Discuss the development of Studio reverbs in the 1960s and 1970s.

Comment on
their impact on music production of the time
The introduction of damping pads onto plate reverbs in 1957 with the release Elektro-Mess-Technik the 140
plate reverb unit which allowed producers to control reverb time enabling flexibility within the hardware on
application.
The next great advance of reverberation technology is the creation of emulators and digital reverbs. The first
ever commercially successful digital reverb was the EMT-250 which was released in 1976 by German company
Elektro-mess-tecknik (even though only 250 were ever made). It was lever driven with extremely limited
modulation effects including pre-delay controls and high and low frequency decay times. It also allowed easier
access to effects such as; chorus, phase, echo and delay. However, it only ever had one reverb sound making it
limited in its ability but also iconic in the reverb sound it made. This sound was a clear and open reverb sound
which was used on countless records such as The Red Hot Chilli Peppers Stadium Arcadia.
Two years later in 1976 Lexicon brought out their digital reverb unit which was the Lexicon 224. This served
as a major player in the sound of highly influential classics such as Talking Heads' Remain In
Light, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's The Message, Vangelis' incredible Blade Runner soundtrack,
U2's Unforgettable Fire, and Peter Gabriel's So. It was a slider based control system with a recognisable lush
reverb tail. This model used entire the entire analog circuit and digital path for total authenticity and included 8
reverb programmes and one chorus program from Lexicon v.4.4 firmware