DIY Plate Reverb - Use a drum cymbal + old speaker!

[Cigar Box Nation]

Let's take the whole DIY music thing one step further and delve into homemade effects!  In this video, Valenten (a.k.a. Instant Pyrolysis) presents a DIY plate reverb system based on an old cymbal and speaker.

Visit the Instant Pyrolsis website at http://www.instant-pyrolysis.com

[Fomhorach]

Interesting results. The piezo makes sense as the receiver and not to knock the design using the speaker on the middle is a clever way of creating a sender.
If I was working on this I would have to find a way of reducing the input power to a smaller unit.
Wasn't there a speaker system invented that you could attach to objects like tables that turned the table into a speaker?

Anyway, it's a great design concept with great results.

[Scott]

They're called tactile transducers. You can find them easily at places like parts express. I've experimented with them some in the past. I've done something similar to the above, but a 'small' cymbal like this has a very pronounced high resonant frequency that gets old real quick in a mix. I've had better results with wooden sound boards and more esoteric shapes that resonate more neutrally at multiple frequencies. 

[Gobi]

For Plate Reverbs normaly "size matters"... I one build a plate like shown above, one will get extrem resonance tones, wich could be interesting but also anoying...

I have build a Plate Reverb a few years ago, its not to big, but works fine - not complete "neutral" but ok. Its non magnetic stainless steel (0.5 as far as I remember)  watch the asymetrical mountings. With the one speaker coil input and the two piezos,  I get a "stereo" output reverb from mono.

[Scott]

nice work!

[JL]

Clicking on the video at the beginning of this thread gets a youtube response

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