guitar cab for recording

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Zed10R

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I need to get either a 1-12 or 2-12 cabinet for recording guitar. JUST a cabinet. I have everything else. Does anyone have any suggestions for this? The only criteria I need met are: It has to be a closed back design, it has to be small, and it has to be less than $300.

Ideas?

Thanks again!
 
If it's just for recording, I would suggest the Axetrak - although it's $100 over your budget. But it's an iso cab with a built in mic - you just plug your amp into it, and there's a direct out that goes to your mic pre. You can crank your amp and it's only as loud as a quiet TV.

Just an idea.

http://www.jlhproducts.com/axetrak/
 
Thanks guys......I'll look into all those.

espskully - do you use an axetrak? I've heard that enclosing the speaked and the mic makes a sound that is very enclosed.....does anyone know anything about that?? :confused:
 
Yes I have one and use it. It is a tight sound, but it's easily remedied by adding a touch of reverb or delay. I use one because I have a baby and a wife and don't want to blow them out of the house, and to save my ears. It allows you to get the full saturated sound of your amp being cranked, and uses a real speaker and mic - so it isn't like a modeller.

But like I said - a pinch of 'verb or delay and it sounds nice and open.

And if you want to hear it loud - just arm a track in your daw and crank it thru your monitors. Nice tube sound but totally controlable volume.

It's also tiny and light.

Cheers
 
PS

If you also want to use it in a live setting ie jamming with a band - then this probably isn't for you. It's basically strictly for recording.

PSS

The clean sounds are really nice from it too - even though it says it's intended for overdriven sounds.
 
So I'm a little confused about this. Do they have a built in mic in this thing or do you set it up then just close it all up? Definitely sounds like a good idea but stuff like this I'm always a little hesistant.
 
The mic is built in - it's fully self contained and I don't think you can open it up.
 
Yeah, the Roland cabinet you have to buy and place your own mic. For some, that may be a good thing, for others, maybe not. :)

I had to buy my Sennheiser mic, a gooseneck, and I had to use cable ties and a lot of force to get my mic placed properly. It also took about 20 minutes worth of playing tracks, tweaking the mic, and repeating the process to get the sound I wanted. It was well worth the effort though.

I almost want to modify the cabinet so I can have a second mic further away. The best tone I have ever had came from two mics recording the same cabinet during the same take and panning each mic somewhat differently.
 
So how does it isolate the sound then? It seems like if you have an opening for the cable and whatnot you would run into sound leaking out.

Do you have enough room to put a mic stand in there with the amp? Let me rephrase, is it enough room to put most any amp along with a big bulky stand and mic?

Also, how is the bleed when you really crank it up? Sound like a loud TV or have you tried really turning it out? Any info would be great because I definitely need something. Does it make the sound boxy at all? How much did you spend? Any info would be awesome.
 
I spent $275 used for a modified one of these. The one I have has about 6 inches shaved off of the top of the lid. It just barely fits under my computer table.

http://www.randallamplifiers.com/products/cabinets/isolation/index.asp

Basically it is a box with a 12" Celestion Vintage 30 (90watts and 8ohms I believe). The box is totally closed. The mic input leads to another cable which will attach to your mic on a built-in stand inside of the cabinet. I got the gooseneck attachment so I could get the mic really close to the speaker so I could get the brightness I require to keep my sound crisp.

The top has a latch and it keeps an amazing ammount of sound contained within the box. I can turn up my Triple Rectifier to about 3-3.5 which is actually pretty loud when plugged into the 4x12 cab. Playing live shows, I never turned it up above 4 or 5, even when my cabinet wasn't miced.

At that volume, within the Iso cab, it sounds like a medium level boom box listening to music. Not something you would want to do at 3 in the morning in an apartment building with someone living right under you, but not something you would be affraid to fire up at 8 or 9pm. I routinely record at 9-10pm and never have any complaints. The only thing they probably hear is some of the bass transmission from the low chunky notes. Other than that, it's really damn quiet.

Sound? Sound will depend heavily on what mic you use and how you place it. I got a Sennheiser e609 (I think thats the one) with the silver grille. A difference in 1-2 inches in placement from the speaker made a world of tone difference. It went from boxy and flat to having lots of definition and clarity. Mic placement is super important.

The box basically seems to get raw speaker tone. I might be wrong, but it doesn't seem to be colored by the box (or anything else) at all. The sound I hear in my headphones is what I get when I record... and the sound in the headphones sounds pretty damn good. :)

Also to be noted, I can easily crank my headphones to drown out the sound from the Iso cabinet without having it sound ear-damagingly loud through the phones. That's how quiet you can get the Iso.

I would reccomend it.

Demeter also makes a similar cabinet.
 
Oh so you do use your own head and mic? Ok that was what was throwing me off. I assume it just has a jack for the input to the speaker. Yea that sounds like just what I need. I'm just afraid that I won't be able to get the sound I want out the speaker. Of course that type of speaker sounds like what a good amount of people use. I assume the gooseneck attachment is just an add on to the price?

I really wish I could check this thing out because it's a lot of money to spend on something I can't try out first. Where did you get yours (since you said you got it used).
 
I actually built an isolation box to fit around my amp. Some 2x4's, 1/2" plywood, insulation material, carpet and some screws. Drilled a small hole to run the mic cable in and out of. Works great and saves my ears and neighbor complaints!
 
booyah14 said:
Oh so you do use your own head and mic? Ok that was what was throwing me off. I assume it just has a jack for the input to the speaker. Yea that sounds like just what I need. I'm just afraid that I won't be able to get the sound I want out the speaker. Of course that type of speaker sounds like what a good amount of people use. I assume the gooseneck attachment is just an add on to the price?

I really wish I could check this thing out because it's a lot of money to spend on something I can't try out first. Where did you get yours (since you said you got it used).
Click to expand...
I bought it off of eBay. This auction. It's actually cheaper than I remember it. :) Keep in mind that mine was modified, which is probably why it was so cheap.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7336254070&category=10171&rd=1

It comes with a built in mic stand and a mic clip, but I just went to the Guitar Center and bought a gooseneck for about $9 I think.

If you get a Randall Iso cab, I would suggest finding one that has the Celestion in it. There are two speaker types, that and Eminence I believe. I think the Celestion costs a bit more to begin with.

Sound clips? Maybe I can pound something out tonight if I have time.

And yes, this cabinet is used instead of a 4x12. So I use my same amp head, same effects, same everything except I just switch the output from one cabinet to the other. My 4x12 acts as more of a stand than anything now. :)
 
Zed10R said:
Thanks guys......I'll look into all those.

espskully - do you use an axetrak? I've heard that enclosing the speaked and the mic makes a sound that is very enclosed.....does anyone know anything about that?? :confused:
Click to expand...

yes can we have some more comments on the sound?
 
I'm almost done with a track that I've been working on - left channel: axetrak, right channel: Flextone direct in. I'll post it this week.

Cheers
 
Good deal. If anyone has clips of this please let me know because I would love to check out the tone.
 
i bought an avatar 4-12 on ebay for 75 bucks and it came with two 120w eminence speaker in it. you could leave it like that and use it like a 4x12 (not exactly ideal as that is not what it was designed for) or for around a 100 dollars you could fill it out. Anywasy when i compare this A to B with a friend 1960A marshall cab it blows it away. If i were you i would buy an avatar off of ebay. they are amazing.
 
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