘Re-
cording Chains’ for the ENGL amplifiers, which you can apply to your plug-in amp set-
tings. Imagine a selection of 64 perfectly miked and EQ-ed guitar cabinets which you
can select and use instantly with a single mouse click!
Many guitar amp simulations give you some captured impulses of a selection of cab-
inets and microphones, then they leave it up to you to EQ and further process these
incomplete setups. Mixing different microphone setups, adjusting phase and EQ,
and so on. But this really is not an easy job, it takes years of experience to get it
right.
Now all you have to do is select the Recording Chain which sounds best for your
amp channel and setting, adjust the Tone Stack and Gain and you´re good to go!
Recallable, reliable, flexible and fast.
And if for any reason you should not like any of the Recording Chains the plug-in of-
fers, you may use the very last setting (labeled CABINET BYPASS) and use your own
miked cabinet. This setting will give you the sound of a tube guitar amp wired
straight into a console, which also may be a nice effects sound.
+ / - Switches (Plus / Minus):
Browse through the REC CHAINS by either using the pull-down menu of the REC
CHAIN text box (see above) or just click through the settings using the + and - sym-
bols.
AUTO & BAR selection:
If you are trying to find the best sounding REC CHAIN for your actual song it can be
tiring having to play a few chords, then grabbing the mouse to select the next REC
CHAIN, playing a few notes again, grabbing the mouse again, etc.
Instead the ENGL amp plug-in offers you the AUTO mode:
Just select a pattern (1 Bar, 2 Bars or 4 Bars) and the plug-in will activate the
available REC CHAINS automation, following the actual tempo setting of your DAW.
You can now play uninterrupted and simply listen to the sound of the various REC
CHAINS as the plug-in switches through all of them every single bar, every two bars
or every four bars, depending on your setting.
As soon as you hear the speaker setup you like best just stop AUTO mode by click-
ing the AUTO button again and manually select the desired REC CHAIN. Afterwards
just fine-tweak the TONE STACK and GAIN and there you are.
