Soundproof box for a 4x12 cab

  • Thread starter Thread starter yomodomo
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yomodomo

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I just wanted to see if anybody has ever made a soundproof box to mic a 4x12 cab. Know I've seen single speaker enclosures with a built in mic stand that you can buy, but I don't want to buy one. I'd rather just build it myself.
Anyway I will want to use a sm57 (of course) and an audio technica AT 3035 condenser. The problem is I don't now how the AT 3035 would react in such close quarters. I want crank my 5150 II, but I don't want to damage my 3035 mic.


Oh yea, hello.
 
i attemted this once. the result was a muddy sucky guitar tone mess. cabinets need to "breath".
 
was not 100% isolation by any means, but, it cut the volume down quite a bit. 3/4" plywood exterior. 33" wide 36" tall and 43" long. all joints were sealed with culk. inside as lined with a bunch of auralex foam i had left over. floor floated on 4 1" x 1" x 1" foam cubes. speaker cabinet didnt touch the box anywhere. doors were seeled with weather striping. if you need more isolation, build another box around the outside of this one. not very portable. again, i think it would sound better if you let the speakers "breath".
 
I once read an article about taking a celestion and building a long narrow cab, about a foot and a half square and real long, like 6 ft. They put the celestion at one end in its own enclosure to simulate a cabinet, and miced the speaker from the other end of the enclosure. Then they cranked the amp to 11 and recorded the natural speaker distortion. Supposedly they used this on some of the 80's rock albums.
 
love that 11

Boomtap: hehe, you must like that "11" setting. Still haven't seen the spinal tap video, need to get around to doing that cause I hear it's freakin hilarious.

Anways, I built an enclosure unit that is 6 feet long, 4 feet high, and 3 feet wide to mic my 4x12. Bascially I used 2x4 for the skeleton, and I had some 5/8" Medium Density Fiber (the stuff they use for floors) to close it in. I had some of the quiet walk foam laying around that is used underneath laminate flooring, so I put that up on the inside of the cab to cut down on reflections. I didn't go so far as weather stripping or elevating the box off the floor, but even still the enclosure cuts down on the loudness quite a bit.

I use a JCM2000 head unit into a boss BR1600 with a shure 57 mic on the middle of the speaker cone. You can check and see how it sounds at this site:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=403660

I also enjoyed making the box cause it meant I got to buy a miter saw. New power tools are always a good thing!!
 
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this works for this guy...but not total isolation, of course.

and sorry for the lousy pic :)
 

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Ok, it's settled I'm going to make one. Thanks for the replies.
 
Radiohead0709 said:
I also enjoyed making the box cause it meant I got to buy a miter saw. New power tools are always a good thing!!
Click to expand...

I agree, you always need an excuse to buy the tool to get the job done.

The only problem I have is what a previous poster mentioned about the air. Seem like a tight enclosure would not work super well (ie that plexi-glass) because the speakers would be fighting agaist themselves in that little tight space. I would think it would defeat the purpose of cranking it up to get the good sound because the more sound presure you create in that tight area the more mud you would get. I could be wrong I have never tried it, and I am not an expert of acoustics.
 
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