Cover Project of Danpyunsun and the Moments Ensemble 'Spouse' using Eventide SP2016, H949

Recently I used these two products when working on a cover project of Danpyunsun and the Moments Ensemble's single 'Spouse'. I'll conduct Eventide's SP2016 and H949 Harmonizer review by sharing how and with what intention I used them.

This review was written with NFR (Not For Resale) licenses for Eventide SP2016 and H949 Harmonizer provided by Plugin Boutique. (There are no affiliate codes in the links within the text and this is not an advertorial.)

I work as a video creator and sound engineer. Based on my major in art, I've interpreted and applied other areas of art in my own way. Essentially, while video utilizes both visual and auditory senses, music is primarily auditory. So, for me, music was no different from a movie without a screen, and mixing was like editing an invisible film. Organizing sources according to intention and inviting the audience or listener into that world view for a given time was no different for both video and music.

SP2016 Digital Reverb

The first product that I met the company Eventide was the Blackhole Reverb, which is now one of the H9 Plug-in Series and has even released an Immersive version. This plugin, first released in 2012, is optimized for creating non-existent spaces through its unique long time and various modulations, as its name suggests. Due to these characteristics, I impulsively purchased this product when I didn't even know how to properly use reverb, thinking it was unique and cool.

Over time, I learned that reverb is an important effect that makes sound exist in the space you want to create, considering quantity, texture, length, and type. By adjusting the length of early reflections and the amount of their decay, I could define the space where that sound reverberates, and depending on the algorithm or convolution method, I could even change the texture. So, at one point, I was obsessed with collecting various reverb plugins. The ability to place any sound, from voices to instruments to sound effects, wherever I imagined felt like freely changing the shooting location.

The SP2016 is a hardware digital reverb processor released in 1982. Briefly tracing the development of reverb, it started with Echo Chamber in the 1930s, which re-recorded the reflections of sound played through speakers in a large room. In the 50s, Spring reverb appeared, and in the 60s, Plate reverb utilizing plate vibrations emerged. In 1976, the first digital reverb, EMT250, was introduced. While actual reverberations were directly captured until then, from this point on, it became possible to create reverberations through mathematical calculations. In the late 90s, Impulse Response, or Convolution reverb, which uses the reflection patterns of actual spaces, continued this development. Now, we can utilize the characteristics of each reverb as texture, considering the role of the sound.

As someone who mainly worked on video, I thought the best reverb was one that created smooth, grain-free sound as if it were heard in an actual space. Liquidsonics' Seventh Heaven Professional produced the most satisfying sound for me in this regard. It replicated the Bricasti M7, an indispensable product among digital reverbs, and thanks to Fusion IR technology, which combined the advantages of algorithm and IR reverbs, it could easily create a smooth sense of space while operating lightly. However, not all sounds had to be in a clear space. Depending on the genre and direction, there was a need to change cameras to create a three-dimensional work. I was in a situation where I only had a full-frame mirrorless camera when I needed the texture of film or vintage digital cameras.

The SP2016 has the grain of early digital reverbs. Pressing the Program button reveals a total of 6 algorithms, 3 each of Stereo Room, Room, and Plate in two types: Vintage and Modern. These were modular chips that could be plugged into the actual hardware, and it was an innovative design that presented the possibility of software upgrades to hardware devices at the time.

If you wanted high resolution, you naturally had to choose from Modern. Vintage, coincidentally, reminded me of film simulation plugins used in video editing; I felt that if Modern was like 35mm film, Vintage was similar to Super8mm film. If you want to keep the texture of vintage digital reverb sound but also maintain resolution, I think it's good to use Modern, and if you want to fully transfer the characteristics of the device, use Vintage.

The Parameters included Mix, Pre-delay, Decay, and Diffusion like other reverb plugins, but Position Control particularly caught my eye. It was so naturally included as one of the faders that I almost mistook it for a feature that was also in the hardware. It not only adjusted the length of Pre-delay, Reverb Time, and Decay, but also reduced high frequencies according to position to create a sense of distance. According to the manual, it adjusts the ratio of Early and Late Reflection, which I felt was similar to adjusting the microphone position in a Chamber reverb plugin.

H949 Harmonizer

Eventide's Harmonizer series products were created to produce special effects by complexly utilizing Pitch Shifting, Delay, and Modulation. In 1975, the world's first digital effect processor, H910 Harmonizer, was released, and its successor, H949, featured the world's first de-glitched function, minimizing distortion during pitch shifting.

The H949 Harmonizer was always a type of effect I was curious about but never had the chance to experience. When I learned that Soundtoys' Microshift was based on the Pitch Shifting algorithms of hardware like Eventide's H3000 and H910, I became interested, but if I was going to purchase, I always wanted to experience the original Eventide product, so it was always pushed back in my purchase priority.

While I could quickly get used to the SP2016 as I had occasionally seen other reverb products with similar structures, the H949 was very unfamiliar even in design as it was a direct transfer of the hardware. They were so sincere in the reproduction that even when you press Bypass, i.e., Power Off, the numbers slowly disappear as if the machine is turning off. You can adjust the Delay time of Delay Only Output and Main Output, but seeing it composed only of buttons 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100, 200, I initially mistook 200ms as the maximum. The fact that you could set up to 400ms by pressing combinations of buttons for desired times could be inferred by listening to the sound directly, but without reading the manual, I couldn't have properly grasped its functions.

I think the main button that creates the H949 sound is Function Select. The pressed state (IN) allows PC (Pitch Change) mode, while the unpressed state (OUT) allows toggling between Delay, Random, Flange, and Reverse, distinguished by red and green letters and graphics. Looking for the word Shift, I could only learn from the manual that PC was an abbreviation for Pitch Change. The PC with the Micro symbol μ has ♯ and ♭, allowing you to choose whether to raise or lower the shifting sound to sharp or flat. Additionally, with the Algorithm Select button, you could decide whether to use the De-glitch sound or not, which is also a major factor in determining the texture when using PC.