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I live in a two bedroom flat {or apartment, depending on which side of the Atlantic or Pacific you happen to be on} with my wife and two boisterous kids. As you can see from these pictures0.1-back view of flats.JPG 0.2-front view of flats.JPGthey’re flats with upstairs and downstairs and like many of the flat building projects in England from the 1960s, they’re great ideas but without the execution to match. So consequently, we live in rabbit hutches, which, from a making music point of view does not bode well ! These particular flats are the kind where if someone switches on a light next door, you’ll hear it. One of the sons of next door neighbours on one side is an Irish dance champion and when we first moved here, I used to hear this incredible rhythm coming from next door. I actually thought it was a basketball bouncing but it turned out to be him rehearsing his dance moves. I always meant to record it {it was a great sound} but it was unpredictable when he’d be dancing so......
But you get the picture. I’m very fortunate that all of the neighbours that could be affected by loud sounds are pretty cool. Also, with a combination of acoustic, virtual/sampled and not very loud electric instruments, making music really isn’t an issue here. With two exceptions ~ drums and electric guitar (and sometimes, you can throw the electric mandolin in there too). With the drums I did try the electric route but have since returned to an acoustic kit {though sometimes I’ll use an electric kick}.
I’m kind of a fusion of experimental and particular about my guitar sounds. I’m a lousy player but I get by. For many years I recorded guitar DI but I noticed that the electric guitar sounds I liked most always came from sticking a mic, any old mic, next to the amp {any old amp !}. I don’t want to get into a mic vs DI war here, I will sometimes DI my guitar but I just prefer the raw madness of the amp sound. Of course that immediately gives me problems because there is a definite noise factor. I have a 15 watt line 6 amp and a 100 watt bass amp that also handles guitar very well.
When I first got involved in HR a couple of years ago, there was this strange guy called marioantigod who used to irritate people but he was having a problem of cranking his guitar up loud where he lived and somebody suggested an isocab. At this point {early 2010} I’d never heard of such a thing and did some looking into it. What was interesting was going around the big deal music shops in London’s West end and asking about isocabs........and no one had heard of such a thing. I obviously wasn’t alone. Checking them online, I saw very few existed and of those that did, no one seemed entirely satisfied with theirs. But I didn’t really care, I was intrigued and when I heard someone suggest the idea of a box within a box, I thought that would be feasible. My main concern is the cutting down of noise. I couldn’t see the quality of sound being any worse than anything I’ve already achieved { ! } and despite the points made about how a guitar sounds in the room, I go along with the point that if you’re close miking, it’s what the mic picks up that really matters. Besides which, I like experimenting with sound.......
So I determined to build a box within a box. I’m no builder, I’m technically challenged to the Nth degree, I had no idea if it would work.........but it did. Of course, it’s not 100% soundproof, but then, from all the research I did, no one’s is.
Home recording seems pretty hi tech these days but I guess being a 60s child that can still remember the impact of the DIY 70s and 80s and much of the homemade noodlings of the times, I thought that there might be the odd few out there that might be thinking along DIY lines in certain matters and might benefit from seeing how such a box might be put together. 1a.JPGWhen I’m doing anything that requires wood or MDF being cut, I do my measurements then go to any of the hardware stores that will do the cutting for me. In this instance I used MDF. 2a.JPGI made sure I screwed in the screws first because it’s a pain in the patootie trying to do it while holding two pieces in awkward positions. Or at least, it is for me. A 'G' clamp would’ve sorted that, but hey.
3a.JPGThis gives some idea of how the bits start to fit together. This is the inner box.
4a.JPGI call this my ‘buenos notches’. The idea is that this is where leads will pass through. 4b.JPG
For extra bracing on the outside of each box 5a.JPG. As well as screwing the pieces together, I also wood glue the wood. I wanted this thing to hold together.
The outer box had no gaps but the inner one had the odd gap here and there so I sealed it 6a.JPGwith some sealant all the way.
7a.JPG Once both boxes had been put together, this is them side by side. On reflection, the outer box could have been 3~4 inches taller.
8a covered boxes.JPG I could actually have left them as they were but I decided to cover them in this stuff called acoustistop. In some applications it helps to deaden if not eliminate reflections. It was flaming heavy stuff which added to the mass. Besides, it looked cool !
9a.JPG10a.JPG11a.JPGMy younger son who was 5 at the time, enjoyed getting into the inner box and I noticed that there was a definite reverb~y ring when he shouted. I’ve noted the weight of opinion about foam and I’m no foam fan though I’m not going to invade Iraq because of it’s usage either. It’s not entirely useless though. And I used a bit in the inner box and inner lid and it took that ring away. Because sometimes I might send an acoustic guitar or mandolin into the amp, I don’t want it dead. The balance is just about right. I bought one of those gooseneck mic holders and screwed it in as a permanent feature. You can move it about so the mike picks up different aspects of sound from the cone.
12a.JPG Both boxes needed some decoupling so both in and out are neoprene rubber at various points. The inner box neoprene 13a.JPG is what the amp is placed on. This picture also shows the inner box placed within the outer one. One box is heavy on it’s own. The two are immense ! The light coloured strips are markings to highlight the notches for the leads/cables.
14a.JPG 15a.JPGThese show the handles and clips on the box{es}. The clips go a long way towards clamping the leads/cables down tight and help in preventing sound from leaking out. Both boxes are clamp clipped.
16a.JPG17a.JPG It may not be the neatest looking thing but I don’t really care. It does the job. This is what the inner box looks like with my guitar amp and bass amp inside. As a bonus, both amps can fit in the box together so it’s a storage +. I can use the isocab or mic the amps out of the cab. The good thing about this kind of box as opposed to an all in one is that the amp is moveable so you can put a variety of amps in there. You’re not limited to the speaker as you are with an all in one.
18a.JPGWhile I was building this box {it brings back lovely memories of Supercreep’s, RAMI’s and Chili’s music because that’s what I listened alot to at the time}, I was forever tossing up where I was going to put it. My kids were keen for it to go in their room and it could’ve gone in my wife and I’s room but I didn’t want that simply because of it’s size. The cupboard that I keep my guitars and congas in was a candidate but the box was bigger than I thought and I wasn’t confident I could get it in there. In the end, the best place was the kitchen cupboard. It just fitted with an inch or so to spare but I had to get my friend that works for British Gas to come and remove the gas meter in order for us to get it in there. Getting it in was really hard work that left us sweating and contorting to put it in the right position. It was having to fit into a really small space and weight wise it was a beast. It was even harder getting the inner box in there. I can assure you, it’s never coming out of there !
So does it work ?
Yeah.
I run a 10 meter cable to the kitchen and a 10 meter mic cable back to my recorder. With the two boxes clamped shut, the cables passing under the door and the door shut, I can crank the guitar up loud and have the amp on full and when I ask my wife or the kids in the kitchen if they can hear it, they barely can hear it. When I get my son to bang about on the guitar and I go in to listen in the kitchen, I can barely hear it. I’ve done a few recordings with that set up and they’re OK. Better than before ? Hard to say . They’re certainly not worse {and my ideas have improved}.
It won’t change the nature of sound or improve it or make me a better player but I can do what I’ve wanted to for a long time ~ record loud guitar without driving the neighbours to thoughts and acts of violence and/or extermination !
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no one else up there!
Originally Posted by moresound
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