MOTM

hello all,
first off many thanks to scott for this brilliant unit - i unexpectedly
finished it over the weekend (it's amazing what a new soldering iron does
for my wiring stamina)
so i had a bad day at work yesterday and foolishly decided to wind down by
calibrating the neural agonizer - oops
anyway, i eventually just powered up my trusty TR808 and spent a happy hour
playing the same loop through the reverb, using the mix out to feed the
drive input
so a tip and a question

if you use the accutronics tanks, mine at least came with alternative spring
assembly mounting holes - so instead of having to drill another hole in the
tank for the second input, i was able to neatly enlarge an existing hole
with a countersink. a couple of turns was all that was required to fit a
barrel type phono plug (the kind that bolt directly to the panel as opposed
to being fitted to a plastic flange which attaches to the panel)

also, i never found a european 1/8 socket for the tank cabling, so i just
wired it direct - an MTA156 is annoyingly close, though 0.1" barrier strip
of some kind might do it

now the question - i decided to go for a pair of type 9 tanks with medium
decay, does anyone here have an alternate set of short decay tanks..? (i'm
wondering about getting an alternate pair)

cheers
paul
sheffield / uk

> It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has used long decay tanks,
too.

the type 9 (longest) with medium (option 2) decay sounds good on my 808 as
an effect rather than as a reverb - though i do have to experiment more
i have a mix to do tonight so i'm going to see if i can fit the neural
agonizer in anywhere - i've been doing a fair amount of dubby stuff recently
so i thought a nice short choppy reverb might be a good alternative..?
i think the long tanks are supposed to be good for more atmospheric
effects - something again i have to experiment with

cheers
paul

At 12:48 PM +0000 2004/11/09, Sikorsky wrote:
>now the question - i decided to go for a pair of type 9 tanks with medium
>decay, does anyone here have an alternate set of short decay tanks..? (i'm
>wondering about getting an alternate pair)

I normally use a Lexicon or Yamaha digital box for adding reverb to 
my synths. The "hall" settings on these boxes typically have reverb 
times of 2.3 to 2.7 seconds in length. So the accutronics "medium" 
decay time gives that same kind of sound. I imagine the "long" decay 
will sound more like the "cavern" setting on a digital reverb. I 
don't know if the "short" decay will be short enough (accutronics 
gives decay times of 1.2 to 2.0 seconds which is in the "medium hall" 
range):

  DIGIT #4 - DECAY TIME
  1 = Short (1.2 to 2.0 sec)
  2 = Medium (1.75 to 3.0 sec)
  3 = Long (2.75 to 4.0 sec)

But here are some tricks you can try to shorten the reverb times 
using your existing tank.

1. Gate the reverb output by patching it into a VCA. Use a EG to 
control the VCA with <1 second Decay time.

2. Gate the input to the reverb by patching it into a VCA. Use a 
really short Decay time (works best for percussive sounds).

3. Stuff some soft foam into the reverb assembly to provide an 
acoustic damping effect (not voltage controllable, unfortunately). Or 
cut some rubber bands and embed them between the spring coils 
(running between one spring and the other).

You can also stick scrap resistor leads and other short bits of metal 
into the springs to get even nastier noises. Just be careful you 
don't stretch the springs out of shape.