How To Record Guitar For Reamping
When tracking Guitar it’s a good idea to record the clean signal from your guitar as well as a miked-up amp, so you have the option to reamp and change the tone later. So how do you go about recording through an amp and capturing the clean signal at the same time? This video will walk you through it.
When you’re tracking Guitar at home it’s always a good idea to record the clean signal from your guitar as well as a miked-up amp, or processed output from a digital Guitar amp. This is because when you come to mixing, the tone you originally captured might not fit with the sound of the other instruments on the album, and especially if you’re sending your recordings to a professional mixer, then they might have a whole range of boutique amplifiers through which they can re-amp your tracks. But your amp recording is still important, to give them a tonal guide, so they know what you’re thinking.
So how do you go about recording through an amp and capturing the clean signal at the same time?
First you need a good quality, clean DI box that isn’t going to impart its own tone on your recording, and you’re going to plug into the input of that before your amp.
now I would recommend if you have any effects pedals, not distortion pedals that you use as your general sound, but rather effects like compression, overdrive or boost for a solo, reverb, delays, flangers or phasers it can be a good idea to print these to the clean recording, because if you end up ramping, then you haven’t got to recreate all those sounds you made while recording again. So take the jack out of your pedal board straight into the DI box and from the link on the DI into your amplifier.
If there are any switches on the DI, make sure it’s not padding the signal in anyway, and the ground isn’t lifted. Plug an XLR between your DI audio interface, again into the cleanest preamp you have, then plug the mic pointed at your cabinet into a second channel on the interface.
There are a whole range of different mics you could use, but honestly, a well-placed sm57 will probably get you there.
Now that you’ve got your guitar connected twice to your interface you have the potential for ground loops. So if you notice any hums or buzzing on either channel, first try moving the physical placement of the DI box. There are a whole range of things that could be creating interference. Like your lighting, any dimmers, the power transformer in your amplifier, so never put the DI on top of it, or a wall wart you might have powering your interface or pedal board. just turning at 90° could make all the difference! Failing that try the ground lift switch on the DI box, and if it’s still not helping, an isolator box like this could be your saviour
Now you’re ready to chunk!
I hope this helps you set up for recording your guitars, hit me up if you have any questions, now happy gigging!
Here's the gear I recommend using :
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