LETS FACE IT

[RCGPNY1]

I think my post has been hijacked...lol

[M Fowler]

I know what works for me just about any wooden box, open or closed.

However, some guys floor me. They put the bass & mid knob full on, flick the pup selector to neck position, and rattle the shit out of what were once perfectly good speakers.

No amount of enclosure calculating is going to make a difference with these guys. Raspy, buzzy, ratty, or shitty noise these guys like really bugs me.

But your right choosing a speaker box or speaker itself purely by brand name is not the way to design your rig.

[ER]

The marshall 4x12 is actually designed based on most efficient cut pattern for a 5'x5' birch ply sheet. The back is closed to keep the low power speakers from blowing out. No design mojo, only practical nuts and bolt business decisions. Do these things effect the sound? Yes. Is that why they did it? No. It worked so they kept it that way and nearly everyone else followed suite for better or worse. The slant was for looks, and that effects the sound too.

Sound is pretty subjective. Familiar=good for the most part, and what may sound like crap at home may sit just right in the mix with a band (a ricky through a vox for example).

It's really not so cut and dried.

All cabinet design judgements should be evaluated playing in a live performance situation with adequate power into the cabinet. Against the wall in your bedroom at neighbor friendly levels, yes most cabinets will sound pretty much the same. A 100 watt amp on a stage and the differences will become obvious. An sm57 on the grill cloth won't capture what's happening in the room, and what sounds good blowing past your pant legs may be tearing the heads off the people in the audience.

The design, including speaker selection, really needs to match the application.

A ported cabinet needs the proper speaker to go with it. The true marvel of the EVM loaded TL806 is the whole package; size, ability to support a low E fundamental, efficiency, power handling, and probably most of all it's beam width which is greater than 180 degrees both horizontal and vertical at 400 Hz which really helps balance the beaminess coming off that huge magnet structure. None of which will be appreciated until you turn the sucker up on a stage.

[sixstringer]

Wait.. don't all acoustic guitars sound the same?

[norburybrook]

I will add to all this by saying; the room and stage also have a massive bearing on the sound. As someone who has toured all my working life(nearly 30 years now) the acoustics of each venue are so different, and as such your amp/speaker may sound different every night. A hollow stage will accentuate the bottom end, dry rooms can suck the life out of electric gtrs.

Venue/stage size makes a massive difference too, if you're on a huge stage in an Arena the sound will be different to a club where everybody is on top of each other.


I suppose this is where players will use different rigs for different gigs, or you use your smaller amps/speakers and have them returned to you in your monitor system.

Some players put their cabs off stage for this a reason, others I've worked with lay their combo's (Vox AC30's etc)on their backs so they're firing upwards, which achieves a similar result.


Just throwing a few thought out there

Marcus

[Structo]

norburybrook,

Thanks for the information from the FOH perspective.

Although, I have never had a cab sound better at a gig then it did at home.

If it's a bad combo between driver and enclosure then not much is going to improve that other than a new speaker(s).

Sometimes magic can be made at the sound desk but I like to have a bit more control than that.

[RCGPNY1]

Although, I have never had a cab sound better at a gig then it did at home.t.

I am suprised at this because I have had cabs sound better at gigs(especially outdoors) than at home. One thing for sure, interactions between cabs and stages(indoor) and bedrooms and home studios are
somewhat complex. I like using the aurelex "gamma" to help negate
coupling from my cabs to a bad stage setting.

[norburybrook]

norburybrook,

Thanks for the information from the FOH perspective.

Although, I have never had a cab sound better at a gig then it did at home.

If it's a bad combo between driver and enclosure then not much is going to improve that other than a new speaker(s).

Sometimes magic can be made at the sound desk but I like to have a bit more control than that.

Structo,

I'm not FOH, I'm a guitarist/bass player of over 30 years so having toured at all levels from Arenas to clubs I'm very aware of the importance of a good relationship between stage and FOH.

I would say though that until you've used an amp/speaker live on stage or indeed the studio in a band situation,you don't really have a true idea of it's sound.

I'll use the analogy of mixing in the studio, something I do a lot of too. Soloing an instrument to adjust the EQ, tone etc quite often isn't the best way to do it. You can get a great sound in isolation but it doesn't work in the context of the whole mix . Modern bass guitars can sound amazing in isolation with great bottom end and clear highs, but a fender bass will 99% of the time sit better in a rock n roll mix.


So sometimes I'd say it's hard to tell what's the right amp/speaker until you're actually in the situation it's going to be needed for.

Cheers

Marcus

[dobbhill]

To pick up from Marcos:
I gig 2-4 times a month. It's a sick kind of fun for me to crank up my rig to see what it does in each setting. We stage mix everything and mic only the kick and the vocals 80% of the time: small clubs...hell, loud restaurants...
Sometimes for me, the biggest decision I make is which speaker/cabinet to bring to the specific gig. I find that speaker choice is more paramount than amp choice...YMMV.
I am a speaker hoarder....can't help it.
D

[norburybrook]

The problem with speaker hoarding is storage though


I've just bought a Marshall 1965 4x 10 cab.... can't wait to see how that sounds with my newly built JTM45

Marcus