Emerick - Recording the Beatles - Reverb chamber

People still make metal plates for reverb Matt, here's one;

http://www.platesonics.com/index.html

can't spell 4 doggie doo tho

Cool.

What about these reverb chambers? Sounds like Abbey Road actually had rooms where they played the signal and allowed the room the act as a reverb generator, and then they recorded the resulting sound.

I suppose they could treat their chamber...have is empty, or move baffles or dividers in there or whatever for different amounts of reverb.

But wouldn't adding reverb by playing the original track in the room and recording it again to get the reverb mean that is becomes a 2nd gen track then?

And what about the 2nd generation copy, if that's how they did get reverb? Or would they route the live performance via the reverb room and then onto tape?

Thanks Steve...I've been looking as well, but haven't found anything yet. The Emerick book seems to suggest that there were actual rooms or chambers where the signal/ track was run through...but the book didn't say whether the signal was run through live and recorded inside the chamber or if it was recorded straight to the console/ tape and then played back into the chamber to add reverb. I kind of got the impression it was played back,just from what I read.

Hey thanks Steve...sorry mate...hadn't noticed you reply here! I'll follow that link and keep tabs on it. It's not really important, I'm just interested. But thanks :)

Seems to have been some sort of actual chamber. There are slivers of information in this thread:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=70917

Hey check this out...I don't have time to read it all right now, but it looks like some good info, for anyone interested.

Some fella even has a photo of him and his mate INSIDE the echo chamber at Abbey Road studio 2!

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=123396

ORIGINAL: montezuma

Hey check this out...I don't have time to read it all right now, but it looks like some good info, for anyone interested.

Some fella even has a photo of him and his mate INSIDE the echo chamber at Abbey Road studio 2!

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=123396

Both of the threads regarding the echo chamber at Abbey road 2 were a good read and provides a good description of what an echo chamber is and how it operates. I wonder if someone has taken an impulse response of it. I'll do a search and see what comes up. Shall I post what I find for those of us using impulse response convolution reverbs?

An impulse response is a recording of a circuit (electronic) or of a room's acoustical signature to replicate the room dynamics for the use of reproduction. The way I understand it (in recording a room's dynamics) a high quality mic and preamp are ported into a computer running impulse response recording and analysis software in the room in the location to be recorded. A sharp sound akin to a starters gun is used to create the sound for determination of the rooms acoustical signature from the location of the recording. This data of the room's acoustical signature can then be replicated and loaded in to a convolution impulse response reverb to recreate the room dynamics exactly or very close to as it would sound if you were recording in that room.

It's a real good way of getting the reverb acoustics you are looking for without actually having to be at the location. I use SIR impulse response reverb rather than some of the ones I got with my Cakewalk software. Not to say what is there isn't good, it is. But I find that I like to replicate environments. The draw back is impulse response reverbs have a tendency to eat up chunks of processor power. I usually see an up tick of 5-10% in processor usage per instance so I have a tendency to bridge it across the Aux or Bus in Sonar.

I haven't found the Abbey Road studios Reverb Chamber as an impulse response. But I am looking for reverb chambers in general now.

I just watched the DVD "Les Paul: Chasing Sound!" Les and his wife, Mary Ford, would record in their home, or even on the road. At one point in the documentary, there is a brief tour of the home where some reminiscing was done about where some songs were recorded. Les searched for the best room/hallway/bathroom to acquire the sound and reverb effects he wanted. For one song, Mary Ford actually sang it in the kitchen.

I guess my point is, in trying to keep it in topic, is that the experimenters (e,g, Les Paul, Beatles/Geoff Emerick), will find their reverbs should they not have a commercially developed alternative available.

By the way, the Emerick book is excellent (was sad when I finished it). The Les Paul DVD is also excellent, especially if you wish to learn more about this innovator and truly exceptional guitarist.

Les Paul and Mary Ford did that long before the Beatles. They had a mobile recording rig and would try hallways at the different houses they stayed at on the road. Each one had it's own sound.

Best I remember at Abby Road they had special halls (chambers) just for that and they were tiled for max. effect.

Before digital there were many attempts to get time based effects. Springs, plates, chambers, tape, analog (delay line) electronics, all kinds of things were tried.

Even today it's still used. If you watch the making of stuff on the Lord of the Rings EE DVDs, there are a set of concrete bunkers outside of Wellington, connected by concrete tunnels, and so they have like this uber reberb tail. The sound guys took speakers up there and mics, which they'd place at varying distances down the tunnel, and play back some of their sounds and record them to create huge ambience.

I have been inside a few of these reverb rooms. One particular was actually the inside of a pyramid. They had mics at each point of the pyramid and monitors as well. The monitors were 10 inch boxes with a tweeter, not a horn. They could vary the depth by moving the speakers, the mics or just using a different mic, speaker combo. The walls were smooth as glass with high acrylic surfaces painted many times. I think they had a gloss coat on top of the paint as well. The whole pyramid was about 30 feet high and there was a small door at the base for entering. This was off to the left of the main mixing room and down some stairs. The pyramid base was in the basement and the thing rose up to 2 floors overall.

Another chamber I experienced was a room with 4 walls but no two walls were parallel and none all of the walls had the same size. Also had a high gloss finish with a mic at one end and a speaker at another.

Blackbird Studios in Nashville has a multifloor chamber in which the base is an elevator floor. They can resize the room for whatever room size they wish. Speakers at one end, the mics at the other. Somewhere at Gearslutz somebody took a tour and had some pictures. I couldn't find it just now but give it a shot.

Fascinating info. You would want to have some pretty pristine speakers to play your original sound on in the echo chamber, for it to hold quality when recorded. I guess reverb can help to mask any imperfections. An amazing, to me, insight into reverb the way it was.