Reamping and overdrive pedals

[kanuck]

so my guitar setup at the moment uses overdrive pedals for my gain sound and uses ableton for my post gain stuff like delays. Now instead of amp modelling i want to use a real guitar amp. The first method i can think of is to go from my pedals into my amp and then use the fx loop from the amp and a reamp box to get my delay sounds and such.

What i really want to do though is go from my pedals into the audio interface and back out through a reamp box into the guitar amp.

What I'm worried about is how transparent are mic preamps? if i clip the mic preamp with my overdrive pedals would it still react the same way when it reaches the guitar amp? thanks.

[3phase]

first.. you never should clip mic pres.. usually they sound nasty than because they are not designed for distortion.. on the positive side.. because they are designed for lowest distortion they are pretty transparent.. what will get more in your way is the AD/DA conversion.. so it is probably a different sound.. good or bad? your ears have to decide that.. try it and you know more...

[smaucher]

no, 3phase is right. let the overdrive pedal do the 'crunch' and keep the mic preamp under 0db.

I usually do it this way: record the guitar tracks 'native' to Live then I use the 'external effect' to one output of my interface, go through the guitar multieffect/tube preamp/whatever and then back in to one of my inputs. after that I place the effects.

any guitar track is being grouped and the group track gets another external 'loop' to a tube preamp and after this one I use 'cabinet' of Live or a cabinet combination of GR4.

just my 2ct.

[Laurens48711]

But what do you want the guitaramp to do? If you record: guitar>pedals>interface>reamp>amp and then what?

If you plan on using a mic to record the guitaramp, maybe you can better go from your pedals into the amp. If you only do it for the tone and eq of the amp, use the fx loop out to record. Most of the time that doesn't have an advantage to using plugins in Ableton.

The main reason for a guitar to use an amp is the sound of the speaker and for purists the distortion of the pre- and poweramp but then you shouldn't put it through your interface first.

So you can do whatever you want, it depends on the function of the amplifier.

[kanuck]

perhaps i had not clarified in the beginning I'm using the reamp box for live performances. So i can incorporate ableton's effects with my guitar setup when gigging.

[Sage]

What the hell is 3phase chatting? Clearly doesn't know the first thing about distortion, clipping a mic pre is no different to any other form of clipping, it never bothered many guitarists in the 60's.


Guitars are extremely low volume, so you don't need to worry about clipping any preamps. Unfortunately my amp doesn't have an effects loop, but I often run guitar > pedals > interface/laptop/Ableton > amp and don't add any gain with the preamp on the interface and interfaces are generally transparent if you aren't doing anything with them.

If you just want the amp to amplify the sound rather than add distortion or change channels, there's little point in using the effects loop, it's just adding more cables for no reason.

[smaucher]

(...)
If you just want the amp to amplify the sound rather than add distortion or change channels, there's little point in using the effects loop, it's just adding more cables for no reason.

wrong! looping an external tube-preamp is a great thing to get more life into digitally recorded guitar/bass tracks.

[3phase]

What the hell is 3phase chatting? Clearly doesn't know the first thing about distortion, clipping a mic pre is no different to any other form of clipping, it never bothered many guitarists in the 60's.


Guitars are extremely low volume, so you don't need to worry about clipping any preamps. Unfortunately my amp doesn't have an effects loop, but I often run guitar > pedals > interface/laptop/Ableton > amp and don't add any gain with the preamp on the interface and interfaces are generally transparent if you aren't doing anything with them.

If you just want the amp to amplify the sound rather than add distortion or change channels, there's little point in using the effects loop, it's just adding more cables for no reason.

that is the most stupid thing i ever read on an music production forum..have you ever used a decend mic pre? just your sound blasters one? ok.. in this case you might say such things,
In your world distortion and amplifer clipping sounds the same as any daw sounds the same? everything sounds the same?

Beside..microphones are really low level too.. actually guitars are pretty loud against that...
so you talking really bull here..

However no rule without exeption..ther are mic pres out there that distort nicely and smoothly..
But theese are usually pretty rare. So you better worry about clipping preamps except it is really the sound you are after and not just sounds louder must be better.. you can add distortion in the mix.. but you cant remove it anymore.


To the OP
when the amp has an fx loop i would choose that route..makes you independent from the laptop ..you just can switch the fx loop off when something goes wrong.. and you probably have a better tone and response with direct plugging to the amp.. But you better try that yourself and go for the route that feels and sounds better.

[smaucher]

Beside..microphones are really low level too.. actually guitars are pretty loud against that...
so you talking really bull here..

However no rule without exeption..ther are mic pres out there that distort nicely and smoothly..
But theese are usually pretty rare. So you better worry about clipping preamps except it is really the sound you are after and not just sounds louder must be better.. you can add distortion in the mix.. but you cant remove it anymore.

+1

(one exception I know of: Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple used to play his guitars in the studio through an AKAI/AIWA (don't remember) tape drive for distortion when he recorded)

[smaucher]

here's the information on that:

He also had a modified Aiwa TP-1011 tape machine built to supply echo and delay effects. The tape deck was also used as a pre-amp

link:
http://www.answers.com/topic/ritchie-bl ... #Equipment

[Laurens48711]

(...)
If you just want the amp to amplify the sound rather than add distortion or change channels, there's little point in using the effects loop, it's just adding more cables for no reason.

wrong! looping an external tube-preamp is a great thing to get more life into digitally recorded guitar/bass tracks.

Sorry but it's really unnecessary. Most guitar players tend to believe that because they are right. Modern tube amp designers, guitar or studio, are doing that on purpose. Fact is that if your tube amp sound warm, either is was deliberately made to do so by means of eq or feedback, or it is broken.

People please do believe me, tube amps are normally as clear and bright as transistor or IC's. If you have a true studio tube preamp, it sound only different when you start overdriving it but not when it works in normal operation.

With that said, I come back to my previous statement, that patching in a lot of gear to create a sound is just adding stuff for no reason, when you could use a plug-in to do the work for you.

I know how imporant tubes are to guitar players, but 99% of the time it's not the tubes that makes the sound, unless they are broken, but just the design of the amp.

[smaucher]

sorry, I wasn't aware the fact, that you know more about it than me. my apologies.

[YILA]

Why do you ever need to go near a preamp?

You could go in the interface DI. Reamp box out to the amp. Mic that up for FOH, DI out of ableton for your wet delays..

[kanuck]

Why do you ever need to go near a preamp?

You could go in the interface DI. Reamp box out to the amp. Mic that up for FOH, DI out of ableton for your wet delays..

Well that's this is exactly my question. Can I do this? I appreciate your answer but have you done this with overdrive pedals? I remember trying to have od pedals with guitar rig 4. I was using the amp models from guitar rig but the clipping was terrible when I turned on the od pedal. it wasn't that I "clipped" the mic input it's just how od pedals work with mic preamps. But if this "clipped" signal goes into a guitar amp input how will it sound?

[Sage]

(...)
If you just want the amp to amplify the sound rather than add distortion or change channels, there's little point in using the effects loop, it's just adding more cables for no reason.

wrong! looping an external tube-preamp is a great thing to get more life into digitally recorded guitar/bass tracks.

I think you might want to have a re-read!

You wouldn't stick a tube preamp in the effects loop of a tube amp to add "warmth", I'm not on about digitally recorded guitar/bass.