How did studio plates and echo chamber work in the old days?

Mr_Claw · June 2022

HI all,

Not sure where to put this TBH, but here seemed right.

Was wondering how old big plate and echo chambers worked in the sudio. Reason is I'm trying to emulate that sort of sound at the moment in my effect chain. Just for interest.

Did, say, Capitol send live signal to the echo chamber and then record to tape at the other end? Or did they record live signal, send that recorded sound to the chamber and re-record onto new tape at the other end?

Thanks,
C

Cirrus · June 2022

Typically the echo chamber would have been wired into a send on the mixing desk or later a patch bay, so when you were recording or mixing it'd be as simple as either turning up the aux send on the relevant channel or patching it in as needed.

Exactly how it was used - either live or later, during mixing, would just be down to the workflow of the engineer/ producer. You could either "commit to tape", in which case your use of echo/reverb is baked into the track forever more (a valid technique!) or wait for mix time to make that decision in the context of what you're putting to final 2-track.

As to the actual how did it work part, very simple - whatever you sent came out a speaker in the chamber, and that was picked up by one or more microphones which were then fed back up to the control room.

A plate's electro mechanical, but same principle in practice.

Mr_Claw · June 2022

Cirrus said:

Typically the echo chamber would have been wired into a send on the mixing desk or later a patch bay, so when you were recording or mixing it'd be as simple as either turning up the aux send on the relevant channel or patching it in as needed.

Exactly how it was used - either live or later, during mixing, would just be down to the workflow of the engineer/ producer. You could either "commit to tape", in which case your use of echo/reverb is baked into the track forever more (a valid technique!) or wait for mix time to make that decision in the context of what you're putting to final 2-track.

As to the actual how did it work part, very simple - whatever you sent came out a speaker in the chamber, and that was picked up by one or more microphones which were then fed back up to the control room.

A plate's electro mechanical, but same principle in practice.

Sweet. Exactly the info I was after. Thanks. Although the answer appears to be: both!

maltingsaudio · June 2022

https://www.londononeradio.com/reverb-plates-and-echo-chambers-in-abbey-road-studios/

Open_G · June 2022

Not even slightly a technical reply but I understand that Motown used the upstairs bathroom

Stuckfast · June 2022

I've actually been in the echo chamber at Abbey Road! IIRC the speakers point into the corner and away from the mics, to ensure that no direct sound is picked up, only reverb. And yes it can be patched in from any of the three control rooms, I think.

springhead · June 2022

There’s a story of the Beatles going in there and making noises and swearing on someone else’s recording!

Mr_Claw · June 2022

springhead said:

There’s a story of the Beatles going in there and making noises and swearing on someone else’s recording!

...hopefully Max Bygraves or someone like that.

Mr_Claw · June 2022

Open_G said:

Not even slightly a technical reply but I understand that Motown used the upstairs bathroom

Kinda. It was the attic. I don't think Berry Gordy did anything other than stick a mic and a speaker in there either. No tiling, no reshaping. Just the attic of his house. I remember reading that Joe Meek used his bathroom.

Axe_meister · June 2022

From a DAW point of view for delays and reverbs I always like to have a separate bus so my pre-fader send goes to a dedicated reverb, often different busses for different reverb effects.

Grangousier · June 2022

Danny1969 · June 2022

Blackbird in Nashville has 2 or 3 echo chambers, Avatar in NY, formally Powerstation has a great chamber that Bob Clearmountain used for a lot of the vocals I grew up with.

We had a PA in the live room in my studio and we sent many things back out to it from the control room to add some live to it.

Stuckfast · June 2022

The famous Power Station reverb was actually a stairwell. I thought it no longer existed?

JayGee · July 2022

I’ve seen references to disused oil or water tanks being used, hence the expression “reverb tank”… :-)

mojofilters · July 2022

I've seen a few old mixing desks (from an era where the same types were used for both live and studio mixing) that labeled any auxiliary sends as "echo."

I've also seen that label on guitar amps (from the '70s, sometimes carrying over into the next decade) which I presume were designed when portable spring tanks and analogue tape echo / delay machines were the only thing likely to be inserted in an effects loop.

For example the popular solid state guitar amps and combos from HH Electronics that were based on the IC100 platform, such as the VS-Musician, to the best of my knowledge all have their effects loop labelled "ECHO SEND" and "ECHO RETURN."

PolarityMan · July 2022

Axe_meister said:

From a DAW point of view for delays and reverbs I always like to have a separate bus so my pre-fader send goes to a dedicated reverb, often different busses for different reverb effects.

I go back and forth in this. Obviously having a single "instance" was a limitation that originates from hardware and having a single reverb bus can make it awkward in some scenarios. With an instance per bus you can balance the verb to the sound then have the whole bus respond to automation. Obv you could also have a. Post fader send but then your submixong on the send gains which can be a bit fiddly too....but then on the other hand there is a certain glue you get from reversing the whole mix th iughbthe same instance.

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How did studio plates and echo chamber work in the old days?

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