Reamping Test..quality loss?(clips inside)

[Wave_D]

Hey guys,

So I've always wanted to look into reamping to enable myself to record the guitar tracks on a smaller mobile system and then take to a bigger studio w/ nice gear(hence save bands money..I know people do this all the time). But, I've always been concerned about the role the preamps and converters played on the quality of the DI tracks, which then would obviously affect the reamped performance.

So I was able to go into my buddy's studio and try out some Reamping on a pro tools HD system. Please no comments on performance or tone. I set this up pretty fast and only really wanted to compare the quality between the different clips. You'll need a soundclick membership to listen.

Reamping Test

Details about the tracks are on each file.

I have to admit, I was pretty surprised at how different it sounded. It might be harder to hear on these files since they are mp3's, but if you compare the original to the reamp, I definitely hear a loss of overall excitement in the tracks. It seems I've lost some hi-end which is no big deal, eq could fix that, but its just the reamp tracks just seem more transparent to me.

Just for fun I recorded some DI's through my firewire410 also and ran it through the HD system..and you can really hear how much worse it sounds.

Just to clarify, I did not move the cab, the pre amp gain, mic position or anything. I left everything as is. I made sure the outs of the 96 i/o card were +4, kept my unbalanced cable runs short, used phantom power from the pre's, and made sure I was sending the same level out of the reamp box that there was coming in when I tracked the DI.

The signal chain was nice...but I have heard some things about the converters in the 96 i/o's. Thats the only thing I could think that would cause the quality to differ.


What do you guys think? anything I could be missing? Any suggestions or comments are appreciated.

thanks.

 

[006]

Been there...done that....did a reamping vs. live test myself a while back and the conclusion was that the difference, in a mix, was negligible. Also, just quickly, you can stream hi-fi mp3 tracks on SoundClick without a membership. Also, in my own tests I found the *reamped* tracks to sound more excited than the live originals. But, again, in a mix it was negligible. I'll see if I can dig up that thread for you to check out.

~006

 

[006]

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...amped-8pre-vs-saffire-pro-comp-test-clip.html

Found it.

~006

 

[Wave_D]

Thanks for the link 006.

And after listening I have to agree with you and what others have said in your thread..that the reamped version of your tracks do sound better. Which is the opposite of my problems.

Also, my clips are with a drum loop in the background so it is not just raw guitars.

I would question maybe the direct box but the BSS AR-133 has an input impedance of 1M Ohm, which should work well with the emg81's.
Other than that..the Millenia is a very nice pre amp, especially for direct since I find it very transparent. The Cunniberti reamp box seems to have a good reputation, even though the one at the studio is the purple one from 1998..so I really can't blame that.

The only think I can really question are the converters in the 96 i/o's..which i have heard are not so great. The tracks(minus the firewire410 one) were clocked with the big ben, so that side of it is very nice.