Where to place "the cloud" in tracking room for guitars

[sr2000]

The main purpose in my new tracking room will be used mainly for electric guitar/bass, but I'm confused about where to put the cabs and therefore "the cloud". I'm probably gonna end up getting Ethan's HF minitraps and hanging them a few inches off the ceiling.

My dilemma is that I could put the cabs/cloud right up against the wall and therefore maximize my 18 feet of space in the room - or I could put them in the middle of the room which would give me anywhere from 6-9 feet on any given side. The one plus about putting it in the middle of the room is I have some double doors that open on one side - I could aim the cabs out the open doors which would open about a 6ft. Not sure which would be the best for recording - any suggestions?

[jhbrandt]

The solution is probably easier than you think.

Put the panels where they make the recording sound good.

- be flexible.

Cheers,
John

[gainstages]

put your cabs up right against the wall and you'll likely get a little bass boost. that may or may not be what you want. I would suggest trying to treat the room in such a way that no matter where you are in the room, reflections are tempered. once you have a basic treatment, you can get tweaky - moving the amp around and/or moving a few of the panels around until you find the sweet spot.

of course, if you are only mic'ing up your amp with a 57 right on the grill, you've taken so much of the room out of the equation that it might not matter. if you are using room mics, then you definitely want to tweak with things a bit. like the last post said - be flexible.

oh, and remember that different amps might have different sweet spots in the room... try not to overthink it too much and just have fun with it

[sr2000]

very cool - that's the kind of advice I was looking for. I know the cloud will take care of the early reflections on the ceiling - I never really thought about the reflections on the walls because I do close mic. My sm57 is about an inch off the speaker and royer 122 about 6 inches back.

It sounds like you're suggesting I might have some movable panels up by the walls as well - how many would you say would be the maximum for this size room? (I'm planning ahead so that I can be flexible as soon as I start recording again)