At the January 2020 NAMM Show (which seems like a lifetime ago) theNew STAGE 1 Board Combowas one of the cooler things I saw. Itâs really simple; an amp-sized heavy-duty ABS polymer plastic board with four integrated mini vibration isolators on the bottom. At NAMM our friend Paul de Benedictis had a re-amped guitar track going to two identical guitar amps with an A/B switch â one to theNew STAGE 1 Board,andthe other to the amp just sitting on the floor. It was immediately apparent how much tighter sounding the bottom end was from the amp on theNew STAGE 1 Boardâ enough so that I carefully checked the settings on both amps to make sure I wasnât getting duped. We got two of theNew STAGE 1 Boardplatforms out at Panoramic Studio right before the COVID-19 lockdowns hit. Recently, weâve carefully resumed sessions with small groups, and have been using the IsoAcoustic platforms in our amp isolation boxes, with favorable comments from our engineers.
I was recently able to get into the studio to run some tests on these platforms myself with a re-amped guitar track through our Silvertone 12-inch combo amp. I love the sound of the Silvertone, but it can be a bit muddy in the bottom end. It was pretty easy to hear that by placing theNew STAGE 1 Boardunderneath the amp, the bottom end became a bit tighter and less rowdy. The primary advantage of the re-amped looped guitar track was consistency, so I was able to put a spectrum analyzer on a stool in front of the amp and measure results both with and without theNew STAGE 1 Board. The analyzer verified what I was hearing â nothing huge, but tests revealed a solid 3 to 5 dB of reduction below 500 Hz with a slight overall decrease of transient energy across the spectrum. I also ran tests with an A-weighted SPL meter, both inside and outside of the studio.
We are a residential studio in a house, so in addition to the benefit of a tighter sounding low end in our amp iso boxes, Iâm always happy if I can reduce the leakage that might spill out to our neighbors. There was much less of a difference with the SPL meter (maybe 1 dB), but the results on the spectrum analyzer outside the house were very similar to the readings I was tracking inside (3 to 5 dB reduction below 500 Hz). Bass carries, so thatâs a neighbor-friendly result! If you record guitar amps and want to get it right at the source and also want to keep your neighbors (if you have any) happy, theNew STAGE 1 Boardis an affordable piece of gear that will immediately work for you. And at $99 each, you could buy two, then put them under your monitors for mixing when youâre done tracking and get twice the mileage out of these handy boards.
$99 MAP;isoacoustics.com -JB