
10/01/2025
ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS
In 1947, artificial reverb as we know it today was born in a bathroom — Bill Putnam’s bathroom, to be exact. It provided an echo chamber effect for the Harmonicats’ recording of ‘Peg O’ My Heart’. Echo chambers remained the dominant type of artificial reverb until 1957 when EMI introduced the first plate reverb.
Used most prominently in the ‘60s and ‘70s by pioneering bands including The Beatles and Pink Floyd, our original reverb plates were first installed in 1957 to complement the fixed reverberation times of the studios’ echo chambers.
In each of these original plates, the stereo reverb effect is created by suspending a large sheet of metal with tensioned springs attached to each corner. A transducer injects the metal sheet with audio energy, which is picked up by two contact mics fixed to the surface of the plate. The reverb time can then be adjusted by using an internal damper, and all of this is contained within a large wooden unit.