Another Diy Plate Reverb

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saint gillis

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 4, 2012
Messages
870
Location
Brussels - Belgium
  Hi, I'm building a plate reverb, looks that the simplest way to drive it is to use the speaker technique...
Some people use a vibrating transducer such as the vidsonix ghost, but I don't like the idea of attaching a heavy thing in the middle of the plate...
  I think the idea of making a driver which will keep the plate free (like in the original plate reverbs) is very exciting , something like this :
plate_pickups.jpg

from http://nicksworldofsynthesizers.com/plate.php

  Using a crossover bobin? what about frequency response? Making my own driver with some wire around a tube? Guess I should read some speaker building books?

  What do you think?
 
I would not worry so much about weighting the plate down as I would plate material and electronics noise.


http://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=46744.0

http://www.crossenstreams.com/plate_reverb_restoration/

http://contactmicrophones.com/

http://nicksworldofsynthesizers.com/plate.php      You have seen this already!
 
Pip said:
I would not worry so much about weighting the plate down as I would plate material and electronics noise.

http://contactmicrophones.com/

Great link , thanks Pip!

  Yes I'm pretty sure piezzo mics are better as receivers, but I really like the idea of the original driver which keeps the plate free..
  I also read somebody talking about the idea of using guitar pickups (preferably humbuckers)  as receivers.
 
saint gillis said:
Pip said:
I would not worry so much about weighting the plate down as I would plate material and electronics noise.

http://contactmicrophones.com/

Great link , thanks Pip!

  Yes I'm pretty sure piezzo mics are better as receivers, but I really like the idea of the original driver which keeps the plate free..
  I also read somebody talking about the idea of using guitar pickups (preferably humbuckers)  as receivers.

Guitar pick-ups are an interesting idea but the have low output, impedance issues, limited bandwidth and would be reliant on the plate material. For example I think they would work better with cold rolled steel plate as opposed to stainless steel. But interesting none the less.
 
I think they would work better with cold rolled steel plate as opposed to stainless steel.

(from Wikipedia) "In 1957 it began the production of another machine that would become a real ‘best-seller’, the ‘140’ Reverberation Unit.

I have often wondered about attempting to recreate the EMT140 as the steel (Germany?) was different then in the late fifties and the tension most likely made a difference too.  Was the steel plate thicker on these originals?  Does the tension differences from the original make a huge difference as well?

Does anyone know?
 
musika said:
I think they would work better with cold rolled steel plate as opposed to stainless steel.

I have often wondered about attempting to recreate the EMT140 as the steel (Germany?) was different then in the late fifties and the tension most likely made a difference too.  Was the steel plate thicker on these originals?  Does the tension differences from the original make a huge difference as well?

Does anyone know?

  Ive  read somewhere that EMT used to import the best sounding steel from Scotland (if I recall well). The original plate was 1/64" thick, in western europe we find more easiely 0,5mm but it can sound very similar I think, tuning the plate is very important the tension must be uniform at every fixation point, you can find a lot of ressources if you search "plate reverb tuning"...
 
I wonder how these would work...

https://www.parts-express.com/tectonic-elements-teax32c20-8-32mm-self-supported-exciter-8-ohm--297-2114
 
> coil is attached to the plate

Magnets are heavy. Voice coils are not light, but lighter than magnets.

In most audio, MASS is a real problem. Mechanical things are too heavy to vibrate rapidly.

You usually put the coil on the thing that moves. Speaker cone, reverb plate.

Yes, modern neo-whatever magnets are a lot lighter than tungsten-steel or ceramic or Alnico. But I still think the coil is lighter.
 
PRR said:
You usually put the coil on the thing that moves. Speaker cone, reverb plate.

Yes, modern neo-whatever magnets are a lot lighter than tungsten-steel or ceramic or Alnico. But I still think the coil is lighter.
  That's what my instinct told me... What about the piezzo receivers, are they a good option in spite of their (quite light) weight ?
 
Just spotted these, maybe useful?

http://cpc.farnell.com/visaton/ex-45-s/exciter-46-x-46mm-10w/dp/LS03718
 
  I put a 8ohm coil at the center of the plate and placed a speaker magnet in front of it with a guide (same technique as for the 140), it works very well!
  I tried just one side with a small piezzo that was hanging around, compared it to a 140 plugin, for now the sound seems less deep with too much attack. But the piezzo is very small, and I used an old novanex crap amplifier... and also I don't really know at which volume the plate should play..
  To be continued
 
  I tried further experiments with a snare drum and comparing it with the great UAD EMT emulation plugin...
  I put the same tension at every corner, and tried to tune it low to get the great dark sound of the EMT140...
  It was still a bit metallic,  the piezzo I use for now is maybe too small... anyway I tried to find the place for it where the sound is the deepest possible, and then I realised that when I put a pression at the center of the piezzo with my finger I suddenly get an impressively great sound really comparable to the EMT ... it is not due to some capacitance between the piezzo's pins brought by my finger because when I press it with a pen it's the same... It's not due to the fact that pressing puts more tension to the plate because when I press the plate 1cm from the piezzo it's still too metallic...
  So maybe I need a larger piezzo, or maybe the piezzo needs to be in intimate contact with the plate and must be glued under pressure... I don't know... 
 
saint gillis said:
  So maybe I need a larger piezzo, or maybe the piezzo needs to be in intimate contact with the plate and must be glued under pressure... I don't know...
I would guess at the latter being the case.
 
I have learned that pizio pickups want to see a very high impedance.
Standard DIs are somewhere in the 1 meg range....far too low for the pickup response to be even remotely linear.

 
Roly-M said:
I have learned that pizio pickups want to see a very high impedance.
Standard DIs are somewhere in the 1 meg range....far too low for the pickup response to be even remotely linear.

Yes this is true. But they are also reliable and have good frequency response. They are also usually cheap!
 

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