The beauty of this video is that if there's a nuclear holocaust and we need to rebuild society we at least now know how to recreate Motown - and that's no bad thing
@@trendingverge None of that will matter. There won't be electricity that we have relied on, and the music we make might as well be given to aliens as post-war generations will die of radiation exposure.
You actually already own the ideal piezo preamp... right there in your rack! The Great River preamp's Hi-Z input is a JFET buffered DI that feeds its input transformer. The input impedance is 1 MEG, and it's ideal for passive piezo pickups. I put piezo pickups in all kinds of things and it sounds great. I have long thought of building a plate similar to what you did. I'm glad to hear that it works so well. You should also play with the location of the plate support knobs. It will change the vibrational nodes of the plate. Great video!
Good eye! I got that MP2-NV maybe 10-12 years ago straight from the man himself, Dan Kennedy at Great River Electronics. It is glorious. Magnificent, even. It most certainly would work for me but I'm trying to do this project with lower-cost options that the average home gamer might have or can build. Good recommendation, though!
What would happen if you put rubber pads under the plate support knobs to further isolate the plate from the chassis? I would also put it on wheels so that you can wheel it around the studio to modulate the effect if you so wish?
I built a plate a few years ago. It will sound a little better if you use 26AWG sheet metal and suspend it with wire. It should be under tension and have a fair amount of distance between the sheet and the shelf below it. You may need to cut down the corners to make room for the suspension. Great experiment. Thanks for sharing! BTW, if you want to play with your current hardware more, sand off the paint, use longer spacers and use only three, placed randomly. Patterns are your enemy in acoustics.
You're absolutely right about using 3 spacers in random orientation to avoid regular patterns and acoustic nodes in the plate. That's a brilliant thought and I can't believe I didn't think of that. Your other observations are on point too.
@@LeoMakes Heh, I get lucky sometimes. I actually had a client ask if he could buy my plate off of me. Mine was 26AWG 3'X5' suspended in a wooden frame. I put a styrene board in the frame to act as a damper with a pull-string to control the spacing. I used piezo pickups at first but got quieter operation with a couple omni condensers later. Any way, keep experimenting. I would love to see what your final version is like!
Built 4×8' in wooden frame years ago. Suspended from ceiling.EQ'send/ returns,in a another room,as they (as u know)will pick-up ambient sounds. Thing sounded great,EQ send . frequencies that were "harsh",EQ return(and plate)shaped overall sound.Much tweaking to dial it all in. An engineer said that if the plate was isolated and properly suspended in airtight enclosure,and pumped out w/vacuum pump(obviously not a complete vacuum) that it wouldn't pick up any ambient sound,as sound can't travel through vacuum. The plate,heavy guage sheet metal, is now the floor in bed of old truck! I've fooled around w/smaller and thinner sheet steel w/good results. However plate needs to be under more tension that thicker steel. Using 2×4' thin guage (28-32g) suspended w/Multiple stiff springs, (at least 8)in oak frame sound really good.I need to install nylon grommets into plate to eliminate minor "buzz" from metal to metal contact. Then suspend that apparatus in an enclosure and pump it down to "near"vacuum. That being said,I've used some softer steel that sounds even better that the harder stuff. Then my friend suggested that since being in a near vacuum enclosure,why not 2,or 3,or MORE units in same box!Wow -good advice again,as u can't have to many reverbs! Don't have the spare cash to do this now,and don't have space for a studio either,so it goes on back burner for now. I use good 4"speaker,carefully cut out dust cap,glue in hollow cardboard tube(fits in cavity behind dust cap). Then trim to just touch plate,and glue using urethane sealant. Pick-ups?Acoustic instrument Pick-ups work great for this. 2×4 frame covered w/osb plywood seals unit up pretty good, although heavy,this also adds support to framework.Spings?short heavy springs w/hooked ends,2 on each corner,90 degree apart.Use eyebolts not screws as they will pull out. Suspend unit in another frame or from ceiling.This makes the unit Level,which is important. After hanging unit w/plywood on backside,then install speaker/tube on face of middle section of front plywood(front is in 3 sections). I've found that point of attachment of tube to plate to be 2-4" off center,to be ideal. Transducers in line w/each other at both ends of plate 4 to 6" from edge also ideal,as you don't want them to be out of phase. Cut the lows(100 and below) Cut the highs (3k and above) going to the plate as a good starting point.A cheap graphic or similar w/any old amp to drive plate is fine. Since transducers(pick-ups) are high-z, I soldered 1/4" Jack to them and plug into low-z transformers,and then to balanced Mic cables,then into mixing desk using EQ on board to make final tweaks. A drill and $200.00 bucks and you will have a Quality sounding plate reverb that can deliver astounding sound. If you want to "dampen"it(shorten decay) Install a t-nut on front panel w/ long bolt(1/4" diameter or so) attached to 3×3"or so cube of soft foam rubber. Use urethane sealant(calk) to fasten to end of bolt.Then simply adjust to shorten decay.Place this apparatus on either left or right panel so contact w/plate is 4" or so from a corner.This is not critical,but u want it close to the edge,not anywhere in Middle area.It will barely contact surface to dramatically shorten decay. This set-up will give 3 seconds or more decay,so this little thumb screw deal works great. After dust cap is trimmed off speaker then get appropriate diameter tube(hobbie supplies) Steel can be had from various suppliers,such as McMaster Carr, or sheet metal shop.Springs from M Carr or the like.Small flat "L brackets for corners at hardware store.Fasten one on each corner w/ thin rubber,or sealant under them to prevent "rattles".The springs hook into these,after mounted w/small bolts to plate and drilled. As mentioned,nylon grommets are highly recommended.Springs can be hooked right into plate, but Will tear metal after time,as we're talking about 50lb or more of spring tension(tension it takes to expand springs,and there will be over 400lb's pull on plate. Get steel,springs,eye bolts,washers, brackets first,then make frame,etc. An alternative is to use 8 small turnbuckels,and high grade ones. That's what I used on my first plate,and worked great,though 8 heavy coil springs are better and contribute to a better sound.The original plates we're hung in steel frames as they (most of them)had so much tension they would have collapsed a wood frame. I prefer wood frames/springs as they contribute to a smooth sound . The original plates were "tuned" (like an instrument!) to the users preference,and also very expensive. I felt it necessary to give these guidelines which yours truly learned from many,many hours of trial and error. An if I get into the right situation again,several of these units will be quickly put together and put into service. The sound to my ears surpasses their digital counterparts. They sound great on vocals, stringed instruments,etc,but really shine on percussion stuff. Analog tape and gear and good mic's can't be beat in my opinion.Digital stuff is best for mix-down and mastering. Analog tape has a natural compression when driven(and distortion!)and like plates,tube limiters and such cannot be equalled with algorithms and unlimited tracks.
@@robertgodhard3248 Tyvm for all those very sharp technical tips on the REAL thing (the ikea funny thing is nice too and easy, tho). Very interesting, keeping it all, if one of those days... Just one thing : wouldn't it be better to NOT enter xformer directly from piezo ? I've seen other designs doing so but ... Wouldn't it be better to first plug piezo (very short wires) to very hi-z ( 2M, 5M or even more) FET buffer ? This is usualy the way it's done for acoustic instruments, isn't it ? Piezo are so weak and prone to noise catching...
I’d like to hear what it would sound like to run a 2x speed signal through the plate reverb. Then, of course, you’d slow the recording back down. It would probably sound like a much bigger plate, but who knows.
Back in the 70s , a firm of architects used something like that to deduce the sound of real concert halls from using quite small models. Of course doing it whilst hitting your plate/spring with a small screwdriver gives rise to the whole gamut of Star Wars blaster sounds!
The result is really pleasing to listen to, especially on the synths. It really sounds kind of "physical". I'd love to hear it on saxophone or someone singing.
I've wanted someone to do a video exactly like this for a while. I really needed a good recommendation for the output transducer and the amp build instructions. I'll find amp builds somewhere, but everything about this video was super helpful. Thank you.
Damn. Ya beat me, to the punch. Bravo! I'm a studio owner. I've had a pair of EMT plate reverbs over the years. And boy oh boy, do I miss them. No digital anything can compare. And so it had been my intention. To take a metal double frame bed frame. Weld it, solid. Add some, reinforcement braces. The piezoelectric buzzers are all right. Though I think a, Barcus Barry or a, FRAP, Might be more advantageous? And then a, 4 x 6 foot piece of, stainless steel sheet metal. Double reinforced at each one of the corners. Let it get me the extended reverb time and greater density that I desire. One other thing you missed. Is that, on the driver side. A rather large treble boost a.k.a. preemphasis of the high frequencies is added. Which, frequently kicks up this, sizzling sound. Which some people love. Like myself. Others hate it. Some scorn it. I embrace it and love it. It's definitely the audible clue. You got a real plate reverb. The problems EMT had, manufacturing their, 140 series plate reverb's. Was twofold. One is that of their, cold rolled steel. Having about a, 60% rejection ratio. I know. That's almost unbelievable. And if the Germans can't make decent, cold rolled sheet metal steel? Who the hell can? Which is one of the arguments for, stainless steel. Conversely. The cold rolled steel. When you opened up the EMT plate to properly tension it. Everyone found this horrible sticky stuff. All over the sheet metal on both sides. So nasty, sticky that it was. Many technicians cleaned it off. And that's a big whoops. As that was covered in, kneetsfoot, oil. To keep the cold rolled steel from rusting like an old car. And some were destroyed in that fashion. While others still sounded great. If they were lucky? Reverb time was varied with, basically, rigid fiberglass ceiling tiles. Glued,, to a backing. Suspended with, levers. That moved the ceiling tiles closer to or away from the plate. To vary the reverb time. Never making contact with the physical plate. And was truly an amazing invention created by Dr. Kuhl, in 1958. It changed the world. As today. All digitally synthesized reverbs. All try to imitate the plate. And really none can compare. Until you spend between $5000 and $15,000. So this was a great project you presented! I'm in love with you LOL. I mean a better sounding reverb than a, digital gizmo for $100. That's absolutely brilliant! And is quite usable sounding. I'm just spoiled having had the real things. So, I have to have a big one. Yes I am one of those kinds of girls. But that definitely is one great bargain! Mx. Remy Ann David TheTruckStudio.com
Thanks for the tip. I was thinking carbon steel would ring better than stainless but that rust would bodge up the reverberations, neets foot oil it is! Also knowing they used acoustic tile on the dampening- I've been trying to engineer how to keep a felt piece from touching the plate and rigid tile is a fabulous solution. Looking to start assembly in the near future. 😸
Very interesting observations--thanks for that. I didn't know about the oil coating on the plate, but it does make sense. It's incredible how quickly uncoated, ungalvanized, or otherwise unprocessed steel starts to rust. Part of the reason I went with the "tabletop" form factor was that I didn't have a good solution to the "ceiling tiles suspended with levers" thing that I would otherwise need to build. Plus it's fun to physically dampen the plate with your hands. But it is something I want to look into as a next step. Thanks for watching!
Super cool, the DIY aspect of this Reverb is so creative.... The fact that you now have a "real World" analogue reverb Brings life to digital sound. It sounds wonderful, very inspirational and I might just a stab at making one. Thanks for sharing
I like this project! I may have to build something similar. Thanks for doing this video!!! I immediately had a couple ideas on improvements... #1 on the mics, shield them as close to the mics as possible to get rid of that hum - if you HAVE to have any unshielded wire, twist them together (twisted pair reduces noise). You also might try adding a ground wire to the plate to shield one side - OR you could attach the mic between the plates (on the under-side of the plate), and ground both the plate and the frame to add additional shielding. It won't get it all, but it should get some/most... #2 I would take a sander to the surface of that "plate" to get rid of the finish. You may get better high frequency without that black finish - the down side to that is that it may rust or oxidize, so you may have to replace the heavy finish with a really light lacquer or gun oil. #3 Speaking of frequencies, a tone setting or graphic EQ on that driver amp may be a good thing as well. #4 You probably already know that placement of the driver affects the sound, move it around to find the "sweet spots" and mark them. (do the same with the mics) #5 because the drive is held in place by gravity, this type of set up need not be "ferrous" (iron or steel) - plates of different materials may be interesting to try - Aluminum, brass, or even plastic Again, this was a wonderful video and a great idea, thanks for the inspiration!!!
Awesome - I'm totally building one of these. From my experiments with piezos - the bigger the better. The larger surface will pick up lower frequencies, which you can roll off in post if you want. Also - get some thin foam rubber and make little squares to put in the corners - try to float it off the frame instead of the lower shelf basically. Man and you could have multiple plates -- one with springs stretched across or sympathetic resonating strings or something... yeah I'm a make one of these.
I keep seeing in the comments "you need to do this" "you need to make sure that" "it would be better if." Honestly, when it comes to cool effects, you don't have to do anything but what is available to you. The effect from this plate is really really cool on its own and is something I could totally see in a couple of mixes I'm working on right now.
Thanks for the kind words, Beau! I really don't mind the suggestions, though. I think it's kinda cool that people are engaging with the video so much. I was worried it was going to be crickets in the comments section... :)
Nice! I'm getting so many ideas from this and reading the comments... I just remembered I have a small steel sheet in my basement storage, some old junk left behind by someone. I wasn't sure what to do with it, but it's still there, probably waiting to be turned into a reverb.
really a wonderful project leo. never realized a plate was that simple. it sounds fine and those freqs not wanted can always be eq'd away and manually damped to your desire. thanks a bunch.
Been doing something similar to this for a few years, just using a vibration speaker and contact mics (as well as other mics) to pass sounds through a selection of household objects (tables, tins, boxes, bathtubs, etc). I wasn't specifically aiming to create reverb so much as add some timbral variation in a nicely hands-on kinda way,. For me any reverb is just a bonus! Top tip; try covering the 'plate' with dried lentils to add distortion.
There may be less distortion if the transducer is stuck or clipped to the plate. You could also try a pre-emphasis filter before the plate and post-emphasis after to see how it sounds. It can be done in the DAW. I suggest to lower the lows and boost the highs with shelf filters, and the opposite after the reverb.
coolest video on TH-cam? Got my vote. Only way to improve this would be, use an angle grinder to cut the legs like a hot knife to butter bro. You can even round and clean the rough edges once you cut them and then spray them black with a nice paint like Belton Molotow craft paint. Other additional ideas for this project: You can also use aircraft paint stripper to get that black paint off the top plate so it can resonate properly. That Ikea paint is deadening the ability of the soundwaves to travel quite a bit. It will sound way better without that think coat of powedercoat on it and should be a very easy strip. You may need to lightly treat it to keep from flash rusting if its not stainless. thin coat of sprayable polyurethane or something is much better than hard paint. You can ALSO use an old snare dampener on the surface instead of a towel or whatever, with those old turn wheels to increase/decrease verb decay! I used to use EMT's at Electric Lady for years, this is an amazing hack. Thanks a ton man great vid! check out my similar stuff at www.CreativityNy.com
immediately subscribed. This is absolutely brilliant. When you get around updating everything and optimise it an all in package of electronics would be amazing to straight up buy
user I guess it’s outside of my box. Or maybe I was making a dad joke at the time. That comment was a year ago and I don’t remember. Still, I have a soft spot respect for folks who do things the hard way. At least to me it’s the hard way and certainly more bulky than a plugin to have around. Like playing in a band with a guitarist who insisted on using his dresser-sized Leslie cabinet at shows. Ugh. Ha
Love the idea and dirty, hands on prototyping. Awesome. "real" studio plates are normally a stiffer oversized frame and the plate is tensioned tightly in at least eight places. Often has gussets welded on corners to improve strength since sheet is so thin. And, of course, the plate is bigger. All that may be overkill on a cheap fast project like this. Depends how much effort you wanna throw at it. But the tensioned in-line, free floating concept would affect how the plate shakes vs. resting on four corners. If you feel like experimenting.
I'm also curious on specs, because plates were patented by EMT before the label was created and all through its heyday. There's no way they bought a commercial unit smaller than this vid example. It didn't exist. The old EMT units are about as big as a sheet of plywood. So while I won't say you're *wrong*, I will say if they had a smaller unit then they built it themselves...much like this video guy. And that has a fair possibility of being right. Many studio of that era were built by hand one piece at a time, often by hacking up old radio or telephone equipment. If they needed something then they made it. Idk if that's true in this case. But maybe.
Great video... I would EQ the reverb signal, there seems to be a dominant frequency in there, around 1 or 2 K ... while it is a characteristic of most spring and plate reverbs to have such resonant peaks smothing it down could give a much smoother reverd. Well props to you well done...
Leo! Great hack! Thanks for sharing both videos. I am a musician, learning about studio-technique and this is just great hands-on know-how that tastes like an instrument, much more than some software-solution. I know the shallow outlines of reverb and that the effects on mixers are digital imitations of the rooms and effects. I'm certainly going to check out what other videos you got! Thanks for the inspiration and energy!
I did something very similar recently with one of those stamped-steel CD towers you used to see everywhere - put a contact driver on the bottom of the tower and piezos at the top, and built a little box with an LM380 driver circuit and a pair of simple piezo preamps (FET into TL072) to run it all. Because it's a column it has some pretty prominent resonances but it's very fun to incorporate into complicated pedal setups with feedback and so on. I should really do a little video about it at some point.
Great video! Did you experiment with the placement of the transducer and pickups? Or maybe try something in between the transducer surface and the plate surface to reduce the “attack”. I definitely want to try something similar. Thanks again!
Found this video randomly and absolutely loved it. Definitely do more of these! I’d like to see how it evolves! And more importantly, I’d actually like to create this now, too
All that extra leg length above the plates sure looks like a good spot for springs and another pair of transducers to turn it into a dual-purpose reverb unit! Spring, plate, or a little of both!
That's a really cool idea! Loved it on the synth, no so much on drums, it was a bit resonant for my taste. I'm sure you'll find a great organic use for it once the project is done and you tackle to impedance issues etc.
What a wonderful toy!! And *analog*, too. Thanks tons for this: I see there’s like two or three follow ups on this so I’m subscribing. Hopefully I’ll have time to build one of these and use it before I die, but the display of clarity and creativity is just terrific, all by itself
Holy... o.O This just blew my mind! Incredible job, crazy levels of creativity and out-of-box thinking with this table. Instant subscribe and I'm waiting for more! This reverb actually sounds hella good if you ask me!
Super nice. Thanks! I think the tone got better when you damped (thanks for that) the plate. Likely some odd overtones being produced by an 'untuned' plate. I have a large air compressor tank I have been wanting to try this on.
Awesome and I will probably build my own. I'm thinking about suspending the resonating plate with fishing strings. I think that would make the contact points as minimal as possible. What a great idea!
Great video! Time to watch your other ones. This video may be kind of long to some people but it was thorough and well done! I look forward to videos continuing your experimentation with this reverb, and any new projects in the future!
this sounds amazing with the synths! vst has you know pretty big sound. and this small table plate expand those sounds in the mix pretty well with expetimental spirit of course!
Love the video and idea 😀 Just a tip for the soldering part. You should cut the legs before you solder and have a pad or similar to avoid the components to fall off. This will make the solder better and last longer. If you cut them after that will make a shock in the solder and can give some cracks and it will eventually oxidize 😊
This is a great project! I've been wanting to build a reverb of some type for a while, but spring seems a bit expensive for the quality of 'verb. Plate reverb emulations are my go-to anyway, and this one sounds fantastic!
I'm super intrigued by the outside possibilities coming from this. What other materials could you use in place of the plate? What would a piano sound board feel like? Or an acoustic guitar? Or other weird stuff like a basketball or a glass container of some sort. The possibilities have me drooling
This is excellent! Loved it. Would love to see an update in the future as I imagine you'll be tweaking this a fair bit. Sounded great already almost resonator like, some EQ would be interesting to take that prominent hump out.
As with any instrument, I would shelve off with eq, another cool trick is frequency dependent compression, whereas, a 1/3 octave equalizer is side chained into compressor, trigger source optional......
@@userPrehistoricman your question is legit! that is the main goal about audio. Acoustic problems = Acoustic solutions / Electrical problems =Electrical solutions. But sometimes companies tend to hide those problems by any means.
Very cool project - might have to try it (I paused your video to go looking at small wattage amp kits on eBay). From piezo experiments I've done, I'm thinking you probably should add some 1 megohm resistors between your leads to keep the output voltages in check.
I really love this. I have some old telephones that I've been thinking of making into a reverb. I was wondering about springs but this is a much better idea.
I really like this project. Got me thinking about all kinds of things you could turn into a natural reverb. Excellent work! The open sound is a little much for me, but once you dampened it, it really dialed it in. Good stuff! L+S
As a sound guy, that's pretty cool. I'm more of a live sound tech than a recording engineer, but if I ever went into that side of sound, this would be a fun project to do.
About the hum problem: You could try using differential audio inputs for the piezzos. Use a shielded cable, and leave the shield unconnected at the plate side. Connect the piezzo to the two wires of the differential pair.That should cut down on the hum. I love this project - it's so simple and sounds amazing!
What i heard is that placing the inducers not a at the half mark, but at 2/5 (in both directions) it will vibrate better making the volume on low and high piches more equal. The chanel "Tech Ingredients:" has an awesome video about this topic.
I mean, if you actually got a plate that sounds good, I bet this would sound just as nice as the nicest EMT 140's around. I've heard one being tapped by a finger in real life, and the sound of just that acoustic finger tap in the room with it not hooked up was BEAUTIFUL. Very full and complex. So if you can find a much bigger plate that sounds something like the real plates they used back in the day (should be possible to make or at least find cheaply), you should be getting the exact same sound, even though you wouldn't be able to tune it the way you did the old ones, unless you built a little mechanical system for that, or even did it manually.
I suppose I'm one of those few people with an actual plate (PTI Ecoplate II) in their at-home studio. I love the sound, though...on higher-pitched sounds with rapid transients (snares, toms, electronic percussion, blips and such) is where it really comes alive. But a couple of things came to mind watching this video that you might try. First of all, the Ecoplate (and most stereo plates) has a different configuration of transducer and pickups. Instead of the config shown, try this: place the transducer at one end of the rectangle, equidistant from the three edges of the plate. Then mount the pickups in a similar way at the other end, with the stereo pair an equal distance apart from their distances to the edges on that end in sort of an equal-sided trapezoidal configuration to the corners. What this does is it treats the plate as a 'room', with the 'player' at one end and the two ears of the 'listener' at the other. In fact, that's actually what's going on inside the plate; the edges of the plate act like walls in a room, allowing for a two-dimensional version of a space with very reflective walls, and the sound goes through the early and late reflections as it rebounds around within the edges. It'll have a much better stereo image this way, a longer undamped time, and will give you a lot more flexibility in time variation via mechanical damping. Another thing to keep in mind is that the 'plate' doesn't have to be flat. The Siemens studio for electronic music in Munich used steel mesh suspended inside a cabinet, but the mesh was coiled into a spiral which allowed a much larger amount of reverberant media to fit into a compact space. You can see this thing (the studio is now in the Deutsches Museum in Munich) at www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=28005 alongside some pics of other electronic studio gear of the 1950s and 60s from the same studio. One final thing you might also find interesting is this book: www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415996090/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0 Nicolas Collins was a student of Alvin Lucier's at Wesleyan, currently the chair of the sound department at the Chicago Art Institute. Both Lucier and Collins focussed heavily on electromechanical systems in music, and this book, Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking, is a great idea-book for all sorts of electroacoustic tinkering.
Fantastic tips and great book recommendation. I had never heard of the Siemens studio reverb before and it was very cool to read about it. I had to record some Lucier (and Helmut Lachenmann) pieces when I was in college and--at the time--the music made me want to punch the nearest contemporary/modern composer in the face. But as the years went by, I started to hate the music less and even appreciate it bits of it. It's weird and subversive. These days, I actually find myself enjoying some of those more "challenging" pieces of music, but only in small doses. Thanks for watching!
@@LeoMakes Can't blame you for wanting to do some 'five finger critique' on typical academic composers of that time. I suppose that growing up in Nashville tempered out a lot of the serialist wonk in my case, even though I did go through that same sort of thing. But my profs could see the handwriting on the wall and knew that the whole "New Tonality" thing was under way, so I got to experiment with both the academic wonk style and the post-modern (for lack of a better term) directions and see which worked better. And recalling Nashville, that brings up another truly wild reverb technique... Way back in the 1980s, Treasure Island Recorders had an adjustable _chamber_. Yep...you could change the T60 times in a free space! How this worked was really amazing: they'd taken a small room-sized space, lined that with glazed tile...in fact, you'd mistake it for a largish shower if it wasn't for the strange presence of a waterproof transducer and two hydrophones. These would dangle under the surface of the water, the level of which could be raised and lowered to adjust the time needed from a second-ish up to several seconds. The T60 response curve was really smooth, too; water can transfer sonic energy more effectively than air, and coupled with the faster speed of sound in water, this made for a chamber that could rival even the famous Capitol Studios chambers. Plus, the frequency response of both the transducer and hydrophones fell off greatly below about 200-300 Hz, which kept the boomier bass signals out by design. Might make for another interesting DIY reverb project later on!
That is awesome!! I actually see a lot of possibilites: - try to put the transducer and piezos under the bottom plate (to have it to resonate) and place some material on it, like metal balls, gravel, metal & plastic chains ... - ... or try to make - try a vertical mounting with chains hanging really close to the resonator plate With an Arduino card, it could be easy to control servo motors linked to the chains... Really nice so fa, anyway!!
I have some vibration speakers which have the amp inbuilt and can also playout direct from microsd card, so I'll be checking out my unused shelving. Just need some piezo pickups.
Ohh! Hey! LeoMakes! What would be be really cool would be producing a stereo IR file of that for those times when we did want to use such an unusual sound.
Very cool build. You could experiment by putting some keys, grains of rice, screws or bits of cutlery on top of the plate to see how that affects the sound. Maybe give it some shimmer or sound terrible. Just a thought.
OMG please, carry on this project, sounds great! Would be nice to have a smart solution for the 4 angles, as countinuously adjusting the spacing of the top plate could be a bit frustrating
Awesome project and thanks for sharing! Regarding an amp stage for the piezos, you could check out Music Thing Mikrophonie/Mutable Instruments Ears. That way you also get the diodes to protect your inputs.
living in a huge iron-like building ( I think it is alluminium) with a recording space down below.... I imagine how to make this a huge plate since I have 6 18" inch speakers... learned a lot about the 2 plates connection. I usually got my effect from resonating one plate. I will need another whole life for only mess around with this analogue plug-in. thanks for the godspeed push
I'd love to see some more science on the relative placement of the transducer and contact mics, maybe even try putting sand on the plate to visualise resonance!
Great videos and the followup was great too :) I would like to see a series of videos on trying to reverb different objects. For example, those metal bottles that are insulated, I wonder how that would sound?
Very nice try on this. Very simple and clever. Can I suggest you to try some cheap passive DI boxes between the piezos and your preamps? They would offer a better match of the impedances and I think reduce the hum. You might also reduce the length of your asymmetrical wires and box your amp to shield it, for the same purpose. Please make some follow-ups on that project. Anyway, thanks for sharing.
Sounds good! Although I'll not be making such a big thing by myself (at least in a close future). Maybe it will sound more interesting if you'll add springs between (or above) plates. I mean long springs... Although maybe placing the reso-plate on spring-supports will make some difference... It will be possible to move around a house without possibility to "spoil" the construction.
What are your reverb settings? Two towels and a box.
Nah two rolls and some kleenex during the pandemic :D
Not only a cool project to do but teaches what plate reverb is, more or less. Nice one.
4:28 oh...it's Ulrich's snare in St. Anger!
The beauty of this video is that if there's a nuclear holocaust and we need to rebuild society we at least now know how to recreate Motown - and that's no bad thing
Lol
Lol whelp...
Only that everything will be noisy from the radiation..
@@AndreasDelleske ever heard of a Radiation blanket.
@@trendingverge None of that will matter. There won't be electricity that we have relied on, and the music we make might as well be given to aliens as post-war generations will die of radiation exposure.
Reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to sing in front of the wall heater in the bathroom. The electric one with the spring coils.
You actually already own the ideal piezo preamp... right there in your rack! The Great River preamp's Hi-Z input is a JFET buffered DI that feeds its input transformer. The input impedance is 1 MEG, and it's ideal for passive piezo pickups. I put piezo pickups in all kinds of things and it sounds great. I have long thought of building a plate similar to what you did. I'm glad to hear that it works so well. You should also play with the location of the plate support knobs. It will change the vibrational nodes of the plate. Great video!
Good eye! I got that MP2-NV maybe 10-12 years ago straight from the man himself, Dan Kennedy at Great River Electronics. It is glorious. Magnificent, even. It most certainly would work for me but I'm trying to do this project with lower-cost options that the average home gamer might have or can build. Good recommendation, though!
What would happen if you put rubber pads under the plate support knobs to further isolate the plate from the chassis? I would also put it on wheels so that you can wheel it around the studio to modulate the effect if you so wish?
1 Meg is not "ideal for Piezo's". It is too low.
I built a plate a few years ago. It will sound a little better if you use 26AWG sheet metal and suspend it with wire. It should be under tension and have a fair amount of distance between the sheet and the shelf below it. You may need to cut down the corners to make room for the suspension. Great experiment. Thanks for sharing! BTW, if you want to play with your current hardware more, sand off the paint, use longer spacers and use only three, placed randomly. Patterns are your enemy in acoustics.
You're absolutely right about using 3 spacers in random orientation to avoid regular patterns and acoustic nodes in the plate. That's a brilliant thought and I can't believe I didn't think of that. Your other observations are on point too.
@@LeoMakes Heh, I get lucky sometimes. I actually had a client ask if he could buy my plate off of me. Mine was 26AWG 3'X5' suspended in a wooden frame. I put a styrene board in the frame to act as a damper with a pull-string to control the spacing. I used piezo pickups at first but got quieter operation with a couple omni condensers later. Any way, keep experimenting. I would love to see what your final version is like!
BTW, your video inspired a huge discussion within the AMPEX E-mail group!
Built 4×8' in wooden frame years ago.
Suspended from ceiling.EQ'send/
returns,in a another room,as they
(as u know)will pick-up ambient
sounds.
Thing sounded great,EQ send .
frequencies that were "harsh",EQ
return(and plate)shaped overall
sound.Much tweaking to dial it
all in.
An engineer said that if the plate
was isolated and properly suspended
in airtight enclosure,and pumped
out w/vacuum pump(obviously not
a complete vacuum) that it wouldn't
pick up any ambient sound,as sound
can't travel through vacuum.
The plate,heavy guage sheet metal,
is now the floor in bed of old truck!
I've fooled around w/smaller and
thinner sheet steel w/good results.
However plate needs to be under
more tension that thicker steel.
Using 2×4' thin guage (28-32g)
suspended w/Multiple stiff springs,
(at least 8)in oak frame sound really
good.I need to install nylon grommets
into plate to eliminate minor "buzz"
from metal to metal contact.
Then suspend that apparatus
in an enclosure and pump it
down to "near"vacuum.
That being said,I've used some
softer steel that sounds even
better that the harder stuff.
Then my friend suggested that
since being in a near vacuum
enclosure,why not 2,or 3,or MORE
units in same box!Wow -good advice
again,as u can't have to many
reverbs!
Don't have the spare cash to do
this now,and don't have space
for a studio either,so it goes
on back burner for now.
I use good 4"speaker,carefully cut
out dust cap,glue in hollow cardboard
tube(fits in cavity behind dust cap).
Then trim to just touch plate,and
glue using urethane sealant.
Pick-ups?Acoustic instrument
Pick-ups work great for this.
2×4 frame covered w/osb
plywood seals unit up pretty good,
although heavy,this also adds support
to framework.Spings?short heavy
springs w/hooked ends,2 on each
corner,90 degree apart.Use eyebolts
not screws as they will pull out.
Suspend unit in another frame or
from ceiling.This makes the unit
Level,which is important.
After hanging unit w/plywood on
backside,then install speaker/tube
on face of middle section of front
plywood(front is in 3 sections).
I've found that point of attachment
of tube to plate to be 2-4" off center,to
be ideal.
Transducers in line w/each other at both ends of plate 4 to 6" from edge also ideal,as you don't want them
to be out of phase.
Cut the lows(100 and below)
Cut the highs (3k and above)
going to the plate as a good
starting point.A cheap graphic
or similar w/any old amp to
drive plate is fine.
Since transducers(pick-ups)
are high-z, I soldered 1/4"
Jack to them and plug into low-z
transformers,and then to
balanced Mic cables,then
into mixing desk using
EQ on board to make
final tweaks.
A drill and $200.00 bucks and
you will have a Quality sounding
plate reverb that can deliver
astounding sound.
If you want to "dampen"it(shorten
decay) Install a t-nut on front panel w/
long bolt(1/4" diameter or so) attached
to 3×3"or so cube of soft foam rubber.
Use urethane sealant(calk) to fasten
to end of bolt.Then simply adjust
to shorten decay.Place this
apparatus on either left or right
panel so contact w/plate is 4"
or so from a corner.This is not
critical,but u want it close to
the edge,not anywhere in Middle
area.It will barely contact surface
to dramatically shorten decay.
This set-up will give 3 seconds
or more decay,so this little
thumb screw deal works
great.
After dust cap is trimmed off
speaker then get appropriate
diameter tube(hobbie supplies)
Steel can be had from various
suppliers,such as McMaster Carr,
or sheet metal shop.Springs
from M Carr or the like.Small
flat "L brackets for corners
at hardware store.Fasten
one on each corner w/ thin
rubber,or sealant under them
to prevent "rattles".The springs
hook into these,after mounted
w/small bolts to plate and drilled.
As mentioned,nylon grommets
are highly recommended.Springs
can be hooked right into plate, but
Will tear metal after time,as we're
talking about 50lb or more of
spring tension(tension it takes
to expand springs,and there will
be over 400lb's pull on plate.
Get steel,springs,eye bolts,washers,
brackets first,then make frame,etc.
An alternative is to use 8 small
turnbuckels,and high grade ones.
That's what I used on my first
plate,and worked great,though
8 heavy coil springs are better
and contribute to a better
sound.The original plates
we're hung in steel frames
as they (most of them)had
so much tension they would
have collapsed a wood frame.
I prefer wood frames/springs as
they contribute to a smooth sound .
The original plates were "tuned"
(like an instrument!) to the users
preference,and also very expensive.
I felt it necessary to give these
guidelines which yours truly
learned from many,many hours
of trial and error.
An if I get into the right situation
again,several of these units will
be quickly put together and put
into service.
The sound to my ears surpasses
their digital counterparts.
They sound great on vocals,
stringed instruments,etc,but
really shine on percussion
stuff.
Analog tape and gear and
good mic's can't be beat in my
opinion.Digital stuff is best
for mix-down and mastering.
Analog tape has a natural compression
when driven(and distortion!)and like
plates,tube limiters and such cannot
be equalled with algorithms
and unlimited tracks.
@@robertgodhard3248 Tyvm for all those very sharp technical tips on the REAL thing (the ikea funny thing is nice too and easy, tho).
Very interesting, keeping it all, if one of those days...
Just one thing : wouldn't it be better to NOT enter xformer directly from piezo ? I've seen other designs doing so but ... Wouldn't it be better to first plug piezo (very short wires) to very hi-z ( 2M, 5M or even more) FET buffer ? This is usualy the way it's done for acoustic instruments, isn't it ?
Piezo are so weak and prone to noise catching...
I’d like to hear what it would sound like to run a 2x speed signal through the plate reverb. Then, of course, you’d slow the recording back down. It would probably sound like a much bigger plate, but who knows.
Joseph Yarzebinski That’s a really creative idea!!
Thanks for giving me some hope un the human race :-)
Back in the 70s , a firm of architects used something like that to deduce the sound of real concert halls from using quite small models. Of course doing it whilst hitting your plate/spring with a small screwdriver gives rise to the whole gamut of Star Wars blaster sounds!
i think so. My impulse reverb has that option for sounding longer and works well (add a hipass though)
@@ianbaxter8299 unrelated, but if you take a metal slinky, and put the ends over yours ears and shake it it sounds just like the star wars blasters.
@@javiceres *species
The result is really pleasing to listen to, especially on the synths. It really sounds kind of "physical". I'd love to hear it on saxophone or someone singing.
synths and drums are a lot more forgiving for lofi reverbs
This was so cool to watch! As a DIY'r, CNC'r and musician this spoke to me on many levels. Looking forward to more!
Your channel and craftsmanship are incredible. Thank you!
This is Genius. Can’t think of all the possibilities for this device.
I've wanted someone to do a video exactly like this for a while. I really needed a good recommendation for the output transducer and the amp build instructions. I'll find amp builds somewhere, but everything about this video was super helpful. Thank you.
Damn. Ya beat me, to the punch. Bravo!
I'm a studio owner. I've had a pair of EMT plate reverbs over the years. And boy oh boy, do I miss them. No digital anything can compare.
And so it had been my intention. To take a metal double frame bed frame. Weld it, solid. Add some, reinforcement braces. The piezoelectric buzzers are all right. Though I think a, Barcus Barry or a, FRAP, Might be more advantageous?
And then a, 4 x 6 foot piece of, stainless steel sheet metal. Double reinforced at each one of the corners. Let it get me the extended reverb time and greater density that I desire.
One other thing you missed. Is that, on the driver side. A rather large treble boost a.k.a. preemphasis of the high frequencies is added. Which, frequently kicks up this, sizzling sound. Which some people love. Like myself. Others hate it. Some scorn it. I embrace it and love it. It's definitely the audible clue. You got a real plate reverb.
The problems EMT had, manufacturing their, 140 series plate reverb's. Was twofold. One is that of their, cold rolled steel. Having about a, 60% rejection ratio. I know. That's almost unbelievable. And if the Germans can't make decent, cold rolled sheet metal steel? Who the hell can? Which is one of the arguments for, stainless steel.
Conversely. The cold rolled steel. When you opened up the EMT plate to properly tension it. Everyone found this horrible sticky stuff. All over the sheet metal on both sides. So nasty, sticky that it was. Many technicians cleaned it off. And that's a big whoops. As that was covered in, kneetsfoot, oil. To keep the cold rolled steel from rusting like an old car. And some were destroyed in that fashion. While others still sounded great. If they were lucky?
Reverb time was varied with, basically, rigid fiberglass ceiling tiles. Glued,, to a backing. Suspended with, levers. That moved the ceiling tiles closer to or away from the plate. To vary the reverb time. Never making contact with the physical plate. And was truly an amazing invention created by Dr. Kuhl, in 1958. It changed the world. As today. All digitally synthesized reverbs. All try to imitate the plate. And really none can compare. Until you spend between $5000 and $15,000.
So this was a great project you presented! I'm in love with you LOL. I mean a better sounding reverb than a, digital gizmo for $100. That's absolutely brilliant! And is quite usable sounding. I'm just spoiled having had the real things. So, I have to have a big one. Yes I am one of those kinds of girls. But that definitely is one great bargain!
Mx. Remy Ann David
TheTruckStudio.com
Thanks for the tip. I was thinking carbon steel would ring better than stainless but that rust would bodge up the reverberations, neets foot oil it is! Also knowing they used acoustic tile on the dampening- I've been trying to engineer how to keep a felt piece from touching the plate and rigid tile is a fabulous solution. Looking to start assembly in the near future. 😸
Very interesting observations--thanks for that. I didn't know about the oil coating on the plate, but it does make sense. It's incredible how quickly uncoated, ungalvanized, or otherwise unprocessed steel starts to rust. Part of the reason I went with the "tabletop" form factor was that I didn't have a good solution to the "ceiling tiles suspended with levers" thing that I would otherwise need to build. Plus it's fun to physically dampen the plate with your hands. But it is something I want to look into as a next step.
Thanks for watching!
Dude what punctuation language are you using?! Cos it sure ain't English!
Wow.. That's such a fun and useful project! It's great to have your own adjustable and unique plate reverb. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Super cool, the DIY aspect of this Reverb is so creative....
The fact that you now have a "real World" analogue reverb Brings life to digital sound.
It sounds wonderful, very inspirational and I might just a stab at making one.
Thanks for sharing
Very cool. As a fan of both reverb and Ikea, I must try this.
I like this project! I may have to build something similar. Thanks for doing this video!!!
I immediately had a couple ideas on improvements...
#1 on the mics, shield them as close to the mics as possible to get rid of that hum - if you HAVE to have any unshielded wire, twist them together (twisted pair reduces noise). You also might try adding a ground wire to the plate to shield one side - OR you could attach the mic between the plates (on the under-side of the plate), and ground both the plate and the frame to add additional shielding. It won't get it all, but it should get some/most...
#2 I would take a sander to the surface of that "plate" to get rid of the finish. You may get better high frequency without that black finish - the down side to that is that it may rust or oxidize, so you may have to replace the heavy finish with a really light lacquer or gun oil.
#3 Speaking of frequencies, a tone setting or graphic EQ on that driver amp may be a good thing as well.
#4 You probably already know that placement of the driver affects the sound, move it around to find the "sweet spots" and mark them. (do the same with the mics)
#5 because the drive is held in place by gravity, this type of set up need not be "ferrous" (iron or steel) - plates of different materials may be interesting to try - Aluminum, brass, or even plastic
Again, this was a wonderful video and a great idea, thanks for the inspiration!!!
Awesome - I'm totally building one of these. From my experiments with piezos - the bigger the better. The larger surface will pick up lower frequencies, which you can roll off in post if you want. Also - get some thin foam rubber and make little squares to put in the corners - try to float it off the frame instead of the lower shelf basically.
Man and you could have multiple plates -- one with springs stretched across or sympathetic resonating strings or something... yeah I'm a make one of these.
I keep seeing in the comments "you need to do this" "you need to make sure that" "it would be better if." Honestly, when it comes to cool effects, you don't have to do anything but what is available to you. The effect from this plate is really really cool on its own and is something I could totally see in a couple of mixes I'm working on right now.
Thanks for the kind words, Beau! I really don't mind the suggestions, though. I think it's kinda cool that people are engaging with the video so much. I was worried it was going to be crickets in the comments section... :)
Nice! I'm getting so many ideas from this and reading the comments... I just remembered I have a small steel sheet in my basement storage, some old junk left behind by someone. I wasn't sure what to do with it, but it's still there, probably waiting to be turned into a reverb.
really a wonderful project leo. never realized a plate was that simple. it sounds fine and those freqs not wanted can always be eq'd away and manually damped to your desire. thanks a bunch.
Been doing something similar to this for a few years, just using a vibration speaker and contact mics (as well as other mics) to pass sounds through a selection of household objects (tables, tins, boxes, bathtubs, etc). I wasn't specifically aiming to create reverb so much as add some timbral variation in a nicely hands-on kinda way,. For me any reverb is just a bonus! Top tip; try covering the 'plate' with dried lentils to add distortion.
TH-cam recommend me this and I dunno why. But this is one of the best recommendation hands down!
i never 100% understood how a plate reverb worked until this. ty ty
Well paced, excellent scripting and explanatory images, great audio -- WELL DONE!
There may be less distortion if the transducer is stuck or clipped to the plate.
You could also try a pre-emphasis filter before the plate and post-emphasis after to see how it sounds. It can be done in the DAW. I suggest to lower the lows and boost the highs with shelf filters, and the opposite after the reverb.
coolest video on TH-cam? Got my vote. Only way to improve this would be, use an angle grinder to cut the legs like a hot knife to butter bro. You can even round and clean the rough edges once you cut them and then spray them black with a nice paint like Belton Molotow craft paint. Other additional ideas for this project: You can also use aircraft paint stripper to get that black paint off the top plate so it can resonate properly. That Ikea paint is deadening the ability of the soundwaves to travel quite a bit. It will sound way better without that think coat of powedercoat on it and should be a very easy strip. You may need to lightly treat it to keep from flash rusting if its not stainless. thin coat of sprayable polyurethane or something is much better than hard paint. You can ALSO use an old snare dampener on the surface instead of a towel or whatever, with those old turn wheels to increase/decrease verb decay! I used to use EMT's at Electric Lady for years, this is an amazing hack. Thanks a ton man great vid! check out my similar stuff at www.CreativityNy.com
Sick! Looks a-lot more fun then just turning the Damp knob.
immediately subscribed. This is absolutely brilliant. When you get around updating everything and optimise it an all in package of electronics would be amazing to straight up buy
This is so fun. Thousands of possibilities to further tweak this. Thumbs up
Its refreshing to see things made outside the box and I learned’d a thing. Thank you.
user I guess it’s outside of my box. Or maybe I was making a dad joke at the time. That comment was a year ago and I don’t remember. Still, I have a soft spot respect for folks who do things the hard way. At least to me it’s the hard way and certainly more bulky than a plugin to have around. Like playing in a band with a guitarist who insisted on using his dresser-sized Leslie cabinet at shows. Ugh. Ha
I was expecting this to sound very bad, but it actually sounded pretty good!
This is the kind of audio mad sience-ery I enjoy! Yeusss!!! Keep up the great work!
Love the idea and dirty, hands on prototyping. Awesome.
"real" studio plates are normally a stiffer oversized frame and the plate is tensioned tightly in at least eight places. Often has gussets welded on corners to improve strength since sheet is so thin. And, of course, the plate is bigger.
All that may be overkill on a cheap fast project like this. Depends how much effort you wanna throw at it.
But the tensioned in-line, free floating concept would affect how the plate shakes vs. resting on four corners. If you feel like experimenting.
Tell us more detroitfunk!!
I'm also curious on specs, because plates were patented by EMT before the label was created and all through its heyday.
There's no way they bought a commercial unit smaller than this vid example. It didn't exist. The old EMT units are about as big as a sheet of plywood.
So while I won't say you're *wrong*, I will say if they had a smaller unit then they built it themselves...much like this video guy. And that has a fair possibility of being right. Many studio of that era were built by hand one piece at a time, often by hacking up old radio or telephone equipment. If they needed something then they made it.
Idk if that's true in this case. But maybe.
To me those recordings definitely sound like a regular EMT.
The beat from 8:00 is amazing, i love it.
Great video... I would EQ the reverb signal, there seems to be a dominant frequency in there, around 1 or 2 K ... while it is a characteristic of most spring and plate reverbs to have such resonant peaks smothing it down could give a much smoother reverd. Well props to you well done...
First time in a long time youtube recommended something like this, was smiling throughout the entire thing! amazing vid! thank you!
Leo! Great hack! Thanks for sharing both videos. I am a musician, learning about studio-technique and this is just great hands-on know-how that tastes like an instrument, much more than some software-solution.
I know the shallow outlines of reverb and that the effects on mixers are digital imitations of the rooms and effects.
I'm certainly going to check out what other videos you got! Thanks for the inspiration and energy!
You're tutorial video production quality is award worthy.
I did something very similar recently with one of those stamped-steel CD towers you used to see everywhere - put a contact driver on the bottom of the tower and piezos at the top, and built a little box with an LM380 driver circuit and a pair of simple piezo preamps (FET into TL072) to run it all. Because it's a column it has some pretty prominent resonances but it's very fun to incorporate into complicated pedal setups with feedback and so on. I should really do a little video about it at some point.
Please do, that sounds great
Great video!
Did you experiment with the placement of the transducer and pickups? Or maybe try something in between the transducer surface and the plate surface to reduce the “attack”. I definitely want to try something similar. Thanks again!
Found this video randomly and absolutely loved it. Definitely do more of these! I’d like to see how it evolves! And more importantly, I’d actually like to create this now, too
This is great! Thanks for sharing. Looks like I'm taking a trip to IKEA this weekend!
THIS IS AMAZING! I've been wanting to to this for so long, but I've never realized it was this simple! Thanks IKEA, and thank you Leo!
Once again TH-cam's algorithm shows me a fascinating video
All that extra leg length above the plates sure looks like a good spot for springs and another pair of transducers to turn it into a dual-purpose reverb unit! Spring, plate, or a little of both!
That's a really cool idea! Loved it on the synth, no so much on drums, it was a bit resonant for my taste. I'm sure you'll find a great organic use for it once the project is done and you tackle to impedance issues etc.
Agreeing with the comments I'll just add that the googly eyes on the vacuum tube are also a nice touch :)
Cheers
Great! I used my transducer to make DIY guitar sustainer, but now gonna try to make plate reverb as well.
Awesome! I’m sold on this. Love to see updates on the pickups and transducer 🎶❤️👍
What a wonderful toy!! And *analog*, too. Thanks tons for this: I see there’s like two or three follow ups on this so I’m subscribing. Hopefully I’ll have time to build one of these and use it before I die, but the display of clarity and creativity is just terrific, all by itself
Holy... o.O This just blew my mind! Incredible job, crazy levels of creativity and out-of-box thinking with this table. Instant subscribe and I'm waiting for more! This reverb actually sounds hella good if you ask me!
I watched pt2 before this. This thing is amazing, even with the paint.
Super nice. Thanks! I think the tone got better when you damped (thanks for that) the plate. Likely some odd overtones being produced by an 'untuned' plate.
I have a large air compressor tank I have been wanting to try this on.
Wow Leo.. great idea! It sounds amazing!
Awesome and I will probably build my own. I'm thinking about suspending the resonating plate with fishing strings. I think that would make the contact points as minimal as possible. What a great idea!
Good hack....works well....the interactive aspect looks/sounds like fun!
Great video! Time to watch your other ones. This video may be kind of long to some people but it was thorough and well done! I look forward to videos continuing your experimentation with this reverb, and any new projects in the future!
What a great video! I would love to hear an electric guitar going through that reverb table! Very novel idea, very tempting to give it a try!
this sounds amazing with the synths! vst has you know pretty big sound. and this small table plate expand those sounds in the mix pretty well with expetimental spirit of course!
Love the video and idea 😀 Just a tip for the soldering part. You should cut the legs before you solder and have a pad or similar to avoid the components to fall off. This will make the solder better and last longer. If you cut them after that will make a shock in the solder and can give some cracks and it will eventually oxidize 😊
This is a great project! I've been wanting to build a reverb of some type for a while, but spring seems a bit expensive for the quality of 'verb. Plate reverb emulations are my go-to anyway, and this one sounds fantastic!
I'm super intrigued by the outside possibilities coming from this. What other materials could you use in place of the plate? What would a piano sound board feel like? Or an acoustic guitar? Or other weird stuff like a basketball or a glass container of some sort. The possibilities have me drooling
First time I've seen your channel. Very cool! Subscribed.
This is so great. Easily the most refreshing video I've seen all week!
Yup, pretty cool. 😎 Those were some dope sounds too.
This is excellent! Loved it. Would love to see an update in the future as I imagine you'll be tweaking this a fair bit. Sounded great already almost resonator like, some EQ would be interesting to take that prominent hump out.
Thanks Ben! Yeah, I'll definitely be improving things and updating viewers when I am on to something good...
DivKidVideo hey I like your appearances on Sonic Talk. Funny to see you here.
Do real plate reverbs take out the resonance with EQ? I thought it was more of a mechanical thing
As with any instrument, I would shelve off with eq, another cool trick is frequency dependent compression, whereas, a 1/3 octave equalizer is side chained into compressor, trigger source optional......
@@userPrehistoricman your question is legit! that is the main goal about audio. Acoustic problems = Acoustic solutions / Electrical problems =Electrical solutions. But sometimes companies tend to hide those problems by any means.
Very cool project - might have to try it (I paused your video to go looking at small wattage amp kits on eBay). From piezo experiments I've done, I'm thinking you probably should add some 1 megohm resistors between your leads to keep the output voltages in check.
Awesome :) I never really knew how a plate reverb works! :)
I really love this. I have some old telephones that I've been thinking of making into a reverb. I was wondering about springs but this is a much better idea.
How would you use telephones to make a reverb? Using the bells for the ringer?
I really like this project. Got me thinking about all kinds of things you could turn into a natural reverb. Excellent work! The open sound is a little much for me, but once you dampened it, it really dialed it in. Good stuff! L+S
As a sound guy, that's pretty cool. I'm more of a live sound tech than a recording engineer, but if I ever went into that side of sound, this would be a fun project to do.
About the hum problem: You could try using differential audio inputs for the piezzos. Use a shielded cable, and leave the shield unconnected at the plate side. Connect the piezzo to the two wires of the differential pair.That should cut down on the hum. I love this project - it's so simple and sounds amazing!
Good recommendation. I'll be trying this and a few other approaches to see what works best.
Looks like Leo struck a chord with the TH-cam community. a star is born.😹
Amazing video! Liked the sound with the plate slightly damped.
What i heard is that placing the inducers not a at the half mark, but at 2/5 (in both directions) it will vibrate better making the volume on low and high piches more equal. The chanel "Tech Ingredients:" has an awesome video about this topic.
I mean, if you actually got a plate that sounds good, I bet this would sound just as nice as the nicest EMT 140's around. I've heard one being tapped by a finger in real life, and the sound of just that acoustic finger tap in the room with it not hooked up was BEAUTIFUL. Very full and complex. So if you can find a much bigger plate that sounds something like the real plates they used back in the day (should be possible to make or at least find cheaply), you should be getting the exact same sound, even though you wouldn't be able to tune it the way you did the old ones, unless you built a little mechanical system for that, or even did it manually.
thats awesome. You could totally make some really cool impulse responses out of that
6:24 starting to get into some of the earlier The Crystal Method sound!
Whaaaat! This is so awesome. Thanks for making this.
NICE !! This would be great for special effects as well. Imagine Jets Flying Past? Kudos
If I had space in my studio I could try to build it. But I couldn't. Nice video pal
I suppose I'm one of those few people with an actual plate (PTI Ecoplate II) in their at-home studio. I love the sound, though...on higher-pitched sounds with rapid transients (snares, toms, electronic percussion, blips and such) is where it really comes alive. But a couple of things came to mind watching this video that you might try. First of all, the Ecoplate (and most stereo plates) has a different configuration of transducer and pickups. Instead of the config shown, try this: place the transducer at one end of the rectangle, equidistant from the three edges of the plate. Then mount the pickups in a similar way at the other end, with the stereo pair an equal distance apart from their distances to the edges on that end in sort of an equal-sided trapezoidal configuration to the corners. What this does is it treats the plate as a 'room', with the 'player' at one end and the two ears of the 'listener' at the other. In fact, that's actually what's going on inside the plate; the edges of the plate act like walls in a room, allowing for a two-dimensional version of a space with very reflective walls, and the sound goes through the early and late reflections as it rebounds around within the edges. It'll have a much better stereo image this way, a longer undamped time, and will give you a lot more flexibility in time variation via mechanical damping.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the 'plate' doesn't have to be flat. The Siemens studio for electronic music in Munich used steel mesh suspended inside a cabinet, but the mesh was coiled into a spiral which allowed a much larger amount of reverberant media to fit into a compact space. You can see this thing (the studio is now in the Deutsches Museum in Munich) at www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=28005 alongside some pics of other electronic studio gear of the 1950s and 60s from the same studio.
One final thing you might also find interesting is this book: www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415996090/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0 Nicolas Collins was a student of Alvin Lucier's at Wesleyan, currently the chair of the sound department at the Chicago Art Institute. Both Lucier and Collins focussed heavily on electromechanical systems in music, and this book, Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking, is a great idea-book for all sorts of electroacoustic tinkering.
Fantastic tips and great book recommendation. I had never heard of the Siemens studio reverb before and it was very cool to read about it.
I had to record some Lucier (and Helmut Lachenmann) pieces when I was in college and--at the time--the music made me want to punch the nearest contemporary/modern composer in the face. But as the years went by, I started to hate the music less and even appreciate it bits of it. It's weird and subversive. These days, I actually find myself enjoying some of those more "challenging" pieces of music, but only in small doses.
Thanks for watching!
@@LeoMakes Can't blame you for wanting to do some 'five finger critique' on typical academic composers of that time. I suppose that growing up in Nashville tempered out a lot of the serialist wonk in my case, even though I did go through that same sort of thing. But my profs could see the handwriting on the wall and knew that the whole "New Tonality" thing was under way, so I got to experiment with both the academic wonk style and the post-modern (for lack of a better term) directions and see which worked better. And recalling Nashville, that brings up another truly wild reverb technique...
Way back in the 1980s, Treasure Island Recorders had an adjustable _chamber_. Yep...you could change the T60 times in a free space! How this worked was really amazing: they'd taken a small room-sized space, lined that with glazed tile...in fact, you'd mistake it for a largish shower if it wasn't for the strange presence of a waterproof transducer and two hydrophones. These would dangle under the surface of the water, the level of which could be raised and lowered to adjust the time needed from a second-ish up to several seconds. The T60 response curve was really smooth, too; water can transfer sonic energy more effectively than air, and coupled with the faster speed of sound in water, this made for a chamber that could rival even the famous Capitol Studios chambers. Plus, the frequency response of both the transducer and hydrophones fell off greatly below about 200-300 Hz, which kept the boomier bass signals out by design. Might make for another interesting DIY reverb project later on!
That is awesome!!
I actually see a lot of possibilites:
- try to put the transducer and piezos under the bottom plate (to have it to resonate) and place some material on it, like metal balls, gravel, metal & plastic chains ...
- ... or try to make
- try a vertical mounting with chains hanging really close to the resonator plate
With an Arduino card, it could be easy to control servo motors linked to the chains...
Really nice so fa, anyway!!
Glad this was randomly suggested to me, super interesting video.
Damn that thing did some cool stuff to the synths
I have some vibration speakers which have the amp inbuilt and can also playout direct from microsd card, so I'll be checking out my unused shelving. Just need some piezo pickups.
Ohh! Hey! LeoMakes! What would be be really cool would be producing a stereo IR file of that for those times when we did want to use such an unusual sound.
Will do. A lot of people have asked, actually. Please stay tuned.
Nice! Your channel is like look mum no computer on sedative))
Ha! I love that guy's channel (and his experiments) but I have no idea how he gets that much energy.
haha
@@LeoMakes I get tired of channels with too much energy lol. Your magic snap is wonderful as well!
Ahahah
77advanced sedatives. fuk dat
Very cool build. You could experiment by putting some keys, grains of rice, screws or bits of cutlery on top of the plate to see how that affects the sound. Maybe give it some shimmer or sound terrible. Just a thought.
Awesome stuff Leo. I work for Tape Op magazine and saw this featured last year but I didn't remember to watch it until now.
I love Tape Op! Both the magazine and podcast are amazing. It's an honor for me to be mentioned there!
Subscribed. A sound engineer with a CNC, you have my attention :)
OMG please, carry on this project, sounds great! Would be nice to have a smart solution for the 4 angles, as countinuously adjusting the spacing of the top plate could be a bit frustrating
innovative and fun...huge potential for development as you say...the original plug in reverb ahem.
Awesome project and thanks for sharing!
Regarding an amp stage for the piezos, you could check out Music Thing Mikrophonie/Mutable Instruments Ears. That way you also get the diodes to protect your inputs.
living in a huge iron-like building ( I think it is alluminium) with a recording space down below.... I imagine how to make this a huge plate since I have 6 18" inch speakers... learned a lot about the 2 plates connection. I usually got my effect from resonating one plate. I will need another whole life for only mess around with this analogue plug-in. thanks for the
godspeed push
I'd love to see some more science on the relative placement of the transducer and contact mics, maybe even try putting sand on the plate to visualise resonance!
Great videos and the followup was great too :) I would like to see a series of videos on trying to reverb different objects. For example, those metal bottles that are insulated, I wonder how that would sound?
Very nice try on this. Very simple and clever. Can I suggest you to try some cheap passive DI boxes between the piezos and your preamps? They would offer a better match of the impedances and I think reduce the hum. You might also reduce the length of your asymmetrical wires and box your amp to shield it, for the same purpose. Please make some follow-ups on that project.
Anyway, thanks for sharing.
Sounds good! Although I'll not be making such a big thing by myself (at least in a close future). Maybe it will sound more interesting if you'll add springs between (or above) plates. I mean long springs... Although maybe placing the reso-plate on spring-supports will make some difference... It will be possible to move around a house without possibility to "spoil" the construction.