Re-Amping old guitar tracks

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ColdToTheTouch

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I have been doing alot of research and posts lately trying to learn as much as possible about mixing..and now I want to go back to some older material I recorded in 2012 to Re-mix them. Its for the most part Heavy Metal. I was making my drum tracks in FLstudio with a pack of some pretty kick ass samples and importing them onto my Tascam dp-02 digital 8-track. I then tracked the guitars via the "POD style out" on my Line 6 spider III 75w amp. i know i know im kinda ashamed but i really liked the tones i got right out of the box with its amp modeling, and the ease and quality of sound tracking with the POD-Out was awesome to me. But now ive learned a bit about using plugins and I no longer use the tascam. I want to re-amp the old guitar tracks because they are great takes. they sound ok...definately needs alot of work tho. I want to re-amp these tracks, but theyve already been recorded with distortion. How should I go about re-amping already distored guitars? just run the amp sim 100% over the original tracks? any additional tips regarding re-amping would be more than appreciated I apologize for the long ass post! thanks again,
shawn
 
ColdToTheTouch said:
How should I go about re-amping already distored guitars?
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The proper way is to have unprocessed DI tracks for re-amping.....so, you're going to have to experiment, since you will be adding more amp/processing to already processed tracks.

I wouldn't be too optomistic, but until you try, you won't know how it sounds.

I think the amount of work required to get something decent (and probably not being able to)...you might as well re-record those tracks instead of re-amping them. :)
 
miroslav said:
I think the amount of work required to get something decent (and probably not being able to)...you might as well re-record those tracks instead of re-amping them. :)
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I agree with this 100%. You're going to be spending more time trying to make the track sound okay reamping an already amped sound than just re-recording the signal with JUST DI and then reamping.

I always take a DI track when I'm recording guitars/bass because
a) If I REALLY need to reamp later, I can (personally, I'm more of the type of person who likes to get the sound right the first time using real amps, but that's just me)
b) if it's something like metal or rock where the guitars/bass need to be really tight, it's a lot easier to see where the attack of a note is on a DI track than on a heavily distorted guitar track. Pro Tools tab to transient feature makes the whole mess of editing guitar tracks to be tight even easier!
 
Unless you're looking to add even more distortion, the only thing that reamping is going to do for you is filter the sound you've already got. You could do that with a lot more control just using a good EQ plugin.

As usual, though, I say try it! Especially if by "reamp" you mean "run it through a VST amp sim", then what does it hurt to try? It takes like a second to add the VST to the track. Take a couple minutes tweaking around with it. Did you find anything that actually sounded better? Did you damage anything or waste hours? Did you learn something.

One thing to try might be to add some fairly extreme low-pass before the new amp sim. This will knock down some of the harmonics "generated" in the first pass of distortion, which will be sort of replaced by the new, rather than producing harmonics of those harmonics, which might make it kind of "fizzy" or "harsh" or something...
 
the problem for me with recording a DI track, is that Im playing heavy metal, and....i just dont "feel it"...it sounds and just feels horrible to play. The tracks arent horrible, they dont even need to be tracked again. maybe its not re-amping that needs to be done. It may just need to be cleaned up a bit with EQ and compression. im still learning and its all trial and error for me, problem is its mostly error
 
and yes, ashcat.. thats exactly what I was aiming to do. I did run it thru some amp sim plugins and i did find some that sounded better, but I get so lost I feel I did too much to it and its just a mushy mess.. im still trying everything i can. even though I dont know what certain things do, or even why theyre done, but ive been tryin everything and experimenting with every knob and setting. this is where i get very discouraged though, because I dont know whats what... im going to get off topic for a second but this is my dream in life. this is my passion. i want to learn so bad and get into a real studio and prove that I have what it takes. i gotta work my way up there.. but I dont have the kind of $$ to go to berklee in Boston, which is where Im from...or to even spend something crazy like $8000 for an apprenticeship.. =(
 
ColdToTheTouch said:
the problem for me with recording a DI track, is that Im playing heavy metal, and....i just dont "feel it"...it sounds and just feels horrible to play. The tracks arent horrible, they dont even need to be tracked again. maybe its not re-amping that needs to be done. It may just need to be cleaned up a bit with EQ and compression. im still learning and its all trial and error for me, problem is its mostly error
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You said you have an amp sim, don't you? Either insert the amp sim on the DI track while recording and you can hear the distortion while tracking, or do what I do and use a DI box (such as a Radial Pro DI) and use the "thru" to send signal to an ACTUAL guitar amp so you can get the "feel" you're looking for, and then the "output" of the DI to get the direct sound with no processing or distortion. Easy! :thumbs up:

EDIT: Posted before reading your second post. Honestly, you don't NEED to go to an expensive college or do an expensive internship. I went to Community College for two years to learn just the basics of audio. They were able to help with financial aid at the time because I could hardly afford the gas for my car at the time, so it didn't end up costing an exorbitant amount, but before I even graduated I was lucky enough to get a job as the Studio B first engineer at a recording studio that I was interning at that's worked with artists like Matt Koma, Mike Green, Joe Lala, and Billy Sandlin.

To say the least, I'm an EXTREMELY lucky individual for getting a studio job before graduating (especially a first engineer job in the Studio B space), but the point I'm trying to make is I didn't spend a quarter of a million dollars on my education, and the funny thing is there are people here on HR that are even better than I am with no schooling at all!

Don't get discouraged, friend. Just do a lot of studying and a lot of textbook reading to learn the basics, then just practice, practice, practice. =]
 
ColdToTheTouch said:
i want to learn so bad and get into a real studio and prove that I have what it takes. i gotta work my way up there.. but I dont have the kind of $$ to go to berklee in Boston, which is where Im from...or to even spend something crazy like $8000 for an apprenticeship.. =(
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Go to college so you end up with a regular paying job from it....then spend a few bucks from the money you earn to go into a pro studio and cut some tracks....that way, all you need to know is how to play well, and the engineer in the studio will take care of the rest.

That said....
Dial back the distortion by 50%....and then try again. It won't be mushy. Try using an amp instead of sims.
 
I see absolutely nothing wrong with recording from your line out on your spider. I have the same amp....as well as the POD XT Live. I use my XT Liver, "Mixer" output...which is connected to a line in channel on my Peavey 14 mixer...which is connected to a Delta 1010...then Sonar. I will record the same "distorted" guitar track 4 times. The first track will be panned hard left....the second track hard right....the third track will be recorded with a different setting....and panned hard left....then recorded again hard right. I love the sound of my line 6....and it doesn't eat up and processing power recording this way.

My advice to you....is to delete the old tracks and start over. It might take a bit to re-learn how you originally played them....but if you track them and pan them...it will sound good.
 
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