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[David Kulka]

Lastly, here's some of the the insides of one -- I think this was the 250.  EMT scraped the identification off of all the important IC's so the designs couldn't be copied, which makes servicing them a lot of fun.  I finally got a set of the original 250 blueprints from Gotham so I know the secrets of that one now, but I'm still looking for the top-secret info on the 251.

Barry Blesser (past AES president and former Lexicon engineer) was part of the original design team.  Here's an archived AES recording in which Barry makes some prescient comments about the industry and talks a little about the EMT project...http://www.dplay.com/aes/blesser.html

[compasspnt]

Yes David!

These are indeed "other-worldly" in appearance, but in my opinion, digital reverb started at the top with the 250, and has only gone downhill since (as is the case with so much in life!)

I have a 250 which I love.  But it is missing some of the cool coloured plastic knob bits...is there anywhere to get these?  It occasionally starts crackling, and you have to shut it down to cool for a bit to clean it up.  Also, I'd love a scan of that brochure your lovely wife is holding!

And I agree that an {Other Worldly Gear} calendar would be great!  We just need 11 more pix!

Julio Iglesias does a lot of work here at our studio, and the 250 is the only reverb he will use on his vocals (which is a lot of 'verb).  He uses all four outputs.  I've never quite understood what the four outs are good for in stereo.

Good posts!

Terry


PS:  The big wheels are a good idea.  These puppies are heavy!

[RMoore]

Wow - thats funny to see 3 of those bad boys in one place,
How can it be that a digital 'verb of that vintage STILL is in demand?
Whats the story as to the secret of EMT 250/251?
FWIW - I was buying an EMT240 some time ago & the seller was busy testing out an EMT 250 for a client who was on the way to buy it..
SOUNDED GREAT!
I was amazed.

[RMoore]

How about the EMT 244 - does it compare to the 250/251?
I bought one for +-$200 over here eons ago & it worked for about 2 weeks after a tech dropped in a couple new ics before going on tilt again.
Sounded 'ok' but not amazing..
I was never sure if it was working 100% properly..
The repair estimate was +- $1000 from BARCO in Germany..
No thanks.
Now I have some cool looking , albeit expensive rack filler..

[RMoore]

David Kulka wrote on Sun, 06 March 2005 18:06

There's an article on my website with much more info about these, for anyone who's interested.  http://studioelectronics.biz/scrapbook.html ]

Sorry I can't seem to find the EMT stuff - a hint?
Thnx!
RM

[David Kulka]

Ryan -- sorry, I had linked the wrong page.  It's fixed now, but here's the link again. http://studioelectronics.biz/recentprojects.html

Terry wrote:  "I have a 250 which I love. But it is missing some of the cool coloured plastic knob bits...is there anywhere to get these? It occasionally starts crackling, and you have to shut it down to cool for a bit to clean it up. Also, I'd love a scan of that brochure your lovely wife is holding!"

On the brochure, I'll do better than that.  Next time I'm at **un-named entertainment conglomerate** I'll make a copy on their zillion dollar imaging machine and then mail it to you.  As for the plastic buttons, I may have some in the drawer, or perhaps someone else knows of a source.  (Say, did you see my message about Beatles sleuthing, and what do you think?)

By the way, are these images too big?  Slow download or causing page size problems?

[JGreenslade]

Would "The Agonizer" qualify as strange and other-worldly? See what you think: http://www.metasonix.com/TX1.htm

Taken from link:

Quote:

And in spite of all this, AND repeated warnings NOT TO BUY IT, the original Metasonix TX-1 Agonizer became the fastest-selling product in our company's history.

Interesting marketing campaign...

Justin

[compasspnt]

Pretty strange.  I was going to immediately buy one until I saw the price...that's because I need two for the stereo mix buss!

[dcollins]

David Kulka wrote on Sun, 06 March 2005 06:14

The Movement is definitely strange and other-worldly, here's a photo.  Anyone know more about this thing?

I saw this thing on a session around 1985 at the Record Plant on 3rd st.  It was owned by producer Mike Howlett and iirc, it's based on a British PC of the era.  Maybe 6809?

It was used on Flock of Seagulls and the Berlin CD "Love Life."

There was some function that was unique at the time, can't remember what...

DC

[electrical]

thermionic wrote on Sun, 06 March 2005 14:11

Would "The Agonizer" qualify as strange and other-worldly? See what you think: http://www.metasonix.com/TX1.htm

This is almost the same principle as the "Stinger" pentode fuzz built into the Garnet B.T.O. Special amplifiers.

If you recall the Bachman-Turner Overdrive classic "Taking Care of Business," then you know this sound. The designer, Gar Gilles, is a real kook, and an entertaining guy. If you're ever in Winnepeg, look him up.

Those Garnet amps were many, varied, weird and cool. The B.T.O. Special had an amazing tremelo that worked by modulating the output tubes, so the tremelo worked even if the pre-amp was overdriving. The reverb in his amps also sounded really deep and great. He made a tube overdrive module called the Herzog, which the Guess Who used for the spooky sustained guitar solo in "American Woman" -- a unique sound.

I asked him how many different models of amplifier Garnet had made over the years, and he thought about it for a minute and said, "I have no idea."

[compasspnt]

David Kulka wrote on Sun, 06 March 2005 12:33

It's fixed now, but here's the link again. http://studioelectronics.biz/recentprojects.html

David,  A GREAT synopsis of what I'll call "Echo" ("Reverb" to the rest of you!)  AND, you covered every truly great source of reverberation in the story.   (And I'm not referring to the brief mention of plug-ins!)

Quote:

By the way, are these images too big?  Slow download or causing page size problems?

They were fine for me...many will probably say that the photo of your wife with the EMT's might even have been bigger!

[David Kulka]

When I began working at my uncle's studio in 1975, engineer Vance Frost, who was a part time mentor, insisted that "echo" was singular and "reverb" was plural.

In other words, an echo was a single slap or reflection, and reverb was an aggregate of reflections.  I'm not sure how many in the industry would agree, but it's always made sense to me.

Terry, thanks for the kind words.  I showed your comments to my wife, and they gave her a good laugh.

[RMoore]

David Kulka wrote on Sun, 06 March 2005 18:33

Ryan -- sorry, I had linked the wrong page.  It's fixed now, but here's the link again. http://studioelectronics.biz/recentprojects.html

Thnx!
Great article,
Amazing isn't it that a 30 yr old digital reverb could still be da bomb

[compasspnt]

Ryan Moore wrote on Mon, 07 March 2005 13:43

David Kulka wrote on Sun, 06 March 2005 18:33 Ryan -- sorry, I had linked the wrong page.  It's fixed now, but here's the link again. http://studioelectronics.biz/recentprojects.html Thnx! Great article, Amazing isn't it that a 30 yr old digital reverb could still be da bomb

Believe me, it truly is "da bomb" for beautiful, natural, rich reverberation.  No plug that I've tried comes close....yet...but I haven't yet tried the TLL ones...

[David Kulka]

Has anyone used the Dynatron 255?  That's the rackmount version of the 250, supposedly with the same algorhythms, that was released a couple of years ago.  One curious thing is that it has no analog I/O, only AES.  I've never run into anyone who's used it, and have never seen one...

   http://www.audiomedia.com/archive/reviews/us-0600/us-0600-dy natron/us-0600-dynatron.htm#information