Can somebody please explain reverb...

[curtisstetka]

I'm just curious how the thing works. Could somebody please explain in layman's terms how you use a box and a couple springs to add reverb to a signal.

Thanks!

[Kap'n]

I'm just curious how the thing works. Could somebody please explain in layman's terms how you use a box and a couple springs to add reverb to a signal.

Thanks!

Don't thank me yet, I'm thinking on the fly.

A reverb tank is two transducers, connected by springs. Think of them as a speaker and a microphone.

If it was just air between them, you'd have a very short delay, determined by the speed of sound, distance blah, blah. But instead, you've got these relatively loose springs that get vibrated and picked up by the "mic" on the other end. The delay is greater.

But wait, there's more.

The springs getting vibrated bounce the waves created in them back, and forth, analogous to real room reverb, so the signal gets picked up by the "mic" again and again, in successively smaller amounts.

But wait there's more.

Rather than just two springs, there's actually four springs, two each tied together near (but not at) the center. At the meeting of the two springs, there's again, reflection! And each of the two spring sets has the meeting point different, so there's more reflection.

Some tanks have three springs for even more "natural" reverb.:bwa