Eventide Spring is an easy reverb that models the sound and character of the popular artificial reverb found in guitar amplifiers, with an additional tube amp style tremolo.
It doesn't only model the sound and the character, but also allows you to make further tweaks to physical parameter controls not readily available in the real unit.
One thing that struck me with this plugin is its intuitiveness and play-ability. You can easily adjust the knobs or specifically, you can use the RIBBON to program two settings for any combination of the controls and seamlessly morph to any sound between them.
Eventide Spring Features
Let's get into the real deal of Eventide Spring Reverb…
Eventide Spring Parameters
Spring comes along with some awesome parameters that help in further making an adjustment to the way you want it to act, here are the major ones:
Mix/Verb Mix: This sets a wet/dry mix between the reverb and tremolo dry signal, so, if the Tremolo is set to Pre, it would control the wet/dry mix between the spring reverb and the tremolo dry signal. if set to Post, it controls the wet/dry mix between the tremolo spring reverb and the unaltered dry signal.
Decay: This is the time required for the reverb to die way or note-based if Tempo Sync is in Sync, so, you could set about a bar or two depending on the level of delay you want, this is also very useful for the reverse delay.
Tension: This controls the tension of the springs, I like to think of this as a build-up, so, bringing up the tension knob would increase the reverb intensity.
Number of Springs: This sets the number of springs in the tank, mixing in 1 to 3 springs, the way spring reverb works is by stretching the spring across a metal box, so, when sounds go through the tank, it causes the springs to vibrate, and as you might have guessed, the vibration moves back and forth through the springs, which produces an echo.
Now, think of mixing 2 or 3 strings!
Eventide did a good job by providing the ability to control the spring numbers.
Low and High Damping: This sets the damping frequency for either the low or high end. I use this to increase or decrease the brightness of a reverb.
Tank Type: You can set the type of spring tank being used - either small or large.
Tremolo Intensity/Speed: The intensity can be used to control the depth of the tremolo and the speed can be used to control the speed of the tremolo in Hz, or preferrable note-based if Tempo Sync.
The Ribbon
This is a super fun feature that allows dynamic control of several knobs at once, by programming the left and right range, the Ribbon lets you morph between settings by clicking anywhere on the Ribbon and moving the electric arc back and forth.
To make this work, you click on the white dot at the tip of any knob and drag it to the desired setting for the left-hand side of the Ribbon. This will program the knob and draw a blue arc from the initial knob position to the new, programmed knob position.
HotSwitch, Active, and Tap
This is one of my favorite features of this plugin, with the Hotswitch, you can seamlessly toggle between two settings for any combination of knobs and gain controls, allowing you to quickly jump between two different sounds, which is amazing.
The active knob can be used to toggle the effect On and Off, it is as simple as that.
Tap: If Tempo Sync is in Off mode, repeatedly pressing Tap will update the Decay value to match a quarter note at the tempo being tapped. If Tempo Sync is in Manual mode, pressing Tap will update the tempo value. If Tempo Sync is in Sync mode, pressing Tap does nothing.
The Levels and Monitoring
You can control the input and output level of the plug-in, because why not! While I am not a fan of meters, it features one, and that indicates the audio level before and after the reverb algorithm
Is Eventide Spring Worth Using (My View)?
Yes, it is worth it in my opinion, while it is more popular in electric guitars, you can use spring to color your drums or even vocals. My friends usually ask me why my snare sounds so cool, I'll tell them I slam a general reverb in my snare mixer insert, whereas it's just a subtle spring reverb ;)
One thing is important, be creative with whatever you use!
►Video Overview
► Key Features:
- Artist presets by Matt Lange, Nick Hook, and Nu-Trix.
- Tempo Sync reverb decay to your DAW
- Craft original sounds by changing the number of springs and damping frequency
- Alter overall resonance by selecting the size of the spring tank
- Tube-amp-style tremolo that can be routed pre- or post-reverb
- Create chorus-like effects by altering Modulation Level
- The Ribbon controller allows for the dynamic modification of several knobs at once to easily morph between settings
- Programmable Hotswitch provides the ability to jump instantly to an alternate sound at the push of a button
- Mac/Windows plug-in version works as VST, AU, AAX
► System Requirements:
- Windows 7 or higher
- macOS 10.7 or higher
- 64-bit only
- AAX, VST2 & VST3 Formats for Windows, and
- AAX, AU & VST2 Formats for mac
Note: Eventide tests its plugins in Ableton Live, Cubase, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, and Studio One. However, their plugins should work with any compatible host.