Put Abbey Road's Plates On Your Tracks

 

 

 

KNOXVILLE, TN, February 15, 2016 — Waves Audio, a leading provider of digital signal processing solutions, is now shipping the Waves Abbey Road Reverb Plates plugin.  

 

Introduced over half a century ago, plate reverbs have been a fixture of recorded music ever since. Used most prominently in the ‘60s and ‘70s by pioneering bands, including the Beatles and Pink Floyd, Abbey Road Studios’ original reverb plates — four EMT 140 units — were first installed in 1957 to complement the fixed reverberation times of the studios’ echo chambers. These beautiful-sounding plates, with a variable reverb time of up to six seconds, were then tweaked to perfection by Abbey Road's technical engineers. To keep noise to a minimum, EMI's Central Research Laboratories designed unique hybrid solid-state drive amps for Plates A, B and C. Plate D remained fully valve-powered on both drive and output stages, allowing a versatile array of sonic characteristics, from warm and dark to lush and smooth.  

 

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.  

 

These historic Abbey Road plates have been used on countless seminal pop, rock, classical and film recordings over the years, and continue to be used in all kinds of audio production to this day. Waves has now created meticulous models of these stunning and unique-sounding units, individually modeling the harmonic distortion of both the drive and output amps as well as the individual plate/damper behaviors.  

 

Key features of the Waves Abbey Road Reverb Plates plugin:

 

Videos:

 

Intro: https://youtu.be/ZpFsw9cxZxw

Interview: https://youtu.be/ZklKVlSDCmY

Demo: https://youtu.be/NlWiUtTGhr4  

 

Learn more: http://www.waves.com/plugins/abbey-road-reverb-plates#introducing-abbey-road-reverb-plates.

 

 

 

 

 The graphic user interface of the Waves Abbey Road Reverb Plates plugin.

 

 

About Abbey Road Studios:

 

Abbey Road Studios is the most famous recording studios in the world and a global music icon. Home to countless landmark recordings and pioneering advances in recording technology, the legendary studio complex has a phenomenal history spanning over 80 years, encompassing celebrated work by many of the world’s most famous recording artists including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Kanye West, Radiohead, Oasis, Frank Ocean, Lady Gaga and Adele. Since the score for Raiders of The Lost Ark was recorded at the studios in 1980, Abbey Road has developed into one of the world’s premiere locations for movie scoring. Blockbuster films such as the Lord of The Rings Trilogy, The King’s Speech and Skyfall feature scores recorded there, while recent projects include the Oscar-winning score to Gravity. Additionally, a number of high-profile videogames such as Halo 5 and Call of Duty have recorded in-game music at Abbey Road Studios. The Studios house a number of state of the art mastering suites. Recent projects mastered or re-mastered by Abbey Road’s award-winning engineers include music from Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Queen, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, New Order, Mary J Blige. Abbey Road Studios also offers online mixing and mastering, audio products for professional and home studio music producers, live concert recording, archiving and video services. The Studios also host a select number of special events each year. Abbey Road recently launched Abbey Road Red, Europe’s only music-focussed technology incubator which supports the endeavours of entrepreneurs, research and developers. Abbey Road Institute recently began offering vocational diplomas in music production and audio engineering to students at the studio complex in London and state of the art facilities in Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Melbourne and Sydney.

 

About Waves Audio Ltd.:

 

Waves is the world’s leading developer of audio DSP solutions for the professional, broadcast, and consumer electronics audio markets. Since its start in the early '90s with the introduction of the Q10 equalizer plugin, Waves has gone on to develop a comprehensive line of over 200 audio plugins, including industry standards like the L1 and L2 Ultramaximizers, popular vintage console models, and innovative mixing tools like Vocal Rider and the Artist Signature Series. For its accomplishments, Waves received a Technical GRAMMY® Award in 2011, and the Q10 was selected as an inductee into the TECnology Hall of Fame. Waves technologies are now used to improve sound quality in virtually every sector of the audio market, from recording, mixing, mastering and post-production to broadcast, live sound, and consumer electronics. Waves has over 20 years of expertise in the development of psychoacoustic signal processing algorithms that leverage knowledge of human auditory perception to radically improve perceived sound quality. Waves’ award-winning processors are utilized to improve sound quality in the creation of hit records, major motion pictures, and top-selling video games worldwide. Waves offers computer software and hardware-plus-software solutions for the professional and broadcast markets. The company’s WavesLive division is a market leader in all live sound sectors, spearheading the development of solutions for all live platforms. Under its Maxx brand, Waves offers semiconductor and licensable algorithms for consumer electronics applications. Waves Maxx technologies dramatically enhance audio performance and are used by industry leaders such as Dell, LG, TCL, Lenovo, Asus, Denon and more.

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