Re-amp box alternatives?

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

So my Radial X-Amp got stolen last night, and I'm supposed to be reamping some guitars in about 6 hours... is there any other device that I could use to transform the balanced signal coming out of my interface into an unbalanced instrument signal? Like maybe an EQ or something? I tried a piece of crap Rane EQ that said it had balanced ins and unbalanced or balanced outs, but it didn't do the trick (way too much noise, same effect as plugging an instrument cable from the interface to my Krank). I'm going to order another X-Amp, but in the meantime, I tried to get one from the local Guitar Center and all of their pro audio guys tried to convince me that there was no such thing, even though they carry Radial.

 

[egan.]

Try a passive DI backwards.

 

[wishtheend]

DI box in reverse maybe? There's not going to be any proper way to do it without an actual reamp box, but the DI in reverse has worked for me when I had nothing else to choose from.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Go in thru the amp's return?

 

[beyond dead]

ive used a passive di backwards and had favorable results. its mentioned in the reamping sticky i think.

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

So basically I would need a 1/4" TRS to female XLR going from the interface output into the output of the passive DI, and then an instrument cable from the "Thru" of the DI into the amp?

 

[devouredremains]

You would want to use the input on the DI as your output rather than the "Thru" to ensure that it passes through the transformer.

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

You would want to use the input on the DI as your output rather than the "Thru" to ensure that it passes through the transformer.

Right, thanks a lot! So essentially this will function the same way as a reamp box, with a little more signal degradation and a little more noise? This is basically for a myspace demo so I'm not too concerned, just curious

 

[Wolfeman]

Yes it essentially works the same way as a reamp box, just not the 'proper' way of doing it.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I tried to get one from the local Guitar Center and all of their pro audio guys tried to convince me that there was no such thing, even though they carry Radial.

Most of the GC guys I have ran into have been total fucktards hashing stupid rap beats together in pro tools. They had no idea wtf I was talking about when I said "vst plug-in" or "EZ drummer".

Seriously you should have told them to shut the fuck up and look it up.


Anyways: I used to do the DI thing in reverse and it works okay for dirty shit, but it was to noisy for clean stuff.

 

[botus99]

I tried to get one from the local Guitar Center and all of their pro audio guys tried to convince me that there was no such thing, even though they carry Radial.

Anyone else like to screw with the guys that work at GC by coming up with questions they'll never know the answers to?

 

[Wolfeman]

Anyone else like to screw with the guys that work at GC by coming up with questions they'll never know the answers to?

Start talking to them about cabinet impulses. It's funny.

 

[botus99]

haha thats a good one. I've never met a GC person that could say anything intelligent about phase. Also try asking them the difference between flanger and phaser pedals

 

[wishtheend]

At my local GC store, the reps are actually pretty smart with the exception of the guys at the guitar accessory counter. I actually think the guy in the drum dept knew the most overall. Then again, it's usally kids straight out of high school in the guitar dept. A guy seriously wanted to tell me that I couldn't use a generic non-latching footswitch with my 2-ch Dual Rec for channel switching. then again, I had to explain non-latching to him hahaha.

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

Most of the GC guys I have ran into have been total fucktards hashing stupid rap beats together in pro tools. They had no idea wtf I was talking about when I said "vst plug-in" or "EZ drummer".

Seriously you should have told them to shut the fuck up and look it up.

The guy got a really frightened look when I asked him if they had one... then he panicked and tried to sell me some other DIs... "This one's active, you should get this one. Or this one, this one's stereo, it's not active, but it's still cool."

Oh, and thanks for all of your help guys, the reamping went great

 

[Executioner213]

Start talking to them about cabinet impulses. It's funny.

I've done this before, they looked at me like I was on speed. I even explained the rudiment idea of it, like how it was kinda invented as a means of adding reverb and they said something to the extent of "that would be nice, but thats impossible".

Then again, I also have the similar problem when I go into Radio Shack and ask for stupid shit like capacitors or something and they can't figure out what I'm talking about...then when I find one and say "like this, but with 0.050µF instead", they just whip out a catalog because they have no idea what I'm talking about. Even when I walk into Staples and ask about something as simple as "Do you have RAM?" they point me to flash memory half of the time. It seems music/electronics related retail workers are really just fuckin retarded and I don't know why I even bother going into those stores.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Music store employees are epic fail 99% of the time unless it's a family business that's been around forever. Even then it's a crap shoot.

 

[The Unavoidable]

I got a really good, pretty big music store in town but still I encounter the same type of shit. Like when I asked about different types of re-amp boxes, no one, not even the AE guy had any idea what I'm talking about. And whats worse, they always assume that you are the one talking shit and treat you like an idiot becuse of it.