Reamp box active vs. passive

[losthighway]

Checking out radial stuff. Seems a good choice to deal with issues on getting good bass tones recording band live. I like the reamp concept. The only thing I'm hung up on is whether one really needs to spend the extra $100 for an active box in place of their $99 passive RMP box.

Experiences?

Opinions?

(the driving two amps option is not needed)

[farview]

If you have a passive bass, you need an active DI. If you have an active bass, it doesn't matter.

[losthighway]

I didn't know that you needed an active DI for a regular bass.

I was trying to understand the benefits of an active ReAmp. This is sending signal from your recorder to an amp, not from a bass to a recorder.

[channelcat]

I picked up two of the Radial ProRMP passive reampers to feed my stereo pedals, and haven't had a problem with them. I usually drop the output of the pedal into my Manley dual mono tube DI, followed by the M-1 or 2-610.

Now feeding an amp may be another story, one where an active reamper is needed, but I haven't used the ProRMP in that capacity yet. Any other users?

Stu

[ashcat_lt]

Buy the more expensive one. It has to be better, right?

[ubertar]

You can usually find an ATI matchmaker on ebay for around 50 bucks. These work great as reamps, and can go the opposite direction too, to convert consumer level stuff to pro line level. They'll work without even being plugged in (passive) or plug them in to use the gain controls. I don't have an official "reamp" so I haven't been able to do a head to head comparison, but I can't imagine how it could sound much better... it sounds like you're playing through the amp. These sell new for about $500. ATI stuff is really good... I keep saying that, but no one ever listens. Once Joel Hamilton gets a hold of one, that's all she wrote...

[cgarges]

I didn't know that you needed an active DI for a regular bass.

You don't.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Max]

I just got my new Radial X-amp yesterday. I haven't tried it out yet but the whole better-than-this-or that discussion when it comes to re-amping made me curious about the influence of the DI box that I use to record dry guitar or bass signals.
Are the DI inputs on my RNP or my Focusrite 428 "good" enough or should I think about buying a high quality DI box if I want to enjoy all the benefits of guitar and bass re-amping.
I bought the box to run vocals and drums through guitar equipment in the first place but now I'm wondering if I should think about a new DI box if I wanted to use the X-amp with bass or guitars.
Any opinions?

[Recycled_Brains]

One consideration is that the X-Amp has 2 outputs incase you want to do stuff in stereo, or hit 2 amps at once.

That's the only one I've used, and it sounds good.

I, personally am looking at the Little Labs Redeye, because it has a DI built in.

[ashcat_lt]

I'm not going to touch the reamp box question. We've had that argument before, and I usually just throw up my hands saying "Fine, do what you want! It's your money!"

I will say that no matter how you intend to get the signal from recorder>amplifier the quality of the result will depend almost entirely upon the quality of the recorded signal. This may sound obvious, but the question above re: upgrading the DIs brings us to this point.

If you're looking to get a reasonable approximation of the sound you would expect from plugging your guitar directly into your amp, you must present the pickups with an appropriate input impedance on the way to the recorder. A standard passive DI will not accomplish this. I talked about the whys and wherefores (redundant, I know) at some length on this thread.

Plugging a guitar into a high impedance load (~500k for many tube amps, up to 1M or so for modern amps/effects) creates a resonant low-pass filter. That signal generally sounds like complete ass by itself. It's bright and edgy and kind of splatty. It requires the failure of the amp/speaker/cabinet (itself a resonant low-pass filter) to make it sound acceptable.

I think that if the DI sounds good on its own, before re-amping, it's likely to come out a bit dark, possibly muddy, with some noticeable lack of detail after re-amping. You can try to fix some of this with a filter somewhere after the "tape" and before the amp. It's possible that the commercial reamp boxes include some sort of "pickup sim" filter for this purpose. That's not going to be the real deal, though.

That's not to say it might not be close enough for whatever you're trying to do, but since the question was sort of asked above, I thought I'd try to answer it.