Radial Engineering WORKHORSE 500 SERIES - Manual (Page 15)

True to the Music
Radial Engineering Ltd. Workhorse User Guide
12
Crazy Sounding Vocal Track
This is an example of how one can create a weird, wonderful,
extreme vocal track by inserting guitar pedals into the mix and
then creating a radical EQ curve using the Phazer™. This is
done ‘live’ by connecting a mic into the PowerPre™ and
feeding the signal using the feed function into the EXTC™
and Phazer™. The effects send from the EXTC is used to feed
various pedals such as a tube distortion for added grit or maybe
a warm sounding analog chorus instead of the usual digital
plug-in. Notice that only the outputs from the PowerPre and the
Phazer feed the Workhorse mix buss. This allows you to mix in
the Phazer’s effect for radical EQ by either phase cancelling or
phase adding certain frequencies.
Reamping Using The Workhorse
The Workhorse is ideally suited for reamping. This is a two-stage
process whereby you start by recording a dry track and then
once recorded, you send the dry track back from the recorder
to the effects and amplifi ers. Reamping allows the engineer to
change tones and position microphones to optimize the sounds
during the recording process.
Part-1 Recording
The guitar is connected to the JDV™ where the signal is split to
feed the guitarist’s amplifi er using the front panel aux out (you
can take this a step further by adding a Radial X-Amp™ module
which would then allow the guitarist to audition two amps at the
same time). While the guitarist is playing, you are also capturing
a clean track directly from the JDV’s balanced XLR output. This
feeds a spare track on your recording system. You could also
put some mics up in front of the amps to capture the guitarist’s
performance. This may be used later to thicken up tracks. Once
the magical performance is recorded, you can send the guitar
player home. You are now set for part-2 and Reamping. You can
monitor the whole process using headphones or by connecting
your monitors to the Workhorse mixer outputs.
Part-2 Reamping
Send the clean recorded track back into the Radial X-Amp™.
The signal will then be converted to high impedance and sent
to two amplifi ers. You can also introduce effects. Both guitar
amplifi er outputs are transformer isolated to eliminate ground
loops. The amps are captured using microphones that connect to
two PowerPre™ mic preamps. The output from each PowerPre
FEEDs the Komit™ compressors limiters to keep the levels
under control. The stereo signal is sent to the Workhorse mix
buss. Best part here is that you can take your time to move the
microphones around the room to fi nd the best tone (alternately,
if you do not want to use a ‘live’ amp, you can send the signal
into the Radial EXTC™ which can feed a bunch of pedals. Then
bring the signal back and process the tone using the Radial JDX
guitar cabinet emulator. This will produce a much more ‘natural’
sounding recording).