Dual Recto sounds better from the side?

[punkrocker]

Hey guys whats up. I dont know about you but I getting an awesome tone from my recto when I stand off about 2 feet to the side of it and 5 feet infront. I was wondering if you guys knew how i could capture that sound while standing in front and MOST IMPORTANTLY when recording. Advice on Mic Placement, Room, Ect would be great. I have the 2ch solo head model and I'm running a Maxon 808 in the front with output max tone 2 o clock and gain 9. It gives a nice tom delonge sound (or should I say his guitar techs haha ). Here are my settings on my recto: Presence: 1:30, Bass 3:00, Mids 1:30, Treble 1:00, Gain 1:00, and output about 11:00. Using 6l6's on modern red with vacuum tubes and bold power. Thanks!

 

[Platypus]

It's your cabinet, not the amp that is giving you that very directional sound.

Beam blockers will help get the tone you're after when playing in front of it however not for recording. If you have a 4x12 it helps to put beam blockers on two of the speakers and that way you are still able to mic the speaker(s) without the blockers.

 

[ollievk]

Hey man, it largely depends on the room you're playing in aswell. It's always the case, you can get the tone to sound absolutely amazing standing in one corner of the room, but if you stand in the other corner it can sound average.
Just dependsd on where you face the cabinet aswell, just one of those things that personally I don't think you can do much about!

 

[primal]

Hey guys whats up. I dont know about you but I getting an awesome tone from my recto when I stand off about 2 feet to the side of it and 5 feet infront. I was wondering if you guys knew how i could capture that sound while standing in front and MOST IMPORTANTLY when recording. Advice on Mic Placement, Room, Ect would be great. I have the 2ch solo head model and I'm running a Maxon 808 in the front with output max tone 2 o clock and gain 9. It gives a nice tom delonge sound (or should I say his guitar techs haha ). Here are my settings on my recto: Presence: 1:30, Bass 3:00, Mids 1:30, Treble 1:00, Gain 1:00, and output about 11:00. Using 6l6's on modern red with vacuum tubes and bold power. Thanks!

Trying micing it from the outside edge of the speaker (as a starting point!). Basically with the mic perpendicular the speaker but at the outer most edge.

Now you probably won't have near enough high's with this, but it is a good starting point.

Do a few demos and inch by inch move the mic towards the center of the speaker.

I "think" you might find what you are looking for.

Essentially, the difference between standing right in front of the speaker and to the side of it are the amount of high's you get (this is of course ignoring all the other factors like room modes and such which actually might be your issue. Don't know any way around that).

As you move to the side you start losing some high's but pretty much maintain the lower frequencies.

You hear the same effect as you move your mic from the center of the speaker cone to the outside edge.

Hopefully you find what you want.

 

[punkrocker]

hey guys thanks for the great replies. I will try some of these. My one question I'd what are beam blockers and where do I buy them. The room I'd a large bonus room over the garage with wooden floors by the way.

 

[MusicManJP6]

I installed a 'Fizzy Lifter' in my RoV combo and it made the tone much more bearable while standing in front. Before it was much louder and could cut your legs off! The beam blocker and Fizzy Lifter are essentially the same function. They eliminate the direct beam from being so piercing in front of the cab and distribute the highs evenly to the sides of the cab more. The mids and lows are unaffected as they move slow enough to pass through the 4" round dome rather than deflect off of it. I think it smoothed out my speaker very much especially right in front of it. I hear more of what it sounds like from the sides as well. It lets me turn the amp up a little more without killing anyone in direct line of fire in front of the speaker.

 

[punkrocker]

Where did you buy them? Also I did some research and have heard a lot of people do a diy with duct tape. None of them say how they did it though. Could anyone describe how you would do this with duct tape (since I dont know how beam blockers are applied.) Thanks!

 

[MusicManJP6]

duct tape just blocks the highs from coming out directly in front. I don't really agree with this approach. The beam blockers and fizzy lifter (like I have) disperse the highs outward instead of just blocking them making it sound more like what is coming out in front when standing off-center.

Here's Weber's website with pics of how the beam blocker works:

http://www.webervst.com/blocker.html

The Fizzy Lifter is the same concept but is applied to the inside of the grill cloth via some industrial adhesive instead of under the speaker like the Weber version. Both accomplish the same goal IMO.

 

[punkrocker]

Would you guys reccomend weber then or fizzy lifter (that one sounds easier to use).

 

[MusicManJP6]

I'm the only one that has used a Fizzy Lifter apparently. Everyone else uses the Weber on here for beam blocking. I really like the Fizzy Lifter, but it's only available on eBay as I think it is kind of a new product that isn't real popular yet. So, I think most would say Weber, but I vote Fizzy Lifter:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fizzy-Lifter-Blockers-for-that-Ice-Pick-Treble-Beam_W0QQitemZ260248785601QQihZ016QQcategoryZ121165QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Read the description for more info and you'll see the advantage of using one.

 

[splawnfan]

I was having this same EXACT experience with my cab and after a little research I think I'm going to try the Fizzy Lifter...thanks for the update to that other thread by the way.

 

[PC Biz]

Hey guys whats up. I dont know about you but I getting an awesome tone from my recto when I stand off about 2 feet to the side of it and 5 feet infront. I was wondering if you guys knew how i could capture that sound while standing in front and MOST IMPORTANTLY when recording. Advice on Mic Placement, Room, Ect would be great. I have the 2ch solo head model and I'm running a Maxon 808 in the front with output max tone 2 o clock and gain 9. It gives a nice tom delonge sound (or should I say his guitar techs haha ). Here are my settings on my recto: Presence: 1:30, Bass 3:00, Mids 1:30, Treble 1:00, Gain 1:00, and output about 11:00. Using 6l6's on modern red with vacuum tubes and bold power. Thanks!

I had the same observation when doing an A/B comparison with a Recto 2x12 cab and a ported cab. The head was a Dual Rectifier. The ported cab was smaller, but the sound was massive and really brought out the best of the Dual Rectifier. I've owned two Recto cabs but my next 2x12 will be ported. Here's a blurb from http://fredacabs.com/soundclips.cfm that makes a similar observation.

The FAT Switch! - aka, "Mic'ing the Port"
Here's a tech tip you definitely need to know about your Freda cab. The port accentuates bass frequencies, so when micing the cab with only one mic, you want to mic the speaker cone. Micing the cone just off center is a standard placement and works well with your Freda cab, too. With two mics, however, you can mic the port as well as the cone and it serves as a fat switch built into your cab! I experimented with this in studio and the results were super cool. Micing both the cone and the port gives you the sound of a doubled guitar track with only one take! The port serves as the "second" guitar, and because it is a lower frequency, the track sounds huge! You can raise or lower the volume of the port track depending on how much fatness you want in the final mix.

 

[tunedown]

It's your cabinet, not the amp that is giving you that very directional sound.

Beam blockers will help get the tone you're after when playing in front of it however not for recording. If you have a 4x12 it helps to put beam blockers on two of the speakers and that way you are still able to mic the speaker(s) without the blockers.

A friend of mine has a 5150 straight cab loaded (diagonally) with two different pairs of speakers (5150s and eminence Legends) and his cab, no matter what head runs through it, always FILLS a room, no matter where you're standing and no matter how loud it is.

Without purchasing a new pair of speakers and re-loading my cabinet, could applying Beam Blockers to 2 of the 4 of the speakers in my Recto cab help me reach this desired effect? So my cab fills a room better (not perfectly, just better) and be less directional with it's high-end frequencies?

 

[splawnfan]

From what I have read, the Fizzy Lifters seem like a better idea. They don't make contact with your speakers and do the same thing that a beam blocker will do. I have some on order as of today after doing a lot of reading up.

 

[kmanick]

this sounds interesting , I get the same thing from my Recto 2X12 cab
and my Avatar 2X12 I loaded with Mesa C90's.
Does anyone know if the front of the recto 2X12 cab comes off from the
front? :?:

 

[Core9]

One thing nobody ever considers, especially when buying a cab, is how the grille cloth effects the tone. If you go with a heavier material (i.e. basket weave, cane, dense cloth, etc) you will eliminate a lot of what you are talking about. The heavier grill cloth will dampen the high end just as the beam blocker/fizzies will. It's one of the reasons the old Marshall cabs sound so smooth. I never really understood the idea of a metal grate grille other than the look on the older Mesa cabs.

 

[bryan_kilco]

this may be a little off topic, but a few times when playing bigger stages, I could actually hear my pick hitting my strings when I wasnt directly in front of the cab. :shock: :lol: freaky!