ReAmpers - here's a question for you...

[Chick Cherry]

Why do we need these Re-amping boxes?

Some of you know a lot more about this subject than I do, so I'm willing to learn something here.

Trawling the web, some people have commented that the imedance mismatch when re-amping is nothing to worry about or take notice of... now, if that was the case, surely these boxes wouldn't sell.

So, what's the deal?

I tried taking a signal out of my D/A, through a pedal (in this case, a MuTron III), then back in through the A/D. It sounded fine as I kept the signal level out of the D/A pretty low.

Would the same signal through a Re-amp sound better? In what way?

Teach me something here. I'll be very interested in your comments.

[Kronos147]

Originally Posted by Chick Cherry

It sounded fine as I kept the signal level out of the D/A pretty low.

Would the same signal through a Re-amp sound better? In what way?

If your converter is running at "pro" level, that means +4 of audio hitting your pedal, hence the need to keep the signal level out "pretty low." Anything greater and you will clip the input of the pedal, which (I am assuming again) runs best with a -10 signal level.

The pedal out back to the converter is feeding the converter low because of it's inability to produce +4 on the output.

Re-amping (in my vocabulary) is all about taking that +4 signal and converting it to a -10 signal suitable for an amp (or pedal). Once the signal is fed to the device, just record the device as normal.

In your case even using a DI to get the pedal back into the DAW should be an audible improvement.

[miqer]

I had a buzzzzzzz in my amp when I connected it to my soundcard. With the re-amp box that has a ground-lift also, it's gone. Works fine. So for me it's a must. Also if I stick my wha-wha in between my soundcard out/in, there cab be a buzz without the box. Might be some weird ground loop thing I have.

Also if you put the out of your soundcard in a guitar/bass-amp without the reamp box it could be bad for your soundcard (don't know, just read that here).

The mutron might take line-level fine, some peddles do. Others distort and you have to take the level down. Doing that digitally takes down the bitrate, so you wanna do it with a analog volume controller (or desk), or use the re-amp box that also has a passive level control.

But it sounds good, it's good. Right?

[Chick Cherry]

Thanks for your replies, gents.

By the way, I am using a DI to get back into the DAW - a decent Klark Teknik DI.

I was lulling myself into a false sense of security with the MuTron pedal, it seems.

The MuTron III can handle a hotter signal better than a lot of other guitar pedals. Just now, I tried a Small Stone phaser in it's place, and couldn't get it to stop distorting, no matter how low the level from my D/A. Also, I noticed a similar thing with an MXR Dynacomp. It didn't sound too good.

It looks as though these Re-amping boxes do have a purpose - which is kind of what I thought, but I like other people's opinions on these matters. I've learned something.

[Evanskyler]

I think the simplest answer is because going from a balanced source to a unbalanced one is noisy and the reamp isolates the noise and shunts it elsewhere.

In esccence it is basically a direct box flipped backwards.

Plus I like sitting in the control room when I play guitar or bass and I also like sending my signal to innumerous amounts of sources. Direct, amp1, amp2 and so fourth. Then I can use the reamps as a middleman between the different matricies on the board and my amplifiers.

[staudio]

If you have a direct box, check the manual to see if you can use it in reverse. I reamp using my Radial JDI with the pad in all time and have low noise and the gain is just right.
No need to lower the output of my converter when using the pad.

[Chick Cherry]

Originally Posted by staudio

If you have a direct box, check the manual to see if you can use it in reverse. I reamp using my Radial JDI with the pad in all time and have low noise and the gain is just right.
No need to lower the output of my converter when using the pad.

Thanks - I checked and it seems not. It's an active DI - apparently you can get away with using them in reverse if they're passive models.

I think I'll pick up one of those Cuniberti ReAmp boxes and experiment.

[Evanskyler]

Kewl! I didnt know you could do that with the JDI. Can you do it with the JDI Duplex or the Mk.3?

[feyshay]

I have both the JDI and X-Amp. Definitely better thru the X-Amp than the reverse JDI. Less noise and fuller tone.