Members H.R. Shove and Stuff Posted November 9, 2014 Members Share Posted November 9, 2014 This photo came up recently and the strange sloped front enclosure caught my eye. A few controls and a meter in such a large box? Anyone know what that could be? So simple and sexy. Almost doomsday-ish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 I'm really not sure. Time to pull out Recording The Beatles and see if it's mentioned in there or not. I don't recall seeing it before though. The meter and single fader are indeed interesting. EMI made a lot of stuff at their Hayes Road facility for their studios around the world, and even Abby Road's own engineers built stuff in-house on occasion, and I suspect that's from one or the other of those two sources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 Okay, I found it. If you want to reference it in the book I mentioned previously, it's on page 310. It's called the "Bernie Box", and it's a phaser. The controls are an in/out, phase reversal and meter select switches. The fader adjusts the amount ("stages") of phasing. The rotary knob is a gain control. It was indeed a "one off" box built in the amp room at Abbey Road by Bernard Speight. The write-up in Recording The Beatles says the box's current location is unknown, if it's even survived. It also says it is a comb filter that used a built in analog delay, with the fader adjusting the frequency; apparently there was no onboard LFO for modulation, and the "sweep" had to be manually controlled via the fader. It apparently was well-known around the studios, but wasn't used very often because the effect wasn't as pronounced as tape-based phasing and flanging techniques. Curiously, the fader was apparently a "stepped" fader, which caused "stair stepping" to be audible on some sources and in some frequency ranges. Why they didn't use a non-stepped fader is beyond me. The book says it may be responsible for the subtle phasing on the opening of Cry Baby Cry, but that's just speculation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members H.R. Shove and Stuff Posted November 11, 2014 Author Members Share Posted November 11, 2014 Phil, you are the man. An analog filter in a giant box is hilarious. Unless it was tube based, but if the 'analog delay' inside is a BBD, I'd imagine they could have had opamps, if not transistors back then. God help us if there is a tube based BBD phaser/flanger circuit out there that Pure Tube didn't make. I just listened to Cry Baby Cry. The phase we are talking about is on the acoustic guitar in the right channel? Not very pronounced at all. It's hard to even hear if it's sweeping or stepped. Very interesting, thank you Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Yes, on the acoustic guitar. The book said one of the engineers (or tape ops?) also remembered it being used for "phasey vocals", but without specifying which song(s) used it. There's little to no documentation of its actual use, although as the Linda Eastman-McCartney photo you posted shows, it was definitely present on some White Album era sessions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AlamoJoe Posted November 21, 2014 Members Share Posted November 21, 2014 You are the man Phil...Any and all info on the Beatles is always welcome in my tiny head. I still listen to their work in wonderment.That's a weird looking hat John's wearing though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 That's a weird looking hat John's wearing though. This made me lol. Thanks for the laugh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AlamoJoe Posted November 22, 2014 Members Share Posted November 22, 2014 This made me lol. Thanks for the laugh! All part of the service Bud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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