Reverb at Olympic studios circa 1971?

[slinkp]

Hi folks,

I was listening to "Who's Next" the other day and thinking (as I often
do) "Damn, this album sounds unbelievably good." Recorded by Glyn
Johns at Olympic, as were a lot of other great-sounding albums of the
period...

One detail I'm curious about. Does anybody have any idea (either from
direct knowledge, or an educated guess from listening) what the reverb
used for vocals might have been? Very prominently used on eg. "Baba
O'Riley". It's quite lush and big-sounding, very pleasant, but
doesn't sound quite like a natural room sound. I would wildly guess
it's a plate of some kind, but I'm not an engineer and have no direct
experience of real plate reverb.

Or is it possibly an echo chamber?

It also shows up as an effect on various other instruments, eg. the
toms and guitars at the very end of "Bargain".

- Paul Winkler

[nebulax]

On Aug 6, 11:46*am, slinkp > wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I was listening to "Who's Next" the other day and thinking (as I often
> do) "Damn, this album sounds unbelievably good." *Recorded by Glyn
> Johns at Olympic, as were a lot of other great-sounding albums of the
> period...
>
> One detail I'm curious about. Does anybody have any idea (either from
> direct knowledge, or an educated guess from listening) what the reverb
> used for vocals might have been? *Very prominently used on eg. "Baba
> O'Riley". * It's quite lush and big-sounding, very pleasant, but
> doesn't sound quite like a natural room sound. *I would wildly guess
> it's a plate of some kind, but I'm not an engineer and have no direct
> experience of real plate reverb.
>
> Or is it possibly an echo chamber?
>
> It also shows up as an effect on various other instruments, eg. the
> toms and guitars at the very end of "Bargain".
>
> - Paul Winkler


I'm pretty sure they had EMT reverb plates, but I think I read
somewhere that they also had a real reverb chamber at one point.

-Neb

[Les Cargill]

slinkp wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I was listening to "Who's Next" the other day and thinking (as I often
> do) "Damn, this album sounds unbelievably good." Recorded by Glyn
> Johns at Olympic, as were a lot of other great-sounding albums of the
> period...
>
> One detail I'm curious about. Does anybody have any idea (either from
> direct knowledge, or an educated guess from listening) what the reverb
> used for vocals might have been? Very prominently used on eg. "Baba
> O'Riley". It's quite lush and big-sounding, very pleasant, but
> doesn't sound quite like a natural room sound. I would wildly guess
> it's a plate of some kind, but I'm not an engineer and have no direct
> experience of real plate reverb.
>
> Or is it possibly an echo chamber?
>
> It also shows up as an effect on various other instruments, eg. the
> toms and guitars at the very end of "Bargain".
>
> - Paul Winkler


Sounds like a plate to me.

--
Les Cargill

[Peter Larsen[_3_]]

slinkp wrote:

[about verb on who's next]

> Or is it possibly an echo chamber?

Didn't listen, but back then it was de la mode to fill a basement room with
round 2 foot diameter pillars and put a pair of ESL 57's and a pair of mics
in it.

> It also shows up as an effect on various other instruments, eg. the
> toms and guitars at the very end of "Bargain".

> - Paul Winkler

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

[Scott Dorsey]

slinkp > wrote:
>I was listening to "Who's Next" the other day and thinking (as I often
>do) "Damn, this album sounds unbelievably good." Recorded by Glyn
>Johns at Olympic, as were a lot of other great-sounding albums of the
>period...
>
>One detail I'm curious about. Does anybody have any idea (either from
>direct knowledge, or an educated guess from listening) what the reverb
>used for vocals might have been? Very prominently used on eg. "Baba
>O'Riley". It's quite lush and big-sounding, very pleasant, but
>doesn't sound quite like a natural room sound. I would wildly guess
>it's a plate of some kind, but I'm not an engineer and have no direct
>experience of real plate reverb.
>
>Or is it possibly an echo chamber?

Listening to it, it sounds like a typical large plate reverb. I don't know
if they had an EMT, but just about everyone else did at that time.

Doesn't sound like a chamber at all.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Paul Winkler]

Thanks for the input, folks.

Listening again, they were quite heavy-handed with the reverb at
times; see eg. "The Song is Over". But it still sounds nice :)

[Scott Dorsey]

In article >,
Paul Winkler > wrote:
>Thanks for the input, folks.
>
>Listening again, they were quite heavy-handed with the reverb at
>times; see eg. "The Song is Over". But it still sounds nice :)

Whenever people come up with new effects, they tend to get used very
liberally when they are new and exciting. I mean, listen to the tape
slap on "Great Balls of Fire." Whoever thought that was a good idea?
But it was the sound of the times. We are seeing the same thing today
with Autotune....
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Les Cargill]

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> slinkp > wrote:
>> I was listening to "Who's Next" the other day and thinking (as I often
>> do) "Damn, this album sounds unbelievably good." Recorded by Glyn
>> Johns at Olympic, as were a lot of other great-sounding albums of the
>> period...
>>
>> One detail I'm curious about. Does anybody have any idea (either from
>> direct knowledge, or an educated guess from listening) what the reverb
>> used for vocals might have been? Very prominently used on eg. "Baba
>> O'Riley". It's quite lush and big-sounding, very pleasant, but
>> doesn't sound quite like a natural room sound. I would wildly guess
>> it's a plate of some kind, but I'm not an engineer and have no direct
>> experience of real plate reverb.
>>
>> Or is it possibly an echo chamber?
>
> Listening to it, it sounds like a typical large plate reverb. I don't know
> if they had an EMT, but just about everyone else did at that time.
>
> Doesn't sound like a chamber at all.
> --scott

The album tracks were done at Olympic. I don't know if Olympic
had an EMT or not, but I'd be surprised if they *didn't* have
one.

--
Les Cargill

[Les Cargill]

Paul Winkler wrote:
> Thanks for the input, folks.
>
> Listening again, they were quite heavy-handed with the reverb at
> times; see eg. "The Song is Over". But it still sounds nice :)

"Heavy handed" by today's standards. Nothing even like a Patsy
Cline record, though.

--
Les Cargill

[Paul Winkler]

On Aug 13, 2:52*pm, Les Cargill > wrote:
> Paul Winkler wrote:
> > Listening again, they were quite heavy-handed with the reverb at
> > times; see eg. "The Song is Over". *But it still sounds nice :)
>
> "Heavy handed" by today's standards. Nothing even like a Patsy
> Cline record, though.

Heh, good point. For that matter, nothing like a lot of overproduced
pop records from the heyday of "I just bought another new digital fx
box". This one (from 1995?) always struck me as being particularly
over the top with the reverb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzeMzo_4pxA

And nothing compares to the era of "Let's all pretend we're Hugh
Padgham and Phil Collins".