since I think that the room (well, whatever it is: basement, walking closet, … ) doesn’t sound well (there’s mirrors, glasses and panels reflecting the sound) I wanted to try something that was suggested by ClearSonic. It’s “panels” made of Plexiglass (Plexi? Haha…) that are used to shield the cabinet. There is a wide array of those for sale at ClearSonic but believe it or not, I wasn’t able (in months!) to find a reliable source that would sell me the A3 panels (meant for a Marshall Half Stack cabinet, measuring 2’W x 3’H ). So I took those measures and contacted a Plexiglass laboratory here in Rome and had them made by them.
The same Plexiglass laboratory is making me a console to hold a huge Apple monitor to go with a multicore MacPro computer that I bought specifically for SoloDallas.net (my iMac is being now incapable of holding the processing power that I need to shoot videos and audio at the same time). So I asked them to also build me those ClearSonic-like-A3 panels (same measures).
While I still haven’t found a way to place them correctly in front of my cabinet (I forgot to ask them to build “feet” on the panels, so the lie down in uncertain positions; furthermore, microphone stands have legs that stand in the way and other issues).
While waiting on one of my pictures to show you how I set them up, here is ClearSonic own panels and the way they are:
and an image:
Mine are not as nice… lol. But you get the idea.
Here is the audio result of my first yesterday’s attempt with the 2204 (theoretically, this type of isolation would also let me increase the loudness level directly at the Aracom attenuation level, allowing for a better speaker breakup). Only the solo has been played with this setup, the other guitars are the same that were before on the backing track. The guitar here is the 1964 Gibson SG Standard original with a new pickup in the bridge (I forget what I put in years ago). But I’m sure it’s in the 8.x kohm area.
While the position of my panels is not at all the same as the ClearSonic ones (I have just laid down two panels, making a triangle with the cabinet) the soundproofing is a lot better than without panels. I can hear incredibly better many cabinet nuances that got lost before.
PLEASE NOTE: I did a site update and caused some temporary damage the my editor; I am being unable to fix it back to how it was. What I am doing, is still upload the audio files for you to hear them, so that you can figure out a bit what I am doing with the panels and how. First song to follow is the complete track with backing as earlier, with the solo re-played with the panels.
You will have to click the links and then come back to this page by pressing “back” on your browser. Sorry for this temporary inconvenience.
Now, singled out (soloed) the solo guitar for you to hear the nuances
This one instead is an attempt at capturing “Night Prowler” Angus’ tone. Played with the ’66 SG with a 12 kohm Di Marzio.
UPDATED with less “bass” frequencies (I had added bass freqs from within the Sonnox equalizer, so I simply took some off), as per George (SGAce) suggestion.