Gated reverb

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Technology

Gated reverb means reverb with a gate. In 1979, at Townhouse Studios in London, Peter Gabriel recorded his third solo album, with Phil Collins on drums. The new mixing desk had a microphone in the recording room for talking to the musicians. It made soft sounds as loud as loud ones, and so blew up every stroke and the reverb of the room. The engineer Hugh Padgham put a gate on it that cuts the sound off abruptly. In this way, every stroke sounded enormous, followed by sudden silence. Gabriel built Intruder around that sound, and Collins used it in In the Air Tonight. It became the drum sound of the 1980s.

Listening

• 
  Intruder · Peter Gabriel, 1980
• 
  In the Air Tonight · Phil Collins, 1981
• 
  Mama · Genesis, 1983

In School of Rock

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• Genre Map · Technology^NL Map

See also

• Plate reverb (EMT 140)
• Art rock
• Soft rock and AOR
• New wave