Spaces with unusual acoustics, long reverb, echo's etc.

[beschaving]

Hi everyone,

I'd love to hear some of your recommendations/rumors about locations with unusual acoustics, long reverb, echo's etc.
Doesn't matter where they are.

Does anyone know which space has the longest reverb in the world?

Does anyone know of places with unusual, directional echo's such as large marble domes etc?

I'm particularly interested in spaces where the sound changes dramatically depending on the listener's position in the room, such as domes with a strong "focal point" type echo in certain spots.
This is a fascination of mine, and I'm hoping to be able to visit some interesting sites...

Sources/forums for further information about this topic would also be highly appreciated.

Thanks very much for any tips!
Alex

[miqer]

Originally Posted by beschaving

Does anyone know which space has the longest reverb in the world?

Somewhere in Mordor there is a cave...

[hughesmr]

I can't attest to the "longest reverb tail" in the world, but being a pipe organ enthusiast I'm sure I've heard some of the longest. Eurpoean churches are usually the livest, with (in my experience) the nod going to certain Germanic buildings, esp those rebuilt after WWII. French churches are invariably live too, but the longest I've heard are in Germany.

Two prime candidates that come to mind at the moment are St Paul Cathedral London, and the Ingolstadt Munster in Germany. I think Ingolstadt has something like a 13-second verb tail.

You really have to be in the structures to appreciate what they sound like, but some recordings do a decent job of capture. For Ingolstadt, try the Thomas Trotter CD on Decca of Liszt and Reubke organ works.

[aracu]

In seeking out a good location to record harmonica, which can have a tricky sound to tame, we found that placing a stereo mic close to the instrument while playing in a concrete tunnel in a park, built for walking under a hill, created an incredible high quality reverb, long, clean and full bodied. It really smoothed out any possible harshness of the instrument.

[Jim vanBergen]

An acoustician I work with told me about the UK's National Physical Laboratory, which has a space with one of the longest reverebs in the world. Evidently they allow musical recordings to be done in the space.
Try this link:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Extreme-Reverb

The longest RT recordings I have were in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC. St John has an 8 second reverberation time. Depending on what you are doing, you can get really different recordings in similar spaces by varying your performer placement to control direct & reverberant sound ratio, early or late relfections, and close to distant mic placement.

I have found when miking recordings at Riverside Cathedral and St Patrick's Cathedral in NYC, as well as the Newark Cathedral in NJ that you can really capture some serious "wash" in spaces like this, by using omnis in some recessed space or pointing a shotgun mic to a flying buttress.

Hope these thoughts help!!

[LouD.]

How does one arrange for working in one of these spaces? Is it common for them to allow recording to be done?

[Jim vanBergen]

Originally Posted by LouD.

How does one arrange for working in one of these spaces? Is it common for them to allow recording to be done?

For cathedrals or places of worship, it is common to book the location for recordings. I don't know about the Physics labs in the UK, but evidently, everything is for hire.

[loujudson]

In 1978 I participated in some piano recordings where a specially tuned piano was played in the studio with half hour long pieces with extremely long repetitive patterns. We took the tapes into Grace Cathedral (San Francisco) and played them on big speakers (8 Bose 802s) and recorded the reverb (7.4 seconds) on extra tracks. We had mics in a dozen locations and the mix was lots of fun!

Odd experience in the same space a couple of years ago: Paul Horn, the flutist who did the Taj Mahal recordings in the 70s, did a concert in Grace Cathedral, and he started playing way in the back, using a nice quality wireless mic (Shure or Countryman, the ones that are nearly invisible up by the cheek) as he walked forward. It was a magnificent sound resonating in the cathedral. Then, when he got to the stage, the fool took off the wireless and started playing through as Beta 58 with an echoplex tape delay on it - sounded awful! I was most disappointed with that. You can get he whole thing on emusic.com, but i would not bother except as an example of inappropriate technology.

L

[ogamik]

Here's a pic of a record I made this summer on the water in a canyon.

[boojum]

Originally Posted by ogamik

Here's a pic of a record I made this summer on the water in a canyon.

Wow, it's just like real estate: location, location, location! Talk about going, or floating, the extra mile. How did the recording come out?

[videoteque]

Here's a pic of a record I made this summer on the water in a canyon.

We want the MP3!!!!!!

[ogamik]

You can find more pics on
HOME PAGE BOUILLIE » Photos
Title: Slow Ballads Vol.2

[fifthcircle]

Don't know the exact info on reverb times, but there are two long-reverb locations that come immediately to my mind.

The first is a small area off the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. I've seen samples of it and I believe that Paul Winter has recorded there before... I unfortunately don't know the exact place other than I've seen pictures of it and Paul mentioned it once when I worked with him on a live show.

The other place is an underground cistern near Port Townshend, WA on the Olympic Peninsula. Pauline Oliveros recorded some music there. The Cistern held 2 million gallons of water and is a bit under 200 feet across and about 15 feet deep. There is a very smooth decay of reverb in there that is probably about 45 seconds to a minute long.

--Ben

[rufus13]

Sabine wrote some journals about these. I saw one at Powell's Tech Books, went back to buy and it was gone.... Imagine a parabolic reflector (or series of concentrating reflectors) 20+ Meters across, with you inside them. Some are dome overhead, some are curved walls, some have parts of both. No need for electrical PA.

Cheers.

[loujudson]

Originally Posted by fifthcircle

Don't know the exact info on reverb times, but there are two long-reverb locations that come immediately to my mind.

The first is a small area off the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. I've seen samples of it and I believe that Paul Winter has recorded there before... I unfortunately don't know the exact place other than I've seen pictures of it and Paul mentioned it once when I worked with him on a live show.

The other place is an underground cistern near Port Townshend, WA on the Olympic Peninsula. Pauline Oliveros recorded some music there. The Cistern held 2 million gallons of water and is a bit under 200 feet across and about 15 feet deep. There is a very smooth decay of reverb in there that is probably about 45 seconds to a minute long.

--Ben

Both of these I have come across in my work with Music From the Hearts of Space.

CANYON LULLABY: Paul Winter and the Grand Canyon in Surround Sound is one, and an earlier one with the full Consort is
PAUL WINTER'S 'CANYON', CELEBRATING THE GRAND CANYON, RECORDED FOR LIVING MUSIC

Pauline Oliveros is at Pauline Oliveros Frame

I'm sure you can get more details on the cistern from there if you want to.

L

[XLR]

Now I finally understand what the term "remote recording" means



We have a place here with an outstanding difficult acoustic, but I wouldn't say it's good sounding:
The Cologne Cathedral. It's a giant cross form, 230000 m3 Volumen, reverb time 13,0 sec at 100 Hz.

[larold@socal.rr.]

Audioease.com has a dome in India sampled that's extremely long.

[tenor39]

Originally Posted by Jim vanBergen

The longest RT recordings I have were in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC. St John has an 8 second reverberation time. Depending on what you are doing, you can get really different recordings in similar spaces by varying your performer placement to control direct & reverberant sound ratio, early or late relfections, and close to distant mic placement.

When I was in college our choir gave a concert in St. John the Divine (the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world) and I had a solo with a high "C" in it. We were standing in the middle of the Transept and I couldn't see the ceiling! I belted off the note in the solo as loud as I could and it vanished into oblivion! I then went to the organ console with a friend that played and he sounded the antiphonal trumpets located on the Narthex wall. It took 4 seconds for the sound to reach us!

The first is a small area off the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. I've seen samples of it and I believe that Paul Winter has recorded there before... I unfortunately don't know the exact place other than I've seen pictures of it and Paul mentioned it once when I worked with him on a live show.

I've been to a spot like this on a raft trip down the Colorado. It looks like a natural amphitheater and has wonderful acoustics. It could probably seat 5000 people.