In this free video tutorial, Paul Drew demonstrates how to use the Abbey Road Plates plug-in from Waves on a piano. Paul begins by adjusting the plate selector to select Plate C. Paul then moves on to the time control to select a short ambience Lastly Paul adds a touch of drive for character.

Introduced in the 1950s, plate reverbs have been a fixture of recorded music ever since. Used most prominently in the ‘60s and ‘70s by pioneering bands, including the Beatles and Pink Floyd, Abbey Road Studios’ original reverb plates were first installed in 1957 to complement the fixed reverberation times of the studios’ echo chambers. These plates, with a variable reverb time of up to six seconds, were then tweaked by Abbey Road's technical engineers. To keep noise to a minimum, EMI’s Central Research Laboratories designed unique hybrid solid-state drive amps for Plates A, B and C. Plate D was fully valve-powered on both drive and output stages, allowing a versatile array of sonic characteristics, from warm and dark to lush and smooth.