The Reverb Jam: Be My Baby (reverb and the Wall of Sound)
Introduction (with videos)Sound clips (including R4 Today Programme interview)
Oddities of working in a reverberant space
Relaxing in the semi-anechoic chamber
Be My Baby (reverb and the Wall of Sound)
Before the days of electronic reverb, recording musicians had to be inventive with genuine, reverberant rooms, in order to give some life to dry recordings made in the studio.
Phil Spector famously exploited a small, echo-chamber – not unlike the reverb chamber at NPL – to make his signature Wall of Sound. This is the mush of blended vocals and instruments that you hear on 60s classics such as the Ronette’s Be My Baby.
Spector recorded all the musicians in a tight cluster, then played the recorded sound back ito the echo chamber, where he picked it up again, using only one mic, so he could re-record it. The reverberant, mono wash of sound this created was a hit – partly because it sounded so good on AM radios (which were becoming an increasing popular fixture in cars).
