Minimal Wave Records

which reverb devices have you found most useful/complementary with drum-machines and synthesizers?

Orban 111B Stereo Spring

also

the spring in the ARP 2600.

A special trick for longer decay times:

take the reverb output to a cheap digital delay and run it back to the mixer chanel normally fed by the filter output so you can mix a delayed spring sound back in.

Multivox MXD-5 has a really colored sound too, plus analog delay!

Korg stage echo 300
Boss RX 100
and as David pointed out the 2600’s

perhaps a faux pas, but i usually use an EHX holy grail. cheap and sounds half-decent.

perhaps a faux pas, but i usually use an EHX holy grail. cheap and sounds half-decent.

The EHX holy grails are indeed surprisingly good.

In the studio I use a Fostex 3180 stereo spring reverb. I think it sounds amazing for such an inexpensive second hand piece of equipment. I sometimes use pre-delays (digital or tape) on it but I also like to run one of its channels into the other for a longer, more spacious reverb.

[quote author=“Ottavio_Testanera”] I also like to run one of its channels into the other for a longer, more spacious reverb.

Yes, that is a great trick on the Orban too.  A little bit of feedback between the two channels can also work well, especially if you pan them a bit.

The best reverb I used in recording was the one my dad build for me in 1983.
In those days digital reverbs were extremely expensive, analog reverb sounded terrible (to my ears at least) and spring reverbs had a quite distinct sound but they weren’t useable for everything.
The so called plate-reverb was still very popular (and seems to be still)
 

The thing my dad build used an iron plate 0,5 mm thick. Size about 1 by 1,5 meters. The plate was suspended in springs attached to a wooden frame.
The sound was put on it by a loudspeaker’s magnet/voicecoil system directly glued to the plate (which gives a much better high frequency response compared to just letting a speaker “shout” at it like most DIY plates use.) and driven by a small amplifier. The sound was picked up by an old piezo-electric record player element/arm(stereo, mind you !). Needle removed and put on the edge of the plate.
It was hanging on the wall of my home studio with no acoustic isolation. During mix-down everybody in the room had to be quiet particularly at the end of a track because the plate picked up the voices and so they were recorded as well :?

I used the plate during the recordings of Ensemble Pittoresque’s Frequenz album but only for all “effect” tracks. Best example being the backing noises on the track Frequenz.
Also on the Wassenaarse Slag compilation on Clogsontronics. To hear it at its best is probably the Marge and the Marvelous track A Distant Dance.

For those interested google around on “plate reverb”.
Just found this one   although I think this design needs some improvements.
Youtube has some vids on DIY plates too.

Ton

[quote author=“Ottavio_Testanera”]In the studio I use a Fostex 3180 stereo spring reverb. I think it sounds amazing for such an inexpensive second hand piece of equipment. I sometimes use pre-delays (digital or tape) on it but I also like to run one of its channels into the other for a longer, more spacious reverb.

That Fostex is terrific, especially when you send the output to an analog delay. Huuuuge.

I think my favorite though is the Eventide 910 Harmonizer. The short delays on that have such a unique metallic sound and it will do a neat pitch decay (listen to the snare on Bowie’s Low—all Eventide 910).

I wouldn’t say it was the easiest to use but the nicest/warmest reverb I have used was an ancient plate reverb. I was in a cabinet the size of a dresser and took many people to move it, which was probably why it hadn’t been taken out of the studio. I don’t know its age or make and I would guess that is could have been from this 1960’s but could have dated from the 1930’s perhaps.

simple and digital (i know i know) but the boss rv3 really has it’s charms on certain subjects.  it’s a big ingredient in my drone guitar soups.

Roland Space Echo RE-150 is what I use, and love it! Definite must if you want a really thick tape/analog style delay. It’s basically the same thing as the RE-101, just with different kinds of knobs… The other day I borrowed an RE-101 and had it hooked up to the RE-150 - SO CRAZY! Lots of fun…