Long before digital simulations became sophisticated enough to blur the lines between actual and artificial ambience, studio engineers and electric guitarists were obliged to use springs, specially built chambers and plates. The reverb characteristics these devices produced may have had technical shortcomings, but the characteristics were often so strong and sonically pleasing that they became integral to the sound of recorded music in the post-war era.
Room-inations
The terms echo and reverb were once used interchangeably. By and large, we associate echo with shouting a word into a large reflective space and hearing our voice bounce back at us multiple times, a second or so later. Reverb is created by multiple soundwaves bouncing off hard surfaces, so ‘echo’ isn’t entirely incorrect. However, the reflections are so close together that they create continuous sound that gradually dies away. When the time-lapse between the initial sound and the reflected sound is sufficient for both to be heard separately and distinctly, the accepted term is ‘delay’.
Reverberant spaces tend to
