The Blackstar HT-1
combo amp drives a
whopping single watt
of power through an 8"
speaker for great tone
at a reasonable volume
level.
Rivera’s Silent
Sister features a 12"
Celestion Vintage 30
speaker sealed in an
enclosure. Your amp’s
speaker output drives
the Vintage 30 and a
microphone mounted on
a gooseneck inside the
enclosure sends a signal
out of the box to studio
monitors or a live sound
console at whatever volume
level you choose.
MOTU’s ZBox provides
a proper impedance
match between
your guitar and audio
interface or other piece
of gear so that playing
feel is maintained.So you finally have a couple of hours free
for a nice evening of woodshedding in
your music room/home studio. Your amp
is warmed up, pedalboard plugged in, your
favorite axe is freshly strung and tuned, and
the changes you’re planning to work on
soloing over are cued up to play through
the monitors. You switch off your amp’s
standby and strum a nice, big, open E
chord to set the mood and check your tone.
Then you hear those fateful words:
“Honey, Gossip Girl is coming on, can you
please turn it down?” Your amp is barely on
as is, and if you turn it down any more, your
tone will really suffer. Then suddenly, the
inspiration and motivation are gone.
A similar scenario can occur when
recording because you need a certain volume
level to achieve the tone you want.
And equally important, you don’t want
undesired noise from outside the studio
to get onto your tracks. Be it traffic noise,
flushing toilets, doors slamming, footsteps
above or below—there are countless culprits
for unwanted noise making its way into
your microphones.
Sound control is a real problem for all
musicians. Those with, shall we say, a certain
attitude—will say, “Screw it, it’s my place,
too, and I’ll make all the noise I want.”
Certainly an option, it’s not one that will
lead to harmonious relationships with family
members and neighbors. Because I hate to be
bothered by someone else’s noise, I’ve never
taken this attitude. Even more than that, it
makes me very self-conscious knowing that
someone is being forced to hear me play
endless scales and arpeggios, or struggling to
perfect a solo by playing it over and over.
Sound waves propagate very nicely
through air, wood, drywall, windows, and
most doors. So in the interest of keeping
the peace, the following are good options to
explore and discuss.
Low-wattage amps. It’s common sense: A
smaller amp produces less volume than a larger
amp. The problem was, until recently, there
weren’t many truly small amps (1 watt or so)
that sounded very good. Things have changed,
though, and Vox, Marshall, Blackstar, and a
number of other manufacturers are now making
great-sounding small amps.
Power attenuators. A power attenuator
absorbs some of the power coming from an
amp, reducing the power that is available for
driving the speaker, and thereby reducing the volume. An attenuator can certainly drop
your amp’s volume, but may or may not also
change the tone and feel of the amp.
Isolation boxes. You could also place
your amp or speaker in a sealed box to
contain its volume. A microphone inside
the box can then be routed to your studio
monitors for listening at any volume. Many
big-stage rigs are run this way now, and it’s
an alternative for home use as well. That
said, it’s not quite as simple as just playing
an amp, and you may also run the risk of
changing the tone with this method.
Amps with headphone outputs. Many
amps now include headphone outs, which
disable the speaker when headphones are
plugged in. This allows for truly silent
practice, but may not provide the tone
you want, and not everyone likes playing
through headphones.
Amp modelers. Whether it’s a pedal or
a software program, modelers that simulate
the sound of an amp are a convenient solution
for practicing at controlled volume
levels. Opinions certainly vary on how
well modelers emulate a real amp. In my
opinion, the key is getting the impedance
to match properly with your guitar, as the
AVID Eleven Rack, the MOTU ZBox, and
other devices do, which makes playing guitar
through a modeler feel right. Modelers
typically offer many other benefits, such as
built-in rhythm tracks, MP3 playback or MP3 player inputs, built-in tuners, built-in
effects, and much more.
Each of these solutions will reduce your
guitar’s volume. How well each one maintains
your tone and the playing feel you expect is a
matter of personal preference. And how well
each works with your preferred way of practicing—with backing tracks, a metronome, a
drum machine, strictly from sheet music, or
whatever it might be—will vary as well.
Hopefully one of the methods will work
for you. I’ve used them all with success for
practice, recording, and even low-volume
band rehearsals. But there is another way to
practice and record with complete freedom:
Create an environment where sound cannot
escape. A soundproof studio or practice room,
while ideal, depends on many factors such as
where your space is located, how it’s constructed,
how much money you can spend, etc.
Next we’ll discuss how to minimize
sound leakage into and out of your studio,
and how to optimize the acoustics inside
your space—no matter how soundproof it
is—so that your guitar and your recordings
will sound their best. Stay tuned.
Mitch Gallagher's latest book is
Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate Guitar
Sound. He is the former Editor in Chief of
EQ magazine. In addition to being a writer,
he is a freelance recording engineer/producer/
mastering engineer, teaches music
business and audio recording at Indiana
University/Purdue University, and is Sweetwater’s Editorial
Director.
www.mitchgallagher.com