dmt
January 23rd, 2007, 07:20 PM
I was asked to start a new thread on reverb, so here goes:
Reverb is the natural reflection of sound back from surrounding surfaces (such as, the walls of a room). Just by listening to a sound, our ear/brain can tell if it was made in a small room, a large room, or an echoing cathedral. All rooms have natural reverb, though in a small room it's not enough to notice. The type of surface (how reflective it is) is important too -- old singing groups used to practice (or record even) in large tiled bathrooms. Stairwells can give another pleasant natural reverb effect.
Without having to have huge cathedral-sized recording studios, or to break down all the equipment and take it into the bathroom to get a recording with some nice reverb on it, a special room ("chamber") would be dedicated to producing and recording a reverb sound. To get a bit smaller than a room-sized unit, someone came up with "plate reverb", which used to be widely used in studios. (Note: I've read that before plate reverb, there was an early form of spring reverb using large springs damped in oil).
Plate reverb (http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/plate/plate.shtml) (using a large metal plate) was still pretty big and expensive however, so a smaller, much cheaper and more portable system was invented for simulating natural reverb -- spring reverb. Perhaps most famously, when Fender put out their "blackface" amps in the 1960's, they included a spring reverb tank as an onboard feature of the amp. Now everbody could have [spring] reverb on the go (not just in the studio, and independent of natural room reverb), and it heavily influenced the mid-60's sound. Instrumental "surf music" (such as by **** Dale, not the vocal-based Beach Boys stuff), as well as "spy" music such as in old James Bond movies, uses heavy spring reverb as an essential part of the sound. Spring reverb can also be set very subtly, so it is hardly noticed and just seems to add a hint of depth to your guitar's sound.
Spring reverb doesn't really sound like natural reverb, especially on extreme settings -- it sounds more metallic and "sproingy" (the mechanical unit that makes the reverb effect actually uses metal springs). This might seem like a negative, but because spring reverb was used on so many critical recordings as guitar was developing, that it is a specific effect that is part of the electric guitar story. If you want to have that certain classic sound, you need a spring reverb (or a simulation of it).
The amp most commonly associated with the prototypical Fender spring reverb sound is the [blackface] Fender Twin Reverb, which Fender puts out a reissue of today. Here is a video demostrating it. The video is kind of long, but he eventually takes you through the reverb section of the amp, and you'll be able to hear exactly what spring reverb sounds like. Click here (http://www.gearwire.com/media/fender-twin-amp-lab.wmv) to hear.
Today, there are lots and lots of digital and/or software based products that give a reverb effect. They usually let you select between their simulation of a small room's natural reverb, a large room's natural reverb, a huge concert hall's natural reverb, a tiled room's reverb, a chamber reverb, a plate reverb, and a spring reverb.
The company that makes the reverb units (called "tanks") for Fender is called Accutronics. Today, many amp companies advertise having Accutronics reverb tanks in their amps. The longer the spring (and thus tank size), the better; but a small amp isn't big enough to hold the larger spring units, so you must make do a bit if small size is something you desire or require.
Here's a video demo of a Carr Mercury, which is kinda based on the old blackface Fender Princeton Reverb amp concept, in a Deluxe Reverb amp-sized package. Unlike the previous video I posted, this one gets right to the point about reverb settings and sounds. He also hits the guitar percussively at diffrent settings, and you can hear the metal springs of the reverb tank sproinging when he does that. Then he plays, and you can here the effect of that depth of spring reverb in a musical context.
Click here (http://www.steelbender.com/mpeg/carr/mercuryverb.mpg).
Reverb is the natural reflection of sound back from surrounding surfaces (such as, the walls of a room). Just by listening to a sound, our ear/brain can tell if it was made in a small room, a large room, or an echoing cathedral. All rooms have natural reverb, though in a small room it's not enough to notice. The type of surface (how reflective it is) is important too -- old singing groups used to practice (or record even) in large tiled bathrooms. Stairwells can give another pleasant natural reverb effect.
Without having to have huge cathedral-sized recording studios, or to break down all the equipment and take it into the bathroom to get a recording with some nice reverb on it, a special room ("chamber") would be dedicated to producing and recording a reverb sound. To get a bit smaller than a room-sized unit, someone came up with "plate reverb", which used to be widely used in studios. (Note: I've read that before plate reverb, there was an early form of spring reverb using large springs damped in oil).
Plate reverb (http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/plate/plate.shtml) (using a large metal plate) was still pretty big and expensive however, so a smaller, much cheaper and more portable system was invented for simulating natural reverb -- spring reverb. Perhaps most famously, when Fender put out their "blackface" amps in the 1960's, they included a spring reverb tank as an onboard feature of the amp. Now everbody could have [spring] reverb on the go (not just in the studio, and independent of natural room reverb), and it heavily influenced the mid-60's sound. Instrumental "surf music" (such as by **** Dale, not the vocal-based Beach Boys stuff), as well as "spy" music such as in old James Bond movies, uses heavy spring reverb as an essential part of the sound. Spring reverb can also be set very subtly, so it is hardly noticed and just seems to add a hint of depth to your guitar's sound.
Spring reverb doesn't really sound like natural reverb, especially on extreme settings -- it sounds more metallic and "sproingy" (the mechanical unit that makes the reverb effect actually uses metal springs). This might seem like a negative, but because spring reverb was used on so many critical recordings as guitar was developing, that it is a specific effect that is part of the electric guitar story. If you want to have that certain classic sound, you need a spring reverb (or a simulation of it).
The amp most commonly associated with the prototypical Fender spring reverb sound is the [blackface] Fender Twin Reverb, which Fender puts out a reissue of today. Here is a video demostrating it. The video is kind of long, but he eventually takes you through the reverb section of the amp, and you'll be able to hear exactly what spring reverb sounds like. Click here (http://www.gearwire.com/media/fender-twin-amp-lab.wmv) to hear.
Today, there are lots and lots of digital and/or software based products that give a reverb effect. They usually let you select between their simulation of a small room's natural reverb, a large room's natural reverb, a huge concert hall's natural reverb, a tiled room's reverb, a chamber reverb, a plate reverb, and a spring reverb.
The company that makes the reverb units (called "tanks") for Fender is called Accutronics. Today, many amp companies advertise having Accutronics reverb tanks in their amps. The longer the spring (and thus tank size), the better; but a small amp isn't big enough to hold the larger spring units, so you must make do a bit if small size is something you desire or require.
Here's a video demo of a Carr Mercury, which is kinda based on the old blackface Fender Princeton Reverb amp concept, in a Deluxe Reverb amp-sized package. Unlike the previous video I posted, this one gets right to the point about reverb settings and sounds. He also hits the guitar percussively at diffrent settings, and you can hear the metal springs of the reverb tank sproinging when he does that. Then he plays, and you can here the effect of that depth of spring reverb in a musical context.
Click here (http://www.steelbender.com/mpeg/carr/mercuryverb.mpg).