Bibliographic details and abstracts are available to all. Downloads of full-text dissertations are restricted to University of Portsmouth members who must login. MPhils may be accessed by all.

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on a comparison between mechanical and digital reverb techniques to consider whether analogue reverb techniques are still practical in modern music production. There is significant research in the area of analogue and digital in music production and receipt; however, there is very little with specific regard to reverb. Plate and spring reverb systems were produced as artefacts to support the study. These mechanical systems were compared with digital hardware and convolution systems. The study consisted of two parts: an online survey designed for two specific groups of participants, those with and without ‘Reasonable Knowledge of Music Technology’; and measurements of reverberation time and frequency response. The findings suggest that convolution reverb can accurately recreate mechanical reverb systems in terms of physical audio characteristics, whilst the algorithmic digital hardware systems were very different. The ‘reasonable knowledge’ group of participants, however, generally seemed to be unable to correctly identify these systems and, in the no ‘reasonable knowledge’ group, there was not a clear preference for reverb systems, with only a slight favour towards digital hardware. With people’s preferences seeming to lie closer to the algorithmic digital hardware reverb systems, and convolution being able to recreate the mechanical systems accurately, this could suggest that using large, expensive analogue reverb systems are now impractical in modern music production.

Course: Music and Sound Technology - BSc (Hons) - C1802

Date Deposited: 2019-11-22

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13486.html