Klanghelm has announced the release of its first reverb effect plugin, which has been physically modeled after the range of high end studio spring reverberation units introduced by a famous Austrian company from the early 1970s to early 1980s.
Capable of everything from small, claustrophobic room-like reverbs to large evolving ambient spaces, TENS provides extensive modulation capabilities to add movement or out of this world sounds. Each continuous parameter can be modulated by an LFO or envelope follower, which also offers external sidechaining.
As opposed to classic spring reverbs found in guitar amps, these units were based on the company’s own patented proprietary design principle, which allowed various connected spring elements of different lengths and wire diameter to vibrate inside a small isolated space.
The spring elements were manipulated in various ways, e.g. by etching the wire surface and deforming individual turns of the coil wire resulting in a highly diffused, and very dense reverb, that didn’t expose the boing/chirping artifacts associated with spring reverbs and brought it much closer to the sound of plate reverbs. This range of reverbs is praised for its incredibly deep, organic, complex, rich, smooth and floating character. In terms of sound (but of course not technically) it can been seen as the missing link between classic spring and plate reverbs. A very unique beast indeed!
TENS for Windows and Mac (VST/VST3, AU and AAX) is available to purchase for 24 EUR. The free TENS jr. features model 5 – tank A from its big brother.
The properties of the reverb have been extended compared to the unit from the late 70s/early 80s, it’s been modeled after. So a single tank is stereo now and the range of decay times has been extended to 0.5 to 20 seconds. The reverb’s character can be altered drastically with the associated horizontal fader. In contrast to classic spring reverbs found in guitar amps, organs or some synths, TENS jr. offers very high reverb density, fast build-up, and very low “boing” artifacts, making it sound almost plate-like.
More information: Klanghelm
