Spring reverb: what is the state of affairs in 2023?

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I was thinking about that one. It's been 99€ (now 49). But I bought a Surfybear Metal reverb tank instead. This effect is very important to me, and I've yet to hear a plugin nail it. The Surfybear is a transistor-based emu of the original Fender tank.
It sounds great on your fender captures!

A buddy of mine has the Surfybear Compact. Nice pedal. The Studio looks cool too. Definitely tempted by that.

[jamcat]

Double

[DCrown]

and

Fuse´s VREV-305 for 14 eur: https://fuseaudiolabs.de/#/pages/product?id=301029274

I love the 305. Sounds fantastic.

Love it, never heard of it before

[jamcat]

Double

[jamcat]

It looks like there were originally 3 springs, and a 4th was added in an update. The webpage must not have ever been updated with the new info.

Looks like ‘4400’ is the Tapco 4400, ‘S201’ is the RE-201, and the ‘ATQX’ is some kind of AKG?

Do you know what the ‘Angel’ model is?

BTW, according to the webpage, SpringAge is “based on a mixed convolution and algorithmic technology.”

I've owned it for a couple of years now and have always had the 4400 in it? I mean it took them awhile to put out the VST3 and update (and they never announced it, I just happened to look at the website a couple weeks ago after giving up a year or so ago), don't see why the same wouldn't apply to their website haha.

The ATQX is an Accutronics (they should've spelled it AQTX). That's the model that's in all the 'American' presets and whatnot. 201 is of course the Space Echo Reverb, 4400 is an easy one, I think the Angel might be an AKG of some sort.

For some reason I was thinking the 4400 was a Fisher Space Expander, since the 'Jamaica Dub' preset uses it, I have no clue why it never occurred to me until recently that its the Tapco. Even had the damn model number in the name.

Ah, so the ATQX is an Accoutronics 2EB2C1B Type 4 reverb?

SpringAge documentation says ‘Angel’ is “great for any high gain, compressed or harmonically rich tone. It is inspired by the tone of famous german amplifiers.”

So I’m guessing it’s the spring reverb from an Engl amp. There are several TH-U Choptones of Engls that also use ‘Angel’ in the names.

Here’s the original SpringAge GUI that had only 3 models, and the Accutronics model was labeled as ‘AQTX’. ‘ATQX’ must be typo when the GUI was updated with 4 models, and has never been fixed. Most references to it still say ‘AQTX’.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

The brand new Klanghelm TENS is now my favorite purely modeled spring plugin. Doesn't drip like a Type-4 in a Fender amp [it's not supposed to, it's modeled off of AKG BX series springs], so I'll still be using the Mixwave spring plugins on surf guitar, but holy heck is TENS a great sounding spring plugin. It really nails the smooth dwell and metallic tank sound that many other algorithmic springs struggle with.

[kidslow]

Springage is on sale at a good discount presently, but there's also now Klanghelm TENS and Pulsar Audio's Primavera. Any new opinions among those three, setting aside price?

[masterhiggins]

The brand new Klanghelm TENS is now my favorite purely modeled spring plugin. Doesn't drip like a Type-4 in a Fender amp [it's not supposed to, it's modeled off of AKG BX series springs], so I'll still be using the Mixwave spring plugins on surf guitar, but holy heck is TENS a great sounding spring plugin. It really nails the smooth dwell and metallic tank sound that many other algorithmic springs struggle with.

I was completely taken by surprise by TENS. I’ve never heard a spring reverb like it. It’s incredibly smooth and rich. Fantastic release.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Springage is on sale at a good discount presently, but there's also now Klanghelm TENS and Pulsar Audio's Primavera. Any new opinions among those three, setting aside price?

TENS is great but a little more HiFi. Fuse Audio's VREV-63 (the Fender tank) is crazy good for splashy, surf style spring. My new favorite for that. On par with hardware. Mixwave's Tall Bird also gets there. Those are three killer spring plugins IMO.

[jens]

So I’m guessing it’s the spring reverb from an Engl amp. There are several TH-U Choptones of Engls that also use ‘Angel’ in the names.

The name Engl is pronounced exactly like the German word for angel: "Engel"

[multree]

I recently tried the new Safari Pedals CamelStrip and quite liked the included spring reverb

[kidslow]

I got around to a bake off. Here's how I'd rate them.

By diverse, I mean the types of material. I ran samples of hi hats, brushed snares, a dub style electric bass riff, a dobro lick, acoustic guitar, and a synth stab on loop and just worked through the presets and knobs comparing them all in turn. Was a very subjective test. There are probably better means of comparison, and I've even thought of a few. Maybe next time.

Top Shelf

• Pulsar Audio Primavera - diverse & inspirational. Handled everything I put into it & ton of presets. Was the most fun and wide ranging. Pre-Amps & Sidechain are bonus.
• Fuse Audio VREV-63 - really sounds good. Not quite as diverse & flashy as Primavera, but lot of tweakability and clearly a labor of love.

Next Level

• AudioThing Springs - very diverse & well constructed. I got by with just this and was happy, but will probably add the above two.
• Arturia Rev SPRING-636 - not as diverse as Springs and definitely not the top tier, but solid & easy to work with. Only have it from Fx Collection.
• Physical Audio Dual Spring Reverb - Good interface, and well thought-out. Sounds great only on some material. Demoed. Not going to buy.

Pass

• Fuse Audio Labs VREV-305 - Not a fan of the wall of knobs style interfaces, which I find uninspirational. Same for the sounds from 305. Fan of Fuse, but not of this reverb.
• Overloud Springage - non-resizable UI. finicky knobs. Sounds great on hats and maybe could say on drums in general. Could not find a zone to make bass or synth sound good with this. Overall disappointing.

Free

• Fuse Audio Labs VREV-666 - few knobs, no presets, but handles a surprisingly diverse array of material musically. Worth free, but limited.
• Klanghelm TENSjr - sounds good but didn't really jibe with me. Didn't make me want to get TENS or even keep jr installed.
• HoRNet SpringVerb - (has been offered free) - Felt like a toy compared to some of the others but the more I played with it, the more I coaxed some extreme digital springiness out of it that I couldn't get elsewhere. Will keep installed.

[sqigls]

to me - Primavera is the only software spring reverb that is very f**king good
and i own them all

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I got around to a bake off. Here's how I'd rate them.

By diverse, I mean the types of material. I ran samples of hi hats, brushed snares, a dub style electric bass riff, a dobro lick, acoustic guitar, and a synth stab on loop and just worked through the presets and knobs comparing them all in turn. Was a very subjective test. There are probably better means of comparison, and I've even thought of a few. Maybe next time.

Top Shelf

• Pulsar Audio Primavera - diverse & inspirational. Handled everything I put into it & ton of presets. Was the most fun and wide ranging. Pre-Amps & Sidechain are bonus.
• Fuse Audio VREV-63 - really sounds good. Not quite as diverse & flashy as Primavera, but lot of tweakability and clearly a labor of love.

Next Level

• AudioThing Springs - very diverse & well constructed. I got by with just this and was happy, but will probably add the above two.
• Arturia Rev SPRING-636 - not as diverse as Springs and definitely not the top tier, but solid & easy to work with. Only have it from Fx Collection.
• Physical Audio Dual Spring Reverb - Good interface, and well thought-out. Sounds great only on some material. Demoed. Not going to buy.

Pass

• Fuse Audio Labs VREV-305 - Not a fan of the wall of knobs style interfaces, which I find uninspirational. Same for the sounds from 305. Fan of Fuse, but not of this reverb.
• Overloud Springage - non-resizable UI. finicky knobs. Sounds great on hats and maybe could say on drums in general. Could not find a zone to make bass or synth sound good with this. Overall disappointing.

Free

• Fuse Audio Labs VREV-666 - few knobs, no presets, but handles a surprisingly diverse array of material musically. Worth free, but limited.
• Klanghelm TENSjr - sounds good but didn't really jibe with me. Didn't make me want to get TENS or even keep jr installed.
• HoRNet SpringVerb - (has been offered free) - Felt like a toy compared to some of the others but the more I played with it, the more I coaxed some extreme digital springiness out of it that I couldn't get elsewhere. Will keep installed.

Sounds like you should also check out the Mixwave Benson and their Milkman Harmonic Trem+Reverb. Both also top spring plugins IMO. More similar to VREV-63.

[kidslow]

to me - Primavera is the only software spring reverb that is very f**king good
and i own them all

Was really impressed with Primavera. Almost all of them could get a good sound out of hi hats but I was amazed at how well it crunched up the low end material so good. On the shopping list now.

Sounds like you should also check out the Mixwave Benson and their Milkman Harmonic Trem+Reverb. Both also top spring plugins IMO. More similar to VREV-63.

Thanks for the recs. I will try to check them out. This long planned set of tests was inspired by the sale on Springage that ends any day now. I sometimes use sales as deadlines. I work better on deadlines.