An interesting/cheap non plugin Plate verb is what?......

recall · Post by **recall** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 3:09 pm

Hello,

I've been asked to do some mixing on a project which requires a verb full of character on the vocals. Its been tracked quite lo fi by the band and I know it can be made to sound really good. The verb on the vocals at the moment is D-verb. It's been OK for tracking ref but doesn't really cut it in the mix.

The band wants me to mix on my old soundcraft 200b which is great as I've been doing ITB lately. The plan is to set the desk up and mix with live fader moves and then comp/edit mixes together, doing live sends to FX.

I'm really looking for a cheap Verb/multifx 2nd hand which has a cool plate setting. I'm definitely not going for bricasti reality and I really do not want that late 80's fleetwood mac esque verb.

I've done some research and have some ideas such as Alesis Wedge, Yamaha REV500, SPX, Zoom 1201, Boss sc70 etc.

The music has old synths through amps. drums fed through cassette, no guitars and boy/girl vocals.

It's meant to sound distressed. I want to retain that but make it translate better. Think Portishead's "Third"

Would love some input from fellow Tapeop'ers I've been reading about Joel's interest in 70's HIFI spring reverbs and have my eye on a couple. Hopefully this gives you an idea of the aesthetic I'm going for. The vocals are to be bathed in this verb and not the usual "dry with a bit of verb for atmos"

Hope this rambling post finds you in a good place,

Thx

iwan

EDIT:
I should point out that I have MCDSP Revolver and CSRHall ITB but the band don't wish to use plugin verb. Its their call and I'm happy to go along with it as a challenge.
Also the Portishead mention was just a reference. I like how even though they used top quality equipment for Third they also mastered final mixes to cassette and used old digital mixers. In other words all gear is fair game to be used and abused.

losthighway · Post by **losthighway** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 4:55 pm

The plate on the spx90 can be usable. I prefer a spring much of the time.

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:47 pm

Have you ruled out a Space Echo? That's what I think when I think lo-fi ambience. Or perhaps reamp into an amp with a spring reverb? Or a Cooper Time Cube...

standup · Post by **standup** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:53 pm

Orban spring reverb is fun. They are probably still cheap. Got mine for $75, but that was probably lucky.

donny · Post by **donny** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:51 pm

my favorite reverb is a biamp MR-140. late '70s/early '80s, USA-made. spring, but has some kind of limiter in it, so it doesn't sound too "boing"-y, kind of plate-like. it also has full EQ control and a "drive" as well. they don't come up TOO often, but they go for real cheap when they do because not many people know about them. i have 2, i think i paid around $85 for the first one and something like $50 for the 2nd one. the prices may have gone up a bit, but should be less than the more known units, maybe like $140 tops.
oh, it's mono also.

the reverb on all of these tracks are the biamp (only other echo is a tape delay on the vocals. the intros to "ripple and wind" and "heightened weight" will give you a good example of what the biamp sounds like):

http://magichero.bandcamp.com/album/odd ... thee-again

donny

nick_a · Post by **nick_a** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:12 pm

i feel like if you're going for something "distressed sounding" it might be fun to get something that sounds pretty wrong and doing your damnest to make it sound better. That's not to say you should get or find something that's straight shitty sounding, but maybe just see what your friends have that would be usable. if it's not sounding cool/weird/bad enough, try taking the reverb send alone and pushing it through a guitar amp or something. or use a guitar amp as the reverb! who knows. The wedge sounds pretty good but might be too 'nice' for what you're trying to do. Not having heard anything you're working on, obviously i can't say, but judging from the fact that folks are recommending spring reverb (which is to me a kinda irreplaceable sound), and maybe you can't get that in the time frame you're working with, i'd say just look for sounds that are kinda degraded. does that make any sense?

Mane1234 · Post by **Mane1234** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:07 pm

The great thing about the Wedge is the amount of tweaking you can do with the settings and it has some nice Plates on it but if you're looking for something kinda nasty then I'm not sure it's what you're looking for unless you want to just overload the crap out of it and see what it sounds like. I think I'd look for something a little more low budget

recall · Post by **recall** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:01 am

Thanks for all the great responses.

Lots of ideas here. I already have 4 different old echo units which I think would be cool to feed into whatever reverb I'm going to be using. There is a lot of space and atmosphere in the songs already. Got my eye on a quite a few units on ebay. I think by feeding the fx back to channels on the desk I'll be able to eq and drive the line gain if necessary to achieve different tones.

Looking forward to this project!

Chris_Avakian · Post by **Chris_Avakian** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:33 am

god i miss my mr-140!!! i sold it to somebody on here. i miss it so

. i used to use it out of an aux, into a bandmaster, then mic that, and bring it back in a channel. amazing

ive got a soundworkshop stereo spring now that just doesnt compare.

old springs are great, though... vibe city.

ive got a rev 500 that has a few different usable reverbs. plates, halls, whatever. not a bad digital reverb on the cheap.

id definatly look into a spring, though. the bigger, the better. stereo springs dont do it for me, maybe because the springs are smaller to fit 2 into a unit. idk. the mr-140 was an awesome, beefy spring. if you smacked that thing nice it was like you were right back in a cheesy 1950s b-movie thunderstorm.

I'm Painting Again · Post by **I'm Painting Again** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:56 am

you could set up an echo chamber..that's even less modern..

leigh · Post by **leigh** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:09 am

recall wrote:I'm really looking for a cheap Verb/multifx 2nd hand which has a cool plate setting. I'm definitely not going for bricasti reality and I really do not want that late 80's fleetwood mac esque verb.

So, you don't like the reverb on Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night album?

Anyways, for a cheap multi-fx box with cool plates, it'd be hard to beat the Behringer V-verb. These were praised as a sleeper hit a couple years back, so I picked one up and the plates are actually quite good on it. It also does a gazillion other multi-fx things (delays, backwards reverb, even compression - a la the SPX 90), so it's a good utility box to have around.

The V-verb also has the most intuitive menu-driven interface I've ever used on a multi-fx box. Someone there actually took time to think through the user experience. Too bad the unit got discontinued, but not before they made a ton of them, so you can still get them on Ebay for $80-$100.

cheers,
Leigh

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:52 am

I've got one of these; don't know if you can still find them (they're "vintage"):

http://www.polynominal.com/site/studio/ ... index.html

If you really want to go in the spring reverb direction, I just bought a stereo Pioneer that is out of sight, in a dubby stylee kind of way:

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/pioneer...lifier_sr.html

GJ

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:43 pm

SPRING!!

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:11 pm

Make one!

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:00 pm

+1 on the behringer verb, it's got some suprisingly cool sounds in it.

Message Board

An interesting/cheap non plugin Plate verb is what?......

An interesting/cheap non plugin Plate verb is what?......

Re: An interesting/cheap non plugin Plate verb is what?.....

Who is online