Reamping... call me dumb, but what is it?

wing

I've recently been hearing of 'reamps' and the term 'reamping'... but have not yet figured out what it does and means. And i think if i'm not mistaken, in a recent tapeop article, that someone had mentioned the wonders of 'reamping' a snare with a mic. what does that mean and what would be so good about it?

timbaier

If you have the new Tape Op (and you should), its all explained in the "Letters" section.

dwlb

"Re-amping" is sending a pre-recorded signal--bass, snare, guitar, whatever--from tape out to an amp or speaker to change the tone that was recorded originally. Similar to Lucasfilm's "worldizing" procedure, it's generally done to a tone you don't like something about, like a lifeless bass tone. The example that springs to my mind is the time I was given tracks to mix that I hadn't recorded, and the bass sounded like the guy had made a little smiley-face with his graphic EQ and sucked all the mids out: it was all rumbly low end and hiss with no definition. So, we sent the bass track through an aux send out to a little Peavey guitar amp, stuck a 57 in front of it and brought the mic channel back on a fader as if it were an effects return. This gave me one fader of rumble and hiss (whch was duly rolled off), and one fader of mids and a little nice dirt. Mix to taste.

This can be done pretty easily with an aux send, but there are several companies that make "re-amp" boxes that change the output level of the board to something a guitar amp would like to see. Which I guess is electronically healthier for you, and fiscally healthier for them.
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Rick Hunter

I just tried it and its fucking cool. I think my next new gadget is a reamp. I reamped an accoustic guitar track and a snare sample and I can't believe it took me this long to try it. Thank you tapeop.
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meblumen

Oh Wing, your so dumb, 2085 posts and you don't know what a reamp is, come on!?!?

Just kiddin, anyway, I know your a drummer so my recommendation for your first experiment in reamping: mic your snare with one mic like a 57 on top, reamp the recorded track through any old speaker which you place on top of the snare or another snare (you might need to loosen the snares a bit to really get it to work) and mic the underside of the snare drum. Then record the reamped version and blend it with the old snare track. It yields a really nice sound if done well, bless the tapeopper who posted this on the board, it has really inspired me to experiment with this technique.

I just got into the whole reamping thing not to long ago and I must admit it really has opened up a whole knew pallete of sounds that I can get. I've experimented with reamping everything from guitars, basses, synths, drums vocals etc... and while not every track works, sometimes the results I've gotten have been pretty amazing. Take a brake from the 2000+ posts and do some recording!!! Laughing

dc11

A trick I do alot is to run my guitar into an DI box and have one out to the board and the other to a guitar amp. I record them both. Since I'm running direct into 1 channel, I can reamp it with whatever amp I want and blend it with the other. It's a good trick for guitarist who want to use too much gain or just have an overall bad tone (I used to, but I've learned my lessons). They still get the comfort and confidence from "Their sound" and we have alot more options.
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E-cue

One of the lesser mentioned points about the reamping devices is the ground/earth lift. The Reamp© unit lifts pin 1. The Little Labs PCP and Redeye units lift the Xformer. Anyone trying to deal with ground loops when reamping should know the big difference this makes.

llmonty

Can I just say how much I love the Redeye. It really comes in handy when recording at home where I often record a direct track and then later can try different amps in different settings to get the right vibe. Just the other day I thought that the tone of a vox pathfinder sitting in my claw foot tub bath was just what I needed. Turned out my silvertone amp in case in a bedroom sounded much better. I have experimented a bit (but need to do more) running things like percussion and vocals through it into amps, but it makes the process way easy and sounds much better than when I would just plug a line out into an amp. Yes I know some people say they do that with do problem, but to me it just always sounded not quite right, and at times was very obviously just wrong.

For me the ground lift is a god send, as is the level and phase switches. Makes it really convienent to get great sounds. Also I have used it as a passive DI for my bass and it sounds excellent as well.

justinf

bobbydj

dwlb

wing

SecondSon

The ground/earth thing. Is that about impedance???? I like the idea of trying this with an aux send and return, is there a possibility I can screw up my mixer really bad by doing this???
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E-cue

moogrock · takin' a dinner break Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 198

reamping is one of my favorite tricks ever.
im allways trying to get the biggest roomy drum sounds -- but sometimes the room doesnt cooperate right with me.. ...

so i take the drum tracks... and run them into the room -- and i create a stereo image out of them thru a couple aux sends and amps or pa (depending on where i am)... .. and then try to find a way to create reverb this way... .. oh so much fun.. ..

i love this trick more than anything!