Question for Westsider

[AllanY2525]

When I was a teenager, I had an old Marshall electric guitar amp that used
vacuum tubes.  The "reverb" (ie: echo) effect on the amp was implemented using
steel springs stretched across a small compartment in the amp - crazy.

[Towntalk]

Thanks Westsider. This feature always baffled me since I have seen plans for other radio stations of the same size and era and this is the only one that had echo chambers, and of course also an indoor parking garage.

As to creating echo's, the radio station that Mother worked at would position a boom mike over their grand piano and the announcer, sitting at the piano would speak into the sound board and it would be picked up as an echo by the mike, and by stepping on the piano foot peddles he could change the tone of the echo. Back then, most radio stations had a baby grand piano in at least one of their studios and some had a Hammond Organ as well such as WFMJ.

[northside lurker]

The room where the recording was done was located on the 3d floor and the studios on the 2nd. According to the floor plan for the 2nd floor there was office space in the area directly above the area where the echo chambers were located, as well as public rest rooms and a storage room for studio A, a large studio that could hold audiences.

Could the fact that there was an indoor parking garage on the first floor level have anything to do with the echo chambers? Muffle the sounds in the building?

I don't know if they would help with muffling or cancelling out noise from the parking garage or not.  I know very little about echo chambers, but from what I've read, they were used for adding echo effects to recordings, before electronics were advanced enough to do it artificially.

[Towntalk]

Here's the full 1st floor layout plan.

[Towntalk]

The room where the recording was done was located on the 3d floor and the studios on the 2nd. According to the floor plan for the 2nd floor there was office space in the area directly above the area where the echo chambers were located, as well as public rest rooms and a storage room for studio A, a large studio that could hold audiences.

Could the fact that there was an indoor parking garage on the first floor level have anything to do with the echo chambers? Muffle the sounds in the building?

[northside lurker]

Wouldn't that allow them to do 2 recordings--requiring echos--at the same time?  If so, maybe they just wanted a spare?

[Towntalk]

Westsider, take a look at the enclosed picture and hopefully explain the purpose of two echo clambers seperated by a storeroom to the left of the lobby proper. The floors above the first floor are the offices and studios of a radio station and the bulk of the first floor is for parking cars.