The ugliest outboard ever?
Despite resembling an elephant that’s stumbled out of a piano-packing factory, The Cowshed’s latest item of outboard sounds fantastic. Conceived in 1957 the EMT 140 Analog Plate Reverb is the world’s first artificial reverb unit, a miracle of miniaturisation being housed in an 8’ x 4’ x 2’ box and weighing 200kgs!
Hailing from the legendary Battery Studios it contains a large steel plate fitted with magnets springs and other lo tech stuff, and contains a motorised remote-controlled damping mechanism to adjust the length of the decay from inside the studio.
So big and sensitive to vibration is the 140 that we had to put it in The Cowshed’s courtyard in this custom built soundproof and waterproof shed, running all of the cables through the outside walls into the control room.
It may seem odd that we go to all this trouble when hype reinforces the myth that plug-ins are indistinguishable from the real thing. But no algorithm can replicate what The Cowshed’s plate does. Big, beautiful, lush organic reverb that interacts with the music like a soundboard.
World first for The Cowshed
Just about everyone mounts their EMT reverb controllers in a desk or rackmount, but not us. We custom fitted ours inside this small wooden cow, which I think safely makes us the only studio in the world that can offer it’s clients a cow controlled reverb..
The Piano's Been Thinking
A closer look at The Cowshed’s new piano reveals it to be no ordinary beast. Not only does this Yamaha U1 upright sound fantastic acoustically, it outputs MIDI (in a similar fashion to our previous PianoBar, but with a much greater degree of accuracy). It can be mic’d up or digitally recorded. Furthermore, the Disklavier is capable of physically replaying the performance, the keys, sustain and soft pedals all move as if a ghost of yourself is playing.
This provides both the ultimate “weighted” controller keyboard for the latest piano samples (we have an incredible Bosendorfer 10’ grand sample) and a great acoustic piano.
It has to be seen and heard to be believed, so call us for a free demo!
Mac G5 dual 1.8GHz with dual flat screens
Hidden away in a custom built soundproof cupboard is the state-of-the-art Mac G5. We like to record everything at high data rates (96kHz/24bit) for warmth and depth all the way to the mastering stage. If you like you can switch off the computer altogether and use the 2” 24-track, or a combination of the two. The G5 can handle 70-track mixes with ease and we provide 32 simultaneous ins and outs for mixing using our 90 input analog desk.
Congrats to...
Our congratulations extend to Cowshed artists Jamie Cullum, Gwyneth Herbert, Ingrid Laubrock, Seb Rochford, Tom Herbert and Tom Cawley who have all been nominated for awards in this year’s BBC Jazz Awards.
Also congratulations to Atar and the Funkadrome, Honeyriders, Symeon Cosburn, Carol Grimes, Dave O’Higgins, BB Cooper, Gustavo Marquez, Detwiije and The Barracudas, all of whose albums have been released very recently and are enjoying radio play and rave reviews. Check www.cowshedstudio.com for links to these artists’ sites.
Thanks
We’re coming up to our 5th birthday here and in a climate where studios are dropping like flies in cement boots we’re proud to still be going strong. We’re in it for the music and thanks to each of your contributions we have amassed a substantial body of quality work that we are really proud of.
So thanks for making it all worthwhile and catch you soon!
Joe & Biba Leach
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