Here's my first foray into the world of Reamping. I picked up the Radial Technologies "X-AMP" reamp box today, and I've just completed a short battery of tests. Synopsis: This is a fucking cool little box.
I've had this thing on order for about 3 weeks. You'd figure that a Canadian manufacturer would be quick to fill Canadian orders, but hey, stranger things have happened. Radial is famous for making fantastic direct boxes. The X-AMP is thier first offering to go the other way.... and given thier repuation, I thought I'd try 'em out.
Pulling the unit out of the box, I'm surprised by just how heavy this little bastard is. I'm guessing there's some heavy duty transformers in there... overall this thing feels like it was built like a tank. Always a good sign.
Connection is straight forward enough: Connect a balanced out from your soundcard (RME Fireface 800 here) to the XLR input on the X-AMP. Connect a quarter inch cable to your amp & fire it up. I was smart enough (one of the rare occasions) to record dry guitar tracks on my last album project. Some quick routing in SawStudio & the RME matrix & we're rocking. The first thing I did was engage the "ground lift" button to kill a really annoying buzz. Boom, gone, end of problem. Damn, if the rest of life was this easy...
Anyway, the output of the X-AMP has a level control & a little LED for 'clipping.' What I found really interesting was that no matter how hot a singal I threw at it, I simply could not get it to clip at all. Wow, to me, THAT is impressive.
Gain staging was easy. Set the output fader running to the X-AMP to 0, set the X-AMP's out to full, & the amp growls away. I mean, seriously, this was just too easy. Backing the X-AMP's output knob off felt like turning down your guitar's volume pot. Simple.
Overall, I'm really impressed by this little box. At $220 CDN, it's a steal. I have a feeling it's going to save my ass more than once in the future. What a great piece of gear.
-0z-
I've had this thing on order for about 3 weeks. You'd figure that a Canadian manufacturer would be quick to fill Canadian orders, but hey, stranger things have happened. Radial is famous for making fantastic direct boxes. The X-AMP is thier first offering to go the other way.... and given thier repuation, I thought I'd try 'em out.
Pulling the unit out of the box, I'm surprised by just how heavy this little bastard is. I'm guessing there's some heavy duty transformers in there... overall this thing feels like it was built like a tank. Always a good sign.
Connection is straight forward enough: Connect a balanced out from your soundcard (RME Fireface 800 here) to the XLR input on the X-AMP. Connect a quarter inch cable to your amp & fire it up. I was smart enough (one of the rare occasions) to record dry guitar tracks on my last album project. Some quick routing in SawStudio & the RME matrix & we're rocking. The first thing I did was engage the "ground lift" button to kill a really annoying buzz. Boom, gone, end of problem. Damn, if the rest of life was this easy...
Anyway, the output of the X-AMP has a level control & a little LED for 'clipping.' What I found really interesting was that no matter how hot a singal I threw at it, I simply could not get it to clip at all. Wow, to me, THAT is impressive.
Gain staging was easy. Set the output fader running to the X-AMP to 0, set the X-AMP's out to full, & the amp growls away. I mean, seriously, this was just too easy. Backing the X-AMP's output knob off felt like turning down your guitar's volume pot. Simple.
Overall, I'm really impressed by this little box. At $220 CDN, it's a steal. I have a feeling it's going to save my ass more than once in the future. What a great piece of gear.
-0z-
