Watch audio engineer Guy Massey, Grammy® winner for his work on the Beatles’ reissues, give the inside story on Abbey Road Studios’ original reverb plates - now modeled as a Waves plugin: www.waves.com/...
I'd always assumed that the reverb on records made at AR were the natural reverbrations of the studio room itself, not some metal plates stuck in the cellar somewhere. And things like Lennon's voice on A Day In The Life some sort of tape delay, not the STEED, which is a combination of tape delay and the chamber of secrets.
STOP THE PRESSES! An engineer who admits he can't hear the difference between the real thing and the plugins, it's a miracle (or a fat cheque but we live in hope).
haha I understood that quite quickly as a teenager, because they've made the naming quite literal, such as "plate" or "spring" and what have you. So I just took it for what it was. - BUT, what I still don't understand is how it works physically. As in, you send the sound to the physical plates and springs, but... how does it interact, how does it go into them, through them, and come out, and that whole signal-path. - They can say "There's a physical plate." a million times, but that doesn't explain to me how the electric signal goes through that to give it a consistently shimmery effect. - Just like I don't understand how sound can be turned into ones and zeros and then still come out like physical sounds at the other end. - I have a spring reverb tank in my guitar-amplifier. I know that when I let the signal hit it hard (or even kick it physically), it will "splash", and if I hit it more gently it will sound nice and smooth. Still doesn't explain to me how sound goes through there exactly.
After this vid I made a little resarch because I couldnt understand. Close to the center of the plate, there is a loudspeaker that sends the sound to the plate, but doesnt touch it. The sounds propagates naturally through the plate and is repicked by piezo pick ups that are installed on each sid of the plate. That is why there is a valve amp connected to the plate : it is the amp that amplifies the speaker (I saw that explanation in a vid a student project on YT). That is also why the plates are heavily acoustically insulated, because they would propagate any surrounding sound that hits them (street, cars, planes, voices...). That is how I understand it at least. Cheers
This is a very nice interview about the diferences between them even if u can't notice those on the plugin, they all sound quite the same in a way that you don't get much those super different vibes mentioned.
when I saw this at first I thought it was Phil Collins in the picture. I don't really care if it's been uploaded once or twice or a hundred times. what's the value in complaining about it? no, truly...are/were you expecting something different this time? I'm just wondering. am I missing something because it's been uploaded several times?
I was about to say the same thing! Am I weird for my opinion on their plugins changing after realizing this? An easy comparison is how Steven Slate literally replies to comments on his youtube channel.
I was waiting for a taste of the reverb... it never happened. But seriously Waves, I have no interest in sounding like nor wanting to have this reverb...
NO boss don't like the Beatles... 3 musical references that are irrelevant to me... (i'm not young either) Remember I said " I " don't want it.. Plus don't want to sound like the Beatles either... No way :) Cheers
When I heard them in other videos I thought it sounded great. Also, using artists as arguments or reasoning to use a product doesn't make sense at all. Maybe if it can make one specific isolated effect sound JUST like their effect, but in general you'll never get the same sound because it was made with extremely different technology and completely different settings. Besides, I think if you go back as far as "The Beatles" and such, you're getting into garbage lo-fi territory. Sound didn't start actually becoming good until like the late '70s, for anything. Original recordings and tapes might be salvageable to then clean up and remaster, but god were sounds before the late '70s boxy, dry, and harsh. It's no wonder they needed to throw reverb-plates at it to mask all the noise. But digital re-creations like these are great for NEW music and as effects as well. - It's for creativity, not to replicate old-ass recordings that are overrated just because people got excited about the music. Then you're not trying to make more new music but just fanboying over a sound that you can never re-create ever again, because it was recorded back in time about half a century ago in a situation and setting that doesn't exist anymore. - It's something that happened between the members of those bands and the engineers, and that's the magic of it. - Enjoy those recordings, but saying "They used these technologies/devices/etc."... That's great for them, but it won't magically give the same results.
