“Reverb” seems too vanilla a word to describe a box from Eventide. Regarded as one of the best hardware effects processors ever, Eventide’s brilliant sounds have sadly been out of reach to most musicians. Eventide’s new stompboxes finally make those effects portable and affordable. The latest is Space.
- Room, plate, spring, hall.
- Special effects / combo effects: Shimmer, ModEchoVerb, DualVerb, Blackhole, MangledVerb, TremoloVerb, DynaVerb
- Mono and stereo operation.
- Tap tempo, MIDI clock sync. (Yes, that’s right – a tempo syncable reverb.)
- Instant program change, which makes this ideal for live performance use in a way many reverbs, hardware or software, aren’t.
- True analog bypass.
- Real-time controls – ten knobs, MIDI, expression pedal, metal footswitches, and a programmable “HotSwitch.”
- USB MIDI, USB2 software upgrades, and MIDI in, out/thru. Expression pedal, aux switch.
The whole thing weighs just over two pounds, in a rugged metal case. I can’t imagine not wanting one; this could be the best thing to come out of the NAMM show this year.
(By the way, in case you don’t want Eventide in hardware form, the company does also make software plug-ins.)
None of this is really relevant until you hear the results:
Richard Devine, who I’m beginning to think is some sort of omni-dimensional being that allows him to be using all pieces of new gear at once before anyone else, has a hands-on preview demo.
Source Distribution also gives this box a try:
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/8997675″]
It’s a rough and ready preview, but we took a prototype Eventide Space pedal and put a Moog Voyager select through it, recording the results in stereo. This is a deep pedal with dedicated controls for the 12 algorithms (plus High/Low EQ controls and 100 presets!)…I’m confident your own creativity will coax a lifetime of different textures out of one beyond what was possible for us in the time available! This was recorded using the line-in on a Zoom H2 hence the interference and noise in parts – the Moog certainly doesn’t exhibit noise like this and the Eventide definitely doesn’t! Just all we had available in the time this unit was here.
Interestingly this particular unit has gone on to the hands of Jonny Buckland of Coldplay fame. Hope to next hear this little black box on something a bit more musical…
Whatever, “Coldplay” person. Richard Devine probably got it first.
Even for computer users, I can see this being a must, because if you’re mixing with other sound sources you can just insert the Eventide on your main out. And with unlimited presets via MIDI (100 to store on the box), this is almost a multi-effects unit as much as a reverb. Hope we can get a closer look soon.
