Pod Hd Pro - Real Life 4 By 12 Cabinet Options?

[danieldavenel]

 

This is my setup and i've been thinking about getting a 4 by 12 cabinet speaker but i have no idea what kind of cabinet speaker to buy. I mainly play metal and old metalcore like As I Lay Dying and All That Remains. Any suggestions on what kind of cabinet speaker i should buy?      Here is a picture of my setup    

 

[dspellman]

Sure -- I'll sell you one of mine and give you a good deal on it.

I've pretty much retired my 4x12s, and I really don't see myself bringing them out of storage except to sell them.

 

Here's my view.

 

I long ago noticed that 4x12s beam treble. If I'm standing off to the side (and my ears are noticeably above the axis of the speaker), I hear what I think is dulcet guitar tone. My audience walks in front of the thing and their heads explode from the ice-pick treble I've dialed in to make my off-axis response sound good. Others have noticed it as well, and there are beam blockers, foam rings, CDs taped to the front of the speaker cloth and every other manner of gizmo used to try to spread the sound, but the bottom line is that a 4x12 sucks for treble disperson. Strike one

 

They weigh a ton. Seriously, a hundred pounds, some of them. They're bulky. They don't reproduce bottom end at volume. Most of them produce mud and mush; they pretty much drop off below 110Hz and the 100W amps that most folks use to power them don't provide enough power to move enough air to reproduce those frequencies even if the speakers were capable.

 

Okay, so I've found substitutes and now I'm so over them. As for "which one do I pick," know this: look on the inside, not the outside, to evaluate what you're looking at. The brand name is pretty much irrelevant. They're mostly 30 x 30 x 14", made of birch ply (don't even bother with the ones that aren't) and they have some kind of brace, usually a 2x2, 2x4 or even a 4x4, that runs between the center of the front baffle to the back panel. So you find them with list prices from $300 to $1200 and they sound pretty much all depends on what the speakers are inside.

 

Your opinion, of course, may vary. But I think I've found other options that work better, especially since you've already got a modeler that will simulate the sound of a 4x12, but *without* the beaming and the mush and the weight and the bulk.

[Rewolf48]

+1  :lol:

 

The 4x12 is dead.  Or should be.  

 

Most places other than well soundproofed studios you can't use them at a volume where they work properly. A much smaller cab does the job just as well.  

The PA man hates them because they make it impossible for him to balance the mix because you are too loud front of house.

 

The only point of them these days, and to be honest in the old days too was because they gave the right image on stage - do you really think that the guitarist with a wall of 8 4x12s behind him actually plugged them all in?  Last time I saw Rush, or the Scorpions, or loads of other bands they had finally got away from the speakers on the stage, and were either direct with monitors (in-ears or floor - this is what your modeller is for!) or miked cab backstage somewhere so that the stage is virtually silent and the soundman can actually provide a decent mix for the audience.  

 

Rush makes not having a speaker wall a feature on recent tours - from Wikipedia:

 

For the 1996–1997 Test for Echo Tour, Lee's side sported a fully stocked old-fashioned household refrigerator. For the 2002 Vapor Trails tour, Lee lined his side of the stage with three coin-operated Maytag dryers. Other large appliances appeared later in the same space. For visual effect they were "miked" by the sound crew, just as a real amplifier would be. Rush's crew loaded the dryers with specially-designed Rush-themed T-shirts, different from the shirts on sale to the general public. At the close of each show, Lee and Lifeson tossed these T-shirts into the audience. The dryers can be seen on the Rush in Rio DVD and the R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour DVD. For the band's R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour tour, one dryer was replaced with a rotating shelf-style vending machine. It too was fully stocked and operational during shows. The vending machine can be seen on the R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour DVD.

The Snakes & Arrows Tour prominently featured three Henhouse brand rotisserie chicken ovens on stage complete with an attendant in a chef's hat and apron to "tend" the chickens during shows.^[39] For the 2010–2011 Time Machine Tour, Lee's side of the stage featured a steampunk-inspired combination Time Machine and Sausage Maker, with an attendant occasionally throwing material into its feed hopper during the show. During the 2012-2013 Clockwork Angels Tour, Lee used a different steampunk device called a "Geddison" as a backdrop. This was composed of a giant old-style phonograph horn, an oversized model brain in a jar, a set of brass horns, and a working popcorn popper.