Reamping Issue

[Dave B]

Hi All,

New member here so hopefully i have posted this in the appropriate spot.

I am a very amateur musician. However my hobby includes building guitar pedals (I have finished around 20) and then recording covers using the pedals i build.

My recording process is recording into a focusrite 212 and using Mac's Garageband as my daw (one of my issues).

My Laney Lionheart L5 studio has a reamping feature (it can also be used as an interface however I tend not to do this).

So after recording in GB I send my signal (VIA USB) from my mac to laney head which is then sent into the front of the amp (via my pedalboard).

This process has largely served me well and most of the time everything sounds great (albeit at times a bit digitial).

However I have never been able to get it to play well with vintage GE fuzzes. Eg. tonebenders, buzz arounds etc. I believe this is becasue of the impedance and natural fickle nature of GE fuzzes. The Fuzz does sound ok directly recording into GB or through the amp alone. It is purely a problem when reamping.

I have been investigating this more & trying to come up with a solution.

1) method would be to send the signal straight from my DAW into a reamp box and then recording the track with a microphone. HOWEVER Garageband does not allow this... its bigger brother LOGIC does.

2) my other idea was to have a reamp box between the send of the amp and the board - which would allow me to continue to remap the current way. I have no idea whether this would help.....

In either situation - is a reamp box my best bet? i have looked at designs from NY Dave and Scotty Dorsey but before i go down this path - is this going to cure my problem or is there other options to try first? I recently watched a youtube using a boss pedal (disengaged) to reamp, with the buffer in the pedal helping the signal coming out of the computer, but i am yet to try this.

When using a reamp box with an impedance pot - is it trial and error trying to get the pedal to sound good?

 

[kags]

Have you tried inserting a buffer after the reamp out but before the fuzz?

 

[kags]

When using a reamp box with an impedance pot - is it trial and error trying to get the pedal to sound good?

Yes - only some devices/amps will react to the change

 

[Dave B]

Have you tried inserting a buffer after the reamp out but before the fuzz?

i think I need to check this out before doing anything else. I have an old boss ds2 i could put first in the signal chain and see if that has an effect.

 

[Dave B]

Have you tried inserting a buffer after the reamp out but before the fuzz?

So I tried a Boss first in the chain and the buzz around second.... It seemed to have a significant impact! amazing that fuzz generally doesnt like buffers, however in this case it has!

 

[Dave B]

Have you tried inserting a buffer after the reamp out but before the fuzz?

Not sure if you can answer this question, it kept me up last night trying to think through it!
I am about to make a fuzz face and therefore this whole issue will come up when i record again. However i am intrigued - during normal playing, that is guitar into fuzz face into amp, the pedal will 'clean up' by rolling back the guitar volume. However if i was to reamp - record the clean signal first (volume at 100%) and then send that signal to my fuzz face/amp - could i replicate this same clean up by rolling back the signal volume from the daw?

 

[kags]

Not sure if you can answer this question, it kept me up last night trying to think through it!
I am about to make a fuzz face and therefore this whole issue will come up when i record again. However i am intrigued - during normal playing, that is guitar into fuzz face into amp, the pedal will 'clean up' by rolling back the guitar volume. However if i was to reamp - record the clean signal first (volume at 100%) and then send that signal to my fuzz face/amp - could i replicate this same clean up by rolling back the signal volume from the daw?

Not sure what you mean by “clean up,” but just try it and see what happens. As you know, Guitars pickups have a very different output impedance than the DAW output, but the buffer will probably take care of that mismatch.

 

[ccaudle]

could i replicate this same clean up by rolling back the signal volume from the daw?

Likely the distortion will decrease in the same way, but the tone might not be quite the same, since rolling back the volume control on a guitar also changes the resistance in series with the pickup output. That might be a good thing depending on what you want, some people add capacitors across their volume controls so that they don't lose so much treble when turning down.