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From: Campbell.SV@Xerox.COM
Newsgroups: net.music.synth
Subject: re:Digital Reverb? and Yamaha Synths
Message-ID: <1373@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU>
Date: Mon, 24-Mar-86 13:13:49 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.1373
Posted: Mon Mar 24 13:13:49 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Mar-86 04:55:04 EST
Sender: daemon@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU
Organization: M.I.T. EE/CS Computer Facility, Cambridge MA
Lines: 39

From: Campbell.SV@Xerox.COM

>       ...I know this is gonna sound like a stupid question,but hey!!!,
>       stupidity is a virtue.What is *digital* about digital delays??

Larry,

A digital delay is digital because it takes the analog input and runs it
through a analog to digital converter.  The sound is converted to
numbers which can be duplicated time after time (echo) delayed for a
while or copied and read back faster or slower (chorus, flanging etc.).
Also a microprocessor can play tricks with the numbers to simulate
different size rooms and reflective surfaces (singing in the shower).
After the numbers have been tweaked then they are run back through a
digital to analog converter and presto- new sounds.  The advantage over
spring reverbs is the flexibility and much broader range of effects
possible.  A spring reverb always just sounds like a spring reverb while
a digital reverb can sound like a small club or a large concert hall.
Remember when people used to have spring reverbs on their car radio and
when you would turn it up all the way and drive on a bumpy road it would
sound like people fighting with metal trash cans inside a refrigerator
or am I just giving away my age?  Spring reverbs are very reliable so
the problem in your Fender is probably a tube or connection.  Besides,
spring reverbs are not dead.  I just bought a brand new Peavey KB-100
keyboard amp and guess what kind of reverb it has inside?  To test your
amp for springs just turn up the reverb all the way and drop the amp
from an altitude of one quarter of an inch.  You will find out if you
have springs or not.  By the way, another type of mechanical reverb was
the plate type.  This was a plate of metal with transducers on each end.
It gave a reverb sound that was less jangly than the spring type.  Is
this more than you wanted to know?

Regards, Rick Campbell

PS I have a question for the net people who have Yamaha synths.  I am
trying to decide between a DX-7 (smaller, no computer required to
program, cartridges etc) verses a KX-88 and a TX-7 (good keyboard, use
with new synth modules as they come out)  Anybody have an opinion based
on actual experience?