FW: [sdiy] Reverb opinions, please

[phillip m gallo]

Fernando,

Since the Gong has a sizable "bell" it protruded into the speaker cone
enough that i was able to put a good "swatch" of silicon rubber on the
"voice coil" cap so that the paper of the cap was pretty intimate to the
"gong" bell.  While i am sure the silicon rubber isn't a great conductor
itself, the glue allowed the speaker to "drive" the gong mechanically.  

I drove it with a 15 watt Sanken amp module (from Olsen Electronics) and
don't really know, but never drove it hard at all (the acoustic sound
from the speaker was very low and i was afraid of ripping the cone or
mis-aligning the voice coil) probably equal or less than the 1/2 watt
typical of loud headphones.  Also i rolled off the extreme low end
(below 100Hz) as this isn't to useful for Reverb anyway and that is
where all the harmful energy (piston power) exists.

I used a standard mic preamp and the electret was "pretty hot" so not a
lot of gain was needed.   Using nothing more sophisticated than
"gumption" and glue i was amazed at how i just naturally got a very good
sound without much "science".    The sound was very much like a plate
"open, whooshy" but no clang.   

A real plate reverb has "tensioning" to modify the reverb duration and
timbre.  I played around with taping it and just muffling by hand.  My
result was that i liked it un-adulterated for that big room sound that
was remarkably "coherent" meaning not muddled or resonant.   I also
found that if i would use one of my electronic delays i could run the
mic into one mixer channel without delay and another with  delay and i
could get a decent stereo (with longish elec delays) and control the
timbre with very short delays.

Most folks expected the sound to be somewhat "clangorous" and they were
surprised to hear how "smooth" it was.   I believe a large conventional
cymbal good be used but standard "kit stands" wouldn't due.  You might
have to make a hanger for it and the speaker motor would have to be more
shallow as the bell of a cymbal doesn't protrude as much.  


regards,
p