Reverb is an essential effect in an audio engineer's toolbox. Without reverb we wouldn’t have the means to place instruments and vocal tracks in space, a vital technique which can gives our mixes a sense of depth and dimension over and above what volume and pan can achieve.

There are some dedicated reverb plug-ins out there which focus entirely on specific reverb types such as plates, rooms or springs. In this article we concentrate on 7 spring reverb plug-ins you should consider trying for yourself if your tastes and indeed music production style favours the dark, vibrant effects of spring reverb.

Spring reverb is widely used in guitar amps. If you pick up an electric guitar amp that has a spring reverb (with its pot turned up) and put it down on the ground a bit hard you’ll hear the sound of the spring, which in a reverb “tank” is placed between a transducer and the effect is captured by a pickup at the other end of the spring. Like its classier cousin spring reverb is electromechanical.

Spring reverbs typically sound dark, metallic and splashy, qualities that together give spring reverb an instantly recognisable retro sound that works well on guitars and lead vocals.

Most traditional spring reverbs are mono, however, there are many examples of stereo springs. Simple spring reverb designs are typically mono in (from source), mono out however stereo spring reverb is achievable if the design incorporates a second tank. The reverbs featured below are a mixture of mono and stereo spring reverbs.

If you typically ignore spring reverbs in favour of plates, chambers, halls and rooms we suggest you explore the sounds and energy of springs as they can sit very nicely in a mix. Explore the following plug-ins if you are new to springs.

Avid Black Spring

Avid’s Black Spring plug-in is only available in AAX format for Pro Tools users and was first introduced as a stomp box in Avid’s Eleven Rack. We’ve included Avid’s Black Spring in this article as this is a good sounding spring reverb that’s easy to set tastefully. Being a stomp box, this replicates the sound of a real spring you would typically find in a guitar amp.

A single tone control is present for dialling in how bright or dark you want your spring to sound along with decay and mix controls for setting reverb length and level to taste.

Although designed for guitar tracks, don’t discount it for use on vocals as well. Watch our free tutorial below to hear Avid’s Black Spring Reverb in action on keyboard and vocal tracks.

AIR Spring

AIR Spring debuted in Pro Tools in the Air Instruments plug-in suite which, like Avid’s Black Spring, was RTAS and AAX only until this, along with the entire AIR creative plug-in suite, was re-released including support for AU and VST. The GUI is admittedly a bit basic but don’t let a slightly dull UI put you off trying this as the sounds AIR Spring produce are unmistakably retro sounding, perfect if you wish to instil your vocal with a dark splashy sounding verb quickly.

More variations of reverb can be achieved in AIR’s Spring over Avid’s Black Spring as this includes controls for Pre Delay, useful for snare and vocal mixing, Diffusion and Width and a Low Cut for taming any unwanted muddy tones.

What I like most about AIR’s Spring Reverb is it has one or two very distinctive sounds that I find work very well when inserted on close mic’d snares, guitars and vocals. It has a very cool splashy sound that I like in mono. Reverbs don't always have to sound clean, big and bright, sometimes they sound better rough and ready. AIR’s Spring Reverb proves this nicely.

AudioThing Spring

AudioThing’s Spring provides a versatile set of controls perfect for spring reverb evangelists featuring 9 very different sounding emulations of springs ranging from a long 6 spring pipe to an extremely small battery-powered single-spring unit.

What sets this apart from the plug-ins mentioned so far in this list a unique sounding Baxandall EQ which traditionally featured only bass and treble controls. AudioThing went one step further including a mid band with control over the Q.

Eventide Spring

Eventide’s Spring Reverb recently launched as a native AU, AAX and VST plug-in ported from Eventides H9 Harmonizer effects pedal. Spring recreates the distinctive sound and character of popular reverbs found typically in guitar amplifiers yet it goes a few steps further allowing access to physical parameter controls not readily available in real spring tanks.

If you get into tweaking these parameters Eventide’s Spring algorithms can create faithful representations whatever real spring you wish or you can push the envelope to get unique sounds by playing around with the Tension and Num Springs controls to vary the amount of springiness from your reverb. As an added bonus Eventide also included a tube amp style tremolo at the reverb input which helps give reverb a truly retro vibe.

Softube’s Spring Reverb

Softube’s Spring Reverb is one of Softube’s earliest plug-ins which is still very worth checking out as it’s got a very distinctive sound with plenty of variations on offer and is super simple to use. To get a unique spring sound users can select between one to three Springs, dial in Tension and Shake to taste as well as adjust the overall reverb tone via Bass and Treble controls. The more springs you use the deeper and more complex this sounds especially if the tension is set to low values. For tighter sounding spring effects increase the tension and reduce the number of springs.

Softube’s Springs proves that spring reverbs don’t always need to be over-complicated to offer a huge variety of reverbs while sounding brilliant.

UAD  AKG BX 20 Spring

The AKG BX 20 Spring Reverb plug-in for UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces envelops your source tracks in the gorgeously dark and dense ambience that only a spring reverb can provide. We reviewed this when it launched back in 2016. We recommend you watch this video below to learn how to get the most from the classic BX20 sound in a mix.

Introduced in the late 1960s, the original AKG BX 20 reverb was a real turning point in reverb design. The BX 20 offered the remarkable depth and colour of spring reverb without any of the limitations due its ingenious assembly of mechanical and electronic componentry.

For extra points, the AKG BX 20 Spring Reverb plug-in for UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces is exclusively endorsed by AKG Acoustics. In a few simple steps the AKG BX 20 Spring can wrap your vocals, snares and guitars in gorgeously dark, dense ambience that only a spring reverb can provide.

Waves Stomps Spring

Waves currently don’t provide a dedicated Spring reverb in their range, though they do have a cool virtual spring pedal in their GTR stomp box collection.

The controls are simple and include dials for Pre Delay, Time and Mix which in most cases is enough to get a great sounding spring up and running in no time. if you want to adjust the sound of this Spring further why not run it through another Waves stomp before or after an instance of this for extra tone shaping.

Watch our free video below to hear how Waves Stomp Spring sounds on a lead vocal mixing in with a touch of delay stomp.

This list of spring reverbs we suggested isn’t intended to be a complete list of every spring on the market. Our goal is to suggest spring reverbs that we have first hand experience using. If there are spring reverb plug-ins you use and love that you can recommend to the Production Expert community that we haven’t tried, then please post your top picks in the comment section below.