sPRING rEVERB RECOMMENDATIONs for use with my Tascam 388

  • Thread starter Thread starter gentlejohn
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The Great British Spring reverb pops up on ebay quite often - probably the best of the common ones. I know many people rave about them, but they sound rather unpleasant to my ears.
 
NB: It's a 'spring reverb' in particular that I'm after. I'm wanting that classic, true retro-sounding reverberation to put on vocals, guitar .... well, probably everything actually!
 
Give Van Amps a call. They can do a racked reverb unit for you.
Check out the Rack-Verb in the link below (on the left).

Van Amps Custom and Limited Edition

I own the tweed VanAmps Sole-Mate reverb, and about a year ago I had them also add the Pedal Deck to it, and modify the power option on it a bit. The Sole-Mate is my main unit for use with non-reverb amps, and it sounds quite good.

I'm not sure how well their Rack-Verb would be for a mixing application, but I see no reason why it wouldn't be a good option for you, and since they do these more as a Custom/Limited Edition build, they can make it fit to your needs. The quality on their stuff is quite good. They also do International sales. The floor version Sole-Mate is in the $350 range....so the racked version might be just a bit more due to the bigger rack case, but the guts are probably the same.

Here's some other brand/model options from eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/stereo-spring-reverb
 
Well to be honest, they sound exactly like what they are - a spring, rather than reverb. So many really good reverbs around that are totally electronic have pretty authentic spring programmes, but without the noise, and the issue of accidentally kicking them. The spring ones always had that metallic twang to them, and the frequency response was pretty narrow. Anything below 300Hz was almost absent, and the top end wasn't much more than 8K or so? My old Behringer Virtualiser had a pretty decent Spring simulation, and despite it being old, I'd rather use this than a real spring any time. It just doesn't make that amazing crashing sound when kicked, that's all.
 
miroslav said:
Give Van Amps a call. They can do a racked reverb unit for you.
Check out the Rack-Verb in the link below (on the left).

Van Amps Custom and Limited Edition

I own the tweed VanAmps Sole-Mate reverb, and about a year ago I had them also add the Pedal Deck to it, and modify the power option on it a bit. The Sole-Mate is my main unit for use with non-reverb amps, and it sounds quite good.

I'm not sure how well their Rack-Verb would be for a mixing application, but I see no reason why it wouldn't be a good option for you, and since they do these more as a Custom/Limited Edition build, they can make it fit to your needs. The quality on their stuff is quite good. They also do International sales. The floor version Sole-Mate is in the $350 range....so the racked version might be just a bit more due to the bigger rack case, but the guts are probably the same.

Here's some other brand/model options from eBay:

Stereo Spring Reverb | eBay
Click to expand...

Looks like 'Flower Pot Guy' has a near-monopoly !!!
 
Actually, if I can keep this subject going for a bit longer now that we're talking about it, how good are the consumer-brand stereo units (Pioneer, Sansui, etc) for analog post-production? I've come across a couple now and then and have wondered if I should add it to my setup.
 
Hammerstone said:
Actually, if I can keep this subject going for a bit longer now that we're talking about it, how good are the consumer-brand stereo units (Pioneer, Sansui, etc) for analog post-production? I've come across a couple now and then and have wondered if I should add it to my setup.
Click to expand...

Here's one I actually have my eye on.

Pioneer SR-202W photo - mpx photos at pbase.com


Meant for stereos and looks cool with that green light too.

And here's a clip I found on youtube with this same unit being paired up with a tascam 244. Sounds good to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55D6xMw-PiY

I just looked this up..... Tom Elmhirst who is a producer and mix engineer actually used one of these Pioneers while recording with Adele and Amy winehouse. Kinda cool!
 
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I think most spring reverbs would be fun to use on some individual tracks.....just not sure how well they will work on the mix bus. Just like the unit in the YouTube clip....they will all have that spanky sort of vibe, unless you find one with real long springs/delays lines, and they tend to get a bit cavernous, bit still with that spanky quality.
For mix bus use, you often need more subtle reverbs....but on single tracks they can work well in some cases.

What I find with most spring reverbs, is they have a very narrow "subtle" range. I've changed out volume pots with different values just to ease that fast level rise as you turn the volume knob. If you can find one with a mix knob, then at least you can have a little more control. There are some decent Ibanez/Yamaha/Korg analog verbs out there (though I doubt that they are spring reverbs), probably bucket-brigade stuff.

For the mix bus, I've been using hardware digital verbs for a long time now...longer than I've had a DAW as part of my rig.
They just work better on the mix bus...IMO.
 
I think those little home stereo units sound bad ... nothing like a rack mount spring reverb in my experience. I had one of those Sansui (sic?) units, it was totally unusable. They do sound like that video, so ... if that's what you want, get one ... but it doesn't really sound like reverb to me, more like clanking 'splashes', which can of course be cool in places but I wouldn't use it as a reverb.

I have experience with the the Biamp MR-140 and the Furman RV-1, both of which have a limiter and 3-band EQ. The limiter reduces the 'boing'. Rack units like these are worlds away from the home stereo-type units. You never know though, maybe there are some good ones out there.

The AKG units are of an even higher caliber (though their used prices reflect this) ... one was even used on the Beach Boys' stereo Pet Sounds remix in the '90s (along with a plate and Lexicon digital unit ... and of course, the original chamber was printed to some of the tracks during recording).

... all of this is to say, not all spring units are created equal! I think a tape slap and spring unit can get you some decent results.
 
Well I’m not a big fan of spring reverbs and stopped using them in the 80’s when affordable digital reverbs came of age, but I can tell you ones I liked for what they were and within your budget. (As long as you don’t buy them from the flowerpot guy... who I’m convinced has bodies buried under his house in the crawl space... just a hunch really)

Tascam RS20B Dual Spring Reverb

Fostex 3180 Stereo Spring Reverb

Orban 111B Dual Spring Reverb

But now comes the unsolicited advice part of my post. :) Digital reverbs became so good at emulating plates and springs and so long ago that I’ll never use real plates and springs again.

There are so many good hardware digital reverbs/effects processors out there, but I’ll pick one that I’ll always keep around and is as simple to use as any plate or spring unit.

Lexicon LXP-1 (cira 1989) No matter what else I own, which is quite a lot these days, I’ll always have one of these in my arsenal for the convincing plates and warm rooms (some spring-ish but without the twang). Find one on eBay or something… buy it and be happy! I’m that certain you will be :)
 
Thanks for the info, guys. Now I know what to look out for...
 
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