Mike Storey and His Plate Reverb (Video)

"Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is produced," says Wikipedia. More often than not, in studio recordings reverb is added digitally; virtually every FOSS or proprietary sound-editing program has a built-in reverb utility. But what if you're the sort of purist who prefers the analog sound of vinyl records to the digital sound of MP3s or CDs? What if you're the kind of musician who records at the original Sun Studio in Memphis to get that original rock and roll sound? That may be overly picky for most musicians, but there are some who would rather sound like Johnny Cash than Flavor Flav, and they're the ones who are going to insist on real analog reverb instead of twiddling a setting in Audacity. There are many types of analog reverbs, of course. One of the purest types, preferred by many audio purists, is the adjustable plate reverb, and Jim Cunnigham's Ecoplate is considered by many to be the best plate reverb ever -- which brings us to Mike Storey, who wanted an Ecoplate-type plate reverb so badly that he spent eight months building one. He'll run your audio files through it for a (highly negotiable) fee, and maybe give you a bit of advice if you want to build your own, although his biggest piece of advice for you (at the end of the video) to think long and hard before you become a home-brew reverberator, with or without advice and components from Jim Cunningham.

Comments

Hell, that's nothing!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll run your music through my super-secret-sauce Monster Cables reverberator for only 10x what this guy is charging! That means its going to sound 10 times better. You can't go wrong with a deal like that!

Re:What's all this "purity of vinyl" crap?

[captaindomon]

Sitting down with a bag of popcorn...

Re:Phil Spector

[Nkwe]

had a technique where he would pipe the audio from the recording studio down to a basement where loudspeakers played the audio and picked it back up on microphones and back to the control room.

In college I worked at a mufti-purpose coliseum. The building could be a basketball arena or by dropping in curtains at one end a large theater. Behind the curtains were big speakers. An analog audio processing system was used to make the walls sound "solid" - this was before digital processing was popular. Part of the analog audio processing was this oddly shaped room with a speaker at one end, a microphone at the other, and zig-zag baffles in between. The room acted as a delay and echo chamber. It worked great with one exception. The architects put the bathrooms right over the echo chamber...

Re:purist? hardly

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, a true purist wouldn't use a plate reverb but would instead build an actual room with the acoustics he/she wants. this guy is more like an "analogist"...

Re:Oh, now it makes sense

[flyneye]

WELL! True audiophiles know that "plate" reverb is still just a messy hack and you end up hearing metal in your recording. True audiophiles build their home next to a cave. Then using audiophile gear to drive the sound at the far end, it is mic'd at the other end with a gold spattered tube condenser mic. Reverberation times are changed both by moving the source closer or farther from the mic or partially filling the cave with Perrier for that true "wet" reverb sound. When you are adding .275 sec to the last 4 seconds of a baritone oboe for dramatic emphasis you don't settle for some hillbillies "plate " reverb....