Echo chamber

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The echo chamber is an architectural component of many sound studios in analog sound technology and is used to generate or amplify the reverberation.

History of origin

Recording studios are constructed in such a way that they absorb almost every reverberation in order to avoid unwanted background noise from reverberation . Therefore, in recording studios, particular value is placed on effective sound insulation . The original sound of the studios is reduced as much as possible. The result is "dry" (ie low-reflection, "anechoic") acoustics with reverberation times of 0.2 to 0.5 seconds. Reverberation times above this are “semi-dry” and last up to approx. 2.5 seconds. Extreme reverberation occurs in churches for 8 seconds or more. Echo is the extreme form of reverberation with times that go beyond this. In the case of music recordings , however, a certain reverberation is definitely desirable, as they sound unnatural in too “dry” studios and inaccuracies or errors are easily audible. Reverberation (Engl. Reverberation ) is caused by reflections from room surfaces, so they must be prevented in the regular recording studio and promoted in the echo chamber.

In order to give a sound recording more volume, to make inaccuracies or errors inaudible, music producers came up with the idea of ​​increasing the reverberation effect using echo chambers. The Abbey Road Studios decreed as the first with a total of three successively built purpose corresponding echo chambers in the cellar (chamber 1 for Studio 3, chamber 2 for Studio 2 and chamber 3 for Classical in Studio 1) when it was founded in November 1931st Large drainage pipes ran through the echo chambers of Abbey Road Studios .

Bill Putnam , a sound engineer and also a music producer, is considered to be its commercial inventor. The first recording of pop music was in April 1947, Peg o 'My Heart by the Harmonicats with the effect of the echo chamber from a toilet - produced by Putnam. A loudspeaker transmitted the finished recording into the tiled toilet, in which a microphone transmitted the reverberation effect back to the control room and was recorded again there. This reverb effect was integrated into the studio recording. This resulted in a resonance effect. It was the first record to include an artificially created reverb effect. Other alternative solutions for generating reverberation were stairwells ( Joe Meek ), corridors or churches. The chief engineer of Atlantic Records , Tom Dowd , built a completely asymmetrical echo chamber for this record label in 1959, the floor of which was the only flat surface in the entire room.

reasons

Ideally, the echo chamber for the low frequencies must be 3 × 3 meters in size, while the ceiling height is not critical. The term echo chamber was generally used in the specialist literature of that time to describe an artificially produced reverb or echo effect without reference being made to its origin. Hall was used to increase volume, improve vocal qualities and also to make the sometimes ambiguous texts acoustically incomprehensible in rock & roll . Echo was supposed to give the untrained doo-wop groups more vocal presence. Also Chess Records used from May 1957, a toilet as an echo chamber.

A veritable “echo craze” was then triggered in the music industry when high fidelity standards came onto the market during the rock and roll phase . HiFi has often been equated with echo. Sun Records used the technique of slapback echo for many big hits, a time-delayed recording that gave the listener an echo impression by recording audio signals just above the perception limit of individual repetitions (from 0.3 seconds or more). This procedure was mimicked by RCA for Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel , using the corridors and stairwells of the Methodist TV, Radio and Film Commision in Nashville on January 10, 1956 as an echo chamber.

Today's meaning

Guitarist Les Paul constructed an echo chamber for Capitol Records in 1953 . When the recording studios moved to the Capitol Tower in 1956, the echo chamber was also rebuilt here. In the echo chamber of the Capitol Studios, a reverberation of 2.5 to 5 seconds could be generated. In June 2008 it was reported that the Capitol chambers in the basement would be endangered by the planned new construction of a neighboring 16-story residential building. Famous echo chambers were located in Gold Star Studios ( Hollywood ) and played a key role in Phil Spector's Wall of Sound from 1962 . In the recording studios of Frank Zappa ( Utility Muffin Research Kitchen ), which were completed on September 1, 1979 , three echo chambers were integrated. The Hansa recording studios in Berlin had the most famous echo chamber in Germany since 1976 when they acquired the Meistersaal in Berlin-Mitte . This is where David Bowie's Heroes was created between July and August 1977 with his characteristic sound, which belongs to the “Wall of Sound” category.

From 1980 digital echo techniques emerged, later improved as Digital Delay Lines (DDL) and further developments of digital circuits. Digital technology is able to reproduce almost any effect produced in an analog echo chamber. However, the analog effects cannot be fully imitated. In today's digital world, echo chambers have mutated into analog relics.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions , 1988, p. 204.
  2. ^ Peter Doyle, Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording , 2005, p. 143
  3. ^ Derek B. Scott, The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology , 2009, pp. 160 f.
  4. ^ Peter Doyle, Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording , 2005, p. 252.
  5. ^ Robert Pruter, Doo-Wop: The Chicago Scene , 1996, p. 17
  6. ↑ Peter Doyle, Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording , 2005, p. 173.
  7. ^ Peter Doyle, Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording , 2005, p. 208.
  8. ↑ Glen Jeansonne / David Luhrssen / Dan Sokolovic, Elvis Presley - Reluctant Rebel , 2011, p. 115.
  9. ↑ James W. Bayless, Innovations in Studio Design and Construction in the Capitol Tower Recording Studios , Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, April 1957.
  10. ↑ Overture Magazine, June 2008, Vol. 88, No. 2, Linda Rapka, Capitol Fights to Save Famed Echo Chambers
  11. ↑ the echo chamber was the only part of the building to survive the fire in March 1984.