Reamping process is degrading quality of guitar tracks (clips inside)

[beyond dead]

Hey thar!

I've been noticing that my reamps aren't sounding as full as a guitar plugged directly into my 5150. They always come out sounding thinner, lacking punch in the low end and sounding scratchy.

I've scrutinized every aspect of the chain and I'm still coming up empty handed. I'm using several D.I's, such as the Hi Z input on my Saffire Pro, the Hi Z input on my Profire, a cheap Behringer Direct box, and A sans amp BDDI. My D.I's are coming in at a nice low level, and they are going out to a radial PRORMP at the same level they came in.

I am increasing the level of the tracks using the gain control on the PRORMP until they match the level of a guitar plugged directly into the amp. I have tried sending the direct guitars out of the box a little hotter to no avail.

I did a super quick comparison clip to illustrate the problem. Don't mind the extremely sloppy performance, or the crappy riff that I concocted to serve the quite narrow purpose of this comparison.

The riff cycles 5 times, each cycle was recorded with a different d.i.

cycle1: straight into amp
cycle2: Saffire Hi z input, peaks at -9db (as low as the interface allowed)
cycle3: Profire Hi Z input, peaks at -9db
cycle4: crappy Behringer D.I, peaks at -9db
cycle5: Sansamp BDDI, peaks at -9db

Note how much fuller the bottom end is on the first cycle, and how scratchy the 3-6 k area is on all the proceeding cycles.

CLIP:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1719400/d.i test.mp3

Is loss of fullness just a necessary consequence of reamping? I've heard A LOT of really awesome reamps, so I don't think thats the case. Does Higher end converters really make that much of a difference?

Some advice, or guidance would be extremely appreciated!
cheers

 

[JakeAC5253]

Do the Radial RMP modification that removes three resistors and replaces one with a jumper wire. I did this to my RMP a while ago and have never once looked back, it's much more open now with no coloration that I can detect.

 

[Mago]

Is loss of fullness just a necessary consequence of reamping?

No, not at all.

You need a good way to capture the DIs at high quality (HiZ-Input/good DI box) & a good reamp box. From what I heared so far the PRORMP doesn't get a lot of love around here though.

What kind of pickups do you use? I know that for EMG's the saffire input is good enough, for hot passives it's doesnt have enough damping.

That said, I honestly don't hear a lot in the clip overall...not very clear to tell anything specific imo...but maybe I'm just tired today.

 

[deLuther]

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/568415-radial-prormp-modification.html

ProRMP are not that bad device, especially after modification.
But it seems, at least for me, that saffire outputs does not have sufficient level even with modded ProRMP (maybe with any reamper that does not amplify signal).