Creating an echo room sound without an echo room , creating a great harmonica sound, further simplifying the Springsteen Nebraska production process

For example.


Assuming 2 ribbon Grampian mics are driving a pair of Pleiades E88CC long tailed pair preamps.


The preamps are then driving a Philips CDR recorder. So we are recording direct to disc.


So far so good.


The trick is continuing the signal path after the preamps or after the CDR.


If for example the CDR line out is connected to a Pleiades 300B single ended stereo pair and then loudspeakers and the room is filled with good sound the mics will be picking up the sound they are producing in the first place!


If the gain is lowered well before oscillating it is just positive feedback without oscillation.


This can give for example an amazing harmonica sound and the sound heard is being recorded in real time!


If the speakers are placed many meters away in a far away room, the acoustic delay is very interesting.


To summarize: the mics pick up the the very close sound of the instrument or voice and at the same time an echo room type sound feeding back to itself in a Phil Spector wall of sound way. Phil Spector was tape delaying the sound to the chamber and feeding it back to itself. (See a previous euroelectron post).


Now Bruce Springsteen as mentioned in a very nearby euroelectron post used 2 SM57 for the album Nebraska. The tracks were cut by a Tascam 4 track recorder on cassette. Mixing was done by adding the magnetic head Gibson delay and the end product was re-recorded to a Panasonic cassette boom box.


The slap back echo is an important ingredient of this album's sound.


Can this simple setup be further simplified?


For example assuming recording an electric organ and voice or voices.


The electric organ is directly connected to a Marantz 3 head cassette recorder through line in.


One or two mics are also connected to the Marantz portable recorder through mic in.


Singer sings and plays an Italian EKO organ.


The Marantz is in tape monitoring mode from its 3rd (playback) head.


It's headphone output is connected to a sensitive vintage full range speaker hung from the ceiling.


The speaker plays the organ and the voice sounds phase modulated too by the Leslie rotating effect.


The mics recapture the sound in the room and there is a slap back loop. The effect can be controlled by adjusting the headphone output volume driving the loudspeaker.


Advantages:


One generation for everything.


Analog recording only.


Voice is close miked and organ is direct injected.


But at the same time there is slap back echo with repeats for voice and organ and delayed room sound too simulating a echo chamber.


There is absence of early reflections but a plethora of delayed reflections simulating a big space.


When a singer sings or plays, his-her ears listen to a great sound consisting of the acoustic wave coming from their mouth and the thousand delayed acoustic waves coming from the room. Since the mic is very near to the ears what is heard is almost what is being recorded. The fact that the speaker cannot play too loud helps the singer sing in tune. (Pitch as perceived depends on acoustic intensity, see other euroelectron posts on pitch and S.S. Stevens).