The way you demonstrated mic placement was great. It's funny that one of the best mic placement videos on a guitar amp was a synth video!

Going through a amp is really the secret sauce. Because most analog synths are solid state, they sound terrific and technically very clean. However a synth through the guitar tubes is going to give it a lot of overtones and overall human warmth we all love. It really can make your electronic tracks feel more alive and less robotic/cold.

You should really add a disclaimer that one could easily blow a guitar speaker with bass frequencies from synths. Others are questioning only amps for some reason, but it is the speakers that can be damaged.

This is how all synth instructional videos should run, precise and clear, the emphasis on music and not cheap sequencer noises.

The Minimoog through my Bassman sounds phenomenal. The Bassman reproduces every nuance of the frequencies but the only drawback is that it lacks the thunder of modern bass amps.

OMG did the same thing a few weeks ago while wanting to add my pedals in Ableton. Also for saturation or distortion this is a very good idea too. Thank you again for the clear and beautiful inspiration!

I remember an interview with Geddy Lee of Rush from the early to mid 80’s, that they would record the synth parts thur a guitar/ bass amp and they would do it the same for there live performance. And his argument is that it make the synth sound more natural than being plugged into a board.

Was looking for exactly this. Thank you for posting. Very calming and informative delivery!

Really enjoy these synth production videos you guys do. I have 2 amps I do this with, often utilising the effects on the Fender for more extreme amp type sounds.

Thanks for the video!! I'd love to watch a part two comparing the DI output with the wet output :)

I made a guitar amp for my keyboardist. It became part of his lead sound, and can't live without it. :)

Great video! I was just watching some old footage of the late producer, Bruce Swedien (Michael Jackson's Off The Wall & Thriller), talking about how he used to always pump his synths through speakers in a studio that he would then record with mics

Very cool! I love this idea. Hope to get a chance to try it out.

Brilliant, is my first thought! Second thought was ‘This makes even MORE sense for synths than it ever did for guitars’! With the purity of sound now, we are all aware of chasing a never-ending amount of computing and software sophistication, trying to warm-up/randomise/saturate etc the core synthesised waveforms…then this comes along as a technique crying out to be paired with that old CMI Fairlight I have in the cupboard (no, I really don’t). This is surprisingly one of the most interesting and compelling adventures into sound design and processing I have seen in ages. There is the slight drawback of course as I found doing vocals late at night. Next day cleaning up the tracks I realised the washing machine had been droning on the entire time, and I never noticed. Familiarity breeds deafness. But ambient intrusions aside, I freaking love this idea. I thought I was pretty intrepid back in the day, putting a tiny cheap Casiotone through a chorus pedal and a phaser pedal, and making it sound half-decent for the teenage band. Good work and a surprising number of commenters/contributors echo your views on this. Bad wordplay, sorry. Thanks! Keep safe, be well.

Awesome, I used to just play my synths through my tube amp all the time because I love the grit that it gives it. I find that oftentimes distortion pedals on synths can be overly grating but running them through the tube amps gives them that grit that im looking for without it being too overwhelming. I especially liked your comment about the complexity and nuance it imparts, you out words to a sensation I could never quite put my finger on or describe to others. Now I’ll have an explanation when someone asks me why I’m risking blowing out my amp to run my synth through it hahaha.

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing this worth info!

Loved this vid ❤

Very nice demonstration but I was waiting for a distorted amp example. I’m sure it would be cool. Thanks for your time and most thorough explanation.

Habe dich grade entdeckt und finde dein Video MEGA! Keep on

sick! great vid man!

I do this in the DAW with ABL3 into an amplifier VST. That was how Roland was expecting musicians to use the TB303 in the first place. Can get some nice warm sounds.

Way back when, I had to play my Acetone organ through a guitar amp. It added grit and almost made it sound like an overdriven Hammond. It's really the only way that I view as providing grit. By the way, the amp was a cheap 2 12 inch speaker Lafayette amp with just tremolo (which I never used) and tone controls.

I've been using an acoustic guitar amp with my cz101 recently so this was a nice video to see

I've been pushing my soft synths through my amp sims for a while now. I'm glad I do.

Actually I found this very relaxing - the musical ideas are very nice - I like the idea of using physical space with synth sounds

Glad you made this...I was thinking how it might sound nice to run synths through stereo speakers and record in stereo with a couple matched mics or a handheld zoom stereo or whatever.

That’s all I ever use with my portables. Guitar amps, though I much prefer solid state. The new Hiwatt Crunch 150 combo 1x12 sounds amazing, plus it has an 1/8” preamp bypass, and a spring reverb.

Jan Hammer in the 70's uses Twin Reverb with the Minimoog, and in the 80's I played bass in a jazz rock band where the keyboard player runs his Micromoog thru a Twin too. But for this style, the Moog where used mainly for soloing, so the bass sounds where not used as in techno styles. For this kind of bass sounds, you need a good bass bass amp, and of course, you always do bi-amplification routing to a guitar and a bass amps, cutting bass in the guitar amp and cutting highs on the bass amp. And for the budget, you always run your synth thru a SansAmp.

Cool. When I got my first synth, all I had was a Fender amp. Played on it for quite a bit and now actually prefer the sound to monitor speakers.

I have been playing various synths, samplers and drum machines through different instrument amplifiers and guitar pedals for years… That Moog would sound amazing though my bass amp I know mine always has It is nice to see this level of explanation for the reason behind its benefits

Awesome video. Very interesting and helpful. I would like to work with this guy right here.

Nice playing and sounds dude

geddy lee always put his synthesizers through speaker cabinets. he said without it they sounded empty and thin. a real speaker that's moving real air adds so much more space

I wish this would be incorporated more with synths. Barely charted territory. Build in speakers still seem like a gimmick for toys but I really hope one day it will be part of the overal design of the instruments. A synth could be an acoustic instrument.

As always an excellent explanation Felix. Much appreciated. Loving you little riffs as well. I wonder what you make of software emulations like NI Guitar Rig? I also watched a video interview of Pole recently (dub techno / electronica legend!) where he explained that he places his mics behind the amp for the optimal dub bass. I suppose it's one of the downsides of software emulations that you cannot use it wrong intentionally :) Anyway, thanks for the tips!

superb video - thank you

Legit planned to test this out today for the past week

Great video! Thank you

Just use a reamp box to bring the signal down to instrument level. Radial PRORMP works great for this.

Great video thanks!

I would be curious about your opinion on the Korg OpSix Guitar Amp effects. To my amateur ears, they sound absolutely wonderful on just about any patch and add so much character and liveliness to it. I was honestly blown away by the many different models of amp you can select from as well.

Cool idea!!

Great vid! I know Battles did this on at least one or two of their albums from an Ableton vid I watched with them. It certainly creates a timbre that is way different than going direct.

Great video! I am a guitar player and found this very informative. Many tube/valve amps have an inherent hissing sound and I've had trouble with this in the past...any hints on how to deal with tube/valve amplifier hissing when recording with microphones? Your sound is very clear and I didn't pick up on much hiss at all. Thanks!

I used to run my Micromoog through my Mesa back in the day because that's honestly the amp I had available haha

Thanks for inspiring me to use IRs! 😄

Sehr gut und nett video. Ich habe ein Twin Reverb kürzlich gekauft. Es war aus diesem Grund. Roland JCs sind auch gut für synths.

Good video 👍. I find that when the other instruments are being recorded in a room, synths will blend better in the mix if they are also "moving air". The reduced bandwidth and ambience also helps for synths with patches that have audible artifacts such as the DX7 or DX27.

You could try connecting the synth to the 'low inputs' (input 2) of the amp

Very cool sound design fun.

Nice vid! I have to amp my synths for what I do. I compose for TV and film. If I just DI, A & R or music library editors & managers always say, "You need more up-to-date plugins". And they're not even plugins. If I amp and mic, they always accept the sound of my track pitches

this is why i like using cabinet simulators on my softsynths too :)

I record sometimes my modular drummaschine/synth Monster into my huges&kettner amp and the built in spring reverb sounds amazing! Very good Results.. Grüße aus Wien 🤟🇦🇹 Euer Herr Fuchs

I love putting analog monosynths through tube amps and distortion/fuzz!

Amazing! Now all I need is a nice Fender amp and Moog synth 😢

great technique

Love this video. Question: I have a fender reverb deluxe that I feed my synth through for practices but I don’t really like the sound of it. The sounds feel thin and cheap. When played through my monitors, the synth has more body and presence. What amps offer a more robust and hi-fi sound? I’ve been told by a friend that the reason my fender amp sounds bad with the synth is that, with it being built of guitar, it’s not designed to carry that low-end. But there’s something about the sound quality across the frequency spectrum that feels kind of gritty in an unappealing way. Thoughts?

Nice track for the demo, you should release it!

Nice video! I own a Fender Twin Reverb. I Want to star experimenting. Could the Twin Rev. be damage if I send low bass synth to its speakers? or there is no problem for that? Thanks in advance.

I also have a Casio digital piano that has a place for a thumb drive would that be easier.

The DX7 is amazing through guitar amps and effects, something about the cold preciseness.

Mixing synths is so hard because it doesn’t exist in a space. It’s too pure

I might do this because I'm having a rough time getting FL studio to record my Microfreak.

Awesome video! How about drum machines going through an amp? Same principle???

I have a question, Felix (or anyone). Generally speaking, how loud do you need the amp to be? I've been wanting to try this technique for a while, but I live in an apartment building with close neighbours who I don't want to annoy. Do you need to have the sound cranked up or will this technique work well at more modest volumes?

should you use an instrument cable or a TRS?

Hi, that a very interesting approach and surely very sonically contributive due to the different types of microphones and amps used. Being quite new in the synth world, I'm wondering which type of cable do you use to make the connection between the synth and the guitar amp a studio line cable or a guitar cable ? In addition when the guitar amp has 2 types of input Low Z and Hi Z which one has to be selected . Thanks for the interesting video, for reading my comment and maybe your answer. All the best Christian

thomann couldn't get you a second mic stand for that royer mic?

I literally have been doing this for a couple years after I jokingly plugged a microphone directly into my amp input and started singing while messing around with the digital effects like tremolo and shit haha

Do you plug the synthesizer in the amp with a aux in cable ?

I imagine if we use synths apps from ipad it's the same concept or we must considerer other details?

This is an amazing video. Can anyone recommend any starter synthesizers? I have experience with Sylenth and Serum but I would love to get into the hardware synth space. Thank you Thomann for the video

I have an oldish amp with three inputs: Mic, Low and High. I wouldn’t know how to choose for doing what you did.

you should really use a reamp box in between the synth and amp so you have less noise and don’t ruin your amp :)

Get an Roland JC-120 and crank the built in chorus and reverb. TRUST. Best sounding amp to run a synth through.

Could I hook my marshall cabinet with my grandmother Moog?

So as long as i keeo the keyboard volume low it won't be too hot or should i keep the amp down and the keyboard up? The higher the volume on the keyboard the more electricity actually gets pushed through the guitar amp and bottlenecked? Or is it just the the high highs of the keyboard volume proportionally goes way higher than a guitar? (A guitar volume 10 less than keyboard volume 10)?

Gary Numan did this on The Pleasure Principle

I used to do that, but some people told me at the time that some frequencies of synths can cause damages on amp. Maybe it's not true, don't really know.

do the lower frequencies that the synths can produce not run the risk of damaging the amp itself?

reason why i´m studying sound engineer

synth players also use guitar pedals like fuzz or a wah

So is it safe to plug a synth into a guitar amp, just need to stay low with volume from the synth. I have a champ that I want to use with my moog

I run everything through my practice amp because pedals but also I just think its more convenient

What do you think about recording synths through bass amps?

better results if you convert the signal to high impedance before going into the amp.

何よりパッチ良すぎやろ　公開してくれ

yeah, but am I stupid? how can you monitor the output without cans on without feedback?

Tubeie valveie goodness is for everybody!!! Mmm at7’s

Great video but just one doubt... it means that I can play my synth through my guitar amp ??.. I'd not like to spoil my amp or synth..

The problem I have with recording synths with a amp is I don't have the extra money for room treatment and bass traps

I would like to do this in the DAW, I'm syre its possible!

Jan Hammer played through guitar amps a lot when he recorded music for Miami Vice.

A really good example Of synthesizers being miked up in acoustic spaces Is the Depeche Mode construction time again album Too many of the new recordings Sound sterile

This would work for home studio recording where volumes don't have to be so loud.

well known technique since day one:), but say bye bye to the low end using guitar amps... some synthesizers like whole freq range, I wouldn't plug my model D into the guitar amp, probably bass amp can give nice growl, but entire freq range equipment allows you to hera how the synthesizer sounds in 'real' :). I like to send drums through amps though, cool effect.

KB300 pretty good amp tho

kind of what ben harper's will to live was used ? nice

Bernie Worrell used Gallien Krueger amps...

Lorn is the god of this