let's talk spring reverbs

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xonlocust
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let's talk spring reverbs

Post by xonlocust » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:32 pm

hey all-

considering adding a real hardware spring reverb unit. i've got a couple patches on various multi-effects boxes, but something makes me think i could do better with the real deal. i did one session where a guitar player brought in a fender that sounded amazing - i put everything through it - though it was obviously meant to be in a guitar setup (and rather large). best sounding units? rack mount? other thoughts?

thx,
nk

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T-rex
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Post by T-rex » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:49 pm

I can only speak to one spring reverb, a Sound Workshop 242 and I freakin love this thing. Joel has talked about this model for ever as being great and I lucked into one on ebay from a guy who sells hifi tube equipment. It was $200 and in amazing shape.

I usually predelay it with my effectrons with a bit of modulation and it rules on vocals and of course guitars and anything non-percussive, although I usually dial in a bit on my snare drum too. I love the sound. I had previously used altiverb with the AKG spring patch a lot and while I used to think that sounded awesome, it pales in comparison to even a cheap real spring. Plus you can geek out and send the spring back into itself from the console, or one channel into the next or whatever.

The Demeter is supposed to be good as well as the AKG models and the Furman is supposed to be decent on the cheap. I love mine, I use it on every mix somewhere and sometimes everywhere.
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chuckfurok
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Post by chuckfurok » Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:11 am

I love, love my Furman RV-1. Sounds great and real and nothing like a plug in.



p.s. Hi Nick!

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Babaluma
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Post by Babaluma » Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:31 am

i have a zerotronics coolsprings le and i pretty much use it on everything. if you drive it at line level it has that classic springy boingy sound, if you drive it more conservatively and increase the preamp gain to compensate it has a beautifully diffuse sound, somewhat reminiscent of a hall or plate reverb. it's pricey and you'll need to partner it with a good preamp to get the best out of it, but it's worth it to me as i use it every day.

they make a couple of other reverbs too, and the customer service was great:

http://zerotronics.com/

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Post by djimbe » Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:30 am

Besides the others mentioned, I'll bring up the MasterRoom units. I have one of the rack mount ones. Not too "sproing-y", has some tone control. Wasn't too expensive when I got it, but that was 5 years ago.

For nice creamy 'verb, I'm still a fan of the Fender tube unit. You need a "re-amp" type device to make it work as a mix device, but that's not too big a deal. One upside is then you get pick a line amp for makeup gain after the verb, and you can pick and choose from tube units or SS, many tranfsformers or few, to further mess with the sound.
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Harry
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Post by Harry » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:13 am

I love springs...I've gone through a few to find what I like.

I had the Sound Workshop 242 it was pretty cool. might not have been 100% working right but it had a cool lo-fi vibe that you could almost overdrive(sold it)

I had a Danelectro tube spring box. made for guitar 1 spring (sold it)

I have a pioneer box that makes a cool cartoon type of sound. kind of a toy but I think I heard it on the 1st Wolfmother album:)( I would sell it if it was worth anything)

I have the Demeter and it's awesome!! I use it pretty much as my "house verb" I put it over the mix when I want a light almost hidden reverb there. It really gives things a nice feeling of space. Very Hi-Fi for a spring.(would NEVER part with it)

I also have a great Bi amp spring that's awesome. A real sleeper in my opinion. Only one side works but it's a 3 spring unit with a built in compressor and eq. I think it sounds great.... I use a space echo>bi amp spring>Eventide instant phaser as my main special effect.

Pre delay and some modulation post really makes a spring shine!!

In my opinion your better off doing anything that can be done in the analog world....analog. to me it's easier....but that's just me.

Someday a plate!!!

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ott0bot
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Post by ott0bot » Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:55 am

I picked up a Soundworkshop 242a spring reverb around the same time as T-Rex for about the same price, and it's been an awesome investment. Aside from using it during mixing I use it to track with all the time by sending a mult on the patchbay from my vocal track to the unit and feed it to the headphones and to a seperate track in protools. If it's what I need, no reason to add more verb during the mix. I'm a protools LE user so latency and not being able to use plug-in's during tracking is a big issue and not being able to give vocalists a little verb while tracking was always a pain, so having that option is great. Personally, i think buying a nice rack unit is a sound investment and will always find a place in your recording set up.

Before this I was re-amping to my '73 princeton, and that still finds it's place. For instance utilizing different room sounds and micing techniques can yield much different results. Small fender amps have always done a great job in this department.

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thegeek
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Post by thegeek » Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:17 am

if you don't mind a little DIY I would look here:

http://www.paia.com/proddetail.asp?prod=6740K&cat=27

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tonewoods
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Re: let's talk spring reverbs

Post by tonewoods » Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:44 am

xonlocust wrote: i did one session where a guitar player brought in a fender that sounded amazing.
So-ooo, I've got an old Fender tank reverb unit that I love the sound of....

So, how would you plumb it?

Re-amp, right??

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Brett Siler
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Post by Brett Siler » Fri Dec 18, 2009 2:56 pm

I have the Tapco 440 and I like it quite a bit. You can find one for pretty cheap used. You can hear it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqc3NELU3cc
Last edited by Brett Siler on Fri Dec 18, 2009 7:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

djimbe
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Re: let's talk spring reverbs

Post by djimbe » Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:43 pm

tonewoods wrote:So-ooo, I've got an old Fender tank reverb unit that I love the sound of....

So, how would you plumb it?

Re-amp, right??

when mixing from a console:

line out of console (I use an aux send) -> reamp in
reamp spits out instrument level signal to Fender input

Fender out -> any kind of preamp with a Hi Z input stage
preamp spits out line level back to console.
I thought this club was for musicians. Who let the drummer in here??

Shane Michael Rose
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Post by Shane Michael Rose » Fri Dec 18, 2009 7:21 pm

crappy old tapco verbs, get me going.

xonlocust
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Re: let's talk spring reverbs

Post by xonlocust » Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:42 am

djimbe wrote:
tonewoods wrote:So-ooo, I've got an old Fender tank reverb unit that I love the sound of....

So, how would you plumb it?

Re-amp, right??

when mixing from a console:

line out of console (I use an aux send) -> reamp in
reamp spits out instrument level signal to Fender input

Fender out -> any kind of preamp with a Hi Z input stage
preamp spits out line level back to console.
the session i used this on was way less proper - aux send (line out) to fender input. fender out to console line in, preamp gain as needed to get acceptable level - no reamp used. i swear i put everything through that... sounded awesome.

great stuff in this thread so far everyone, loving it.

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calaverasgrandes
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Post by calaverasgrandes » Sat Dec 19, 2009 6:23 am

I used to have a so-so furman and a soso biamp. Both noisy.
The best I ever had was a solid state Gibson spring reverb. It was soild state and had transformers. It also had two captive cable that were 20' feet long for the outputs, not really stereo but it sounded different from each out. Think it was made in the 60's. Looked almost like a silvertone amp. Warmest verb ever. Whomever took it please give it back?
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Z-Plane
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Post by Z-Plane » Sat Dec 19, 2009 6:56 am

I feel like keeping this a secret, but for me the correct answer is the Vesta Fire RV-1. Two spring tanks, one band parametric on the way in, phase switch and brickwall limiter all in one unit. As an outboard unit it totally shines, especially on a DAW send. With phase and limiter engaged, it offers huge amounts of usable spring verb in a mixdown. Spring freaks will probably find the actual spring sound ordinary but the extra controls that really bring this thing to life.

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