Thanks for sharing.
Looks like it could be a fun project. Nowhere near as good as a digital VST recreation of an idealized premium plate though, not even close. Not even by recreations of late 1970s digital hardware standards. This thing has very metallic resonance, not like serious plates which are much bigger and thinner.
A fun colouration tool though, and a nice cheap DIY project.
Ethan Winer once tried to build a miniature "reverb chamber" frequency-shifting (up, and then back) to make it sound larger. It failed because there was too much absorption of the now-higher frequencies by the air.
…I assume that wouldn't happen with metal so maybe this thing could be made to act like a full-size plate??? ...Not that it would be worth it since software is cheap (or free) and infinitely more flexable.
DOPE! I seen this a couple weeks ago. I have been talking to a buddy off and on this year about building a reverb. And when I seen the video, it was similar to the idea I had in my head. This gave me some hope! I am kinda handy (been a guitar tech for years). I have also made some microphones and converted vintage phones into working mics, some stomp boxes ect.
Building a Verb seems FUN! I wonder if I would really be able to tell the difference? Or if it would just be a fun thing to build and have?
I even have some crazy out there ideas for verbs as well. Like using a old washer or dryer for reverb too.
Thanks for sharing.
Looks like it could be a fun project. Nowhere near as good as a digital VST recreation of an idealized premium plate though, not even close. Not even by recreations of late 1970s digital hardware standards. This thing has very metallic resonance, not like serious plates which are much bigger and thinner.
A fun colouration tool though, and a nice cheap DIY project.
Back in the late 70s or early 80s Radio Shack sold a driver that you mounted to your sheetrock wall to make a big speaker out of it. It sounded like crap as you can imagine and was quickly discontinued, but there was an article in one of the recording magazine I used to get that had a DIY plate using one of those Radio Shack drivers.
This one though was a big honking plate like an EMT and required you to go buy a big expensive sheet of stainless steel, then suspend it with springs in a wooden frame you had to build. The cost to build one was only a few hundred bucks though, and it supposedly was in the realm of an EMT for sound. I never got to hear one, as paper magazines didn't include MP3s to listen to. I sure wanted to build one though, but could never find the Radio Shack driver.
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Glennbo
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Glennbo,
Yeah, plenty of people have tried that trick over the years with varying success. Mostly bad.
This guy was more serious about recreating a proper quality plate sound (and it still sounds a bit metallic/zingy):
That is pretty similar to what they had in the article I mentioned. I think it was Mix Magazine who published it, and they gave it a big thumbs up, claiming it was very similar to the genuine thing.
At this point, I have no desire though to consume a bunch of space to achieve what is possible with a vst plugin. The cool factor is high though with these DIY plates.
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Glennbo
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The cool factor is high though with these DIY plates.
Yeah, that's exactly it. It's cool and must give them a sense of an achievement, especially if building up to achieving similar results to a top plate in the future.
Personally I would still take the sound of a decent plugin over that second plate (several low cost ones sound better TBH). Even a real top quality plate isn't as versatile as a good plugin and it is questionable if it is genuinely better too.
If I had the space to play with building a proper big plate I would probably enjoy the challenge, even though they are technically redundant.
Yeah, that's exactly it. It's cool and must give them a sense of an achievement, especially if building up to achieving similar results to a top plate in the future.
Personally I would still take the sound of a decent plugin over that second plate (several low cost ones sound better TBH). Even a real top quality plate isn't as versatile as a good plugin and it is questionable if it is genuinely better too.
If I had the space to play with building a proper big plate I would probably enjoy the challenge, even though they are technically redundant.
Back in the 80s I lived in SoCal and remember hearing about Capitol Records leasing time out for the live chambers under the Capitol Records building over hifi phone lines. I had dreams of creating my own live chambers using sauna tubing that they use for making the concrete pillars that street lights mount to. I thought I might dig up the back yard some day and plant a zig-zag array of two foot diameter tubing in the ground with a mic at one end and a speaker at the other. Boy am I glad I didn't pursue that crazy idea!
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Glennbo
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Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
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Check out the delay room at Rockfield. They did it with big glass plates on swivel mounts in an old cow byre! Sounded incredible when I was there last in the late seventies.
And they had EMT plates....
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Check out the delay room at Rockfield. They did it with big glass plates on swivel mounts in an old cow byre! Sounded incredible when I was there last in the late seventies.
And they had EMT plates....
I think it's great - I wouldn't get too caught up in proper and perfect since it's more about context, creativity, uniqueness and what it is vs comparing it to something else. I would not hesitate using this in a mix, though I wouldn't use it to replace an EMT for example but rather it's own sonic contribution for whatever creative use I found for it - aka allow it to tell me where it needs to be instead of the other way around.
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Check out the delay room at Rockfield. They did it with big glass plates on swivel mounts in an old cow byre! Sounded incredible when I was there last in the late seventies.
And they had EMT plates....
I found a picture of that room. Pretty wild! It looks like they have three or four lanes down a long long room, and the lanes are divided by the swivel glass you mentioned.
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Glennbo
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The plate sounds brighter, just as overtly metallic. Actually it reminds me of the sound of a domestic oil tank being tapped.
Here the sound of a digital VST replication of a plate followed shortly by the sound more like a massive industrial metal tank: https://youtu.be/KeVi2FikcDw?t=51
Even so it looks like a fun project for sound experiments.
Back in the 80s I lived in SoCal and remember hearing about Capitol Records leasing time out for the live chambers under the Capitol Records building over hifi phone lines. I had dreams of creating my own live chambers using sauna tubing that they use for making the concrete pillars that street lights mount to. I thought I might dig up the back yard some day and plant a zig-zag array of two foot diameter tubing in the ground with a mic at one end and a speaker at the other. Boy am I glad I didn't pursue that crazy idea!
Dude, Bro, I love it. You should totally do that man! That's a great idea. if you have the space, the know how, and the tools. Freaking go for it. The Mojo Vibe would be killer.
I have really been thinking about this for some time now. And I was really thinking about starting one after the New year. Then this Ikea video came out not long ago. That really has made this itch bad!
I originally was thinking of making one bigger than the Ikea. I was gonna do 3x5, and I was worried that was gonna be to small. And I was going to try and mount it in the wall behind the paneling. And then treat the outside of the wall.
***Has anyone built a Plate Verb? Am I crazy for really wanting to do it? Can I be happy with a smaller one like the Ikea one? Or should I go bigger?
Is there a better Verb to build? I really like the way they did it in the Buddy Holly Documentary as well.***