Help, Opinions, Guidance Needed on ISO Cabs

Far Rider

Far Rider

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I've had a thought for a awhile now about getting an ISO cab for some very specific reasons. Reason 1 is I would like to play my amps loud. My furry babies are all terrified of loud noises. Thunderstorms, firecrackers , even a loud TV. Of course this really stifles my playing since I then don't play, which in turn deprives me of practice I so desperately need. I had heard about ISOI Boxes wanted to check some out. But does anyone on here have any experience with them and make recommendation or pro's/con's about them? I have several high power amps I would like to crank up and record.

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I used an isolation box for several years. I made it myself; I didn’t buy one. So, everything I say is based on that. I used a two-inch layer of ATS Acoustics acoustic mineral wool for the sound insulation in a box made of 3/4 furniture-grade birch plywood. So, I didn’t go cheap on the materials. I used acoustic insulation that is made for that purpose. I did NOT just use packing foam! I would have gone thicker on the sound insulation, but I needed to fit the entire thing through the doorway! I built it so I could put different speaker cabinets in it. A commercially-produced unit may be better. Most of them have a frame where the speaker is mounted. This allows a little more room for insulation.

Here is what I discovered.

They are not sound proof, though they do attenuate the volume quite a bit. If you can put it in a different room, it is even better.

They do work very well at keeping extraneous sounds from entering the microphone, which is good. They are also cool in that you can use a low wattage amp to drive a speaker in the cabinet and it will sound huge after it comes out of the PA.

I think they are pretty cool, but they take up even more room than a speaker cabinet, so they aren’t very practical for tight stages, and they can be kind of heavy. For home use, it would be helpful, but don’t think they will make your rig silent. They won’t. You’ll still hear it, though it will be muffled.
 
I’ll add, if you are expecting to crank a high-powered amp, you may be a little disappointed if you’re trying to keep things really quiet. The most powerful amp I used was a 25 watt head. I usually was using a five watt amp.

But, the muffled sound you hear outside of the iso-cab won’t have the sharp highs or mids that give the “bite” to the sound. So, your critters may be fine with that. Again, it will quiet things down, but it won’t be silent.
 
We tried them at church several years back. Trying to reduce stage volume. Couple industrious carpenters built a couple that we placed off stage. And it did work. Congregation would hear the amps thru the house speakers and not blaring away on stage. (I've mentioned here before how our stage volume had gotten so loud the mains could get turned off and congregation could still hear what we were doing.) I played acoustic, so no biggy for me. I was already going direct to house. But the electric guys. We all used combo amps, so they all went off stage into the cabinets. Which meant to make any changes on amp setting they had to.... take their guitar off and set it down..... walk off stage.... come back and try it. If it wasn't right yet.... repeat process. That lasted a few weeks. Last I was backstage the ISO cabs were getting used as storage.

One of our electric players tried one of these. On Stage ISO Cab Link Not this exact cabinet, pretty sure he wouldn't have spent this much. It didn't last either.

Have you considered an attenuator?
 
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I had no illusions that it was going to be totally silent. But when you can't go above one on any of the amps, anything would be an improvement. I was also curious about how they actually sounded eventually when they go into the mixer. I guess that depends on what type of speaker and microphone you're using.

I haven't tried an attenuator because even at one my babies are scared. Prebaby due to higher frequencies.
 
iblive said:
We tried them at church several years back. Trying to reduce stage volume. Couple industrious carpenters built a couple that we placed off stage. And it did work. Congregation would hear the amps thru the house speakers and not blaring away on stage. (I've mentioned here before how our stage volume had gotten so loud the mains could get turned off and congregation could still hear what we were doing.) I played acoustic, so no biggy for me. I was already going direct to house. But the electric guys. We all used combo amps, so they all went off stage into the cabinets. Which meant to make any changes on amp setting they had to.... take their guitar off and set it down..... walk off stage.... come back and try it. If it wasn't right yet.... repeat process. That lasted a few weeks. Last I was backstage the ISO cabs were getting used as storage.

One of our electric players tried one of these. On Stage ISO Cab Link Not this exact cabinet, pretty sure he wouldn't have spent this much. It didn't last either.

Have you considered an attenuator?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that one you linked is one that I looked at. I understand that it’s pretty good, but never tried it.
 
Far Rider said:
I had no illusions that it was going to be totally silent. But when you can't go above one on any of the amps, anything would be an improvement. I was also curious about how they actually sounded eventually when they go into the mixer. I guess that depends on what type of speaker and microphone you're using.

I haven't tried an attenuator because even at one my babies are scared. Prebaby due to higher frequencies.
Click to expand...

My experience actually using an iso-cab was positive. For a time, I used my little Fender Champ with it. The mic picks up everything from the speaker with no extraneous noises from other sources. Coming through the mixer and PA, you would never guess it was just a little 5 or 6 watt amp. It really sounded like much bigger and more “grown-up” amp.

What kind of animals do you have? Dogs?

If so, just getting rid of the higher freqs and mid-range bite in the iso-cab may be enough.
 
Interesting you bring this up, First time i ever ever did not record at volume & i dont like it. My gear is in LR due to not heating bandroom cause its just me & my cat.

Just pulled out the super long speaker cables have for the PA for out side shows. Next song, cab is going out in bandroom & gonna crank again. Just not getting as nice as lead tone. Rhythm is fine actually at lower volume. Time to open the Mesa up on clean chan on push setting. Very thick lead tone but not until gig level unfortunately.
 
Attenuator kills power tubes and sounds bad the more you turn them up.
What amps do you have ?? do you have effects loop ??
In my case I made a sound prof room when I got this house I had been renting a practice space for our band
first practice at my house PA and amps on volume one the cops were pounding on my door.
The amps I have been using on stage and at home are Dumble ODS style amps that have a effects loop and master volume
I built a 100+ watt amp that was to loud on volume one and master volume one for stage use the solution was a Dumblelator
ran through the effects loop that has effects send and return levels and a added master volume so I can crank up the amp
get the sound I want and play at whisper levels.

Universal Audio makes a OX box never tried it I don't need to but may be your solution


 
So, let me also highlight a few additional things that you should keep in mind.

The sound you hear when you play through your amp while standing a few feet in front of it is influenced by more than just the speaker. The size and shape of the cabinet influences the sound that eventually reaches your ears. If the speaker cabinet is sitting on the floor, the floor functions as a reflective boundary, which normally enhances the lows. You also have the influences of acoustic reflections within the room. All of this affects what you eventually hear. These things are pretty much a non-factor with an iso-cab, for obvious reasons.

So, you do need to be prepared for the sound that comes from the mic through to whatever speakers you’re using to sound different than what you’ve gotten used to when listening to your rig in the “wild”.
 
I used to own the Randall ISOcab. Works great for recording but a few things didn't work for me. The box only had enough room for a few mic designs. Some mics just didn't really fit the cabinet because of size/shape, etc. Worked great for a pair of SM57's, but when I put in a Condenser, I had a hell of a time adjusting the mic stem to fit the mic in the right place. One issue about mic placement is adjusting it while you're trying to get the right tone out of the system. Open the box, turn down the volume on your amp so you don't blast anyone out, make the adjustments, then close up the box and find your sound is different. Lots of trial/error in getting the right placement with a high volume sound, plus the sealed response is different than the open box sound is.

The other thing, while the box does reduce a TON of volume, the bass response outside the box was too much for my apartment. I still could shake the room pretty good. Kind of defeated the purpose of keeping it quiet in that type of environment. I ended up putting the box on top of a stack of blankets which helped a lot.

The box I owned, I ended up putting a few things inside the box to help make it "sound" better. I filled the back side with Polyfill, and ended up putting a few cuts of egg-crate foam on the front side to help reduce resonances in the box. It deadened the sound quite a bit, but still had a bit of resonance I didn't like and could't EQ out in the headphones.

Oh and it's a single speaker. If you want to record several, you end up having to track, retrack, track again, etc. etc.
 
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