MIDNIGHT - what is that glorious sound on the guitar

[roger bayliss]

Does anybody know what that sound is on Hanks guitar on MIDNIGHT, Is it some sort of plate reverb or the way the amp is recorded. Seems to swell at times.
It's one of the most lushist sounds ever.. Anyone got a clue ?

[AlanMcKillop]

Sounds as though the post reverb was slightly overdone.

[Didier]

I think that lush sound is a combination of the nasal quality of the middle type tone on the normal channel of an AC30 and bordering on feedback going via the Abbey Rd plate reverb.
Very clever engineering
Steve

Not sure that they were using plate reverb at this time in Abbey Road, I think they rather used the famous "echo chamber" (in fact a reverb chamber) which was directly linked to the recording console.

Didier

[roger bayliss]

If it's just reverb should be easy to replicate but cannot seem to figure it... anyone succeeded in the MIDNIGHT sound

[phil kelly]

Hi Roger,
Midnight was the model F meazzi as used on Apache , the machine had 5 playback heads , head 3 was off for Apache , this machine was used on a lot of early Cliff material also but instrumentals it featured on in addition to Midnight were quatermassters store , Man of Mystery, The Frightened City, The Stranger, FBI, Blue Star, Gonzales as well as probably the first EP,
All five heads were on but head 3 was at a reduced vol level and the machine was running fast creating that wonderful reverb sound, the same echo is used on Q/Stores , whether additional reverb is also present in the mix who knows ? but i would tend to think it wouldnt have been needed as the Meazzi with all 5 heads on running fast would be suffice, my Meazzi has been modded to the spec of the model F and if you listen to my U Tube clip of Gonzales ( all 5 heads ) you can hear the reverb sound we talk about in abundance, my demo has to much echo but i deliberately did this to demo the echo box.
Regards,
Phil.

[rogera]

I'm sure Phil is right about the model of Meazzi being used but there is a lot of reverb added by the studio.

Although in my opinion Midnight has reverb added there are Shadows tracks which provide much more obvious evidence of added reverb and the best example that I can think of is Dance On. Hank is panned hard to one side (the rhs I think) but there is a great deal of reverb with pre-delay on the left hand side. If you have the facility to listen using headphones and to isolate the left and then the right channel you will hear what I mean.

This reverb is provided by means of a special room below Studio 2 designed and built for the purpose. It's not a plate reverb but uses pipes and highly reflective surfaces.

Roger was suggesting that the reverb should be easy to replicate but in my opinion that's certainly not the case. There are many complex factors involved and although the best attempt I've heard is the version by Charlie Hall in the EFTP patterns, even that does not really capture the original.

[AlanMcKillop]

You must hear what I hear Roger. If you listen carefully to the track, some of the notes are swamped in the added studio reverb and almost disappear. I remember trying to get the 'sound' by going through a Roland RE-3 in addition to my echo and it wasn't too far away, but I just couldn't get the degradation in the notes, which seem to sink in the reverb.

[roger bayliss]

Thanks guys for having a go at this, because I was not totally sure what the magic is and started even wondering if perhaps an early use of a rotating speaker might be in play ? but I think it is awash with reverb, so much so that the guitar kinda ebbs and flows somewhat in intensity. I agree with Phil Kelly that the Meazzi is also the usual part of the sounds magic. You are welcome any day at Hankies Phil and would love to hear it at first hand - had anoth listen in to your UTube files It must be the way the microphone picks up the reverb in the chamber perhaps as well as the intensity of reverb. Probably not gonna replicate that with a reverb pedal methinks oh well ot's good to talk of some of these things and learn a little £10 to the man who cracks Midnight and posts

[phil kelly]

Hi Roger,
Thanks for the invite, perhaps i may just do that, to follow on from Roger and Alan, i to agree there is studio reverb added, evident most prominently in the early Cliff and Shadows material but more as a final ambient addition for the whole mixed track, ( i should have been more clearer )the meazzi alone with the correct head / speed selection as you can hear in the U Tube demos delivers a bright reverb with plenty of the sustaining character we hear in Midnight, but at the same time not swamping the notes like you would end up doing by adding reverb to the echo, you just wouldnt need to with a good working echomatic, add to this a little more for ambience perhaps in the mix , plus compression and there you have it,
Regards,
Phil.

[Shad1]

Roger,

For what it's worth when I listen to Midnight I 'hear' a breathing compression after a wash of reverb....i.e. the compression was a little severe.

Malc