Recording - July 2014 - 25
Ohm or higher impedance for the best possible tone.
There are also special little boxes, like
Radial's Tonebone Dragster, designed
specifically for direct guitar recording.
These devices present a tasty impedance
load to the guitar and provide a 1/4" output you can plug directly into the 1/4"
instrument input on your audio interface,
which probably has a very high input
impedance. The Avid Eleven Rack audio
interface has a 1/4" input that has softwarecontrolled adjustable impedance.
Reamping with a DI
Now we are going to proceed with our
original plan of firing up the tubes in our
CrunchMaster 100 amp and tweaking
through the night. The old-school way to
do this involves the same DI that we
recorded with. Our forefathers, the intrepid recording engineers of the 1970s,
discovered that they could take a prerecorded direct guitar signal off the reelto-reel tape machine and run it backwards through a passive DI, patching the
tape output into the DI output with a
female-to-female XLR adapter, then patching the 1/4" input of the DI to the amp.
The passive DI works in reverse, and you
get a high impedance signal back out of the
DI that will interact nicely with the amp
input. You can try the same thing with your
DAW and audio interface, if you have the
proper cables. You may have to turn down
the output level from the DAW to avoid overloading the amp input. Note that this trick
will not work with an active DI, as transistors
do not like to be run in reverse!
Reamping with a Reamp
Or... you can buy a little box that is
specifically designed to do this and eliminates all the hassle and guesswork. The
Radial ProRMP Reamp is a passive box
with a female XLR input, a ground lift
switch to eliminate hum, and a high
impedance 1/4" output to feed your amp.
Simply connect the ProRMP between your
audio interface and your amp and you're
good to go. It also has an output level
control, so you can sit right in front of
your amp and tweak the level to get
exactly the level of crunch or clean that
you desire. (See Figure 3.)
Radial also makes fancier devices, like
the Radial X-Amp, an active reamper that
lets you send signal to 2 amps at once... or
at the extreme end of this trend, the Radial
JD7, which lets you reamp into up to 7
amps at once! You can use it just to plug in
and play into multiple amps at once without a DAW in between, and it (like some
other Radial products) has an adjustable
Drag control so you can dial in the exact
input loading you desire. (The Dragster
mentioned above is a small box that only
provides this function.) And there are other
reamplification boxes worth a mention,
each with its own special features, such as
the Little Labs Redeye 3D and Pepper,
which offer so many possible interconnections and adaptation functions it's a shame
to just call them "reamp boxes".
So how do we do this?
When recording, I prefer a very high
impedance active DI to record my track. I
don't want to color the sound on the way in,
because I use a nice reamping box with a
Drag control on the way out. Also, a passive
DI will load down and color the signal coming out of the direct output on the DI, which
changes the sound the guitarist is sending
into the pedal board and amp while recording. Guitar stomp boxes have different
impedances, and a high impedance DI will
avoid changing the interaction that is
already happening there. (See Figure 4.)
You can put the DI before or after the
guitarist's effects pedalboard. Putting it
before the pedalboard gives you the unaltered guitar signal, so you can do whatever you want later. Putting it after the
pedalboard lets you record everything
the guitarist did effectswise, so you can
keep the entire sonic performance and
just run it through cool amps. Why not put
a DI before and after the pedalboard and
record both? Because you are not OCD
like me, that's why!
Once you understand how impedance
affects tone and how reamping lets you
replay a tonally-sweet performance over
and over again, the principles can be
applied to all manner of playback evil.
With a single output reamp box, you can
record your direct guitar track through
your favorite tube amp for a nice crunch,
then run the same track back through
again with more distortion to blend in a
bit more mayhem, or combine a totally
clean sound with a crunch sound for a bit
more clarity. You can hear this done on
Elton John's track "Philadelphia Freedom,"
where clean and distorted tracks are combined from the same single performance.
You can run your direct track through
your pedalboard and use two hands and
two feet to manipulate your pedals as if you
had a dedicated crew of pedal gnomes
running your rig. You can take your laptop,
interface, and an amp to strange places
that have AC outlets, like some creepy
industrial factory basement. Set the amp at
one end of the room and a mic or two way
over at the other end to capture some scary
Goth ambience. Anything is possible, once
you make reamping a regular part of your
guitar recording process.
Michael Schulze (schulze@recording
mag.com) directs the award winning
Bachelor of Music Recording and
Production program at the Lamont School
of Music, University of Denver. Learn
more at www.du.edu/lamont/audio. All
diagrams courtesy Radial Engineering.
http://www.zoom-na.com
http://www.zoom-na.com
http://www.du.edu/lamont/audio
Recording - July 2014
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2014
Contents
Recording - July 2014 - Cover1
Recording - July 2014 - Cover2
Recording - July 2014 - 1
Recording - July 2014 - 2
Recording - July 2014 - 3
Recording - July 2014 - 4
Recording - July 2014 - 5
Recording - July 2014 - Contents
Recording - July 2014 - 7
Recording - July 2014 - 8
Recording - July 2014 - 9
Recording - July 2014 - 10
Recording - July 2014 - 11
Recording - July 2014 - 12
Recording - July 2014 - 13
Recording - July 2014 - 14
Recording - July 2014 - 15
Recording - July 2014 - 16
Recording - July 2014 - 17
Recording - July 2014 - 18
Recording - July 2014 - 19
Recording - July 2014 - 20
Recording - July 2014 - 21
Recording - July 2014 - 22
Recording - July 2014 - 23
Recording - July 2014 - 24
Recording - July 2014 - 25
Recording - July 2014 - 26
Recording - July 2014 - 27
Recording - July 2014 - 28
Recording - July 2014 - 29
Recording - July 2014 - 30
Recording - July 2014 - 31
Recording - July 2014 - 32
Recording - July 2014 - 33
Recording - July 2014 - 34
Recording - July 2014 - 35
Recording - July 2014 - 36
Recording - July 2014 - 37
Recording - July 2014 - 38
Recording - July 2014 - 39
Recording - July 2014 - 40
Recording - July 2014 - 41
Recording - July 2014 - 42
Recording - July 2014 - 43
Recording - July 2014 - 44
Recording - July 2014 - 45
Recording - July 2014 - 46
Recording - July 2014 - 47
Recording - July 2014 - 48
Recording - July 2014 - 49
Recording - July 2014 - 50
Recording - July 2014 - 51
Recording - July 2014 - 52
Recording - July 2014 - 53
Recording - July 2014 - 54
Recording - July 2014 - 55
Recording - July 2014 - 56
Recording - July 2014 - 57
Recording - July 2014 - 58
Recording - July 2014 - 59
Recording - July 2014 - 60
Recording - July 2014 - 61
Recording - July 2014 - 62
Recording - July 2014 - 63
Recording - July 2014 - 64
Recording - July 2014 - 65
Recording - July 2014 - 66
Recording - July 2014 - 67
Recording - July 2014 - 68
Recording - July 2014 - 69
Recording - July 2014 - 70
Recording - July 2014 - 71
Recording - July 2014 - 72
Recording - July 2014 - Cover3
Recording - July 2014 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202404
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202403
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202402
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202401
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202312
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording-november-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202310
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202309
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202308
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202307
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202306
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202305
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202304
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202303
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202302
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202301
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202212
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202211
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202210
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202209
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202208
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202207
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202206
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202205
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202204
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202203
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202202
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202201
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202112
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202111
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202110
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202109
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202108
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202107
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202106
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202105
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202104
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202103
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202102
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202101
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202012
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202011
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202010
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202009
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202008
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202007
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202006
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_20205
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202004
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202003
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202002
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_202001
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201912
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201911
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201910
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201909
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201908
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201907
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201906
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201905
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201904
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201903
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201902
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201901
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201812
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201811
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201810
https://www.nxtbook.com/musicmaker/musicmaker/recording_201809
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201808
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201807
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201806
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201805
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201804
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201803
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201802
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201801
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201712
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201711
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201710
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201709
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201707
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201706
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201705
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201704
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201703
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201702
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201701
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201612
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201611
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201610
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201609
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201608
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201607
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201606
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201605
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201604
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201603
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201602
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201601
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201512
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201511
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201510
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201509
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201508
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201507
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201505
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201504
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201503
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201502
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201501
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201412
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201411
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201410
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201409
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201408
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201407
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201406
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201405
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201404
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201403
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201402
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201401
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201312
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201311
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201310
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201309
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201308
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201307
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201306
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201305
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201303
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201302
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201301
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201212
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201211
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201209
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201208
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201207
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201206
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201205
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201204
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201203
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201202
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201201
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201111
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201110
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201109
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201108
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201107
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201106
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201105
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201104
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201103
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201101
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201009
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201008
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201007
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201006
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201005
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201004
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201003
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201002
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_201001
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_200912
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_200911
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/recording_200910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/musicmaker/nxtd
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com