Re: [Harp-L] effects thar LW used

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

MARK BURNESS wrote:
<Little Walter is not thought to have personally used any effects, the effects on his recordings at Universal & Chess were applied by the studio, some <in real time, some at mastering. Common effects used by both Chess & Universal (whose founder, equipment builder & recording engineer, Bill Putnam <als consulted Chess on their studio at 2120 S Michigan Av.) were chamber reverb (a channel from the desk was run out to a speaker in another room, <resulting reverb recorded by a mic in said room & fed back to the desk & mixed with the raw track) and tape delay utilising a 2nd tape recorder to <layer a delay over the master track.

That about sums it up.  Contrary to the original poster's comment that LW's effects were cutting edge, those were pretty standard FX for any studio at the time. 

For the purposes of almost every contemporary performing and recording musician, something very similar can be cooked up on stage or in studio now with a couple of hundred bucks' worth of pedals.  I'm sure that the typical club audience would never know the difference.  

regards, Richard Hunter