"Reamping" Vocals? Would it work?

ShanPeyton

ShanPeyton

Member
Ok so here is the deal. I don't really have a tremendous amount of experience recording vocals. What little i do have i have usually spent a lot of time getting the best possible input signal as i can. One project that just came up on the weekend was a last minute idea and i really only have one night to get some vocals done. That night being tomorrow night. For a few hours.

This doesn't sit overly well with me so i had an idea, and maybe it isn't new and "everybody's doin' it!!" , but it is a new to me idea!

Can i record the vocals raw, no input effects at all? Making sure there is no clipping and buddy nails his performance, and then later on in the week, reamp that track or use a send to another track for processing? I mean i know i can, the technology is there, but will i be sacrificing anything? I guess that is the big question. Theoretically weather i do it that way or record it with all my plugins from the get go it shouldn't make a difference should it? Maybe some compression on input to tame the high peaks?

All i would be doing is saving the set up and tweaking time at start up ? Can someone confirm -or- correct me if i am wrong here.

Thanks you classy Cats and Kittens!
 
The quick answer is 'yes'

The not-so-quick answer is 'it depends': Your interface should have a variety of outputs at your disposal, and your audio software should be able to direct the output to one of the interface outputs. This will give you a line-iout whic you can feed into whatever you want, then from here, go back into the interface.

The even longer answer is 'why would you want to do this?' I can understand someone doing this if they have a bit of outboard equipment that is extra special in someway, and its effects cannot be replicated in the box. I think your idea of recording a raw vocal track is good. You can then mess around with it in the box, trying various plugins and settings to see what you get. If you don't like it, then you can undo everything and start again. If your software doesn't allow undoing, then start by making a copy of the raw track. But re-amping on vocals is adding a nice mess to the workflow, and complexity is good to avoid.
 
For the record--what you're describing is actually what most of us do all the time. But we don't call it reamping, because we don't send it out and back in again.

I track vocal dry right into my DAW (in my case, Cubase). Then I worry about things like compression, EQ, reverb, etc. And I add those things right on to the vocal track in Cubase--no going back out or in again.

I never do that stuff on the way in, because if it's not right, I'm stuck with it. This way I can take my time and see what works best.
 
For the record, I'd go a bit further and caution against actual "re amping" Think of the quality you get if you go to a concert and stick a recorder in front of the speaker stacks. It's not a pretty effect on vocals unless you're after a "special effect" rather than just adding the desired effects to the vocals.

Fortunately you can achieve what you want "In The Box". Every DAW I know is set up to record your tracks dry then add the effects, fully controlled and changeable, during the mix process. I suppose as White Strat says, this is in effect the same as re-amping--except you stay with pristine digital quality (rather than miking a speaker cabinet) and the effects don't become permanent until you do the mix.
 
ShanPeyton said:
Can i record the vocals raw, no input effects at all?!
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Considering that's how 99% of people record their vocal tracks (and most other tracks), I would say the answer is yes. Nothing new here. Record dry and stay FAR AWAY from peaking. There's no reason to record peaking any higher that -6db, and that's being generous.
 
WhiteStrat said:
For the record--what you're describing is actually what most of us do all the time. But we don't call it reamping, because we don't send it out and back in again.

I track vocal dry right into my DAW (in my case, Cubase). Then I worry about things like compression, EQ, reverb, etc. And I add those things right on to the vocal track in Cubase--no going back out or in again.

I never do that stuff on the way in, because if it's not right, I'm stuck with it. This way I can take my time and see what works best.
Click to expand...

This ^^^^^^^

Since I've been recording digital into a DAW, I've never in my life put anything on vocals on the way in. It's always 100% dry, raw, pure vocal and nothing else. I don't see why you'd do it any other way if you're doing everything in the box.
 
I agree that its best to record completely dry. Unless you have some crazy awesome rack gear you are probably best off mixing in the box. I do know a band that sent their vocals through a fender combo to get a lo-fi spring reverb sound. It was a pretty cool sound I must say.
 
Greg_L said:
I don't see why
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Some chaps who have the experience and the ear, that mix in the box, may apply external processing on the way in to get the "raw" tracks just that much closer to the final picture from the get go. That way there's less processing later.

I consider a move like that, even as simple as applying a high pass filter button on your vocal mic or the pre, or flipping the phase switch on your snare bottom mic on the pre rather than waiting to use a plugin just for that. The first time I tracked vox a few weeks ago with an outboard compressor set to limit mode, really opened my eyes to how much faster I got a static mix going without plugins. This singer was SUPER dynamic and for the life of him, he could not grasp the concept of backing away from the mic on the louder passages. The limiter caught maybe only ten peaks in the whole tune, but it REALLY helped get me there faster. And it was transparent, no audible compression or soft clipping or distortion of any kind. So it worked...for me. But I'm no Joe Barresi, so what do I know?! :o

This is definitely is NOT what the OP is asking about, as he is referring to only plugin effects, and this whole thing has been discussed to hell and back on here, so I digress.

Sorry, carry on...
 
I wonder if the OP is using a stand-alone recorder with both insert and loop effects, and is used to recording vocals with an insert preset for vocals?
 
I'm getting a mental picture of a a surgically implanted XLR jack on the side of singer's throats that you can use for reamping.
Just think of the possibilities...you can have Wildcat Bob do the initial session, then you bring in Beyonce for the "reamp".

:D
 
miroslav said:
I'm getting a mental picture of a a surgically implanted XLR jack on the side of singer's throats that you can use for reamping.
Just think of the possibilities...you can have Wildcat Bob do the initial session, then you bring in Beyonce for the "reamp
Click to expand...
That's certainly a mental picture.......
 
Bah! I knew reamping was a poor choice of words! Sorry everyone. All I meant was to use a send to another track! I was just trying to be cool :( I failed!

Ok, but thanks everyone! I am clearly going about my vocals all wrong! I will just record them raw into my DAW and go from there. In hindsight it is way easier to just do it that way. I honestly have no idea what I was thinking. I think maybe I was looking at it like I did have a big fancy rack, but in reality I don't. Just my interface and some plugs on my tracks.

Awesome guys. Thanks for the reality check!

P.S. First post from my phone!
 
I tried reamping vocals through my preamp once to see what the effect would be using mainly the compressor. It was cool but much more effort than a plugin. I'm probably going to buy the Cakewalk CA-2A plugin anyway.
 
While not something I would recommend, I did recently do a kind of re~amping of a vocal.
About 13 years ago, my friend and I cut a live guitar/vocal take on an 8 track cassette portastudio. Though I've since transferred the tracks to my DAW and added double bass, drums and flute {there was already harmonica and violin}, that vocal was popping all over the gaff. My friend has since got married and had kids and probably doesn't even remember the song {she used to write some groovy little pieces, but this wasn't one of them. She wasn't at all enthused} and redoing the vocal isn't worth it. But I liked the feel of the voice and my guitar, it was an OK performance so I played the vocal out of my monitors, set up my Zoom H 1 and kind of reamped by recording the result, miking at a distance. I did it twice, once miking in front of the monitors, once behind and put the two together with a little reverb and expansion. The mic doesn't pick up any of the popping so I regard it as a kind of salvage operation.
As I said, not something to do unless you want some kind of funky effect or an attempt at salvaging. But worth knowing in cases of dire emergency.
 
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