Re-Amping? What is it?

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Robertt8

Robertt8

Well-known member
What exactly is re-amping in the mixing stage, and why would you use it?
 
Re-amping is when you record a dry DI guitar track either alone or along with the initial track, and then send that track back out through an amplifier to re-record it afterwards onto another track. The purpose would be to either replace an unimpressive tone from the first tracking, or to add the sounds of new amps or tones to the original track. Also convenient when you can only record a cranked amp at certain times.
 
Additionally, this does not just apply to guitars, I was being too specific in my first post. You could do this with anything.
 
Furthermore, you could do this process virtually using software modelers of some kind, or physically route the signal back to an amplifier using a "re-amp" box which is little more than a direct box in reverse. It simply changes the line level signal to an instrument level so it will cooperate with an amplifier.
 
I've never done any reamping myself, but it seems that one of the advantages would be that it allows you to experiment with different amp tones come mixdown time instead of committing to a particular tone at tracking. The extreme guitar version of tracking dry and adding effects later? :D
 
Gonny said:
I've never done any reamping myself, but it seems that one of the advantages would be that it allows you to experiment with different amp tones come mixdown time instead of committing to a particular tone at tracking. The extreme guitar version of tracking dry and adding effects later? :D
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Yeah, that is another good reason to do it.
 
You just never know. Sometimes the smallest thing can be the perfect cure to pop something properly out a mix. I ran a pretty lame sounding guitar through a very small 10 watt amp, and re-recorded it with a pzm, mixed it in under the original, and it killed after that. Experiment.
 
whats the best thing to use to take my guitar signal and split it? one side goes to the amp to record, the other goes to a DI to get reamped with a different amp. i imagine this could really make live recordings sound better if i could reamp it with less distortion later on
 
treymonfauntre said:
whats the best thing to use to take my guitar signal and split it?
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many di boxes have a "through/thru" output, so you can use the di itself as a splitter (guitar-->di-->thru to amp/di to recording). Otherwise, a simple Y cable splitter will do just fine.
 
Most direct boxes will allow you to do that. They provide a balanced line/microphone output as well as a through signal for routing to an amp.
 
i often do it to vox. send a vox to an amp, bring it back on a seperate channel and blend the distorted on in to taste. good for beefing up an undynamic chorus.
 
I thought the point of this was so that the engineer can trick the guitarist in the studio by changing all of their settings after the guitarist is long gone.
 
Aghhhhhh!!!!!!

FALKEN said:
I thought the point of this was so that the engineer can trick the guitarist in the studio by changing all of their settings after the guitarist is long gone.
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Dear God Man Now every one will know!
 
What's the difference between the lower end DI boxes and the higher end ones. I'm talking passive specifically.

I have a pair of passive Horizon Straightline DI's that absolutely suck for reamping. There's so much noise when i try to go back to the amp, it's unusable. They're pretty cheap, so maybe i just need to spring for a Reamp?

What's the difference between a reamp and a passive di anyway?
 
Do you realize that you need to use the passive DI box in reverse?
 
metalhead28 said:
Do you realize that you need to use the passive DI box in reverse?
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Yes, I do. I'm sending the orginial DI'd signal out an aux with a TRS-XLR cable. which is giong into the DI box low impedence output. Then a cable from the Hi-Z input into the amp.
 
I figured it out, but I don't think it's exactly "correct".

I got it to work alright with a really strange signal path with lots of extra stops. I go out an aux with a guitar cable to a DI box input, out the XLR to an identical direct box, and go out the input to my amp. That works noise free. The direct boxes are like extenders, i have standard guitar cables at the amp and desk ends, simply with two di's in the middle. If i eliminate the di's, it would seem i would get the same result(a single cable from aux to amp), but it's the same result as if i had used one DI box :confused: :confused:

Does that make any sense?

Oh well, it works....
 
I re-amp tons of stuff. Drums, vox, keys, bass but very rarely guitars.
 
I always record a couple of reamp tracks when im doing guitars and even bass.

If i have tone issues at mix time i can just set up like 5 amps, and just plug the
send cable in to each one and find what im looking for.

Its actually quite entertaining!!

-Finster
 
metalhead28 said:
...or physically route the signal back to an amplifier using a "re-amp" box which is little more than a direct box in reverse. It simply changes the line level signal to an instrument level so it will cooperate with an amplifier.
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While I was aware of what re-amping was and thought it sounded like something that would be cool to experiment with someday, I never really thought about this step before. It makes sense though that you could fry your amp if you sent it a line-level signal. My amp thanks you in advance! :D

Are there amps out there that have "line in" inputs to allow for this?

Regarding using the DI box in reverse, do you need a specific kind of DI box or would any old basic DI box (active or passive) handle this? So, you would just plug the signal coming from your mixer or soundcard into the DI box output and then come out of the DI box input to plug into the amp?

Thanks, :)
-Jeff
 
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