Elektromesstechnik
Elektromesstechnik (EMT) is a manufacturer of phonograph turntables and professional audio equipment, including a well-regarded line of artificial reverberation devices beginning with the EMT 140 plate reverb.[1] The company was founded by Wilhelm Franz.
Founding[edit]
Wilhelm Franz, born in Bremen in 1913, founded Elektromesstechnik Wilhelm Franz K.G. in Berlin in 1938. Two years later Wilhelm’s brother, Walter, joined the company. The Allied bombing air raids over Berlin intensified in 1943 and Franz moved to Schuttertal, then, after 1945, to Lahr, in the Schwarzwald region of south-western Germany. The logo of an 'arrowhead' was chosen as a symbol of the passage of an electric signal in an electronic circuit.
Reverb effects[edit]
140 Plate Reverb[edit]
In 1957, EMT introduced the ’140’ Reverberation Unit, an electro-mechanical reverberation device that offered an alternative to the spring reverbs and echo chambers of the era. The EMT 140
utilized a very thin 1 meter by 2 meter steel plate suspended within a steel frame. A transducer and a pickup(later two pickups for "stereo") were attached to the steel plate at different locations. When activated, the transducer induced sound waves into the plate. Those direct sound waves traveled through the plate and were, along with the indirect vibrations, sensed by the pickups and then amplified. This signal could then be mixed with the original signal to provide a simulation of a reverberant space. Reverberation times were adjustable between one and five seconds by means of a soft damping felt which could be moved closer or farther from the steel plate.[1] Like the ‘R80’ turntable, the ’140’ was developed in co-operation with the ‘Rundfunktechnisches Institut,’ and went on to become one of EMT’s most successful products, remaining in production for 25 years. A stereo model, the EMT 140 st, was introduced in 1961.[2]
Four EMT 140 were installed at Abbey Road Studios in the late 1950s, and three more added by 1976, for a total of 7.[3]
250 Digital Reverb[edit]
EMT introduced the first commercial digital reverb, the ’250’ Mobile Reverberation Unit, in 1976. The ’250’ quickly gained a solid reputation among West Coast recording studios in the US. Designed in 1974 by freelance industrial designer Peter Bermes for EMT in close cooperation with EMT Technical Director Karl Otto Bäder and MIT Professor Barry Blesser, who had developed and patented the unit's digital algorithms, the EMT 250 was commonly referred to either 'R2D2' because of its iconografic lever-controlled interface, or 'Spaceheater' due to its vertical heat sink body made of black anodised aluminium panels and separate U-shaped 'Chimney', housing all heat-emitting ic's and therefore being painted red. In 2007, the TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio recognized the EMT 250 as a significant contribution to the advancement of audio technology by inducting it into the TECnology Hall of Fame in 2007.[4]
Awards and recognition[edit]
Wilhelm Franz died on April 10, 1971, at the age of 58 years. In 1983, the Audio Engineering Society awarded Franz a posthumous Honorary Membership, recognizing his impact in the professional sound field with products like the model ‘140’, ‘240’ and ‘250’ reverberation units and his turntables.