So, I just don't know which way to go......

I want to crank my bigger amps up, and record them. But, I want to do it pretty quietly.

ISO Box, or Direct W/Speaker Simulation?

I have looked at building or purchasing an Isolation Box. Also, I have read good things about the Palmers and Motherlodes.

The KOCH looks good. But, I can't find as much info on them.

I think I'm leaning towards the Simulators. The KOCH seems to be able to be both an Attemuator, AND a Simulator. So does the Palmer. Not sure about the Marshall ones.

Ideally, it would be nice to have an Attenuator, AND a Simulator. But, to Simulator is top priority.

And the option of totally silent recording, with Headphones or Studio Monitors, sounds ideal.

What do you guys think? Is the ISO box worth the space/time to build/set up, etc.?

Or, is the Palmer the ticket? The Motherlode is a little too pricey for my blood.

Is the KOCH the way to go?

HELP!

I'm certainly no expert, but I think that there's no substitute for the sound of a speaker pushing air. I have been thinking of something similar to this for quite some time:

http://grendelsound.com/deadroom.htm


That would be the route I'd go- some sort of Iso box.

If you lower the volume with an attenuator you take the speaker drive totally out of the equation, so soundwise you'd be better off with an ISO box. And a simulator? Sounds like two steps away from going Line6.. Plus an ISO box is just.. cool!

Yeah, the Grendel Sound box looks really sweet!

And the Randall, Demeter, AxeTrac, some of the DIY ones, etc. I have even thought about taking an Amp Flight Case, and putting foam inside it, to use as an ISO box. There are a lot of options.

This guy did a build, and a comparison between the Iso and a Simulator. They did sound awfully similar. Here's a link to his build:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=isolation+box&search_type=&aq=f

This one looked really good, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGEccKzJ7uI

I wish he put some measurments up there!

Another good demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KUXRCyrIkQ&feature=related

Some AxeTrac Demos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4FKxvOr9rE&feature=related



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxykpAR-B1E&feature=related



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Nlt6OhDYU&feature=related



I really like the small size of the AxeTrac! I could even throw a blanket over it, for even lower SPL, I guess. But, the 6" Speaker is kinda a drag. What if I want to try other speakers?

On the other hand, the Palmer looks really nice, too! EVH and Satch use them, they say.

The Koch (I think) can also be an Attenuator. Good for live shows, too.

Still lost!

I think the thing to bear in mind with Satch or Vai is that they also have top notch consoles, Mic-Pres, EQ, etc at their disposal, so a Palmer in their hands will probably yield different results than in a home studio.


A friend of mine has and uses a Palmer, and quite frankly, it still sounds like a DI to me (though I've never really told him that)

I'd ask yourself why you want to record your big amps ... sonically, what do you want to achieve?

By the time you've spent money buying speaker emulator's attenuators etc you could have maybe purchased a small amp(s) suitable for recording, and perhaps an upgrade to your pre-amp / compressor / mic

It's my understanding that most of Zep II - Zep IV was recorded on a 15 watt supro amp. Page's tone translates very well live playing through multiple Marshall Plexis ...

My friend has a '64 Champ which which sounds simply fantastic recorded. Turn it up and throw a fuzz in front of it - once recorded it sounds like a bigger beast than it actually is.

Oh yeah, I'm with you there!

I do have some smaller amps, that I truly love. A Tweed Champ clone (Kendrick Model 118), a 1959 Princeton, a Knight Tube P.A. "1/2 Stack", and a couple of 18 and 20 watt range amps.

But sometimes, I need to try things out with volume. It's hard to play the same way, when you're playing at lower volumes. And I want to be able to more easily record with my 30 watt Budda. My Twinmasters are very special sounding amps, in my opinion. And I want to be able to use them for my own songs and practice sessions, here at the house.

I do think that my little Kendrick sounds HUGE when recorded. Especially with a good OD in front of it!

Here it is, recorded with the built in MIC on a BOSS MicroBR. Not ideal, but definately useable. It was a fun experiment, and I plan on seeing just how much I can get out of that little BOSS recorder.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=614301&songID=6325064

Still though, engineering a recording is fairly new to me. And I want to be able to use all of my gear.