TL; DRRe-amping is a recording technique of playing audio files through physical audio hardware like effect pedals and amplifiers to give digital instruments and sounds more natural character.
Long Answer:
One of the studio wiz's favorite back-pocket tricks, re-amping is a classic way to get more liveliness and natural character out of digital sounds and instruments. Picture this: You've got a guitar recorded, maybe a synth line, a drum loop, but it's feeling a little bland, a little artificial, a little sterile. Maybe it could benefit from breaking out of the computer for some in-room lusciousness. How do you do that?
There's a number of devices out today to help you along with re-amping. All you need to do is take your recorded audio track, connect your audio interface out to a re-amp box, connect the re-amp output to an amplifier's input, mic the amp, then play the audio track and record what comes out of the amp. Easy, right?
In essence, all you're doing is replacing an instrument into an amp with a recorded audio file. You've mic'ed an amp, played a guitar through it, and recorded that, right? Same principle. What's more, put some effect pedals in between that audio playback and your amplifier and you've got an spring reverb, an analog delay, a four-stage phaser, doing what it does best on your audio file.
Re-amp boxes are pretty common pieces of gear, these days. Though their job is fairly simple, bridging the gap in volume and impedance between an audio file playback and an in-room amplifier, it's a crucial thing to get right. Check out reamps from Walrus Audio, Radial, and Franklin Audio for different takes on the technique.
For a few reamps to try for yourself, check out these trusted names and brands:
