S
soundchaser59
Reluctant Commander
ericlingus said:
For one thing, foam sux - in my ever so humble opinion. Foam is useless for low or midrange freqs, which is what the guitar spits out the most of. I dont use foam at all, except those little foam condoms on my mic.
One key is (I think it's key, anyway) I have one "sound deadening box" inside another "sound deadening box". I built a "box" using plywood floor, 2x2 frame, sound board sides, open on back, top and front so I can move the amp/cab in and out and so I can move mics around. I bought 2 dense movers blankets (they are cheaper than "sound balnkets") and an old thick sleeping bag and sandwiched the bag in between two blankets using those big office binder clips. The 3-layer blanket is big enough to drape over the box, and it covers the front (where the mics sit inside the box) it covers the top and sides, it leaves enough room for the amp to ventilate, and the amp is closed back anyway. But the back of the amp sits about 6 inches from the wall of the booth. So I have a 3x3x3 box covered with this 3 layer blanket, sitting inside my mic booth. If I use my closed back Vox AD50VT, people upstairs cannot hear the guitar. If I use an open back cab they can hear it, but it's muffled and they can still watch tv and talk without distraction. It gives me great isolation in the control area when I mic the speaker. I can really hear exactly what the mic sounds like.
Lately I've been setting just a speaker cab in there instead of an amp, and I keep the amp in the control area. This way I can tweak the amp at will, and hear the results on the monitors via the mic. Then I know exactly what my recording will sound like. I've got it to where I cant hear any difference between the live mic and the recorded playback. Makes it much easier to dial up the right sound in the control room, since I have all the amps and the pedals and mixer and recorder sitting right there next to me while I play guitar.
The booth is framed from 2x2's, maybe 6' or 7' square, 7' high, and I have maybe two dozen sound deadening blankets stapled to it for walls and celing, inside and outside (the floor is concrete basement floor). Then I slid sound board in between all the blankets. All this does is create a dead space around the mics, since cinder block basement is useless for recording anyway. To reduce noise we framed a divider wall around the furnace, effectively seperating the furnace and bathroom from the other half of the basement. The mic booth pretty much forms the north wall of my studio, between the control area and the divider wall. I also have 6 free-standing sound deadening panels around my control area so I can mix without getting reflection and standing waves.
I think the combination of having a "box in a box in a room" is what cuts down on the sound so much for me, especially since the room is a concrete cinder block basement and the booth is free-standing and is not fastened to the house in any way, it just sits on the concrete floor. It sounds way better in the mix than it would sound if I had no box and no booth. Your closet walls probably do more to resonate the sound than isolate it, since your closet is essentially one of the boxes, and it's fastened directly to the rest of the house......but its' better than no box at all.
And thanks but I already have 
