Today we’re following up on a Tech Tip from April 23, where we discussed methods for sending your guitar signal long distances, such as when you have an amp back in an isolation booth, but want to be in front of your recording setup while you play.
We only received a couple of additional ideas that went beyond what we covered in that Tip, but they were both good.
Under the, “Oh yeah, I knew that, but forgot to mention it” category, a reader from Ontario points out that it can be really effective to go ahead and record your guitar straight into the recorder (through an appropriate preamp of course). Then it can be run (at line level) back to the amp upon playback, which gives you the opportunity to tweak the sound throughout the rest of the recording. Of course it also means you have to keep your amp set up and miked throughout the rest of the recording, so most people who do this generally find a sound they like and then go ahead and record that to another track, knowing they can go back and change it later.
This still leaves the issue of getting from line level out of the recorder or mixer down to an instrument level that the amp would expect, but there are a few ways to handle that (some of which were discussed in the 4/23 Tip). The reader who made this suggestion also pointed out that he has more luck going straight from his mixer to the amp (just turning the output of the mixer down enough to work) than through some level shifting device or direct box.
Another reader mentioned that the Valvulator made by VHT works well for this. It’s actually designed to allow guitarists to run their signal through lots of things like little guitar stomp boxes and such. It does this in part by changing the hi-impedance output of the typical guitar to a low impedance signal. The low impedance signal, while not balanced, can travel further without major problems than a hi-impedance signal.
This same reader also suggested the Reamp, which serves the reverse direct box role (as discussed in the 4/23 Tip), but adds a trim control.
