What is Reamping?

Published 28 July 2023

Reamping is a studio recording technique that involves taking a recorded audio track (usually guitar or bass) and playing it back through a guitar amplifier, then capturing the results by recording the output of the amp to a new track.
Source: Radial Engineering Blog

Once viewed as a ‘secret weapon’ of savvy producers and mixing engineers, Reamping has exploded in popularity due to the flexibility that it offers. After capturing the initial performance, Reamping enables the user to experiment with different amps, guitar pedals, microphone selection, and placement in order to find the perfect sound. The user can make endless tweaks during this process.

While it can seem like a complicated process, Reamping at its core requires only three straightforward steps:

The first is to capture an unprocessed or ‘dry’ recording of your guitar or bass, which is easily achieved using a direct box that you can connect straight into an audio interface.
The second step is where you take that recorded track and feed it into a Reamp box, which in turn feeds your guitar pedals and amplifier.
Finally, place a mic in front of your amp and record the results.

Once you’ve integrated Reamping into your mixing process you can do cool things like:

Record your DI guitar tracks and pre-recorded material with your guitar rig.
Patch your guitar effects pedals as outboard gear in your studio.
And many more creative ideas and uses that we’ll touch more on later.

Radial has a whole selection of different Reamp boxes for all kinds of Reamping applications but, when it comes to Reamping, the whole record now/tweak later concept is probably the most popular application of a Reamp box.

Instead of being stuck with the guitar tone that you hastily set up on your tracking day, you can focus on capturing the perfect guitar take directly into your DAW with a DI box. You can then use a Reamp box – at a later time – to experiment with different amp and pedal setups. This in itself gives you incredible artistic freedom as you can really dial in your songs’ perfect tone long after the guitarist has left the building.