re amping

Re-amping always ends up playing a big role in the mixing stage.. A roundtrip out of the DAW, through a colorful amp, in a nice sounding room and back, can do wonders to the sound. Not only have you gotten a more characteristic sound, but it will probably be easier to place in the mix afterwards, either alone, or blended together with the original track. I might re-amp anything from the reverb-bus, drums, strings etc. And you can re-amp a sound many times also. There are no rules.

I have a few favorite speakers that I know pretty well, and that I can mic up if a special characteristic is needed. On the “music for Moviebikers” album, I used an old gramophone speaker to help the melodyinstruments stand out. I might have gotten a similar result by adding some top, and make a distortion-bus, but not as lively.

When I use softwaresynths, they are often routed to an outboard effect while recording. I’m a little freaked out by the thought that thousands of musicians sit with the same samples, and the same software as me. That’s one of the reasons why I need to put some extra energy into making the sounds “mine”.

When you're re-amping (taking your sound through an external speaker) try to put a D.I. box the wrong way before the amp. Take the signal in the opposite direction through the output first. Sometimes it makes the amp sound better.