Do I really need a re-amp box to integrate my delay pedal with the DAW?

[Marcello]

Hi there!

I'm recording some stuff at home and I have purchased a very cool delay pedal for guitar I would like to use in some of my tracks.

I'm recording with cakewalk and and amp sim from Overloud.

Now, I don't have a re-amp box in order to place my delay pedal after the amp sim in my DAW, as it is usually recommended.

Is it really much better in terms of sound quality to place the delay pedal after the amp with the re-amp box?

Or is just fine for the guitar to pass to the delay pedal first and then to the amp sim in the daw?

Do you suggest me to buy a re-amp box?

 

Thanks in advance.

[msmcleod]

It depends... if your pedal has a line level input, then you don't need a re-amp box.

If it's just got a HiZ guitar input, then you will need one.  Most of the time you can get away with a passive DI box rather than a dedicated re-amp box.

You should be able to get a passive DI box for around €15 -  €20.

[rsinger]

7 hours ago, Marcello said:

Now, I don't have a re-amp box in order to place my delay pedal after the amp sim in my DAW, as it is usually recommended.

Is it really much better in terms of sound quality to place the delay pedal after the amp with the re-amp box?

Or is just fine for the guitar to pass to the delay pedal first and then to the amp sim in the daw?

Do you suggest me to buy a re-amp box?

You'll find plenty of delay pedals on pedal boards.

https://static.musiciansfriend.com/thehub/binaries/content/gallery/mf/interviews/eric-johnson-pedalboard.jpg

There's a memory man and Belle Epoch on Eric Johnson's pedal board. They're before the amp. Try it and see. You run into problems if you want to push the amp's input or you're driving the amp really hard.

Interesting comment from EJ -

The HUB: Does your setup change at all for studio recording?

EJ: It’s pretty much the same. I mean, I’ll use different pedals in the studio that I normally wouldn’t use live just for overdubs or something, but typically that’s the go-to sound that I could kind of cover everything I need to and, if I need to change it from there, it could be just a matter of setting the tone different, treble or bass or whatever, or different guitars.

 

[John Vere]

Myself if I’m using a pedal it is going to be where it was designed to go.  Directly from my guitar and Before my amp.
I rarely record electric guitar directly because electric guitar needs an electric guitar pre amp to respond to. The whole thing with playing electric guitar is the pick ups, the pedals and the amp all reacts to your playing.  And your playing is effected by the sounds you’re getting. You play to the effects.  
My preferences is to use my pedals and amp to get the sound I want and record it. 
But sometimes your not dead sure and then a boring dry guitar track might work better. I often record both the amp and a dry signal. My Boss tuner has 2 outputs.  

Some interfaces offer a dedicated hi z jack which is a decent option if your plugged in directly. 
If I do go direct I use a Zoom multi effect pedal last in the pedal chain. My delay pedal is second last My overdrive pedals first. 

If I want clean and dry I just put the Zoom on bypass mode. The Zoom seems to give me a better punchy track than if I go directly from my  guitar. 
But the thing is there are no rules you can’t break.  So just try it. It will either give you a sound you’re after, or suck. 

Edited November 10, 2021 by John Vere

[Marcello]

18 hours ago, John Vere said:

Myself if I’m using a pedal it is going to be where it was designed to go.  Directly from my guitar and Before my amp.
I rarely record electric guitar directly because electric guitar needs an electric guitar pre amp to respond to. The whole thing with playing electric guitar is the pick ups, the pedals and the amp all reacts to your playing.  And your playing is effected by the sounds you’re getting. You play to the effects.  
My preferences is to use my pedals and amp to get the sound I want and record it. 
But sometimes your not dead sure and then a boring dry guitar track might work better. I often record both the amp and a dry signal. My Boss tuner has 2 outputs.  

Some interfaces offer a dedicated hi z jack which is a decent option if your plugged in directly. 
If I do go direct I use a Zoom multi effect pedal last in the pedal chain. My delay pedal is second last My overdrive pedals first. 

If I want clean and dry I just put the Zoom on bypass mode. The Zoom seems to give me a better punchy track than if I go directly from my  guitar. 
But the thing is there are no rules you can’t break.  So just try it. It will either give you a sound you’re after, or suck. 

This is because you are using the distortion pedal and you can place it before the delay, I use the amp distortion so the only way to place the delay after the amp is to use a re-amp box. 

[Marcello]

On 11/9/2021 at 4:35 PM, msmcleod said:

It depends... if your pedal has a line level input, then you don't need a re-amp box.

If it's just got a HiZ guitar input, then you will need one.  Most of the time you can get away with a passive DI box rather than a dedicated re-amp box.

You should be able to get a passive DI box for around €15 -  €20.

No it doesn’t it’s a simple Boss pedal with jack input. I didn’t understand why the DI box would be fine, I thought I read that’s for other stuff, the re-amp box is what I need, not DI box.  I found one for 60 euros

[Marcello]

On 11/9/2021 at 6:58 PM, rsinger said:

You'll find plenty of delay pedals on pedal boards.

https://static.musiciansfriend.com/thehub/binaries/content/gallery/mf/interviews/eric-johnson-pedalboard.jpg

There's a memory man and Belle Epoch on Eric Johnson's pedal board. They're before the amp. Try it and see. You run into problems if you want to push the amp's input or you're driving the amp really hard.

Interesting comment from EJ -

The HUB: Does your setup change at all for studio recording?

EJ: It’s pretty much the same. I mean, I’ll use different pedals in the studio that I normally wouldn’t use live just for overdubs or something, but typically that’s the go-to sound that I could kind of cover everything I need to and, if I need to change it from there, it could be just a matter of setting the tone different, treble or bass or whatever, or different guitars.

 

I don’t do live, only studio recording. I don’t care about  live, I’m talking about the studio recording, normally the delay should be placed after the distortion, since I’m not using a distortion pedal But an amp sim software, or normally I anyway always use the amp distortion, then I need to go from my DAW to the delay pedal, then back from the delay to the DAW again through my audio interface, this is possible only with the re-amp box.

now Im just wondering whether this big change in sound quality  worth the money cause I have to buy a new audio interface and the re-amp box, everything would cost 200 bucks.
not sure it’s clear enough

Edited November 10, 2021 by Marcello

[John Vere]

18 minutes ago, Marcello said:

This is because you are using the distortion pedal and you can place it before the delay, I use the amp distortion so the only way to place the delay after the amp is to use a re-amp box. 

I have the distortion pedal in my pedal board  for using as a boost. I actually get my overdrive from my amp, It is a Blackstar and has a ton of effects built in so I have that option as well. 

I also Have a Boss Digital Delay pedal as well as one made by Mooer. 

If buy amp you are meaning the Amp sim then yes it seems you would need a re amp box. But did you just try connecting it to your interface and back in without? If your interface has 3/4 output then use one of those and then try different levels using the faders found in console view to the right of the buss pane. Its often hidden off screen. 

[John Vere]

The easy way out is just use a delay pedal in the box.  Which amp sim are you using? There are lots of options. Problem solved. There's nothing special about the boss delay pedal. I find it a bit grainy compared to the Mooer. 

[Marcello]

15 minutes ago, John Vere said:

The easy way out is just use a delay pedal in the box.  Which amp sim are you using? There are lots of options. Problem solved. There's nothing special about the boss delay pedal. I find it a bit grainy compared to the Mooer. 

[Marcello]

20 minutes ago, John Vere said:

The easy way out is just use a delay pedal in the box.  Which amp sim are you using? There are lots of options. Problem solved. There's nothing special about the boss delay pedal. I find it a bit grainy compared to the Mooer. 

I understand, I could use the Overloud plugin effects and save money, they are ok. But on this particular delay pedal there is an amazing shimmer delay sound  much better than that in Overloud. So maybe I’m making too much mess for this shimmer delay, but sound so good, and also the way I have to play this shimmer delay is like a violin sound, so I use the Ernie ball volume pedal together with the delay to make this Orchestra violin sound with the guitar, that would be impossible to play from within the plugins in my daw.

Edited November 10, 2021 by Marcello

[Byron Dickens]

You're really overthinking it.

I can't tell you how many guitarists have a delay pedal in front of a distorted amp.

[Marcello]

1 minute ago, bdickens said:

You're really overthinking it.

I can't tell you how many guitarists have a delay pedal in front of a distorted amp.

I know! But since I’m recording an album is pretty different from just playing live.

[John Vere]

So why don’t you do like I do and plug your guitar into the pedal and record it. As I said I will mostly record this way. Amp sims come in handy but they are not a replacement for the real thing. 
 

Even if you bought the re amp device it might sound horrible and that would suck. 

[Marcello]

1 minute ago, John Vere said:

So why don’t you do like I do and plug your guitar into the pedal and record it. As I said I will mostly record this way. Amp sims come in handy but they are not a replacement for the real thing. 
 

Even if you bought the re amp device it might sound horrible and that would suck. 

Sorry I didn’t explain myself well maybe. I won’t record with a real amp, because I’m home recording and I live in a condominium, so I just can’t, I don’t have a studio.

I use the amp sim from Cakewalk, which is great, and my guitar jack goes directly into my interface.

Now I want to use my delay Boss pedal, as an effect, and that should go after the amp, not before, at least if I want to record a proper sound correct???

then I should need a re-amp box correct?

[John Vere]

It will be before the amp if you plug your guitar into it and plug the pedals output into your interface. This is what I was trying to say. Sorry if you thought I was saying you still had to use a real amp. 
As I said in my first reply I sometimes go directly from my Zoom pedal into my interface. As long as your interface has the correct input impedance it should work fine. 

[Base 57]

Typically the Boss delay pedal goes before the amp. 

If you want to route a recorded track back through the pedal then you should use the reamper. But nothing is forcing you. 

If you are looking to track through the amp sim then loop back through the pedal while playing live, latency will be too much without a very fast computer and interface. 

[Marcello]

9 hours ago, Base 57 said:

Typically the Boss delay pedal goes before the amp. 

If you want to route a recorded track back through the pedal then you should use the reamper. But nothing is forcing you. 

If you are looking to track through the amp sim then loop back through the pedal while playing live, latency will be too much without a very fast computer and interface. 

mmm, I get it guys, I understand what you are saying but I'm a bit sceptical.

Anyway I asked a friend who has a recording studio, the difference is that if you place the delay pedal before everything,  after recording you cannot change anything, if you made a mistake, you have to record it again.

For instance you didn't set up the delay time properly with the song, or you want to change something, maybe too much delay or too less, you have to record again everything, while with the re-amp box you can always change the delay settings after recording because you recorded the clean guitar without effects.

In terms of sound is relative, usually it should go after the distortion, but as you said someone use it before, it shouldn't be a big deal.

So this is the main issue, not the sound.

I might buy it at the end.

 

[John Vere]

What many do like me is record the wet live signal with the effects and split it ( at my Boss tuner). And record a second track dry at the same time. 
Best of both worlds. But I almost always use the wet track.  Myself I need to “play” the effects especially delay. 

[rsinger]

2 hours ago, John Vere said:

Myself I need to “play” the effects especially delay. 

Absolutely. I do home recording so I can always re-record something. If you're a recording engineer I can see that it's nice to be able to tweak things after the artist has recorded.

Edited November 11, 2021 by rsinger