SH Spotlight Echo/Reverb history in recorded music..

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by ROLO46, Mar 8, 2010.

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  1. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Reopened by my request.
     
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  2. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Here's some more flotsam and jetsam involving studio echo techniques to "prime the pump" on this thread...
    The History of Echo (Echo) Chambers (Chambers)
    Does not mention the "hole in the ceiling" at the Motown House, which I toured about 7 years ago;
    (apparently the hole was just to have something to show visitors, the attic space had no hole when they used it to run console output in there, thru a speaker and then back into a mic to return it).
     
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  3. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
    Were there any jazz recordings (lables) with reverb effect before 1953 as Race Records?
     
  4. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Yeah, I think so, some stuff, pretty obscure, usually not done as a special effect but because of mike leakage or a less isolated sounding room. Can't name any though. Rare instances.
     
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  5. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
    It seems interesting that the trandition to add EMT echoes on jazz recordings did occur together with the trandition on the disc format from 25cm to 30cm.

    Besides, the cover art began to use photo instead of painting in that era in the US. Because of the advance of printing techology?
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2018
  6. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Interesting theories. No idea.

    Covers had artists photos on them in the 30s though.
     
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  7. onlyacanvasky

    onlyacanvasky Your guess is as good as mine.

    Reading this immediately made me think of this recording from 1925. It was made using Western Electric equipment in the Gramophone Co. (HMV) studios in Hayes on October 7, 1925 - a fairly early Westrex disc for them, and there’s a LOT of the room in the recording. Sounds wonderful and lively!



    It kind of neatens up and “British-ifies” some of the rhythms, turning swung quavers into triplets at points, and pulls Bix Beiderbecke’s solo right off the Wolverines Gennett disc, but that room sound is quite something.

    It’s a wonderful book, fascinating reading for anyone interested in the history of recording.
    Sadly the link’s gone now and so is Mainspring’s physical book publishing. A shame, they sold great reference and history books.
     
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  8. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Britain (and especially Germany) in the 1920's sound era had really lively studios. So did Victor USA until the start of the Swing Era.

    But intentional reverb is something different. An effect, as it were.
     
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  9. onlyacanvasky

    onlyacanvasky Your guess is as good as mine.

    While we’re on about reverb and such, here’s a very dry and direct disc from September 1926 made by Okeh before Columbia bought them out. Made in New York using Okeh’s own “Truetone” electrical system, it sounds to me like everyone’s playing quietly so as not to distort the equipment any more than they already are!

    I suspect the fact that this was take 5 had little to do with musical errors.
     
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  10. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

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  11. onlyacanvasky

    onlyacanvasky Your guess is as good as mine.

    Yes, the Lindström studios in Berlin from that time have a full, rich sound - look at the size of the room! - and the records I’ve got from the late 20s made there are technically superb for the time
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    (images from Foren / Im Studio/Aufnahmeorte / Aufnahmeräume Lindström (Odeon, Parlophon, Beka usw.) Schlesische Str. 26 - Grammophon und Schellackplatten Portal 78rpm )
     
  12. onlyacanvasky

    onlyacanvasky Your guess is as good as mine.

    I’ve never been able to get over that. Sounds like they all crammed into the bathroom or an underground carpark or something. WILD record though!
     
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  13. tensummoner

    tensummoner wish i had a nickle.. thats it just wish i had 1

    Location:
    Ocala, FL
  14. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
    We're talking about the pop music mostly in this thread with the one but seminal exeption of Living Presence recordings. How were the classical recordings in genreal in the UK and/or the US before 1952?
    @Steve Hoffman
     
  15. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    I'm thinking of something where Louis Armstrong was in another room from the rest of The Hot Five. :laugh:
     
  16. onlyacanvasky

    onlyacanvasky Your guess is as good as mine.

    One other thing I can think of that uses additional reverb in reissues are the early recordings of Australian comic/country singer Chad Morgan. Since the first 12” compilations of these singles appeared in the 60s, there’s been a mono wash of reverb put over the very dry originals. To get the right sound one has to track down the original 78s, 45s (good luck) or a 1958 10” compilation LP. And as you might expect for a comic country singer, these are hard to find in good shape, they’re normally played to death.

    Unfortunately when EMI Australia released a definitive 3xCD set in the early 2000s, they did what every compilation had done since the early 60s and pulled the reverbed tapes instead of looking for 78s. But then I suppose had they done that, people would have wondered where all the echo went. :rolleyes::rolleyes:
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2018
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  17. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    I still have nightmare's with this particular release.
    I don't know if there's extra verb or what, but it's trash.
     
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  18. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    Interestingly, there is an alternate version of it. The Leedon 45 Shout parts 1 &2 b/w What'd I Say.
    My copy is trashed and skips a bunch, but it has some of the reverb effect but not drenched
    like the 'normal' version that has become the standard.
    Somebody definitely loved the sound of those dunnies.
     
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  19. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    US "Closed in." UK, not so much.
     
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  20. vanhooserd

    vanhooserd Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville,TN
    "My Foolish Heart" by Gene Ammons on Chess from 1950 seems to have echo on his tenor sax that isn't on the piano.
     
  21. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    A guy down under that helped pioneer early recording, was Cyril Stevens in Melbourne.
    He ran a record company called 'Spotlight'...
    Here's a bit about him, about half way down the article, and mentions some of the gear he was using.
    http://www.apcsociety.com.au/images/Stevens.pdf
    He had found a technique or recording reverb, that came it's trademark sound for hillbillies,
    and a guy called Dick Parry who was a yodeller.
    It also appears to be Australia's first microgroove record.
    1956.
    Hear how they used the reverb in this one.
     
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  22. onlyacanvasky

    onlyacanvasky Your guess is as good as mine.

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  23. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
    >Columbia from 1925-31 did this on purpose to add a slight resonance to their recordings.
    I understand 1925 is the year when the electrical recording began. What happned in 1931?
     
  24. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    So, you wanted to show everyone else the "most embarrassing post" I had made here in 2010. It will follow me around forever!

    Just kidding, I'm sure I will top it before I'm finished :)
     
  25. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    It sounds like Elvis played back over a bad AT&T long lines feed from Tel Aviv. Acoustically the equivalent of a New Jersey Sewer. Now you can see why I stuck to RCA Victor Gold Standard 45 RPM singles for Elvis in this era. Very horrid reprocessed Stereo. Fold this down to mono and you also understand why records like this did not belong on the air.
     
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