Black Rooster Audio specialises in bringing vintage hardware units back to life. Engineering the Sound took the RO-SPR spring reverb plugin for a spin.
Black Rooster Audio was established in 2016, so it’s still early days for this plugin company. They have, however, hit the ground running with a slew of excellent emulations. Their latest: the RO-SPR Vintage Spring Reverb.
Taking on no less than six classic units, this plugin is arguably the deepest, most colourful spring tank emulation out there. So it was no surprise that the retro enthusiasts at Engineering the Sound got experimental with this plugin in the studio.
Spring reverb is a technology that dates back several decades and RO-SPR aims to encapsulate the overall flavour of the effect through emulating six pivotal units. These are listed according to the manual and what we think they are modelled on is in brackets:
A – Late 1970s British stereo spring reverb unit (Bandive Great British Spring)
B – 1960s classic dub tube spring reverb unit (Fisher Space Expander or Fairchild Spring)
C – Home hi-fi spring reverb unit from the 1970s (Pioneer Spring Reverb Unit)
D – Medium size spring reverb from a 1980s echo Japanese unit (Roland Space Echo on ‘Reverb’ setting)
E – 1960s Austrian large oil bath spring reverb (AKG BX20)
F – American guitar amplifier with large spring reverb unit (Fender Vibroverb)
Beyond the different reverb characters, you can shape the tone further with settings for spring length, high, mid, and bass EQ, pre-delay, decay, and more.
All-in-all, the RO-SPR provides an excellent way to tap into the splashy, vintage character of spring reverb while you’re in the box.
Find out more at Black Rooster Audio.
