Producer/Engineer Elliot Scheiner, triple Grammy Award winner for his work on Steely Dan’s Two Against Nature, recently passed along the observation that the sound of the old 140 plate can be attained with Yamaha’s SREV1 reverb.

Elliot at work in studio with the SREV1.

While at work on a new Steely Dan record, he notes, “If I closed my eyes and didn’t know that I was listening to the SREV, I would have thought for sure it was an old 140 plate. I’m amazed at the sound of this reverb; it has the best sounding plate I’ve heard in 25 years.”

Right now he’s pursuing a passion, mixing classic records like Van Morrison’s Moondance and the Eagles Hotel California to 5.1 surround for DVD Audio. “I first had the opportunity to fool around with the SREV while mixing Van Morrison’s Moondance in 5.1 surround,” he continues. “When I originally mixed the song, I used 140 plates, and I was trying to recreate the same or similar sound,” Scheiner recalls. “I didn’t have 140 plates in the studio I was in, but by using the SREV, I was able to come pretty close to the plate sound that I had originally.”

Scheiner received his first Grammy 24 years ago for his work on Steely Dan’s Aja, and followed it with a scond one for the band’s Gaucho album. He’s also worked with acts like Fleetwood Mac, John Fogerty, Sting, Van Morrison, Bruce Hornsby and The Eagles.

Info from Yamaha about the SREV1:

It reproduces standard and specialized sound fields in stereo or surround, and additionally, enables the user to sample and create custom sound fields. With 24-bit/48kHz, the 3U high rack-mount unit has a wide selection of editable reverb programs simulating environments ranging from room ambiences (the famed Avatar Studio A) to stadiums, each offering control of pre-EQ, post-EQ and Reverb parameters.

Utilizing proprietary Convolution sampling technology, the Yamaha SREV1 uses impulse response samples of actual acoustic environments, rather than the generated algorithms found on other high-end reverb products. The reverb operates in 2-channel (up to 5.46 sec/channel), 4-channel (up to 2.73 sec/channel) or 2-channel x 2 (up to 5.46 sec/channel for each processor) modes. With the addition of the DSP expansion board, reverb time in each mode is doubled, producing reverbs of up to 10.92 seconds. The unit can be completely operated by a remote controller that can be located up to 100 meters from the SREV1.

The last word from Elliot: “I’d use the Yamaha SREV just for the 140 sound,” Scheiner says. “If I hadn’t known that it was a digital reverb and if I closed my eyes, I would have thought it was an old 140. The quality of the pre-delays are phenomenal.

“On one of the new Steely tracks, Walter [Becker] and I were attempting to get an analog sound, so I thought I’d put in a pre-delay using an analog tape machine. But when it was all said and done, the pre-delays within the Yamaha itself sounded better than the analog delays.”