Direct guitar sounds thin when reamping!

[Force666]

I have a Xamp and a Presonus Firestudio and haven't had that problem at all. My direct tracks only had peaks around -10 as well. And the level on the Xamp was less than halfway up.

If you have mono tracked DI, and are sending it out a mono BUS, would't you want to keep it panned center. If you pan l/r won't you lose 3 or 6 dbs?

 

[fearmythoughts]

i reamped yesterday,with a firepod>>x-amp setup.i also had this gain loss,and used a tubesceamer between x-amp and guitaramp.the tubescreamer helped a lot,and it sounded good,but i´m still worrying about a "felt" loss of tone,or maybe it´s just because evryone is talking about that?!?

 

[alexrookie]

Never thought to normalize to 0db...thanks X

to me normalizing all files is not an option.

if you have to reamp a whole album with about 12 songs and you normalize every single di track on its own you get extreme inconsistent levels, cause every normalization refers to the peaks appearing on the file you're working on atm.different peaks - different levels.


btw:

i think it's really interesting, that some people seem to have level issues while reamping and some don't.

to all of those who think, that their reamping chain is ok, please record the following scenario:

disconnect your ts, play the guitar with the di box of your choice, the through routed to your amp and the direct out to your daw.
record both with clean micpreamps and proper levels.
now play back the di guitar through your x-amp (level control fully open) into the amp.
don't boost the signal after the converter or after the x-amp.
just pure di (normalized or not) through x-amp, into amp.
record this one as well.

what does it sound like????
like the directly recorded guitar or a bit softer, less gainy or something else??


please do it, it takes you a few minutes to set up and record.
it would clarify a lot regarding reamping with the x-amp, at least for me!

looking forward to your outcomes.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Yeah, I can't agree with normalizing a dry track, either. Actually, if someone came to me with that, I'd reject it. Remember, we're "trying to capture the playing." Usually any real problems with reamping are due to the user not quite understanding how the signal chain works. ....Well, that's been my experience,a anyway.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

The MONO TRACK OUTPUT and the +4db worked for me pretty cool! Thanks Oz, you rock!

NP, man. Glad someone's paying attention.

 

[fearmythoughts]

normalizing isn´t an options,that´s for sure...but what about putting some gain from the DAW on it,for example the GAIN-tool of cubase sx in the audio-effects?!?
thanks,pat

 

[deLuther]

Why use such tools? I use faders to boost signal in nuendo or trimer (at the top of virtual mixer strip). So probably you can use such aproach in cubase.

 

[Lige]

well, I have now shipped the x-amp back and taken advantage of the shops 30 days return garentee. After that I found out that ive made a quiet embarrassing mistake.I forgot to set The output on the audio track I was recording on, to the bus track, so I was feeeding the bus only with a send...anyway the result is an increase of db. My problem has all the time been, when i listened to the recorded audio track through my amp, that you could actually hear the "DI" sound, through the speakers. That is not the case anymore, atleast not in the same way, though the warmth has certainly disappeared now when I just use the -10db output of the metric halo soundcard, without the x-amp...thanx for all the advice, havent found my solution, but certainly got wiser : )

 

[LSD-Studio]

I used to have my interface set to +4...had to boost the level with the 808 all the time (worked for me)...I recently set the RME to "Higain" and now I finally achieve the levels I have when I plug the guitar5 directly into the Amp.

 

[Metaltastic]

LSD, are you saying that you set the RME's outputs to hi-gain (-10 rather than +4, I assume) going to the reamp box, or are you talking about the input when recording the dry track?

 

[Glenn Fricker]

The RME has 3 output options: -10, +4 & HiGain, which I'm guessing could be +8, the old broadcast standard.
It also has the same for input, except "lo gain" which is awesome for tracking with API preamps because they're so damn hot.

 

[deLuther]

My Radial ProRMP drops signal level at about 11.3 db (measured on my equipment).
For example my Charvel Model 6 with EMG SPC installed instead of native electronics give around -12 db at peak so I can amplify it by 11.3 db to get initial level on output of reamper (so resulting track is near to 0db). But what if level is larger than 11-12 db? I then need to boost signal at output of interface for additional db - i.e. ,for example, if I have -8 db at peak then I amplify signal (at tracking) for 8 db to prevent clipping and then I will still need additional 3 db to get required level?
How other reampers acts in that case (I believe that X-Amp similar to ProRMP regarding to level drop)?