ULTERIOR MOTIVE ALERT!! I've been getting a lot of requests from forum members to do reamp jobs lately. Believe me, I'm greatful for the work! However, I find myself answering the same questions over & over again, so I figured, "what the hell" & thought I'd type up this handy little guide to tracking your guitars for reamping.
HOW TO PREP YOUR TRACKS TO BE REAMPED
What you'll need:
1) Your guitar
2) A good acurate tuner. I highly recommend G-TUNE. Peterson licenced this program's technology for their inferior "Strobosoft." This is the original, & totally kicks ass. Get it HERE
3) Computer & soundcard
4) Direct Box
5) Mic preamp
So what the hell is reamping, anyway?
This is a question I've been asked many, many times. Simply put: Reamping is where you track a dry signal off of your guitar's pickups alongside of your normal amped/modeled tracks. The dry signals are then exported & sent off to another facility which might have a better selection of amps/preamps/mics & the experience with mic techniques to turn your tracks from "damnit I wish this sounded better" into "I have unleashed the fury of hell!!!"
So how do I do this?
Well, there's several ways to route this, all depending on what you want to do.
USING AN AMP/POD/WONDERBOX:
You're going to need a direct box. There are many makes & types but they all pretty much do the same thing: They have an input, a "thru" and an XLR output... as well as a ground lift switch. Plug your guitar into the input, plug the XLR output into your cleanest preamp's mic input, & plug the "thru" into your guitar amp/Pod/whateverthefuckitisyouusefortone. Engage your ground lift switch to reduce noise. ENGAGE PHANTOM POWER ON YOUR PREAMP IF YOU'RE USING AN ACTIVE DIRECT BOX!! Set up your DAW so you're recording the dry sound of the pickups from your mic preamp & a second track for your amp.
MAKE SURE TO RECORD AT 24 BIT Now, dry tracks might look a little weird. All spiky & shit, & sort of wimpy. Resist the urge to put a limiter on the track or compress it. Just don't do it. If your Soundcard has a limiter, TURN THAT FUCKER OFF We're trying to capture the essence of the playing... the signal that a guitar amp gets. This is not meant to be pleasing to the ears. (it won't be) Try setting your preamp's gain so that the absolute loudest part of the guitar's signal is peaking at about -3 to -4dB below the zero mark on your record meter. You're recording at 24 bit, so you have plenty of room before noise sets in. Don't try to get the level to zero, it'll cause you grief with overs. A dry guitar is very,very dynamic & unpredictable. -3 to -4 will work great.
USING SOFTWARE EMULATION/SOUNDCARD DIRECT INPUT
This is pretty much a no brainer. You can use a direct box, or if your soundcard has an instrument level input, you can use that! Plug in, set up your daw for live monitoring, & set up your favourite amp sim. Just make sure that the signal is recorded PRE-FX: Meaning that the raw guitar is recorded before it's processed by the amp sim.
If your amp modelling software is a CPU hog, there are ways to get around it: First, set your DAW up in "live" mode. Then you can set up a buss with the amp sim plugged into it. Then set up an AUX send from you dry guitar's channel to the bus, & send that ouput to another recording input, thereby recording the dry, unafeccted signal, & the output of the amp sim. This makes life easier for playing multiple tracks! You can also use this method to record thru a POD via it's USB I/O section.
TIPS:
Re-tune after every take. This goes double if you're quad tracking.
Make sure your guitar is set up correctly. If you don't know how to intonate, take it to a local tech & have him do it. Just make sure to mention what you're tuned to, these guys can be rather dumb when it comes to metal. I don't know how many client's guitars I've had to re-intonate because they're tuned down 4 steps & the tech set it up for standard tuning.
Make sure all your volume pots, jacks & electronics are in good working order. That includes making sure the ground wire inside is actually connected. (true story. Client showed up with his ground undone & couldn't figure out why he was getting noise every time he touched his guitar.)
To export: Make sure you export at 24 bit, to a MONO wav file. NOT stereo, mono. It's pretty much self-explanitory why, but you'd be surprised.....
That, & make sure your tracks all line up together properly.... especially if you're quad tracking your rhythms. One quick & easy test to check would be to export your dry tracks, then re-import them into your daw under a new project name, pan them out & hit play. You'll be able to tell very quickly if you've exported something wrong. If things are out of sync because you screwed up the export, imagine what they're going to sound like when you get them back from reamping!
ABOUT DIRECT BOXES
These come in 2 varieties: Passive & Active. If you're using a cable run under 20 feet, you can go passive. Anything longer, go active. Myself, I use the Radial Tech J48 Active direct box. It runs off the phantom power of my mic preamp. It's a little more expensive than some other boxes, but it's built like a tank & will probably last my lifetime. A great box. I highly recommend this unit.... especially if you're playing active pickups.
Here's a link. RADIAL J48 ACTIVE DIRECT BOX
One caveat: If you're playing passive pickups, you might want to look at the next direct box...
*AMENDMENT*
Mutant was very kind in pointing this box out... If you're running passive pickups, this is the box to buy. It's the same price as the J48, but has a much higher input impedance which will better preserve the tone of your passives:
Evidently, the input impedance of a direct box can play a critical factor in tone: Mutant explains it far better than I ever could further down in this post.....
Countryman Type 85 LINK
The only caveat with this box might be if you're running actives like an EMG... It might not be able to handle the loudest passages of your playing.... I.E. it might 'splat out' on the strongest transients.
If you're in the poor house, an ART passive box will do the trick: Like a cheap hooker "pulls a trick" if you will. It's not the greatest, in fact, it's a little on the noisy side. But what do you want for $26 USD? Here's a link:
ART PASSIVE DIRECT BOX
One interface Gavin & I have been testing is the Hi-Z input on the good ol' Edirol UA 25. We got some very impressive results with this: once he turned the limiter off, that is! For the life of me, I can't find any specs on the input impedance, but it did blow away the ART box. FYI, it was with active pickups.....
Now there's many different boxes between these & I can't say good or bad about any of them. However, the one box you should avoid like the plauge is the Berhinger DI20 Ultra DI 2-Channel Active direct box.
It's noisy as hell & pretty much useless. Remember, you're amplifying the guitar signal several thousand times when it's reamped. A tiny bit of noise in your direct signal can turn into a major clusterphuk when you crank it thru an amp!
Afterthoughts:
This is not a definitive guide to prepping your tracks for reamping. I'm quite sure other forum members have opinions on the subject & I invite them to share. Hell, I'm sure there's stuff I've missed here, so have at it!
-0z-
HOW TO PREP YOUR TRACKS TO BE REAMPED
What you'll need:
1) Your guitar
2) A good acurate tuner. I highly recommend G-TUNE. Peterson licenced this program's technology for their inferior "Strobosoft." This is the original, & totally kicks ass. Get it HERE
3) Computer & soundcard
4) Direct Box
5) Mic preamp
So what the hell is reamping, anyway?
This is a question I've been asked many, many times. Simply put: Reamping is where you track a dry signal off of your guitar's pickups alongside of your normal amped/modeled tracks. The dry signals are then exported & sent off to another facility which might have a better selection of amps/preamps/mics & the experience with mic techniques to turn your tracks from "damnit I wish this sounded better" into "I have unleashed the fury of hell!!!"
So how do I do this?
Well, there's several ways to route this, all depending on what you want to do.
USING AN AMP/POD/WONDERBOX:
You're going to need a direct box. There are many makes & types but they all pretty much do the same thing: They have an input, a "thru" and an XLR output... as well as a ground lift switch. Plug your guitar into the input, plug the XLR output into your cleanest preamp's mic input, & plug the "thru" into your guitar amp/Pod/whateverthefuckitisyouusefortone. Engage your ground lift switch to reduce noise. ENGAGE PHANTOM POWER ON YOUR PREAMP IF YOU'RE USING AN ACTIVE DIRECT BOX!! Set up your DAW so you're recording the dry sound of the pickups from your mic preamp & a second track for your amp.
MAKE SURE TO RECORD AT 24 BIT Now, dry tracks might look a little weird. All spiky & shit, & sort of wimpy. Resist the urge to put a limiter on the track or compress it. Just don't do it. If your Soundcard has a limiter, TURN THAT FUCKER OFF We're trying to capture the essence of the playing... the signal that a guitar amp gets. This is not meant to be pleasing to the ears. (it won't be) Try setting your preamp's gain so that the absolute loudest part of the guitar's signal is peaking at about -3 to -4dB below the zero mark on your record meter. You're recording at 24 bit, so you have plenty of room before noise sets in. Don't try to get the level to zero, it'll cause you grief with overs. A dry guitar is very,very dynamic & unpredictable. -3 to -4 will work great.
USING SOFTWARE EMULATION/SOUNDCARD DIRECT INPUT
This is pretty much a no brainer. You can use a direct box, or if your soundcard has an instrument level input, you can use that! Plug in, set up your daw for live monitoring, & set up your favourite amp sim. Just make sure that the signal is recorded PRE-FX: Meaning that the raw guitar is recorded before it's processed by the amp sim.
If your amp modelling software is a CPU hog, there are ways to get around it: First, set your DAW up in "live" mode. Then you can set up a buss with the amp sim plugged into it. Then set up an AUX send from you dry guitar's channel to the bus, & send that ouput to another recording input, thereby recording the dry, unafeccted signal, & the output of the amp sim. This makes life easier for playing multiple tracks! You can also use this method to record thru a POD via it's USB I/O section.
TIPS:
Re-tune after every take. This goes double if you're quad tracking.
Make sure your guitar is set up correctly. If you don't know how to intonate, take it to a local tech & have him do it. Just make sure to mention what you're tuned to, these guys can be rather dumb when it comes to metal. I don't know how many client's guitars I've had to re-intonate because they're tuned down 4 steps & the tech set it up for standard tuning.
Make sure all your volume pots, jacks & electronics are in good working order. That includes making sure the ground wire inside is actually connected. (true story. Client showed up with his ground undone & couldn't figure out why he was getting noise every time he touched his guitar.)
To export: Make sure you export at 24 bit, to a MONO wav file. NOT stereo, mono. It's pretty much self-explanitory why, but you'd be surprised.....
That, & make sure your tracks all line up together properly.... especially if you're quad tracking your rhythms. One quick & easy test to check would be to export your dry tracks, then re-import them into your daw under a new project name, pan them out & hit play. You'll be able to tell very quickly if you've exported something wrong. If things are out of sync because you screwed up the export, imagine what they're going to sound like when you get them back from reamping!
ABOUT DIRECT BOXES
These come in 2 varieties: Passive & Active. If you're using a cable run under 20 feet, you can go passive. Anything longer, go active. Myself, I use the Radial Tech J48 Active direct box. It runs off the phantom power of my mic preamp. It's a little more expensive than some other boxes, but it's built like a tank & will probably last my lifetime. A great box. I highly recommend this unit.... especially if you're playing active pickups.
Here's a link. RADIAL J48 ACTIVE DIRECT BOX
One caveat: If you're playing passive pickups, you might want to look at the next direct box...
*AMENDMENT*
Mutant was very kind in pointing this box out... If you're running passive pickups, this is the box to buy. It's the same price as the J48, but has a much higher input impedance which will better preserve the tone of your passives:
Evidently, the input impedance of a direct box can play a critical factor in tone: Mutant explains it far better than I ever could further down in this post.....
Countryman Type 85 LINK
The only caveat with this box might be if you're running actives like an EMG... It might not be able to handle the loudest passages of your playing.... I.E. it might 'splat out' on the strongest transients.
If you're in the poor house, an ART passive box will do the trick: Like a cheap hooker "pulls a trick" if you will. It's not the greatest, in fact, it's a little on the noisy side. But what do you want for $26 USD? Here's a link:
ART PASSIVE DIRECT BOX
One interface Gavin & I have been testing is the Hi-Z input on the good ol' Edirol UA 25. We got some very impressive results with this: once he turned the limiter off, that is! For the life of me, I can't find any specs on the input impedance, but it did blow away the ART box. FYI, it was with active pickups.....
Now there's many different boxes between these & I can't say good or bad about any of them. However, the one box you should avoid like the plauge is the Berhinger DI20 Ultra DI 2-Channel Active direct box.
It's noisy as hell & pretty much useless. Remember, you're amplifying the guitar signal several thousand times when it's reamped. A tiny bit of noise in your direct signal can turn into a major clusterphuk when you crank it thru an amp!
Afterthoughts:
This is not a definitive guide to prepping your tracks for reamping. I'm quite sure other forum members have opinions on the subject & I invite them to share. Hell, I'm sure there's stuff I've missed here, so have at it!
-0z-
Subtle as fuck!
