A home recording trick I've used often is to put an amph in a closet & mic it into the board.
Hey All,
I was wondering what the acoustic concerns would be (and how to overcome them) for building up a smallish isolation booth for recording loud amps. In my current setup I can't crank anything over 5 watts and I'd like to be able to capture the sound of some of my larger amps (nothing huge, but some 40 and 50 watters) at or near 'full on.'
To do this I thought I could build an isolation booth that was space conscious but still got the job done well - is this something people have tried?
I didn't see much about it, so I assume it was tried and failed at this point, but maybe one of you fine folks can offer me some advice?
Thanks!
- Robert
Guitars: 1977 Gibson S1, Fender 50's Classic Player Edition Stratocaster (MIM), Fender American Deluxe HSS Stratocaster, Lonestar Tele, Yamaha FrankenGuitar (you could call it 'modded' but it just looks broken), Agile AL-3000M Thru-Neck, Agile Valkyrie 24, Peavey T-25, Xaviere XV-550, Xaviere XV-500
Amps: R-50H Reverberocket, Vintage Modern 2266, Twin Reverb, Blues Junior, YCV-40, Hot Rod Deville, Bassman Ten, Valve Junior, Lectrolab R700C, VS65R, Powerblock, GX212R, A small army of vintage Harmony's and similar amps
Pedals: Too many to list - 90% of them of my own making.
Visit me on the webz: pedalbuilder.com
A home recording trick I've used often is to put an amph in a closet & mic it into the board.
"Always go heavy on the effects and try to blind the audience with expensive gear." - hubberjub
I mean, no offense, but I don't really see why, like guitar players from Creed, or something like that, are on the cover of guitar magazines. Almost anybody can sit down and learn to play those songs.
Dweezil Zappa
Yeah the closet trick works. Just make sure whatever you put it in has a little bit of padding or you're get some weird slapback issues.
http://www.justinjeremias.com
Highway One Tele > Korg DT-10 tuner > GGG ITS8 (langraff) > BYOC OD2 Mosfet > GGG Tremelo > DD7 (with tap) > Modded DL4 > Dunlop Volume > Hot Rod Deluxe
I've also seen carpet draped over the amph to kill a lot of sound.
"No Tele For you." - The Tele Nazi
Ha! Tele-ish now inbound.
DIY iso box might be what you are looking for. http://www.amptone.com/diyisobox.htm
Oh yeah, I've built a few...the best I liked was I have this space between two doors in my home leading to the basement that's big enough for a 1x12", that works pretty well. I just put an old mattress and the 12" cab there and it worked OK.
But, ultimately, it really is best when you also have a mic farther away, never did get the sound I wanted that way, in a closet.
Dee
"When life's a biatch, be a horny dog"
Amps: Marshall JVM 410H w/ Plexi Cap mod, Choke Mod & Negative Feedback Removal mod, 4x12", Behringer GMX110, Amplitube 3/StealthPedal
Half a dozen custom built/bastardized guitars all with EMG's, mostly 85's, Ibanez Artwood acoustic & Yamaha SGR bass, Epiphone Prophecy SG, Vox Wah, Pitchblack tuner plus assorted pedals, rack gear etc. for home studio use.
Thanks for the suggestions. Looks like I'll go with an isolation box - the closet would be cool, but my 160-year-old rowhouse doesn't have any! Hopefully I'll build it up this weekend - if it's worth sharing I'll put some pics up.
- Robert
Guitars: 1977 Gibson S1, Fender 50's Classic Player Edition Stratocaster (MIM), Fender American Deluxe HSS Stratocaster, Lonestar Tele, Yamaha FrankenGuitar (you could call it 'modded' but it just looks broken), Agile AL-3000M Thru-Neck, Agile Valkyrie 24, Peavey T-25, Xaviere XV-550, Xaviere XV-500
Amps: R-50H Reverberocket, Vintage Modern 2266, Twin Reverb, Blues Junior, YCV-40, Hot Rod Deville, Bassman Ten, Valve Junior, Lectrolab R700C, VS65R, Powerblock, GX212R, A small army of vintage Harmony's and similar amps
Pedals: Too many to list - 90% of them of my own making.
Visit me on the webz: pedalbuilder.com
An iso box is a good way to go to limit/suppress volume, but a drawback may be that it limits (a) mic placement and/or (b) amp/speaker cab size. It also requires a space/location commitment. The casters on that site's design at least make it easier to move around, but that thing looks awfully heavy...
A more flexible and versatile solution is to use a 'gobo'. That term is mainly for a portable stage lighting defrlector panel, but I learned it in the studio as a folding acoustic deflector panel. They can vary in height and width; taller ones to create folding vocal iso booths, shorter ones to surround a drum kit, shortest to surround a guitar amp. You can have the panels with a reflective or absorbent surface. I googled and found this design example for an adaptable idea of how to make them using regular doors:
DIY Acoustic Gobos
I'd built myself a set of 2 for my old home studio 7 years ago, to create an iso zone or booth in the corner of an otherwise very large (20x16x10) room. Simlar to that site's design, only they cost about $30 in foam and cloth -- a couple of cheap foam eggcrate mattress pads and cheap old sheets staple-gunned over the foam to hold it in placeand -- and a junked pair of bifold doors that probably cost about $40-$50 new at a Home Depot. Here, from the inside,they're behind the bongos & mics to the right:
Here's what they and the iso zone looked like from behind, with stuff moved around inside for a different recording setup...the checkerboard contac paper added about $5 to the job. If I needed a reflective surface instead of absorbent (like to record an acoustic guitar or just wanted room reverb), I'd just turn them inside out:
Saw them in half and you've got 4 of them about the size for making iso's for 2 average guitar/bass amps; or use one bifold door instead of the 2 like I did, sawed in half, and you've got your foldable, movable box for 1 amp that you can store in a closet or even load in a van or SUV. That iso box might be a kinda tuff to do that with.
Last edited by wingsdad; February 12th, 2011 at 11:45 AM. Reason: typo
^^
AXES: Fender '81 The STRAT, '12 Standard Tele, '78 Musicmaster Bass, '13 CN-240SCE Thinline; Rickenbacker '82 360-12BWB; Epiphone '05 Casino, '08 John Lennon EJ-160E; Guild '70 D-40NT; Ovation '99 Celebrity CS-257; Yamaha '96 FG411CE-12; Washburn '05 M6SW Mando, '08 Oscar Schmidt OU250Bell Uke; Johnson '96 JR-200-SB Squareneck Reso; Hofner '07 Icon B-Bass; Ibanez '12 AR-325. AMPS: Tech 21 Trademark 10; Peavey ValveKing Royal 8; Fender Acoustonic 90, Passport Mini, Mini Tonemaster; Marshall MS-2 Micro Stack; Behringer BX-108 Thunderbird; Tom Scholz Rockman. PEDALS/FX: Boss ME-50; Yamaha EMP100; Stage DE-1; Samson C-Com 16 L.R. Baggs ParaAcoustic D.I; MXR EQ-10.