• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

advice on cabs for recording.

T

TobyBrodel

Mar 3, 2008
147
1
36
#1
my band is heading off to record our debut album in a couple of months. we have to travel to sydney from tasmania which means i will have to hire my amp up there without trying it out first.

i'm fairly set on an orange adb200 head which i have tried out before but i'm not sure what sort of cab i should pair it with.

i've got some experience with using ampeg cabs live and at the moment i'm leaning towards the 115e, the 410he and the 410hlf but i'm not sure about any of these and would appreciate any recommendations/alternatives.

most of all i'm interested in finding out what differences i'll experience between 10" and 15" speakers

we're an indie/alternative pop band called The Stoics, go to Link Removed and listen to 'lay flat. do nothing' for an example of the tubey sort of sound i'm going for, just a nice touch of smooth overdrive when i really dig in.

i'll be using a roundwound eastwood map, a flatwound jazz and maybe a roundwound precision if i'm lucky.

thanks,
toby.
 
#2
Are you sure you want to spend the money on hiring both the head and cab?
Like, surely if it's a studio you guys have chosen that's 2 states away, I'm guessing you guys wouldn't have chosen a non-reputable studio.
So chances of the studio probably having some very decent pres, let alone an awesome desk to plug into would be fairly high.

However, of course, some peoples' tastes are beyond simple DIing.

If you were to use the AD200 (which is a fantastic amp, hands down) I would suggest the 410HLF. It seems to pretty much be THE ampeg bass cab that isn't an 8x10.
Even as it says on their website, the HE is more for...High End
Whilst the HLF appears to be a power horse.
And the 1x15...I would personally only use it in conjunction with a 4x10, not on its own.
Wouldn't be responsive enough to my personal tonal preferences.

And simply put, you can get pretty much as bassy with a 15 as you can get with a 4x10, they just - to me - seem more versatile.

oh and btw,
props on being a tassy band, you don't hear of many anymore
 
#4
large cabs arent all that necessary. keep in mind that if you're micing a cab, you're going to put a mic(s) on a single speaker, and MAYBE mic the entire cab from a distance. having 4 speakers and a tweeter is overkill. unless the size of the cab is crucial to the sound of it, pack light.

anything built into a cab to help with its live performance should be factored out. go for tone, not live sensibility. volume and projection are irrelevant here (cone size, number of speakers, wattage). in fact, with a tube amp, you might want a quieter cab to make the amp work harder to achieve the tone you're after. an 8x10 might take the engineers head off.. a single 12 or 15, or a 2x10 combo likely wont be so loud.

definitely avoid whichever ampeg cab is always called "woofy". your sub lows wont make it into the recording, i promise, and its going to muddy things up.

call your engineer ahead of time. people have house amps for a reason. its a sound they can work with. if the guy says he will get better sounds out of 15's, go for a 15. make sure he plans on micing the cab in the first place. some engineers refuse (because they are idiots).

xthereminx, keep in mind when considering speaker sizes that the amp will be miced from a few inches away. the center of any 15 is going to be as bright as a 10. what you use live may be completely different as it is a monitor.

OP, great music btw. normally not my cup of tea, but i dig it. definitely someone id take a date to go see.
 
#6
sonic assassin said:
large cabs arent all that necessary. keep in mind that if you're micing a cab, you're going to put a mic(s) on a single speaker, and MAYBE mic the entire cab from a distance. having 4 speakers and a tweeter is overkill. unless the size of the cab is crucial to the sound of it, pack light.

anything built into a cab to help with its live performance should be factored out. go for tone, not live sensibility. volume and projection are irrelevant here (cone size, number of speakers, wattage). in fact, with a tube amp, you might want a quieter cab to make the amp work harder to achieve the tone you're after. an 8x10 might take the engineers head off.. a single 12 or 15, or a 2x10 combo likely wont be so loud.

definitely avoid whichever ampeg cab is always called "woofy". your sub lows wont make it into the recording, i promise, and its going to muddy things up.

call your engineer ahead of time. people have house amps for a reason. its a sound they can work with. if the guy says he will get better sounds out of 15's, go for a 15. make sure he plans on micing the cab in the first place. some engineers refuse (because they are idiots).

xthereminx, keep in mind when considering speaker sizes that the amp will be miced from a few inches away. the center of any 15 is going to be as bright as a 10. what you use live may be completely different as it is a monitor.

OP, great music btw. normally not my cup of tea, but i dig it. definitely someone id take a date to go see.
Click to expand...

thanks for your advice and for listening to our tunes.

yeah i've got no need for a fridge on or off stage, my hiring choices are either 4x10 or 1x15 it seems at the moment though.

i've owned 1x12's, 4x10's and 2x10's but never a 15" so i guess i'm wondering what i'd lose/gain if i were to use a 15".

my sound doesn't really rely on the super lows, just a round, natural, woolly sound and i'm allergic to mid-scooping.
 
#7
xTHEREMINx said:
...or is it tazzy?
tasy?
tasty?
tazzie?

I'm not very multicultural
Click to expand...

well you're asking the wrong person because as you may know we tasmanians are completely illiterate and all left-brain thought quickly mutates into violent and forceful sex acts.

and that's just the way it is here in tassie.

and yeah i'm hoping to be doing the old di/mic blend because i crave that airy sound you only get with speaker response.
 
#8
it doesn't matter what you use. just get as good a sound out of it as you can and stick a mic in front of it. i've heard great recordings done with 810's, 115's, 410's, 210's, 412's and 212's, even guitar amps if you don't turn them up to the point of blowing the speakers can sound great for the studio.
 
#9
TobyBrodel said:
thanks for your advice and for listening to our tunes.

yeah i've got no need for a fridge on or off stage, my hiring choices are either 4x10 or 1x15 it seems at the moment though.

i've owned 1x12's, 4x10's and 2x10's but never a 15" so i guess i'm wondering what i'd lose/gain if i were to use a 15".

my sound doesn't really rely on the super lows, just a round, natural, woolly sound and i'm allergic to mid-scooping.
Click to expand...

i gigged for many years with a 4x10. somewhere in the middle i got sick of the sound of that particular cab. toward the end of my tenure with that band, we played a small show that we didnt really care about. i decided to pack light and borrow my neighbor's hartke 1x15. it was plenty loud and it sounded better than my amp ever did (also a hartke). the 1x15 was more aggressive and grindy than a pile of 10's.

likely was the speakers themselves, as the preamp was likely the same. lesson is, a single 15 can surprise you.

i could tell that you werent a sub-low sort of guy from the recording, but cabs arent created equal. the low knob is a shelving filter and it will make 80hz as low as 40hz. how the cab is built might help the low end roll-off, and i know one of those ampeg 4x10's is notoriously sub-bassy.

is there any chance you can go to a music shop with your head and check out a couple of the common choices? if so, you will want to approach this differently than normal cab selection. get on the level with the speaker(s) and get your ear in close. if you can plug the other one, do so. do you like the sound from 2 inches away? 6? a foot? we often audition cabs standing over them, standing away from them, or with our backs turned to see how it will sound on a stage. the mic isnt anywhere near there.

i often find that people set their EQ from those places before they record and when it doesnt sound good recorded, they are upset. i make an effort to make them get down there and listen to what the mic is going to hear. its normally a treble problem. inches with a mic is miles in tonal quality, but theres nothing you can do with super fizz. from across the stage, it sounds fine, but at point blank, its a drill to the temple.

the guy i worked with last week had no idea his tweeter was hissing. so i turned that bastard off and he didnt notice a change in the sound. but ill be damned if that noise is going in my track.

regarding the 8x10, my band has the same mentality. we told our bassist that when he can transport/move the cab himself, he can have it. he is 5' 4'' and weighs about 110lbs. the cab is bigger than he is in every way.
 
#10
JimmyM said:
it doesn't matter what you use. just get as good a sound out of it as you can and stick a mic in front of it. i've heard great recordings done with 810's, 115's, 410's, 210's, 412's and 212's, even guitar amps if you don't turn them up to the point of blowing the speakers can sound great for the studio.
Click to expand...

that too. i often run a split of the bass through a guitar amp if i want some grit or a different mid-range texture.

something about guitar speakers makes them sound a little.. softer? with overdrive. bass speakers seem a little more harsh and rigid.

jimmy, though you are pretty much right, i WOULD advise trying to find a cab you wont have to fight with. in most cases, you can get something you like out of most quality cabs, but i wouldnt be trying to go super mid-fi and gritty on an eden. id go for an ampeg first.

i spent years trying to get aggressive midrange out of a hartke 4x10 and corresponding head.. it turned out those things were predisposed to mid scoop.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back