Motown echo chamber (hole in ceiling) in details ?

[mario.junicic]

I'm building new studio from scratch and I still have time to include echo chamber in my plan.
I will have basement outside of building that sholud be used for that purpose and I hope that it will end at : 8' x 10' x 12' dimensions. That sholud be typical „echo chamber“ with all known rules in design.

BUT – I find some info about Motown studio A „echo chamber“ which was hole in ceiling (at studio room) and reverb was capture during tracking with mic positon near that hole.
That is very unusual / interesting and I guess that it doesn't take much space....
I can't find any certain info on that one :-(

Does anyone have detail information about that hole type "echo chamber"?
Is there any other studio with similar solution? Any info on that?
Dimensions? Depth? Unparalleled surfaces? Treatment? Reverb time?

Thanks in advance for any info / help GS!

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by mario.junicic

I'm building new studio from scratch and I still have time to include echo chamber in my plan.
I will have basement outside of building that sholud be used for that purpose and I hope that it will end at : 8' x 10' x 12' dimensions. That sholud be typical „echo chamber“ with all known rules in design.

BUT – I find some info about Motown studio A „echo chamber“ which was hole in ceiling (at studio room) and reverb was capture during tracking with mic positon near that hole.
That is very unusual / interesting and I guess that it doesn't take much space....
I can't find any certain info on that one :-(

Does anyone have detail information about that hole type "echo chamber"?
Is there any other studio with similar solution? Any info on that?
Dimensions? Depth? Unparalleled surfaces? Treatment? Reverb time?

Thanks in advance for any info / help GS!

The hole in the ceiling that you speak of is just so tourists could stand under it and clap their hands and hear the decay.
There was no "hole" there back in the day.

That chamber was in the attic of the building next door to the man studio.
A line was run from a send on the console to a speaker which returned the effected audio back to a return on the console.
Sorry..no hole:(

[jrakarl]

Originally Posted by phillysoulman

The hole in the ceiling that you speak of is just so tourists could stand under it and clap their hands and hear the decay.
There was no "hole" there back in the day.

That chamber was in the attic of the building next door to the man studio.
A line was run from a send on the console to a speaker which returned the effected audio back to a return on the console.
Sorry..no hole:(

So they had a microphone up there as well?

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Gearslutz App

[idylldon]

Originally Posted by jrakarl

So they had a microphone up there as well?

It would've been pretty hard to capture the wet signal without one. A reverb chamber needs three things to operate:

1.) A speaker to project the sound into the chamber.
2.) The reverb chamber itself.
3.) A microphone to pic up the sound from the chamber.

There are variations on the above, but that's the basic signal flow. Careful speaker and mic placement, the dimensions and layout of the chamber, any acoustic modifications to the chamber (Abbey Road and the "sewer pipes" to help with diffusion is an example), and send/return levels/EQ all have variables that can be tweaked to shape the reverberant sound.

Cheers,
--
Don