What's your favourite Spring Reverb VST?

[zkom]

I doubt spring reverbs model very well with impulse responses. There's all sorts of distortion and noise there that the impulse responses don't capture and the convolution can't model.

[modey]

 

2 hours ago, zkom said:

It would be interesting to build my own spring reverb with some insane spring set up. Like super long springs or a dozen different springs with different harmonic frequencies etc.

I remember some Italian guitar amp design that had tuned guitar strings on a frame in front of the speaker; something like that would be interesting. 

[mcbpete]

GSi's TimeVerb (previously Type-4) is my Spring verb VST of choice. Wild for making lovely Feedback noises too (see 3.48 onwards as an example)

https://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=46

 

[zkom]

20 minutes ago, modey said:

 

I remember some Italian guitar amp design that had tuned guitar strings on a frame in front of the speaker; something like that would be interesting. 

Yeah, I imagine you could get some weird sitar vibes with a thing like that.

[Limo]

27 minutes ago, zkom said:

I doubt spring reverbs model very well with impulse responses. There's all sorts of distortion and noise there that the impulse responses don't capture and the convolution can't model.

True, in the sense that the convolution will only contain the distortion and noise for one specific impulse, but I suspect the result will be better than with a reverb that uses modelling and that is almost certain to contain almost no distortion, noise and other linearities.

[TubularCorporation]

6 hours ago, rhmilo said:

The driver circuit is nothing but two amplifiers, and maybe a bit of EQ, however. You can do the amplification in your mixing desk and the EQ-ing in your DAW.

Noise is part of the charm, IMHO but YMMV of course.

Mine occasionally stops working too but that’s because the cables are home made (sloppily).

I’d say go for a tank, and get a big one so you can have a long decay (which you can then shorten in your DAW if you want).

 

With the tanks and mixers I've used the noise floor was almost as lou as the reverb itself and was mostly hum, so it was pretty unusable, but that'll also depend on the specific tank.  The driver and makeup circuit are just simple amplifiers, but if you use a mixer there's potentially a big impedence mismatch.

 

Not saying it won't work, just that when I've tried it, with the specific mixers and tanks I used, it didn't work well. The send couldn't really drive the tank effectively, and it needed so much makeup gain that the reverb I was able to get was buried in noise.

 

Definitely worth trying for anyone who wants spring reverb though. With how inexpensive a tank is, if it works you have a  nice sounding reverb for not much money and if it doesn't you aren't out much money and have it around if you ever decide to build or buy an interface circuit for it or try it with a different mixer or whatever.

[TubularCorporation]

4 hours ago, thawkins said:

Really suspicious that the kit has no actual spring in the list of components. Maybe it's just that I don't know the first thing about spring reverbs though.

People like to choose their own tank, pre-built Eurorack modules don't tend to include a tank either.

 

But for a PCB and a few components it's a bit steep, seems like it's priced for the guitar market where people get all weird about things like resistor type that make no actual difference in a circuit like this.

[thawkins]

4 hours ago, zkom said:

It says reverb tanks are required. I guess something like this: https://en.uraltone.com/electronic-components/reverb-tanks.html

 

I guess here's my reading skills demonstrated for all to see.

[sheatheman]

1 hour ago, mcbpete said:

GSi's TimeVerb (previously Type-4) is my Spring verb VST of choice. Wild for making lovely Feedback noises too (see 3.48 onwards as an example)

https://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=46

 

Sounds awesome 

[Berk]

On 8/31/2020 at 8:28 PM, TubularCorporation said:

I've still never heard a convincing digital spring reverb, not even close, but fake sounding digital spring is its own sound.

 

 

Same. 

If you're ok with using hardware instead of vst, I'd check out eBay or something similar for old mixers, they tend to have built in spring reverbs or bbd echo and can often be had for around 80 euros

[TubularCorporation]

I got one of these for around $12 when I worked at a record shop in the 2000s but I guess they're not super anymore. Just checked eBay and what's up there isn't too bad, but with shipping you're definitely looking at $100-$200.

 

[psn]

The Danelectro Sping King is relatively cheap and compact if an analogue mono spring does the job for you.

 

 

[TubularCorporation]

I only used a Spring King one in a shop about a decade ago but I remember liking it.  Similar to the sound of the Pioneer, really - small tank but still really thick sounding.