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Is there such a thing as a fully analog reverb that's not electro-acoustic? Bucket-brigade devices are sometimes called "analog", and they were occasionally use

by mrob 7y ago

Is there such a thing as a fully analog reverb that's not electro-acoustic? Bucket-brigade devices are sometimes called "analog", and they were occasionally used for reverb (more commonly for the simpler delay effects they were better suited to), but they're discrete in the time domain so arguably they're partly digital. Maybe you could do reverb with a tape delay with really tiny heads, but I don't know of any such product.

squarefoot 7y ago
"Maybe you could do reverb with a tape delay with really tiny heads, but I don't know of any such product." Lots of heads and carefully tuned feedback (possibly also across different heads adding phase changes) could help in that direction. It would sound interesting, though the resulting contraption would also be big, clunky and expensive.
- jacobush 7y ago
  ... or really fast tape with normal heads.
- woofyman 7y ago
  Echoplex tape reverb https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoplex https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoplex
NikkiA 7y ago
Here you go: https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--Or_7-p6K--/a_exif,c_limit,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_auto:eco,w_620/v1476733441/b3bbbjzasrdsd7ktoimp.jpg https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--Or_7-p6K--... Elk Echo Machine v3 (EM-3) from 1970
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- mrob 7y ago
  Echo isn't the same as reverb. Reverb is a simulation of acoustic spaces small enough that you don't hear distinct echoes. You need multiple short delays to simulate the time taken for sound to travel between surfaces of the room, and feedback between them to simulate the reflections. AFAIK all tape delays are too slow to produce reverb sounds.
  - cardiffspaceman 7y ago
    Recording studios have had access to tunnels to create echos. https://www.acontinuouslean.com/2013/12/02/secret-capitol-studios-sound/ https://www.acontinuouslean.com/2013/12/02/secret-capitol-st...
beat 7y ago
For purposes of guitarists, BBDs are "analog". Some creative pedal makers have taken good advantage of that tie to a clock, and use it to alter fidelity. (I'm not a fan of the BBD sound myself; it gets too dark and wooly too quickly for my taste.)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
52-6F-62 7y ago
I originally responded pretty much in the same vein as everyone else responding here (inaccurately mentioning the Space Echo). If the only "digital" part of the circuit is the clock then couldn't you replace that with a quartz oscillator that you can wire an analog modulator for in order to get the switch timing for the capacitors banking the sound? Am I oversimplifying this? If I'm at all correct than I would also say I don't know of any product that does so since it sort of sounds like it would be going full analog for the sake of going full analog and wouldn't affect the tone AFAIU but sounds like there's no technical reason it couldn't be done.

by mrob 7y ago

squarefoot 7y ago

"Maybe you could do reverb with a tape delay with really tiny heads, but I don't know of any such product." Lots of heads and carefully tuned feedback (possibly also across different heads adding phase changes) could help in that direction. It would sound interesting, though the resulting contraption would also be big, clunky and expensive.

jacobush 7y ago
... or really fast tape with normal heads.
woofyman 7y ago
Echoplex tape reverb https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoplex https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoplex

NikkiA 7y ago

Here you go: https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--Or_7-p6K--/a_exif,c_limit,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_auto:eco,w_620/v1476733441/b3bbbjzasrdsd7ktoimp.jpg https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--Or_7-p6K--... Elk Echo Machine v3 (EM-3) from 1970

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mrob 7y ago
Echo isn't the same as reverb. Reverb is a simulation of acoustic spaces small enough that you don't hear distinct echoes. You need multiple short delays to simulate the time taken for sound to travel between surfaces of the room, and feedback between them to simulate the reflections. AFAIK all tape delays are too slow to produce reverb sounds.
- cardiffspaceman 7y ago
  Recording studios have had access to tunnels to create echos. https://www.acontinuouslean.com/2013/12/02/secret-capitol-studios-sound/ https://www.acontinuouslean.com/2013/12/02/secret-capitol-st...

beat 7y ago

For purposes of guitarists, BBDs are "analog". Some creative pedal makers have taken good advantage of that tie to a clock, and use it to alter fidelity. (I'm not a fan of the BBD sound myself; it gets too dark and wooly too quickly for my taste.)

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

52-6F-62 7y ago

I originally responded pretty much in the same vein as everyone else responding here (inaccurately mentioning the Space Echo). If the only "digital" part of the circuit is the clock then couldn't you replace that with a quartz oscillator that you can wire an analog modulator for in order to get the switch timing for the capacitors banking the sound? Am I oversimplifying this? If I'm at all correct than I would also say I don't know of any product that does so since it sort of sounds like it would be going full analog for the sake of going full analog and wouldn't affect the tone AFAIU but sounds like there's no technical reason it couldn't be done.