one of you smart people explain this

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 7:57 pm

so an hour ago i was remicing a wurlie track through my little mesa...i thought it sounded a little harsh, so as i often do, i grabbed the space echo. put it on top of the amp. turned the amp off standby, hit play. ok why is the level so lmuch lower than before? oh, duh, i'm stupid and forget to connect the cable from the output of the space echo to the amp. wait, then why is there sound coming out AT ALL?

when i lifted it off the amp it went away. so what was going on? the speaker was somehow coupling with the tape heads via the cabinet? or i have ghosts?

weatherbox · Post by **weatherbox** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:03 pm

I have an old ES330, and everytime someone picks it up, doesn't matter who, they play "I Dig a Pony." I think we both have ghosts in our gear.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:09 pm

my old Tele makes me play Merle Haggard licks at random.

i don't even know any of his tunes!

??????? · Post by **???????** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:24 pm

there might have been signal induced into the output transformer by the magnetic fields of the tape heads or the reverb driver or recovery transformers.

I'm not smart enough to know exactly why this works, but the concept is the same as why power and output transformers in a tube amp are usually not coplanar... i.e. they will be oriented at right angles to one another (or far enough apart that it doesn't really matter).

I once saw a Mesa Booge amp that as soon as you flipped the STANDBY switch, 60hz buzz came through the speaker... but there was NO mains voltage, only the filaments were on! There is no way the amp was passing signal.

Take the chassis out of the cabinet and the hum would go away. What was happening was the 60Hz hum from the AC line current was being induced from the PT directly into the voice coil of the speaker!

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:22 pm

*reads brad's post*

*blinks*

so it's a ghost then?

OM15.2 · Post by **OM15.2** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:55 pm

correct mic selection/position on the recording of the original wurli track and none of this would have happened... just saying...

thought you'd save yourself 10minutes not getting the sound right, and now you're haunted. Good lesson for the kids right here.

??????? · Post by **???????** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:00 pm

another thought!

Try it without turning the amp on at all. It's possible you're hearing sound coming directly off the springs inside the Space Echo.

The built-in Reverb in my Farfisa will do this. If you listen closely, you can hear what you're playing even if you're not plugged into an amp. It's going through the reverb springs.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:06 pm

OM15.2 wrote:correct mic selection/position on the recording of the original wurli track and none of this would have happened... just saying...

thought you'd save yourself 10minutes not getting the sound right, and now you're haunted. Good lesson for the kids right here.

awesome

weatherbox · Post by **weatherbox** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:12 pm

despite all that techie mumbo-jumbo, you should probably revisit the EVP thread, just to be sure.

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... hlight=evp

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:24 pm

brad, it's not the springs, when i lifted the SE off the amp the sound went away.

i like the magnetic field theory. which....it's kind of crazy to me that a bunch of particles moving around is recognizeable as 'my friend mike playing his wurlie, a year ago, in NYC'. i mean, all signals are a bunch of particles moving around, but this is happening IN THE AIR MAN.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:25 pm

If not ghosts it could be magic...

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:28 pm

Record it that way!!!!

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:28 pm

magic ghosts!

OM15.2 · Post by **OM15.2** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:29 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
OM15.2 wrote:correct mic selection/position on the recording of the original wurli track and none of this would have happened... just saying...

thought you'd save yourself 10minutes not getting the sound right, and now you're haunted. Good lesson for the kids right here.
awesome

yeah but you wont be laughing tonight when shit starts floating around the room. Not saying you deserve it, as such... just saying that's it your fault.

Next time try a U87 a few feet back, with some light compression, to 2" tape. hope that helps.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:37 pm

OM15.2 wrote:
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
OM15.2 wrote:correct mic selection/position on the recording of the original wurli track and none of this would have happened... just saying...

thought you'd save yourself 10minutes not getting the sound right, and now you're haunted. Good lesson for the kids right here.
awesome
yeah but you wont be laughing tonight when shit starts floating around the room. Not saying you deserve it, as such... just saying that's it your fault.

Next time try a U87 a few feet back, with some light compression, to 2" tape. hope that helps.

YOu don't know the details of the session. There are many reasons MSE might have recorded the Wurlie direct. It may have had nothing to do with the laziness you are implying in your posts.

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one of you smart people explain this

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