Building a plate reverb

[Berk]

Anyone ever built a plate reverb? I'm in the middle of building one, with the help of my dad. Now we need to figure out the electronics, already got myself a small speaker and a piezo transducer. Need to wire stuff up and get the right amp for the speaker I think.

 

Share your plate reverb experience.

[Berk]

Oh yeah plate thickness is 2 mm, so I hope it'll sound alright despite the relatively large thickness. Usually the plates used are like 0.5mm in thickness

[Guest chunky]

try the forum at www.electricalaudio.com

[Guest elliot]

this guy from new zealand build an amazinggggggg sounding plate reverb its pretty big tho, he also built a reverb mixer thing to control the peizos.His site is pretty detailed

 

http://www.bsidebeats.com/more-about-plate-reverbs/

[ryancolecreate]

cool! It will sound really unique.

 

It could be a bit thick, as the mass of a piezo is quite small. Oh well though. If it is too thick you can try a thinner one. It's not like a piece of metal is too expensive for some trial and error.

 

Post some sounds once you get it working!

[Berk]

Thanks for the advice guys, yeah will let you know how it sounds and goes! I'll put some photos up soon, the plate is now hanging in the frame, looks pretty nice :)

[Berk]

The piezo transducer is attached now. But I've got an annoying (ground) hum....

[Guest iep]

check for shorts! follow the signal path with a multimeter & look if they are any leaks.

[Berk]

Thanks for the tip iep! I think it was a ground problem, I've now attached a speaker cable between the piezo and the heating radiator pipe, it helped haha. Now the fine tuning can begin. I'll post up some audio samples soon.

[Berk]

Here's a short example with the TR-606 (modded)

plate.mp3

[ryancolecreate]

sounds sick dude. There's some hiss but I actually really like that about it. :)

[Berk]

sounds sick dude. There's some hiss but I actually really like that about it. :)

Thanks man! Yeah that's the cassette hiss, I need to do a recording without tape, but this was a bit quicker haha

[Root5]

That sounds fantastic. Good job.

[BCM]

Here's a short example with the TR-606 (modded)

 

sounds quality!

[YEK]

yeah it sounds really good, you can tell it's hardware

[Berk]

Thanks guys, glad you like the sound! I like it too, but I was going for that hall kinda sound with the really long decay. So I'm probably going to switch plates, get a thinner one, that also hasn't got this "ring". Maybe I'll use this plate as well though, for drums and FX, it sounds good for that kind of thing :)

[YEK]

might as well have two.

[Berk]

Exactly!

 

It's really fun to build these things by the way, if you were considering building one, just do it. You always get this unique sound because of the physical qualities. And it's really simple to make one. Don't think you can't do it, I have zero soldering experience but the soldering that you have to do for this kinda stuff is really basic. Maybe the frame is a bit of work, there's probably some family or friends that can help you with that though.

 

I still need to put up some pics.

[Berk]

These are old pictures by the way, the speaker is still missing in these ones, I'll put up some newer ones next week or something. The suspension screws are missing in these photos as well.

[doorjamb]

I was going for that hall kinda sound with the really long decay. So I'm probably going to switch plates, get a thinner one, that also hasn't got this "ring". Maybe I'll use this plate as well though, for drums and FX, it sounds good for that kind of thing :)

yeah the 606 snare sounds great in the clip

 

I would guess a thinner plate would result in longer reverb time, but maybe tinnier too, not sure if that's what you mean by 'ring'

[Berk]

I was going for that hall kinda sound with the really long decay. So I'm probably going to switch plates, get a thinner one, that also hasn't got this "ring". Maybe I'll use this plate as well though, for drums and FX, it sounds good for that kind of thing :)

yeah the 606 snare sounds great in the clip

 

I would guess a thinner plate would result in longer reverb time, but maybe tinnier too, not sure if that's what you mean by 'ring'

Thanks man! That one loud reverb hit with the longer decay is a spring reverb by the way (sorry couldn't resist)

 

Yeah, I think I need to get a thinner plate, I wanna get close to those big hall reverbs. That ring is that frequency you hear all the time when you hear the reverb, sort of like a gong.

[Berk]

Just got a new plate, its thickness is 0.5mm. There's a small dent but who cares, I bet this is going to sound great. I'll post up some samples after I've set things up.

 

It's made out of aluminium just like the other one, I hear it's better not to use aluminium, but I think it's going to sound alright anyway

[Berk]

http://soundcloud.com/totalvolume/new-plate-thickness-0-5mm

 

New plate, reverb is still very subtle, starts around 0:13. Needs some amplification I guess, but that will bring up the ground hum too.....

[Berk]

Please don't mind my sucky playing here, the 1st part is some percussion sounds with and without the plate verb. The 2nd part is some melodies with analogue echo + plate reverb

 

http://soundcloud.com/totalvolume/plate-3

[megapussi]

oh man i forgot this thread. that thinner plate sounds real nice. and the echo+plate combination is lovely sounding. i am jealous, would love to try and build something like that, but i really don´t have any space for any more musical gear. some day, some day...