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reverberation

Yea they a big thing in the 60's they were in a lot of cars and home stereos as well. Motorola called theirs the vibrosonic other makes had them as well. you could get them as add on units for car or home if your set didn't come with it.
 
I suppose a lot of reverb units were just for show, yet there are some practical uses. If you were to find a recording to be a bit "dry" (recorded without reverb, or without enough in some way), you could always add it or boost it up for a more potentially lifelike sound.

I have a few different devices that do this in different ways...the oldest of which is a spring-type Pioneer "reverberation amplifier". I find its reverberation to sound a bit "shallow" and silly as compared to some other units I've tried.

Next up is an IBM Audiovation sound card using Q-Sound processing performed with an Mwave DSP. This works well, if you don't mind the fact that it consumes lots of DSP memory and therefore hampers what you can do with the card.

Finally, I have some RadioShack stuff with reverberation or "stereo enhancement" onboard. The first is an early 1980s Archer brand "video sound processor" with several functions built into one--a matrix decoder for use with early surround sound efforts, a Dynamic Noise Reduction unit, something that creates "stereo" sound from monophonic (which seems to be broken and makes the audio go out of phase if activated), and a stereo image enhancer.

The last piece is a ten or so band Optimus equalizer with an IMX stereo expander whose level can be controlled. It really only works well on stereo tracks, but in some cases the effect is striking and really does give the music a "live" feeling. There are some songs that this works well for and others where it does not.

Out of all of these, the two RadioShack pieces seem to work the best of anything I have tried. I've heard Carver's Sonic Holography applied to a live web stream and also liked it.

One thing I learned along the way in my audio journey thus far...never drop a mixer with a built in spring type reverb that is turned on in the chain, no matter how mad it makes you.
 
Some consoles from the early-mid '60s had reverb built in. My family had a Zenith console with reverb. It was mainly used in very short bursts of, "I wonder what this would sound like with the reverb?"
 
I have a Sansui RG-7 equalizer with reverb. It has inputs for mic and guitar. You can have a lot of fun with it.
 
i have a box full of reverb units 2 springs in each about 10 inches long ..i was thinking of maybe building some custom reverb boxes for guitar amps
 
uxwbill said:
works well on stereo tracks, but in some cases the effect is striking and really does give the music a "live" feeling. There are some songs that this works well for and others where it does not.
Click to expand...
The effects with any of these add-ons and processors can vary depending on the source material.

It can give material added punch and dynamics. At its worst, it can make things sound echoey and terrible.

Great for giving added punch to Hendrix Gypsy Eyes, the heartbeat on DSOTM, Tales of Mystery & Imagination opening bass line and screaming.

Special effects on comedy albums like Waiting for the Electrician - "They just fried the kid..." Your windows vibrating like you were there.

Critics will look down their noses at you and say you don't know what a good pair of speakers can do. Well, it was a cheap way for first time renters to experience an upgrade to their sound and make their speakers sound more expensive than they really were.

My first apartment, first real stereo: Realistic STA-250 44 watts with Quatravox, Nova 8Bs front, Solo 3A rear. Rocked hard and partied on.

I remember listening to Tangerine Dream Phaedra. During the helicopter sound, he turned to look behind him because he thought a speaker was behind him. This was before 5.1.
 
I have always been using Yamaha Rev 7 for classical music, just a bit of "Large Hall sound" mixed 50 percent with the dry signal.
I will never use it for vocals.
 
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