# Custom isolation cabinet for miking guitar in a condo..



## Mindcrime (Nov 2, 2005)

Hello. Does anyone have experience or a schematic/plans/ideas for building an isolation cabinet and mounting speaker(s) in them? I recently moved into a condo and want to setup a recording room. I have a JSX and XXX 4x12 cab I used in my old house I was in, but I dont think the neighbours will like it if I go about this the old fashioned way. I was thinking of building an isolation cabinet and mounting one celestion vintage 30 speaker in it, and placing my E609 mic inside. I know that Randall has an isolation cabinet but heard its not so quiet. And of course the Palmer speaker simulator.. and the new JSX cabinets have a speaker simulator built in them for direct recording (when are they going to be released?!?)

Any ideas??? 

Thanks in advance for your support!

Chris


----------



## Vince (Nov 2, 2005)

My opinion is you don't need it. The soundclips I record and post here usually are recorded in my townhouse, in a room dedicated to music. I set up the amp, I crank to a moderately loud volume (i.e. you can hear it through the door, but not outside or past about 50 feet in the house). I mic the amp right up in the grill, and I never get any sound in the mic from the room, only the speaker. Any room sound in there gets eliminated when I put the recorded part in a digital room I create in my multitracker. If you're using a uni-directional mic or phantom-powered condenser (I recommend the AKG C1000S), you shouldn't get much if any at all room sound, and the mic itself should be pretty isolated.

That's my opinion from experience.


----------



## Mindcrime (Nov 3, 2005)

desertdweller said:


> My opinion is you don't need it. The soundclips I record and post here usually are recorded in my townhouse, in a room dedicated to music. I set up the amp, I crank to a moderately loud volume (i.e. you can hear it through the door, but not outside or past about 50 feet in the house). I mic the amp right up in the grill, and I never get any sound in the mic from the room, only the speaker. Any room sound in there gets eliminated when I put the recorded part in a digital room I create in my multitracker. If you're using a uni-directional mic or phantom-powered condenser (I recommend the AKG C1000S), you shouldn't get much if any at all room sound, and the mic itself should be pretty isolated.
> 
> That's my opinion from experience.



No, I need to isolate. The walls and floor are thin, and im surrounded on all sides.... A townhouse is slighty different. Im not worried about sounds being picked up by the mics during recording, waking up the neighbours or pissing them of is what im trying to avoid.


----------



## cadenhead (Nov 3, 2005)

You could build a dual bandpass box with a mic placed inside and set it on top of one of those sound foam things they sell for amps so as not to get sound vibrations from the floor.  

But then again, I'm not a rocket sergeon. Which means, I don't take my owne advise.


----------



## jakeskylyr (Nov 3, 2005)

Well, I was in the exact situation once, and you can see what I did on my website:

www.jakeskylyr.com 

Go to Music, The Arsenal, then "Secret Cabinet". This worked suitably well, and was silent. I will say that I got a much more dynamic and playable tone this way than through speaker simulation. It was very similar to being in a control room with your amp cranked up in an Iso booth or something. The guitar tones on "Watching You Fall" in the Jukebox here were recorded that way if you want an idea of what to expect. 

(Yeah, I'm a geek )

My 2 cents...


----------

