Fuchs Overdrive Supreme

Plugin Manual

Developed by Brainworx in partnership with Fuchs Audio Technolgy and

distributed by Plugin Alliance.

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Introduction
The Overdrive Supreme is the crown jewel of the Fuchs amplification
product line, and has been heralded throughout the guitar world for
achieving the coveted Dumble® sound while establishing its own unique,
modern character. The Fuchs Overdrive Supreme plugin from Brainworx
captures all the gorgeous, rich tone of the original, adding features like an
onboard FX rack and 82 impulse responses using a vintage Neve console
and a dizzying array of high end microphones and outboard gear to deliver
“record ready” tones instantly. The Overdrive Supreme 50 plugin delivers
all the tone and feel of the original amp. It’s so precise, you’ll swear you
were playing through a physical amp.

Overview
The Overdrive Supreme® excels at everything it does. From crystal clear
and detailed clean sounds to its harmonically complex and articulate
overdrive, the amp holds its sonic integrity at any volume level. If you’ve
ever heard Larry Carlton or Robben Ford live, that’s the tone! “The
Overdrive Supreme® nails the Dumble sound to a tee, and then some!”
(20th Century Guitar).

Approaching its tenth year of production, the Overdrive Supreme® has

received glowingreviews in BOTH domestic and foreign publications. The
Overdrive Supreme received a very favorable review in Japan’s “Guitar
Magazine,” as well as Guitar Player Magazine (February 2005).

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The clean channel has brite and deep switches, as well as a rock/jazz
switch, which changes the way the tone controls operate. Rock is a more
aggressive and punchy bright tone, which jazz is lean and audiophile-like,
being more balanced and smooth. There are passive high mid and low
controls. The high control pulls for a mid boost, the mid control pulls for
gain boost (which bypasses the tone controls). The clean channel acts as
a preamp to the overdrive channel, and the tone controls and EQ switches
are all active during overdrive use, including all boosts.

The overdrive channel features separate OD in and OD out controls. OD-in

sets the level of saturation in overdrive, while the OD out control sets the
final balance between clean and dirty channels. There is a global master
volume and accent control, which adds presence and edge to the output
stage.

The entire audio signal path is fully tube. The ODS® features a regulated
high voltage DC supply for lowest noise, consistent tone despite line
voltage variations, and also features regulated DC preamp tube heaters
for additional noise reduction. These techniques are used in the finest
audiophile and tube studio equipment, and are unique to guitar amps.

All tubes are chassis mounted, while the power and output transformers
are mounted directly to the chassis. By using single point grounding, the
amp is quiet and free of hum at all operating levels.

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Plugin Manual

The main applications for this plugin are

• Achieve exceptional-sounding electric guitar tracks at any volume level,
without the need for great-sounding rooms or expensive guitar mics.
• Record electric guitars directly into the DAW, and then mix, edit and
process without ever leaving the DAW environment.
• Re-amp less-than-perfect DI guitar tracks previously recorded in other
guitar-amp situations.
• 
Faithfully emulate highly sought-after electric guitar tones made
famous by rock’s greatest guitar players.
• Get intense amounts of distortion without the need to maintain a high
output volume.
• Have a piece of rock and roll history right in your DAW that feels and
responds like a physical amp.
• Playing live via a real power amp and speaker setup.
• Playing LIVE, plugged straight into a live console and / or an in-ear
system.

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Plugin Manual

3 Deep
Amp
On/off switch. The Deep switch shifts the overall tonality of the amplifier,
Tone Stack slightly increasing the low frequencies. This is often useful for single-coil
1 Gain guitars, which sometimes need a low-frequency boost.
Continuous knob, 1 to 10. The gain control sets the input gain for the
primary clean preamplifier. The clean channel acts as a preamplifier 4 Tone
alone, during clean (non-overdrive) operation. When the amplifier is in Discrete 2 steps: “Rock” and “Jazz.” The Rock/Jazz switch alters the
overdrive mode, the clean channel functions as a preamp to the overdrive operation of the tone controls. The Rock position gives the highest gain, as
stage. All controls on the primary channel remain operational during well as a more aggressive rock-type equalization. In the Jazz setting, tone
overdrive, allowing the overdrive tone to be controlled. is a more neutral/smoother tone. All tone controls work in both modes,
however their range and depth of operation is changed.
2 Brite
On/off switch. The Brite switch operates on the gain control and is active
over about half of the input gain control range. From ‘0’ to about midway,
it provides a boost to highs, and the effect of the switch decreases beyond
the halfway point on the gain control’s rotation.

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Fuchs Overdrive Supreme
Plugin Manual

1 High 3 Mid
Continuous knob, 1 to 10. The High control serves two functions: Continuous knob, 1 to 10. The Mid control serves two functions:
• Knob In position and LED OFF: Adjust high frequency spectrum. • Knob IN position and LED OFF: Adjusts mid frequencies.
• Knob Out Position and LED ON: Engage the mid-boost. This shifts the • Knob OUT position and LED ON: Engages the gain boost. This effectively
range of the high control downward, to include more midrange. All tone bypasses all tone controls and allows greater overdrive and gain, on
controls still operate, however the tone will be fatter. both clean and overdrive modes. This can also fatten sound for single
• Note: You can double click the knob or click on the LED coil pickups.
• Note: You can double click the knob or click on the LED
? Mid Boost
On/off switch. Engage mid boost. ? Gain Boost
On/off switch. Engage gain boost

5 Low
Continuous knob, 1 to 10. This control adjusts the low frequency spectrum.

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Master 4 Master
1 Input Continuous knob, 1 to 10. The Master Volume adjusts the overall volume
Continuous knob, 1 to 10. The overdrive stage, as mentioned above, is fed of the amp and works in conjunction with the GAIN, INPUT & OUTPUT
from the clean preamplifier. Two controls affect overdrive: The Overdrive controls for overall volume of the amplifier.
Input (Front panel) sets the amount of distortion content, by adjusting the
drive between the two overdrive stages. Overdrive Output acts to balance 5 Accent
the volume of the Overdrive channel with the clean channel. There are no Continuous knob, 1 to 10. The accent control works within the power amp
“correct” Overdrive settings; finding the desired tone setting depends on section, reducing negative feedback at higher frequencies. It adds an
the guitars/pickups used, as well as your own personal tastes. edge to the overall amplifier tone. It’s excellent for cutting through in a
band or a recording mix. It can also allow greater ability to selectively
2 Output make notes feedback and “sing.”
Continuous knob, 1 to 10. This control adjusts the volume for the overdrive
section.

3 Overdrive Module (Pull-OD)

On/off switch. Engages overdrive mode.

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3 Threshold
FX Rack
Continuous knob, -120db to 0db. The Noise Gate will dim the output signal
Noise Gate of the amplifier as soon as the input signal (your guitar signal) falls below
1 Closed a certain level. This level is called Threshold. Adjust the Threshold so the
When lit this LED indicates that the Noise Gate is CLOSED. This means the noise of the overdriven amp will be reduced, but make sure you don´t cut
THRESHOLD setting is higher than the incoming signal and the noise gate fading notes or chords.
dims the output signal of the amplifier by the amount adjusted with the
RANGE control (e.g. 30dB in the picture above). 4 Range
Continuous knob, 0db to 100db. The output level of your amplifier will be
2 Noise Gate on/off reduced or muted when the input signal is lower than the Threshold setting.
On/off switch. Enable or disable the Noise Gate completely. Switch up You may dim the output level only by a few decibels (dB), or completely
(‘on’) means the Noise Gate is activated. mute the output in pauses by setting the RANGE to its maximum.

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Plugin Manual

Amp Filters 3 Smooth Filter

1 Tight Filter Discrete 3 steps: “PRE”, “POST”, and “OFF”. With the SMOOTH filter you can
Discrete 3 steps: “PRE”, “POST”, and “OFF”. With the TIGHT filter you can cut HIGH frequencies of either the DI guitar signal (PRE) or the processed
cut LOW frequencies of either the DI guitar signal (PRE) or the processed amp output (POST).
amp output (POST). • PRE: If your pickups catch a lot of hiss or noise you can filter the high
• PRE: If your pickups produce an unintentional rumbling bass sound you end before the DI sound even hits the amplifier.
can filter the low end before the DI sound even hits the amplifier. • POST: If you want to cut some of the high end of your amplifier setting
• POST: If you want to cut some of the low end of your amplifier setting (maybe even only temporary) you can use this studio quality low pass
(maybe even only temporary) you can use this studio quality high pass filter.
filter to reduce the bass. • OFF: When set to OFF the SMOOTH filter is in bypass mode.
• OFF: When set to OFF the TIGHT filter is in bypass mode.
4 Smooth Frequency
2 Tight Frequency Continuous knob, 3kHz to 35kHz.
Continuous knob, 30Hz to 3kHz. Set the frequency above which high frequencies will be cut.
Set the frequency below which low frequencies will be cut.

* Note: Custom control, not automatable

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Plugin Manual

Delay 6 Tempo Bar Dubdivision*

1 Delay On/Off Bar subdivision at showed bpm.
On/off switch. Use this parameter to switch the delay unit on and off.
7 Delay Mix
2 Tap* Continuous knob, 0% to 100%. Use this parameter to set the level balance
Discrete button. Use this parameter with your mouse to click with between the dry signal and the delay.
the groove of the song and the delay will adjust to your tapping
automatically. This is a nice and easy way to set delays to musically 8 Delay Feedback
pleasing times, especially if there is no fixed tempo in the song. Continuous knob, 0% to 100%. Use this parameter to set the feedback
of the delay.
3 Delay Time
Continuous knob, 15ms to 1000ms. Use this parameter to adjust the delay 9 Delay Lo-Fi
time. Continuous knob, 0% to 100%. Use this parameter to add creative
destruction to your delay signal.
4 x2*
Use this button to double the current Delay time.

5 /2*
Use this button to half the current Delay time.

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Plugin Manual

Many amp simulations give you some captured impulses of a selection of

Rec Chains
cabinets and microphones, then they leave it up to you to EQ and further
Simply select a speaker and a complete studio setup by browsing through process these incomplete setups by mixing different microphone setups,
the REC CHAINS pull-down menu! adjusting phase and EQ, and so on. But this really is not an easy job; it
takes years of experience to get it right.
In the past two decades Brainworx owner Dirk Ulrich has produced and
recorded with members of DREAM THEATER, TOTO, MICHAEL JACKSON, Now all you have to do is select the Recording Chain that sounds best for
and with many more famous and infamous acts. The Brainworx Studio in your amp channel and setting, adjust the Tone Stack and Gain and you´re
Germany (www.brainworx- studio.de) is equipped with one of only nine good to go! Recallable, reliable,
NEVE VXS 72 consoles ever made, and it also hosts some of the finest flexible and fast.
outboard EQs and mic pre-amps available.
And if for any reason you should not like any of the Recording Chains the
Using this impressive setup Dirk has produced a huge variety of custo- Plugin offers, you may use the RC Off feature. Use then your own mic’d
mized ‘Recording Chains’ for the Fuchs amplifier, which you can apply to cabinet or external IR software. This setting will also give you the sound
your plugin amp settings. Imagine a selection of 26 perfectly mic’d and of a tube amp wired straight into a console, which also may be a nice
EQ’d cabinets that you can select and use instantly with a single mouse effects sound.
click!

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Plugin Manual
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1 RC Info For this reason the Fuchs ODS plugin offers you AUTO mode:
The RC Info feature showing you exactly what kind of setup was used to Just select a pattern 1, 2, 3, 4 or 8 Bars and the plugin will activate the
produce the Recording Chain you selected. available REC CHAINS automation, following the actual tempo setting of
your DAW. You can now play uninterrupted and simply listen to the sound
2 RC Off of the various REC CHAINS as the plugin switches through all of them
This button lets you bypass the entire Recording Chain section. Use then every single bar, every two bars or every four bars, depending on your
your own mic´d cabinet or external IR loader. setting.
As soon as you hear the speaker setup you like best just stop AUTO mode
3 + / - Switches (Plus / Minus) by clicking the AUTO button again and manually select the desired REC
Browse through the REC CHAINS by either using the pull-down menu of CHAIN. Afterwards, just finetweak the TONE STACK and GAIN and there
the REC CHAIN text box (see above) or just click through the settings using you are.
the + and - symbols.

4 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.

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Plugin Manual
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In/Out Controls 3 Bypass Power Amp

1 Input Gain On/off switch. Bypass the power amp section.
Continuous knob, 1 to 10. If you want to drive the input of the Fuchs preamp
harder or softer you may adjust the input gain to your liking. Some single 4 Power Soak
coil pickups from older or vintage guitars may deliver low level output Continuous knob, -40dB to 0dB. In the real world, power soaks are being
that can be compensated with the INPUT GAIN. used to reduce the volume of a power amp. This way you can crank up a
(tube) power amp to drive it until it starts clipping, and still record at a
The opposite goes for a lot of heavy metal style humbuckers. If you have volume which will protect your hearing and keep the neighbors friendly.
recorded the DI signal too hot or if you are using other plugins before
entering the Fuchs amp plugin you may want to dim the input signal. A clipping tube power amp adds distortion and harmonics to the signal. A
fully cranked up tube amp tamed in volume with a power soak will sound
With most standard amps you can and should leave the INPUT GAIN at 0 different than the same amp with the master volume turned down.
(zero) though. We have modeled the behavior of the Fuchs power amp, so you may
experiment with different settings of the Master Volume of the amp and
2 Bypass Pre Amp the internal POWER SOAK. We recommend a setting of roughly -10dB for
On/off switch. Bypass the preamp section. most scenarios.

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Cabinets we used for the Recording Chains Orange

The 120W Orange Amplifiers PPC212-C guitar speaker cabinet is crafted
Fuchs using 13-ply high-density 18mm birch plywood throughout like every
The Vintage cabinet is perhaps Buzz’s finest and most well-known design. Power Projection Cabinet (PPC). Orange speaker enclosures, like Orange
It features a diagonal staggered mounting of two 12” drivers, with a amplifiers, are built to last with manufacturing techniques that assure
unique mounting arrangement that places one driver in front of the baffle extremely rugged construction. Orange’s unique ‘skid’ design feet help to
and one behind the baffle. This provides a much larger perceived sound acoustically couple these cabinets to the stage to provide a tighter bass
from an otherwise extremely small cabinet, a very manageable weight, response and full range definition. All Orange Amplifiers’ speaker enclo-
and a full sound that is dynamic, clean, quick, and punchy like a 412. sures are equipped with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers and are equipped
It’s an excellent highly portable cabinet for blues, jazz, and records parti- with comfortable flush cabinet handles. The Celestion Vintage 30 Speaker
cularly well. The cabinets are shipped for horizontal use, but may be used recreates the sound of the original Celestion Blue with new cone and
in either direction or ordered for vertical use. coil assembly. Improved performance: rated at 60W capability, handles
extra heat generated by higher power equipment. The Vintage 30 handles
massive overdrive tones with ease. It’s a classic 2x12 loudspeaker.

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Friedman English
The Friedman Dirty Shirley 1×12 Cabinet is a 1×12”, open-back extension The 1960TV is loaded with Celestion® G12M-25 Greenback speakers,
cabinet. It utilizes tongue and groove Baltic Birch construction to deliver which are more forgiving than the 75 Watt Celestions used in the 1960A™;
the bass, mid response and great sound you would expect from a the 25 Watt Greenbacks have a warmer, more saturated sound. This
Friedman cab. At the heart of the cab is a Celestion G12M-65 Creamback 100 Watt mono cabinet is 65mm taller than a 1960A and 1960B™, which
16 Ohm speaker. The G12M Greenback is the definitive vintage Celestion results in a lower mid-range resonant response.
ceramic magnet guitar speaker. When the G12M was developed in the
mid-sixties, players like Hendrix, Clapton, Beck and Page, who typified To re-create the classic looks and tones of yesteryear, Marshall offers the
the louder and more aggressive blues rock-playing styles that came to 1960TV cabinet. The 1960TV houses four Marshall/Celestion designed
characterize that era, quickly adopted it. The G12M-65 Creamback used re-issue 25-watt Greenback speakers and is finished with the mid-
in the Dirty Shirley cab produces the familiar woody G12M tone, but to late-’60s style EC fret cloth and the smoother levant covering. The
handles greater power. This makes it ideally suited for yesterday and Marshall 1960TV stands an impressive 4 inches taller than a standard
today’s amps, when a vintage and modern tone is desired. The increased 4 x 12” - hence the ‘TV’ in its name which is an acronym for ‘Tall, Vintage.’
power handling brings with it low end grunt complementing the warm
and vocal mid range, crunchy upper-mids and sweet, refined highs. As
with all Friedman cabinets, over-sized 12-gauge speaker wire is soldered
between the speaker and terminal, assuring you capture every ounce of
valuable tone. The Dirty Shirley 1x12EXT is handcrafted with pride in the
USA and designed to withstand the rigors of the road.

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Plugin Manual

3 Copy / Paste
Top Toolbar
To set up variations of similar sounds you don´t have to dial in all the
1 Undo / Redo parameters several times. Let´s say you like your setting A and want to
You can undo and redo changes you made to the controls of the Fuchs use the same sound, just without delay, as setting B.
Overdrive Supreme plugin at any time. The UNDO / REDO will work for as • Simply press COPY while you are in setting A.
many as 32 steps. This makes experimenting and tweaking knobs easy. If • Switch to setting B by pressing ‘B’ in the settings section.
you don´t like what you did... just undo it. • Press PASTE, now setting B is identical to setting A.
• Reduce the Tube Gain. Done.
2 Settings (A/B/C/D)
The Fuchs amp plugin offers four internal settings (A/B/C/D) that will be Now you can switch between A & B and play the same sound with or
stored with every preset. So, one preset can contain up to 4 amp and without delay.
effects settings. The settings can be automated (!) in most DAW hosts.
This way it´s possible to switch from a clean picked sound to a grungy 4 FX Rack
slapped sound, for example. Toggle between FX Rack and Standard view.

5 About
Information about the development of the plugin.

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4 Key (Icon)
Bottom Toolbar
Clicking on the key icon brings up the activation dialog, allowing you
1 PA Logo to manually reauthorize a device in the event of a license upgrade or
Clicking the Plugin Alliance logo takes you to the Plugin Alliance website addition. You can also use this feature to activate additional computers
via your web browser, that´s if your computer is online. or USB ash drives.

2 License Type 5 ? (Icon)

The toolbar displays information about the type of license you’re running: Clicking the ? icon opens up a context menu that links to the product
Trial licenses will be displayed along with the number of days until manual PDF, as well as other helpful links, e.g. to check for product
expiration; there is no note for full licenses as these are unlimited. updates online. You must have a PDF reader installed on your computer
to be able to read the manual.
3 $ (Icon)
If you are using a demo / trial version of our products, you can always click
System Requirements & FAQ (Links)
this icon to open a browser that redirects you to the respective product
page in the Plugin Alliance store. This is where you can easily purchase a For latest System Requirements & Supported Platforms
product without having to look it up on our website. https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/systemrequirements.html
Particular details for your product
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products.html
Installation, Activation, Authorisation and FAQ´s
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/support.html

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Factory Presets Creating your own Sounds & Presets

When you start to create your own sounds the most important elements
These presets are only intended to give you an easy start and to demo to adjust are the DRIVE, TONE SECTION and the REC CHAINS.
some of the tones you can get out of the Fuchs amp plugin.
• Dial in as much GAIN or Distortion as you like.
• Play through as many REC CHAINS as you like and pick the one that
sounds closest to what you are looking for without altering the TONE
SECTION.
• NOW start tweaking the TONE SECTION to fine-tune your amp settings.

Experiment, be creative. We are confident that the different tone selec-

tions of the amp and the huge selection of REC CHAINS will offer you many
possible combinations that will sound great on a big variety of musical
styles and genres.

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