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DIGITECH GNX4 |
DIGITECH GNX4
Why is this Digitech guitar processor placed within a section on recording device road tests? An on-board 8 track digital recorder certainly helps! This unit really lifts the bar on what a guitar processor is capable of, and in the couple of weeks I had to check out the unit I feel I only scratched the surface of its capabilities.
Firstly, the GNX4 is an accomplished amp simulator with an impressive modelling amp and cabinet modelling engine featuring 16 banks of five pre-sets each. The banks have titles such as Metal, Country, Alt Rock, Clean, Stars (Angus, Carlos Eddie VH, Pat Jazz, Jimi Haze, MayQueen etc). Each GNX4 preset has three channels with one and two having selectable amps and cabinets and independent controls for gain, level, EQ and cabinet tuning. Channel three is titled Warp and is a mixture of Channel 1 and 2 and cabinets using the warp knob. So all up there are 80 factory presets and 80 user presets. It is easy to come up with your own sound with the number of amp simulators and studio quality effects at your disposal. There are all manner of options of inputs and outputs available on the back panel too.
The basic amp sounds are great and are right up there with the better amp simulators such as a Pod and Amplitude. The advantage of the GNX4 is the fact that the presets and user presets can really be tweaked to desired taste The unit sounded great when plugged straight into the computer and also excelled when used as part of an amplifier set-up. You are able to control all range of effects in realtime with the expression pedal including the famous DigiTech Wammy effect. The GNX4 also has a brilliant talk box simulator that sounds really authentic. You can also use the expression pedal to make a transition from one amp sound to another.
So what makes the GNX4 unique? Firstly, there is an 8 track digital recorder on board the unit. There is a recorder control panel on the top left hand side of the unit with all the normal recording controls such as record, rewind, forward etc. There is no on board memory so an optional flash memory card needs to be inserted first but again DigiTech provide complete software suites with the unit for both Windows and Mac computers. The Recording Software provided are Pro Tracks Plus Recording Suite, a comprehensive 32 track recording suite for PC with acidized looping features, Bias Deck for Mac's with up to 64 tracks available, X edit Editor Library and Pantheon Integrated Reverb Plug In made by Lexicon, one of the biggest names in Reverb. The Pantheon plug-in has 35 factory pre-sets and 6 reverb types. So you can use the GNX4 as a sketch pad for recording ideas with the onboard eight track or a fully fledged multi track recording system with your computer, the versatility of this unit is stunning. A 32 MB card will give you 6 minutes recording time. You can us the GNX4's footswitches to perform all kinds of functions depending on what mode you are in, but one of the coolest functions is the fact that you can record entirely hands free, just select recorder mode and the pedalboard is a remote control recorder. Again, you can use the footswitch for hands free computer recording using the GNX4's USB connection.
The GNX4 has an above average built in drum machine with a complete range of great sounding patterns and drum kits and it also has the capabilities of playing back MP3's. The patterns are midi so they can be edited and you can also download patterns or load new third part patterns, the choices are endless. This part of the GNX4 could really be a saving grace for the soloist playing live gigs etc and the creative possibilities of enhancing your live situation is exciting. The GNX4 is a complete recording, guitar production workstation that offers incredible value for money and so many extras and options that is going to be mighty hard for the competition to catch up.