Klanghelm have released TENS, a spring reverb and TENS jr., its little brother. TENS is available for €24.00, TENS jr. is available as a FREE download.
TENS 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. 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!
Features include:
- a wide range of decay times (from 0.2 seconds up to 40 seconds)
- as opposed to the original each tank of TENS’ models outputs a stereo signal instead of mono
- various options to deeply alter the actual models via the TENSION, WHOOSH and METALLIC controls
- optional (pre-)amp saturation, that can be placed freely in the signal chain
- three modulation slots to add movement or create out-of-this-world sounds
- every continuous TENS parameter can be a modulation target
- the target can be modulated by either an LFO or envelope follower
- the envelope follower can be triggered by either the reverb input, ouput or even an external sidechain signal
- using the envelope follower for ducking effects is also possible
- the envelope follower can be used to shape the dynamics of the input, the optional amp saturation and the reverb signal
- with the modulation section various modulation effects can be achieved, such as tremolo, chorus, vibrato, phaser-like sounds and more rather unusual sounds plus combinations of the aforementioned effects
TENS jr.
TENS jr. is the little brother of the studio spring reverb TENS.
It features TENS model 5 – tank A. 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.
TENS and TENS jr. are available to PC and Mac users (VST2, VST3, AU and AAX).
For more information on both versions , click here:
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