Poor man's soundproofing?

[Inazone]

I had hoped to be living in a house by now, but that'll have to wait until next year, so I'm looking for ways to record using my amps without pissing off the neighbors. Ideally, I'd love to build an isolation cabinet of some kind, but space is at a premium and I really don't have anywhere but the bedroom to hook everything up. So, I'm going to run this idea past you guys and hopefully get some feedback.

I've got a considerable amount of the grey packing foam, mostly in squares but also a few bigger pieces. If I were to somehow attach the foam to the front of my cabs (and behind, for the open-back cabs), and "sandwich" a mic between the foam and the grill, should I theoretically be able to turn the amps up a couple notches for a better recorded tone, while muffling the sound coming through into the room? Would I need to be concerned about the heat from my power tubes (for foam behind my tube combo) as long as the tubes aren't touching the foam?

Surely, someone must have tried this idea... [img]/images/graemlins/help.gif[/img]

[jgcable]

Re: Poor man\'s soundproofing?

Doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Either record direct with a modeler or a sansamp, record at a low volume and pump it up with a BBE sonic maximizer, or build an isolation cabinet. You can also look into a power soak so that you can crank your amps but still keep the volume low. I have a 25%-50%-100% switch on my Carvin X100B and when it is on 25% I can dime out the amp and it still isn't very loud at all.

[Matt Crooks]

Re: Poor man\'s soundproofing?

Packing foam will do nothing to stop sound transmission. It will help filter out some of the sound reflections getting to your mic, but that's it. If you have the money you can build an iso cab... http://www.amptone.com/isolationboxes.htm

[zeegler]

Re: Poor man\'s soundproofing?

I saw an ad recently for this program you can use on your computer. You hook your guitar straight into the computer, and the program has simulations of something like 1200 different amplifiers that you can choose from. Just thought I'd mention that.

[etaeniura]

Re: Poor man\'s soundproofing?

I know guys that used to stack up couch cushions around their amps to lower the volume. Can't hurt to try it, and you don't need to buy anything.

[lerxstcat]

Re: Poor man\'s soundproofing?

Foam closing in the tube is a VERY BAD IDEA! It's a fire hazard and the heat buildup will probably damage your amp.

For recording in an apartment you might want to get a V-Amp that you can get used for $80
which is cheaper than an iso cab or a good power attenuator. I take it this is for demos, not final work. In an apartment, even when you try and keep it down, there's always someone who complains about electric guitars.
Some say they like the V-amp2's high-gain sounds even better than the POD's, so that might be the thing to do. Or, I believe you have an ART Xtreme; have you tried recording it direct? Or at low level through your Peavey and out the Peavey's direct out? ust some thoughts.

[Matt Crooks]

Re: Poor man\'s soundproofing?

http://www.randallamplifiers.com/pro.../isolation.asp