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Rodgre
carpal tunnel
Joined: 30 May 2003
Posts: 1621
Location: Central MA
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 Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:14 pm Post subject: DIY Speaker Iso Box |
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I just finished wiring up a DIY Iso Box and recorded some experiments with it.
What I did was to take a squareish flightcase, around 2' wide/tall with a hinged cover. It was lined with 2" of dense foam already. I cut a 3/4" baffleboard out of good quality finished plywood, which slides in and out of channels that I cut into the foam in the case. The baffle currently has a Celestion G10L 10" speaker in it. I put a threaded table-top mic stand mount on the front of the baffle, and screwed on a 3" extender and a mic clip.
Preliminary results were quite good. I ran a Pro Junior through it and swapped out a bunch of mics and got varying results in tone (though all of them seemed on the dark side, which I tend to like, but I would like to hear a little more sparkle and clarity on top. That could have been the amp, the speaker, too much bleed from the back of the speaker causing phasing issues, the mic, etc. )
I've been wanting to do this for a long time. It seems like it will be really handy if I'm trying to get a decent guitar tone with a smaller-wattage amp while tracking live, if I'm really trying to avoid bleed. I'm also hoping that it will sound good on bass, run at low volume as well. The baffle can be removed very easily, and the speaker can be swapped out if need be. That also lets me use the case to carry stuff to gigs as well. 
Roger
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rulesforradicals
alignin' 24-trk
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 63
Location: North Florida
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| Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:04 pm Post subject: Re: DIY Speaker Iso Box |
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This is great! And what a smart way to put it all together. Makes me wish I hadn't sold those road cases I had.
Could you put in a more adjustable mic mount? That way you could move the mic more to the center of the cone if need be or further away.
But, really--just fantastic.
And how quiet is it outside the box?
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Rodgre
carpal tunnel
Joined: 30 May 2003
Posts: 1621
Location: Central MA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:11 pm Post subject: Re: DIY Speaker Iso Box |
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With a Fender Pro Junior driving it, which is a small amp with a great tone, you get minimal bleed outside the box. Not enough to spoil a drum track if it was ten feet away.
I haven't tried a louder amp with it yet, though.
I also need to put foam under (or tape over) the handles, as they tend to rattle with the louder volume.
You could certainly use a gooseneck or any other small elbowed mic stand mount, as long as you could fit it. I've tried other mics with different shapes that let me put the diaphragm more in front of the speaker, as opposed to the edge and I got decent tones. So far, my favorites have been a Sennheiser E609 dead in front of the speaker and an EV635A aiming sort of across the speaker.
I have a bunch of other flight cases that I could build a similar system into. I chose this one because it was small and portable. I have much larger cases, the size you would put a large CRT computer monitor into, which could work as well.
Roger
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roscoenyc
buyin' a studio
Joined: 03 Jun 2007
Posts: 876
Location: NYC
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| Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:15 pm Post subject: Re: DIY Speaker Iso Box |
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great job!
I have both the Demeter and Randal ISO cabs.
they both have goosenecks in them.
I've also found the 609 to be the best mic for in the box.
Recently I've been using a DrZ Airbrake attenuator on the amps driving the box.
yields a much less 'boxy' sound.
Great idea/execution that you did there
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Rodgre
carpal tunnel
Joined: 30 May 2003
Posts: 1621
Location: Central MA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:31 pm Post subject: Re: DIY Speaker Iso Box |
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| roscoenyc wrote: | Recently I've been using a DrZ Airbrake attenuator on the amps driving the box. yields a much less 'boxy' sound.
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Thanks! I'm curious about trying an attenuator as well. I like the idea of being able to hit the speaker harder with a less-efficient speaker and a low-wattage amp (the Pro Junior seems like the perfect size for this thing), but if I can use a larger amp with an attenuator and somehow tailor what goes to the speaker for less of a "boxy" sound, as you say, that would be great. It's interesting to me that while the EV635A had the most boxy tone to my ears, it was the most interesting sounding of all the mics I've tried so far, as it had frequency dips and peaks in unique areas.
The Sennheiser worked well, I think, because I was able to aim it more over the center of the cone, and further away, almost to the ceiling inside. It had a slightly richer tone to my ears. Next, I'll probably try something like a CAD E-100, which is a flat, front-address condenser, and one of my Stapes omnis.
Here's a closeup of underneath the speaker:
and a closeup of the mic:
Roger
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roscoenyc
buyin' a studio
Joined: 03 Jun 2007
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Location: NYC
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rulesforradicals
alignin' 24-trk
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 63
Location: North Florida
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| Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:17 pm Post subject: Re: DIY Speaker Iso Box |
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Since the mic stand is attached to the baffle board does it transfer any vibration or rumble from the speaker to the mic? What if the mic was mounted with a more shock-proof stand?
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roscoenyc
buyin' a studio
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A.David.MacKinnon
deaf.
Joined: 07 May 2003
Posts: 1924
Location: Toronto
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| Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:12 pm Post subject: Re: DIY Speaker Iso Box |
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This is a very cool thread. I have a smallish road case gathering dust in the basement that will be getting this treatment over the week-end.
I'm curious to hear what the box is like with bass. My room is quite small and I always have to fight to keep the bleed from the bass amp under control. Baffles and proper placement make the guitar bleed managable but the bass just seems to go everywhere.
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| fossiltooth wrote: | | The few people who are able to create genuinely new sounds are often insane-psycho-geniuses and the mentally retarded. |
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