Waves Audio Abbey Road Reverb Plates User Guide

WAVES

Abbey Road Reverb Plates

USER GUIDE

2

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Introduction ................................................................. 3

1.1 Welcome ........................................................................................................ 3

1.2 The Original Reverb Plates at Abbey Road Studios ...................................... 3

1.3 Product Overview ........................................................................................... 5

1.4 Concepts and Terminology ............................................................................ 5

1.5 Components................................................................................................... 6

Chapter 2 – Quick Start Guide ........................................................ 7

Chapter 3 – Interface and Controls ................................................ 8

3.1 Interface ......................................................................................................... 8

3.2 Controls ......................................................................................................... 9

Waves Abbey Road Reverb Plates

User Guide

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Chapter 1 – Introduction

1.1 Welcome

Thank you for choosing Waves! In order to get the most out of your Waves processor,

please take the time to read through this manual. In conjunction, we also suggest you

become familiar with www.wavesupport.net, where you will find an extensive answer

base, the latest tech specs, detailed installation guides, new software updates and more.

By signing up at www.wavesupport.net, you will receive personalized information on

your registered products, reminders when updates are available, and information on

your authorization status.

1.2 The Original Reverb Plates at Abbey Road Studios

One of the unique tools available to artists recording at Abbey Road Studios in the mid-

twentieth century was access to the studios’ three echo chambers for the creation of

unique reverb effects. The sound created by the chambers was very natural, but not

easily adjustable, allowing only a single fixed reverb and decay time per chamber. With

just three chambers existing to facilitate reverb for all of Abbey Road’s recording, remix

and transfer rooms, availability would often also be an issue. To combat this, in 1957,

Abbey Road Studios purchased four brand new state-of-the-art plate reverb units to

complement the existing chambers.

Designed in Germany by EMT, these were the first professional electro-mechanical

artificial reverb units made available to studios worldwide. At 8 feet long, 4 feet tall and 1

foot wide, these plates were considerably more compact than the chamber rooms. Each

plate contained a large sheet (or “plate”) of steel suspended vertically by a set of springs

to allow it to resonate, and was fixed to a stable steel frame. A small transducer speaker

was fixed to the plate’s center point, and when a signal was played through the speaker,

the plate would begin to vibrate, sustaining the tone for several seconds. Two pickups

were attached to each plate, on both sides of the speaker, a quarter of the distance from

the plate’s edge. The pickups sensed the vibration, converted it to a line level, and sent it

to the output plate amplifier.

Waves Abbey Road Reverb Plates

User Guide

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Unlike the reverb chambers, these plates had a damper system that allowed adjustment

of the reverb decay time. The damper system consisted of a fiberglass panel suspended

parallel to the plate, which could move towards or away from the plate sheet. The

damper could control variable distances, ranging from 1/8” away from the plate for a

one-second reverberation time, to 2” away from the plate for a five-second decay. This

system let the user tune the decay time with whatever precision was required to meet

the needs of the particular recording or mixing session.

To this day, Abbey Road Studios house the four reverb plates – labeled A, B, C and D.

Plate D has all-valve amplifiers on both the input and output stages, consisting of E81L,

E80CC and EF804ES valves. Plates A, B and C also have an all-valve amplifier on the

input, but on the output stage EMI Central Research Laboratories custom-built hybrid

solid-state/valve amplifiers, in an attempt to keep the noise floor to a minimum. The

sound of the plates is generally considered smoother than that of an echo chamber, if

not entirely natural. Most Abbey Road engineers initially preferred the more organic-

sounding chambers, but this became less of an issue when bands started to experiment

with psychedelic sounds and ‘natural’ sounding recording techniques were becoming

less in vogue for pop music. Due to the nature of analog valve equipment and

manufacturing techniques (plus the EMI custom-built amps), no two plates sound the

same: each has its own distinctive sonic characteristics. From the mid-1960s onward,

ever Since the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band era, these four plates have seen

significant use on nearly every pop recording done at Abbey Road Studios – from the

Beatles and Pink Floyd, to Radiohead, Adele, James Blake, Florence + the Machine

and Frank Ocean. The plates even started being favored by some of the classical

engineers, and before long were being used on a wealth of films scores – so much so

that the plates would often have to be booked well in advance of sessions to guarantee

their availability.

Waves Abbey Road Reverb Plates

User Guide