Home (amp tone and effects placement)



Speaker Isolation Booths and Rooms


http://www.tubetrap.com/articles/aessf-1.htm A clean, direct signal is the most common " signal of choice " in the recording world. The rationale is that any desired effect can always be added later with processing. Even the most primitive, one-man jingle shop has a tiny closet, its interior covered with sound absorptive foam or fiberglass. Inside the "box" is a basic vocal booth, a mic, windscreen and eventually, the talent. An acoustic system has been developed to saturate the sound fusion (Haas effect) time period with a group of statistically diffuse coherent reflections. Three years ago, the design strategy, mechanical configurations and the acoustic signatures for this technique was introduced at the AES as a digital sampling booth. This acoustic conduction has since been coined QSF, which stands for "Quick Sound Field". Here is presented a follow up report covering some of the applications for this acoustic technique which have developed since its introduction. BACKGROUND An anechoic recording space may seem simple in concept but it is difficult in practice. Early reflections usually do exist - off of the script stand, paper, window, light fixtures, the floor and other patches of sound reflecting surface. A real-world vocal booth has any number of discrete reflections and resonance problems that add to and color the direct signal. A highly absorptive space that is somewhat acoustically dirty is most difficult for the engineer to mic and for talent to work in. Mic placement is very sensitive to the coloration effects of discrete early reflections and resonance. The sound of the talent is colored by the effects of the mic position. Often, setting up means no more than choosing the best coloration effects. Since consistent sound of an audio track is very important to the engineer, dubs take an inordinate amount of time as the engineer fishes for mic and talent positions in the room, trying to recapture the coloration of the prior day's work. A dead vocal booth provides little to no acoustic feedback for the talent. Talent suffers sensory deprivation while in th

http://www.fourpiecesuit.com/recording_studio.html

Rear Window Recording Studio offers an 8,500-cubic-foot main room (20 ft. ceiling) and three iso booths, one with variable-distance microphone pulley system.

Adjacent to the studio's live room, the main isolation booth has the full 20 ft. ceiling height, and with a 9X10 ft. floor, can accomodate a full drum kit. In terms of wall acoustic treatment, the booth is designed to be very live at the floor to 3 ft. high level, is diffused for an additional 3 feet above that, and then progressively dead , moving from the 6 foot level toward the ceiling, which is maximally dead. Microphones hang from a pulley system on the ceiling, which allows easy access to sample all the degrees of liveness at various levels.

Also adjacent to the studio's live room, there is a 4X10 ft. iso booth with a 9 ft. ceiling, ideal for amps. A 6X7 ft. vocal booth is located on the studio's upper level, just off the control room, which is 12X18 ft. and was originally the kitchen and pantry of the old house. The control room window looks down upon the floor of the live room from a height of 10 feet, in an arrangement similar to Abbey Road Studio B. The window is actually at the rear of the control room (hence Rear Window ), which allows for optional visual contact between engineer and artist, depending on the artist's preference. The control room is diffused at the back wall, and dead from the mix position forward, with non parallel walls and angled ceiling.

All rooms are interconnected by tie lines and speaker lines

http://www.m-pirerecords.com/studio.html - pictures of a vocal booth. Matchless 2x12 amp is listed on this page. Could put the amp in the "vocal booth".

http://www.moosenet.com/bryan/bryan18.html

So we move all of our gear into the high-ceilinged recording room, which is littered with priceless Frank Zappa artifacts...original gear from the late 60's Mothers Of Invention, guitars that Frank played on tour, the synclavier used to record "Jazz From Hell", original scores and charts for everything from "Greggery Peccary" to "The Black Page", and all sorts of other amazing stuff hanging on the wood panelling surrounding us. There was a drum isolation booth, a small guitar iso booth, a grand piano...musical heaven. The control room was equipped with a massive Neve Flying Faders mixing board...

I just brought in this SansAmp Tube Amp Simulater Direct Box [for my bass], showed it to Wayne, and stuttered, "Uh, I have this thing...want to use it?" I received a healthy sneer from him, one of many that I'd receive for even daring to talk to Wayne during these sessions.

So off we went...Joe set up his DW drum kit in the open room (for that "room" sound) and I plugged into this little affected direct box (a unit about which I knew next to nothing). In this setup, we recorded "Us" (remember, I'll get into track by track detail later), "Pure", "Here", "Fuckin' Glad", "Not My Fault", "You Used All My Soap", "What It B", "Music For Pets" and "Chicken Out". Then Joe moved his drums into the iso booth, I switched my bass sound to just the Tobias direct into the board, and we recorded the following tunes

http://www.tape.com/Bartlett_Articles/session_procedures.html - recording session procedures. Mentions iso booths.

http://www.vguitar.com/online/messages3/2041.htm

VG: Do you play in the control room or in the same room with your amp when you�re tracking?

ZW: When we�re getting a drum track, I�ll play bass or guitar and I�ll have the amp set up in an isolation booth, but I�ll have the heads right next to me. I�ll stand right in front of Phil�s drums and we�ll just start tracking. Then once we get Phil sorted out, I�ll move all of the Marshalls into the control room and I�ll sit behind the desk and we�ll just work on guitar tones, which doesn�t take long - we�ll A/B a few mics with other guitar tracks I like or other productions, as far as the fidelity goes, to make sure it sounds big.

VG: What are your typical amp settings?

ZW: I keep the volume and gain set between 6 and 8, but I usually keep the presence down a bit. I have the treble and bass set pretty high and keep the mids somewhere around the middle. I never roll the mids all the way off, that�s a completely different sound altogether. I definitely keep some mids in there because I like the crunch they give it.

http://www.studiomenu.com/nrgrecording.html - Studio Dimensions: Studio : 30' X 40'
Control Room : 6,000 sq. ft. 12' ceiling
3 Isolation Booths : various sizes

Home Improvement - home studio isolation issues - DIY: PORTABLE ISOLATION BOOTH - Space is always limited in the typical bedroom studio, so it's usually impossible to build a vocal isolation booth into a personal studio. Fortunately, you can make a portable iso booth that can be set up when needed and broken down for easy storage when the session is over. "First, get three unfinished sliding closet doors," says studio designer and musician Jack Jacobsen. "The doors are lightweight and hollow on the inside, so they're easy to work with. Then hinge the three doors together with hinge pins. To ensure the sound of the booth is conducive to cutting vocals, it's essential you attach absorptive foam on the inside of each door to help diminish sibilance and high-frequency reflections. If you feel it would help the performer to have visual cues, you can easily cut an eye slot into the door. "Now, position the three-sided booth in a corner of the room to form a five-sided area," Jacobsen continues. This configuration minimizes the possibility of reflections from parallel walls. You should also hang shipping mats on the back wall to help absorb the lower frequencies of the voice that occur at around 200 Hz or 300 Hz. Again, the use of absorptive materials is critical because you want this area to be as nonreflective, dead, and anechoic of an environment as possible. When you're done, you just pull the hinge pins, break the booth down into pieces, and store the unit away."

Great list of insulation resources at bottom of page.

Studio Construction Techniques Part 3 - Making an Isolation Box - The home studio is great for overdubs such as vocals, guitars, bass (using a DI box) and horns. One problem I recently had was I wanted to cut a guitar using an amp. I've done this from time to time and have put it in my bathroom and "bagged" it by using a LOT of blankets. This is makeshift at best so I decided to get serious and build an insulated box that I could use to isolate a speaker. I have a set guitar rig so the size was always going to be the same. I just needed a box that I could heavily insulate. I lucked out because I found a used anvil flight case that was the right size. It is sealed using butterfly latches and is lined with foam. This box was large enough that I could put my speaker inside and have enough room left to close the box and have room for a mic. To make the seal adequate, I mounted a mic inside (SM57) and installed two jacks in the top of the box, one for the mic cable and the other for the speaker cable. When this box is sealed you can have the amp screaming and it's a manageable volume outside the box.

http://www.guitarmag.com/issues/9609/sidebar.htm - Eric Johnson - "I set the amps up here in the live room and then we positioned gobos around the corner here to create an isolation booth."

http://www.greenpointusa.com/COYOTE.HTM - 4 iso booths

http://www.demon.co.uk/studiobase/milo/ - CONTROL ROOM - 27' x 15', STUDIO - 31' x 14', ISOLATION BOOTH - 7' x 7'

http://www.novamusicnet.com/studio003/ - Recording Studio 003 is located in a 5000 square foot facility in New York City's Greewnwich Village. The studio is a new facility, opening in the spring of 1995. The control room measures 20 feet wide by 23 feet deep with a 10 foot ceiling height.The live room is 28 feet deep by 20 feet wide. It has a ceiling height of 11 feet. Two iso rooms are situated next to the studio. The first one is 7 x 8 feet and designed for guitar amp isolation. The second room is 14 x16 feet with a ten foot ceiling. This room has been designed for acoustic instruments isolation. It is perfect for recording vocals during basic tracks.

isolation room concept explained - "How you monitor your playing while tracking is an essential part of the tracking process. It is preferable to monitor the instrument/amp you are recording as it is being picked up by the microphone and recorded, verses the actual sound the instrument/amp in the room. By monitoring the signal from the mic you can make accurate assessments of tone, mic placement etc. when tracking. Typically in larger studios an engineer will be at the mixing console in the Control Room and the amp will be in another separate room called the Talent Room. It would be difficult for the engineer to work with a screaming loud amp in the control room.

For most home recordists I recommend two basic methods for monitoring and amp placement in a guitar tracking session. We'll use the terms "Same Room" and "Separate Room". You can decide which is best for you.

In the Same Room scenario, as the name implies you are in the same room with your guitar amp. In this situation it is preferable to use headphones instead of studio monitors to listen to backing tracks. Wearing headphones allows you to determine what the guitar is really going to sound like on tape. If you really hate headphones you can place a heavy movers blanket or sleeping bag over the amp to help isolate bleed (unwanted sound that is picked up by the mic) and use the studio monitors at a moderate volume to play along with.

PROS: Easy to reach the mic and amp for adjustments. Allows for amp guitar sound interaction i.e. feedback effects etc.
CONS: Less than ideal monitoring environment. Possibility of bleed through.

The "Separate Room" method works like this. You put your speaker in a room, hallway, or closet, neighboring your studio control room. Set up your sound on the amp the way you want it. Mic the amp and plug it into your mixer-recorder. Shut the door with the cables going underneath. Now you can set your levels and hear exactly what is going on tape through the studio monitors. If you have a separate amp-speaker rig you may want to keep the amp in the control room with you, and run a line under the door to a cabinet. This way you can make adjustments to the amp settings and hear the changes on the studio monitors.

PROS: Great isolation for monitoring, no bleed, headphones not needed, no foot tapping noise.
CONS: Difficult to make adjustments on combo amps, more involved set-up, feedback effects not possible.

A word about effects. You will have to decide if you want to record your guitar tracks dry, with no reverb, delay, etc., or print the effects to tape. Both methods are valid. Recording dry gives you more options when mixing. Printing effects to tape enables you to utilize presets and custom sound combinations that may not be available at the mixdown stage. " Miking mentioned here too.

He also mentions post-amp effects placement http://www.omniguitar.com/soundadvice/electricguitar3.html -- "If possible, record your track dry (no reverb), and then add reverb at the mixing stage. Be sure to run your reverb unit in stereo, if you can. As a matter of fact, hook up all your effects devices in stereo, this really fattens up your mix. ... Chorus / Flanger / Phaser / Pitch Shifter ... This group of effects is used often on guitar. There's no real right or wrong here. Just be sure to use good taste, and make sure not to overdo it. Just because you have access to effects doesn't mean you have to use them on every song you record. There's something to be said for a straight, pure, unadulterated guitar track in the raw. Too much effects and your mix will sound as mushy as corn flakes that have been sitting in the milk too long."

http://www.wonderdrug.net/rev/ - Our recording studio has: "Perhaps the most distinctive feature of REV is the recording area. A gorgeous 20x16x13.5 live room with maple hardwood floors lined with mahogany, rosewood, and cherry accents give the room a rich, reflective, and musical voice. REV is built to perfection with Mogami oxygen-free multi-strand cabling with Neutrik gold-plated connectors and separately poured "floating" foundations to ensure superb isolation between rooms. REV�s tracking room is equally proficient at cutting loud drums and guitars as it is at recording the subtleties of vocals, strings, woodwinds and brass. Two isolation booths accommodate "live" tracking sessions. REV�s control room is a benchmark for sonic accuracy. The mix room is fitted with UREI 813A soffit monitors augmented by a large selection of near-field monitors. REV was designed and built by Terry Monday of Monday Designworks with consultation provided by Steve Hartman of Accurate Acoustics. In addition to REV, Mr. Hartman is also known for his work on many other world-renowned studios. REV also supports a staff of the hottest engineers, producers and musicians as well as 24 hour on-call technical support provided by Toffolo Audio Services and Uncle Albert�s Vacuum Tube Repair."

Vocal Isolation Booth; 6x4x8
Guitar Amp ISO Booth: 9x7x8 (feet)

http://www.harmony-central.com/Newp/MusikMesse99/Guitar_Amps - The Italian company Brunetti (Phone: +39 059-24 34 04) made the best-looking amp (think Ferrari) but with a dizzying array of controls. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to play it cuz there was a guy hogging the unit in the isolation booth. The amp did seem to feature a very powerful "presence" control, and the guy seemed to like really harsh and bright presence settings, unfortunately. Had I been able to try it and set it to my own taste, I'd bet I'd get a very cutting (read useful in a gig) crunch tone and transient clean tone. Another cool addition to the amp head was a rack space for adding a processor.

http://www.mindspeak.com/mandala/journal.htm

Recording technique: My two main options were running the bass through an amp and miking it, or running direct. A third option would be combining the direct and miked signals. I had done some experimenting with these methods earlier last year while putting down reference tracks, and I had a pretty good idea of where I'd start. From there it was just a matter of improving on the sounds.

Once again Jim came through with a great Audio Technica 4050CM5 Multiple pattern mic for the bass cabinet. Jim uses the mic for some impressive guitar tracks, and it seemed to have the necessary range for bass.

Material: With 12 songs to record, I started by forcing myself to NOT try to record them all at once. So far this recording project has had one consistent theme: take frequent breaks and evaluate what you've done. Keeping that in mind I knew I'd have to break the bass recording sessions up into at least two parts. Tackling 6 songs at once would give me enough variety as well as enough focus to keep me interested and not to burnt out.

With a plan, an instrument, and some ideas, I set forth into the world of bass.

My first attempt was with a direct input because I started in the evening and didn't want to disturb the neighbors. Using an on-board noise gate and compressor, I got some satisfying sounds. The next day I experimented with an idea for a miked sound that I had been dying to try: My walk-in closet would be a perfect place for a bass isolation booth! This would be necessary not only to get a clean bass sound with no incidental noise, but also to isolate my headphone mix from the amp.

I cleaned out my closet and proceeded to make a functional isolation chamber, complete with damping (my clothes.) The construction of the closet is such that none of the walls face an adjacent apartment, so I would be reasonably safe from neighbors' complaints. I later added a large pillow to the dampening for extra measure.

Placing my amp in the corner of the closet at a 45 degree angle, I then placed the Audio Technica directly in front of the amp, about a foot away from the speaker, but not directly in the center of the cone. It didn't take long before I was getting some pretty good bass sounds. Most of it was due to the Carvin and the mike, and no further processing was necessary.

With the bass chamber constructed, I proceeded to record tracks for 6 songs over 3 days, alternating between the miked sound during the day, and the direct sound at night. Matt Homiak also sat in for two songs with his 6-string custom Carvin fretless. Another week of sessions with the Carvin, and I was done with all except one song. I obtained a collection of takes for each song and would take breaks to edit my work. I've found that listening to the same song too many times can cause brain damage, so it really took a while to focus on what needed to be done. The blisters that were created from the sudden strain of playing the instrument also demanded that I take frequent breaks to avoid totally messing up my hands.


http://www.guitarplayer.com/archive/artists/tuckpati.shtml

So you always record the duo tracks live with no overdubs?

Cathcart: That's right. That's why we have that big isolation booth in the studio -- that's two and a half tons of steel! We need to make sure there's no signal bleed between my voice and the guitar, so Tuck plays out in the control room and I sing in the booth.

Andress: It's a prefab audiologist booth by Industrial Acoustics. If we had tried to isolate the studio with construction, it would have taken forever, and we never would have gotten it right. Patti got the idea for the booth from being at her ear, nose, and throat doctor. He used one for hearing tests.

We actually have two booths -- one inside the other -- isolated with a four-inch space between the inner and outer walls, ceilings, and floors. It's a room within a room. We had to do that because we're half a block from the train tracks. Now, even when the express train comes by, you can't hear the rumbling in the booth -- it gives Patti great isolation when we're recording. It's so quiet in there, you can hear your heartbeat.

using a DI box with an isolation room for home recording

http://recordingeq.com/curr0798.html / http://207.158.230.196/R2KREQ/cottage.htm (try http://recordingeq.com/R2KREQ/cottage.htm) - BUILDING YOUR COTTAGE RECORDING STUDIO BY ROBERT DENNIS Includes isolation rooms.

http://www.barkingdogrecords.com/equipment.list.html - picture of isolation room with guitar amp

Isolation/Vocal Booth - The Isolation/Vocal Booth is a roomy 9' x 7' space for tracking of vocalists or instrumentalists simultaneously with musicians in the Main Studio. Windows provide sightlines to both the Main Studio and the Control Room. The custom hardwood floor and wall/ceiling treatment accurately replicate the acoustic properties of the Main Studio.

Isolation Booth 2 - The Isolation Booth 2 is an all-purpose acoustically treated space for separate miking of amps (guitar, keyboard, or bass amps) or additional musicians (horn players, percussionists) for group recording. This extra room makes it possible to record an entire band (drums, bass, guitar and vocals) simultaneously while achieving complete track separation.

http://www.moonstar.com/~equinox/equip.html - "Rooms in our recording studio: Control room 16x16. Drum 8x10 used for drum tracking, acoustic instruments, lead and background vocals. Has visual to control room. Vocal booth 4x4 used for vocals and for guitar amp isolation. Has visual to control room and drum room. Amp isolation box is portable and can be rolled anywhere needed in the studio. It is designed for close miking guitar amps and will accommodate combos to 4x12 cabinets. Talkback system used for audio communication."

http://www.mountainworksrec.com/equip.html - Control room, main room, isolation room, vocal booth, guitar amp isolation:
33x16 live room with 14-foot ceiling
2 smaller isolation rooms
Custom-designed tuned guitarist enclosure

http://www.suspectstudios.com/ss-data.html - The recording facility features a spacious live room with a 12'x12' isolation booth and specializes in recording live drums. Also available is a wide range of musical equipment, including keyboards, a complete drum kit with seven different recording snares, bass guitars and combo amp, acoustic and electric guitars and five tube guitar amps.

http://www.canadianmusician.com/cmontn-z.htm - StarLink Sound studio has a tracking room with 2 isolation booths & control room.

http://www.audiomedia.com/archive/features/us-0199/us-0199-chicarelli/us-0199-chicarelli.htm - Chicarelli: "I don't live full-time in the world of samples and computers, though I am totally comfortable when I'm there. But I like these things best when they complement the organic live things, rather than when they lead. I like recording live musicians, and when it's a band I will record them as often as I can live in one room. If the room is big enough, I'll put the instruments in there as well, and maybe baffle off a B3 or the bass amp. If I have the option I may put the amps in isolation booths. I will always try to make sure that the players are physically as close together as possible. They often use headphones for monitoring, but sometimes I will put a small amp next to the bass player so that he or she can feel the bass in their body as well. Another thing that I do when recording bands is to get a guide vocal down that is as good as possible. A good drummer really plays to the vocal, he knows when to pull back or where to push the tempo, so to have a singer out there really performing, not just giving cues, is important. And sometimes these guide vocals off the floor are better than the overdubbed vocal, because they have so much vibe. So I try to get enough isolation and make sure that I have good vocal sound before we start, so that I can use the guide vocal if it's good enough."

http://www.discmakers.com/music/pse/joe.html - How do you deal with leakage if you have no isolation booths or good separation?

If you have to isolate something that is really troublesome, be creative. I've put the bass amp in a bathtub, and even wrapped it in blankets. I've done recordings where we put the guitar amp in the kitchen and the band in the bedroom. Sometimes it's even better to use the leakage creatively. I recently did a jazz album where we couldn't avoid drum leakage in the piano mics. We moved the piano around the room and found a place where the drum leakage was mostly short, early reflections. This actually thickened up the drum sound a bit and was a pleasing effect that didn't compromise the piano track. On cuts where the pianist didn't play, I still left his mics open because it actually helped the drum sound on tape. In the end, I'd rather live with a lot of leakage and get a great performance from the whole band playing together than to have only three play live and overdub the rest later.

http://www.reostudios.com/home.htm

The 1200+ square foot facility includes a spacious control room, large main studio area, three isolation rooms, and a waiting room

http://festivalstudios.com/fest.html - good pictures of separate studio rooms. Large studio room with 2 isolation rooms.

http://home.westman.wave.ca/~hillmans/cdbook.html - It was while recording the vocal tracks for this song that we were drawn into the realm of the supernatural. The hour was late - around midnight at Guardian Studios, Pity Me - the bed tracks were in the can, and we had just removed the drums from the isolation cubicle which was to double as my vocal booth.

http://www.netspace.org/Widespread/studio/part1.txt - Tim's old room now houses amplifiers for the purpose of isolation. ... Many producers will record instruments separately or in different rooms in order to eliminate what is known as "bleed." Bleed is what occurs when the sound from one instrument runs into the microphones for a different instrument. For instance you will often notice drummers surrounded by Plexiglas on TV. This is done to prevent all the noisy loud guitars from bleeding into the drum microphones and turning the engineer's job into a living hell. We like to torment John by setting up in the same room so we can feel like we really are playing together. This togetherness is ideal for us but it makes microphone placement all the more crucial and thus extends setup into the realm of complete and utter boredom for those of us simply wanting to get in there and roll the tape and jam. But the cooler heads of our engineer and producer (augmented by assistant Rob) prevail and we calm down and remember that isolation is so important due to the nature of the recording process. You will recall that above I had said one of the main differences between studio work and live performance is the ability to fix mistakes. This ability stems from the fact that each instrument (right down to each individual drum head and guitar amp) has it's own microphone which is connected to a recording console which, in turn, is connected to the recording machine. Just like your DAT machine at home has two "tracks": left and right, our Sony machine has 48 tracks, one for each microphone and instrument. It is the fact that each instrument has it's own track in the tape machine that allows mistakes to be fixed without corrupting another instrument's sound. This is why the need for isolation is so important. It is what allows me to maintain pick throwing distance from Todd during a live take while my bass speaker and accompanying microphone are located in a closet somewhere else in the house. That way, my sloppy bass lines are not bleeding into Todd's pristine kick and snare microphones. Thus, when it is my turn to fix my screwed up bass playing I can do so without recording over a flawless drum performance. I can only do this by having a tape machine that records to a separate track dedicated solely to my bass signal. In other words I can play along with Todd's earlier drum performance while replacing my original bass performance with an untainted one. Conversely, with the bass amp and microphone located in another room there is no evidence of Todd's drumming on my allocated track on the tape machine. The same holds true for all the guitars, keyboards, and percussion as well.

using an 8" 100 watt speaker in an isolation closet - recording guitar. Good page.

[hidden copy of text is here in the present page]

>I have 3 mini ISO's in my studio, that are 3 x 3 x 4.5' high with carpeting and foam in them, and a door on the front of each. They isolate plenty enough to record drums in the room the doors go into. the trick is a lot of foam and thicker the better, it need to be dead as hell to work really well, so you don't get any artifacts from the small room itself. You can see a pics of my studio at http://www.maxtraxstudios.com/html/pictures.htm. You will see the 3 little doors in the live room, I don't have a closeup though. Mine are a part of the structure itself, with a producers booth above them (the floor is filled with 6" of sand above the booths, and you still get vibrations in the room above if there is a Mesa on a million in one of them, but not nearly as much as you would expect, and totally tolerable. If you build it as a box to put in a room, it should bascially work the same way. Good Luck. Paul Benedetti. Max Trax Studios

JIM SCOTT � RECORDING THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS' CALIFORNICATION - "According to Scott, Cello Recording was another important ingredient in the making of the album. He likes to record there, because "it has the best rock & roll microphone collection in the world, and they collect vintage Neve consoles and vintage analogue tape recorders." Their setup in Studio 2, a medium-sized rectangular room, also helped to create a certain sound. Scott elaborated: "The drums were on a riser in the middle, and there was one large isolation booth where we put John's and Flea's amplifiers, just to keep them out of the drum room. We built a little doghouse around the bass speakers, to protect them from the guitar amp. But leakage isn't really that much of a problem. In my experience it is not an issue as long as you make at least an attempt to have some separation. There was also a small, separate vocal booth, where Anthony sang.

"Flea, John and Chad were about 10 feet away from each other in a pretty small circle, and Anthony was just a few more feet away in his booth, easily visible through the glass. They could see each other all the time. There were no baffles around the drums, so they were just sounding out loud in the room. I set up two room microphones, but I didn't use them, so the sound of the drums is pretty close. Chad has good-sounding drums, and you can hear the dynamics and the details in his groove, so it was just a matter of getting that on tape. The same with Flea, who has great bass technique - even when he plays fast you can still hear all the notes. Because they all played so well, and because of the way I miked them, the whole sound was dry and punchy. Everything is loud and clear."

"The bass went DI into the desk, and I also recorded his amp speakers with a Neumann U47 tube microphone. I usually mix a 50-50 blend of DI and speaker mic to one track. I find that it's important to have the sound of moving air on the bass. Moreover, sometimes there's distortion on the bass that comes from the pickup, but it sounds much nicer when it's gone through an amp and a speaker. For the guitar I used two SM57 and two U87 microphones, one of each on each cabinet - again the good-mic/bad-mic combination. All four went down on one track, and together they made a nice big guitar sound."

more good stuff there.

http://www.mcs.net/~malcolm/flats1.txt - using acoustic flats - "As to the guitar amp, a resonant sound can be achieved at much lower volume in a small live enclosure than in the whole studio, and mostly kept out of the main room. Eliminates the isolation problem altogether."

http://www.eznett.com/clubhouse/studios.htm - Studio A's Spacious 21x 24 foot main room is perfect for any recording occasion be it a live band situation or solo artist work; featuring full isolation booth capabilities as well as outstanding acoustic sound. Both the booth and the main room have been sonically tested and adjusted to provide a lively but relatively flat acoustic response.

http://www.hilltopstudio.com/studioa.htm - Control Room 20 x 18, Studio 35 x 18 - Isolation Booths (3)

http://www.lclark.edu/~odom/ - 10' X 12' ISOLATION ROOM - 10' X 15' CONTROL ROOM - ANOTHER GUITAR AMP ROOM PLUS OTHER NOOKS AND CRANNIES

http://www.midiguy.com/MGSoundpf.html - soundproofing home studio

- 404, research! - Bob Hartman's Home Page http://www.telalink.net/%257Ebobc2it/studio.html ...house. I have an isolation room where I can crank up an amp loud... ...come from hearing the guitar through a loud amp. I have designed... www.telalink.net/%257Ebobc2it/studio.html - Show matches /search?q=cache:www.telalink.net/%25257Ebobc2it/studio.html+isolation+guitar+amp+recording&hl=en - 4k - Similar pages /search?hl=en&num=10&q=related:www.telalink.net/%25257Ebobc2it/studio.html

http://nfte.org/Steve.Howe/archives11.html - Steve Howe - we recorded it in Billy Sherwood's studio in L.A. in just five weeks; I think the first ten days was doing backing tracks and things and we had quite a successful run at recording in that period, though there were some physical problems but the way we constructed the record was just how people make records today anyway and it doesn't mean you need a thumping great studio with isolation booths. But we had isolation and enough space to do that record." - Howe site.

http://www.aesdaily.com/vip/pg36.shtml Wenger Showcases V-Room Booth Wenger Corp. (Booth 1337) is featuring its V-Room sound isolating, modular broadcast booth, with a horizontal window. Applications include control room, voice-over booth, and ADR or Foley studio. The V-Room features the option of variable acoustics that provide amazing simulations of 10 different environments. The V-Room's modular construction enables it to be relocated or moved as needs change, providing maximum flexibility while maintaining superior sound isolation. A self-sealing V-Room can be installed in as little as two hours, with no fasteners, caulking or permanent attachments to the building required.

http://www.bassplayer.com/gear/qa/qa9505.shtml - Why do players use separate, miked cabinets offstage in concert? Neal Walker San Antonio, TX - Pro players use separate enclosures to isolate the sound of their amps in noisy live situations, mainly due to the loud volume levels produced by other amplifiers and drums, which can lead to microphone leakage. (This is common practice when recording a live album.) Some of these units actually enclose the speaker in a box with a mike for total isolation from nearby noise. So before you buy the same amp rig as your hero, know this: what you see onstage isn't necessarily what you hear through the PA.

http://www.bourelly.com/interviews/interview99.htm - What is the difference between the studio and the live situation? jpb - Studio is a synthetic place where you are trying to give the impression of a live comfortable relaxed situation through a series of technical illusional tricks. It unnaturally dry and the headphones and isolation booths are problems to solve. Live is what it is. Just what happened. Bam!

http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/CosmikDebris/july97.txt - With this philosophy in mind, Vaughn proceeded to give the term "garage rock" a whole new meaning, setting up mikes, instruments and an 8-track reel-to-reel in the Rambler's back seat, a mixing board in the front, and an isolation booth in the hefty boot. Despite the roominess of his Rambler, however, Vaughn's not in a hurry to return to the driver's seat. "I'm never going back in that car - I'm a big fan of leg-room now. It was so claustrophobic: I was balancing a drum machine on my knees and playing guitar and reaching over the front seat to engineer all at the same time. Never again."

The Rambler was like the first economy car. There were several others like it: the Ford Falcon, the Chevy Nova, the Plymouth Valiant. The Rambler is a small 4-door sedan, which was immediately claustrophobic when I moved the recording equipment in. I had a milk crate on the front seat with the mixing board. And I had the reel-to-reel in the back seat with me. I had a little Panasonic turntable/receiver, the kind your Mom would have in the seventies, as my monitor amp. There were two little Radio Shack speakers on the dashboard. I would bring instruments in as I needed them. At one point I actually used the trunk as an isolation booth. I put my guitar amp back there, so I could sing and play at the same time, and have complete separation.

I realized that I wanted to record an engine solo and I had to get the car running. Bob's a mechanic, so he came over. He was working on my car while I was recording. We were kind of getting in each other's way. That discussion was about the trunk. It needed to be fully closed to act as the isolation booth, but the power chord and the mike cable were in the way. I suggested drilling a hole in the trunk and Bob went berserk. He came up with idea of taking off the tail light and going through that hole.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/dale99/int1.htm - Dale: Well what I would say first of all is I decided to try music again on a personal friend�s advice, it wasn�t my idea, I wasn�t going to do it but someone else suggested I needed to have an activity that taxed my brain more. This all happened and I actually started recording the songs again when my wife was pregnant with my daughter and it was when we were living here at the Farm and I used to go to the studio on my own because in fact the only way I could ever play was when I know nobody else can hear me, that �s always been important to me. In the past I tried to play with TVs blaring in hotel rooms, I�ve been on staircases in hotels at 2 a.m. in the morning, in kitchens when no one is looking, but The Farm is the best isolation box in the world and so the writing consequently comes from that.

http://www.moopigface.8m.com/ The studio is in a free standing building with a large control room, main studio room, drum isolation booth and guitar isolation booth. Being able to isolate instruments is no problem. We have acoustic tiling and sound blocker between every room.

http://www.rhino.com/features/bio/72484bio.html Every morning I would have a cup of coffee, read the morning paper, and move my studio out of my house to the car. I had an eight-channel mixing board, an eight-track reel-to-reel, quarter inch; I had a little turntable -- a little Panasonic that your mom would own in the '70s -- that I used as a power amp to monitor myself through, and I would bring out a guitar or a bass or an acoustic guitar. I used my trunk as an isolation booth for my Fender Deluxe amp. I had keyboards out there, little Casios, an old Roland "Sixtrack" synthesizer.

http://www.greatbigsound.com/tour.html - Immediately adjacent to the big room is a smaller isolation room, suitable for a more traditional "dead" studio sound. Since this photo was taken, we've torn up the carpet and added the same parquet floor from the big room, for a brighter sound. Also note the large windows, allowing visibility between the big and little rooms. (Unfortunately, we no longer have the upright piano pictured here... sigh...) The smallest isolation booth tends to be a favorite for vocals and guitar amps. Note the window looking into the control room, allowing visibility during vocal overdubs. This room is also home to our EMT plate reverb. (page pictures)

http://www.phonorec.com/studio1.htm - vocal iso booth and twin peaks chair

http://www.mcs.net/~richsam/nbcmm/eb.html - pic of old iso booth

http://www.mectapus.com/faq.html - Mr. Monty Meatsock is one bad piece of footwear! He first appeared in Mectopia during the recording of our CD at an undisclosed yet very public location in an abandoned furniture store in Varna, NY. While Mr. Farnsworth, purveyor of plastic goods, and Mr. Dougan, pilferer of junk foods, were "professionally" setting up their respective equipment behind a handy mattress turned isolation booth, Mr. Palermo recognized the potential for alleviating some stress by means of what he called "humor" and everyone else would call a puppet show. At this point in time, Mr. Monty Meatsock appeared and began "bad mouthing" band members in the most expletive-laden, offensive commentary ever heard in said furniture store turned studio. For further descriptions of Monty Meatsock's activities and dealings with various underworld figures and involvement in conspiracies, please see Mr. Meatsock's Puppet Show: An Expose on the Activities of One Bad Piece of Footwear.

http://www.cafemomo.com/details/shirley.shtml - Their first meeting was, according to Shirley, "hideous". There was no isolation booth, so she was set in front of a mic upstairs with Steve's two cats glaring at her, whilst downstairs the boys drank beer and listened.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/focalpoint/burton2.htm After we finished each tune, we would gather around the piano or the vibraphone. One of us would play through the next one for the group, and an arrangement would quickly take shape. Then it was back to our corners: Pat to his isolation booth where he could crank up his amp, Chick and Dave sharing a glass-walled room and Roy in his own right next to them. I was out in the middle of the studio, the perfect vantage point. We could easily see each other and hear ourselves through our headphones. The five-way conversations between takes got to be so much fun I almost wish we had recorded those as well.

http://www.musiciansphonebook.com/MVPvideos.html - video: closet as iso booth

http://world.std.com/~muller/SR/frnt6.html Recording can be an intense experience. Lonely too, when you're waiting for your solo to come around for your next overdub. When you're holding your instrument in your hands and you're all wired up with headphones and microphones and you don't dare move for fear of changing the mics' sound, then it's just you and the music. The moment of truth comes when your solo comes up. And when they close the door to your iso-booth, no one can hear you scream... Just kidding, of course, but it is an intense experience. So we offer you this little photo tour of the session!

http://www.stevehackett.com/gear/mix.htm Next to the control room door is an isolation booth, panelled in wood and equipped with several of Recording Architecture's reversible baffles, each side offering a different absorption characteristic.

http://www.guitar9.com/hsr/danielelmes.html sound proof guitar iso booth with a 4*12 vintage guitar cab inside. For me it`s all about the recording chain and with my Neumann`s and the focus-rite pre-amps I get a world class sound that people rave about as soon as they here it.

http://www.guitar9.com/hsr/genetemple.html Future plans: Build another iso booth......in my garage studio I ran out of room quite quickly however sound isolation cost have kept me humble.

http://malls.com/dmp/equipriv.txt FROM: Paul Z. Nagy, 75110,541 FOR SALE: Whisper Room isolation booth. 4' X 4' modular (portable) iso booth with wood trim , window in the door, and cable pass through. Great for practice in an apartment or home recording. $3000

http://www.joemeek.com/testamonial.html I have nice guitars, real nice amps, and an SM57 which should make tracking guitars a piece of cake. I even built an iso booth for a great sounding Marshall 1X10 cab so I could open up the amps, but I still wasn't getting the kind of sound I expected. Enter the Joemeek VC3.

http://www.breachoftrust.com/martyinterview.htm we did guitars in a small room, just a small console room and a little iso booth for guitars. glen recorded us while we stood in the room with the amps.


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