A brief historical premise. Many effects that we find today in recording studios and DAWs, our “virtual studios”, are not born as a pre-packaged box that performs that task, but are rather the result of more or less random experiments and discoveries.
A good example is the birth of the flangers. In the 60s, engineers noticed that using two reel-to-reel recorders they could vary the delay between the two signals by pressing with their thumb on the “flange” of one of the reels, obtaining an effect that is as pleasant as it is psychedelic.
What he did Eventide in the 70s, bringing a small-big revolution in the studios, it was to create equipment that performed in a simple, fast, cheap and replicable way what up to that point had been experimental techniques of the best recording and mixing engineers. The first product was the Instant Phaser which, in addition to reproducing the tape flangeing effect it also allowed, through an additional auxiliary output in addition to the main out, to convert a mono track to stereo. More and more frequently it was used for this purpose, not as a flanger but to increase the stereo image (Eventide herself defined this result pseudo-stereo), contributing to the definitive transition from mono to stereo mixes in the 70s.
After having enriched the largest studios with its physical digital processors for 50 years, Eventide creates an accurate reproduction of the same in the form of plugins, now included in an unmissable, out of time, nostalgic bundle called Clockworks. The package contains: Instant Phaser MkII, Instant Flanger MkII, Omnipressor, H910, H949 e SP2016.
Instant Phaser MkII
More than a phaser, one stereo wi-dining effect which gives depth to the track, so much so that the knob that would usually be labeled as a “mix” is called depth. It is possible to control this parameter with the mod wheel by turning the knob remote to ON. The other modulation sources, which can be set with the last knob at the top right, are oscillator (LFO syncable to project with switch sync), manual ed envelope. All 3 of these latter sources have a control on the front panel highlighted by a yellow, green and blue LED respectively. With age it is possible to emulate the aging percentage of the appliance and with side chain the envelope follower is controlled by an external trigger.
Instant Flanger MkII
The effect is similar to the Instant Phaser but with different nuances, deriving from the different nature of the two operations (the phaser uses a all pass filter while the flanger works on the delay of two identical signals). Like its "partner" Phaser, besides being a harmonious flanger it can be used to render more or less stereo a signal. Many controls are similar to the Instant Phaser with the addition of a low cut, by the possibility of inverting the behavior of the knob feedback and a further parameter for emulating the behavior of a coil (knob bounce).
omnipressor
Un compressor with a well-defined identity, which opens to experimentation and allows for very particular effects. In addition to the knobs for correct gain-staging, mix knobs, side chain (note the original processor was the first to introduce this concept!) and to the classic threshold, attack, release controls, the real magic of this effect lies in the knob function, where you can compress “normally”, or use the drive as noise gate or even reverse the compressor's behavior and obtain an effect pumping particularly interesting on percussive sounds.
H910 / H949
The H910 was the first harmonizer of history, conceived towards the end of the 70s and closely followed by the older brother H949 who introduced for the first time an algorithm of de-glitch aimed at reducing unwanted artifices in the exchange phase of pitch and was also enhanced with a greater octave range, micropitch, random pitches, flangers e reverse mode. In the H910 you can also use the original keyboard (HK940) to control harmonies through MIDI notes. They are frequently used as voice doublers. They allow to obtain effects of robotic voice through a combination of delay, feedback and pitch-change. The delay section can be used exclusively by bypassing the rest of the plugin with the button delay only.
The H949 has a button repeat (automable) which sends back the last 400ms of signal in infinite feedback until we manually interrupt it.
SP2016
Used on dozens of records in the 80s, a digital reverb with the aspiration to sound natural and not excessively cold. Contains different types of reverb (program): room, stereo room, hi-density plate. Equipped with an input / output section and kill which, as the word suggests, instantly “kills” the reverb tail (not surprisingly the gated reverb is a distinctive 80's sound), one of eq to attenuate unwanted frequencies and a central section in which to control the wet / dry effect, decline, pre-delay, diffusion (modifies the surface of the room, which is harder and more rigid or which absorbs sound reflections more) e position (check an algorithm that emulates different listening positions in the room).
Last gem for audio nerds: in each manual of the individual plugins the introduction offers a very interesting retrospective on the original effects of the 70s, as well as hints to the techniques and circuitry used on the old processors.
For more information and to request a demo version of the plugins, I recommend visiting the Eventide page.
Useful Information
Product site: Eventide
Product: Clockworks Bundles
Price: $ 299 (only available online)
