Next Level METAL Drum Library: SpaceMan is a sound designer’s dream…really kicks chaotic melodies. In essence, this is what should happen if you build a synthesizer from springs.
Spring reverbs have been helping to add a shimmery, metallic vibe to electric and electronic sounds ever since someone came up with the ingenious idea of screwing a small tin spring inside a guitar amp and running the signal through it. Since then, spring reverbs haven’t evolved much – the biggest step forward in improvement seems to have been: “Add more springs!” – and their unnatural sound, slightly harsh overtones, and tendency to go “SPOILING-ONG-ONG-ONG-ONG-ONG-ONG” when accidentally hit, soon made them a poor man’s choice over plate reverbs, echo- cameras and, eventually, digital machines from Lexicon.
Nevertheless, the sound of the spring reverb has become firmly ingrained in our musical memory; he has played an integral role in defining the guitar sounds of many legendary rockers; it has also found its way into countless synths and keyboards, thanks to the same reverb path in an amplifier. Spring reverbs are a bit of a niche product these days. But we have undeniable sympathy for them.
And our absolute favorite is the Ekdahl Moisturizer, a spring reverb built to be abused, with its three springs open for you to reach, plus a multi-mode filter and LFO built right into it. This thing isn’t made to add subtle reverb notes to your tracks… it’s made for sound design and sonic chaos, and it forms the basis of SpaceMan.
SPRING SYNTHESIZER:
SpaceMan is what happens if you build a synthesizer from springs. Seriously. Imagine if each note of your synthesizer, instead of triggering an electronic oscillator, began to vibrate a spring with a given step: this is the essence of SpaceMan. We used the same E-Bow guitar tricks as in Uproar, only this time we used them in combination with the built-in Moisturizer filter to generate unstable, oscillating, springy fundamentals. With about a minute of sampling per note and random trigger points, these waves are amazingly unpredictable, and you can adjust them with the spring reservoir oscillation level control. The main sound is, of course, heavily reverberant, metallic, bumpy and, uh, springy.
We then went to the Dark Side a bit, using brushes, bows, nails, screwdrivers, pole bolts, and cable ends to touch, wiggle, scratch, and otherwise tamper with the three springs while adjusting the filter to taste. This brutality has also been looped and randomized and can be set to three different flavors of pollution: Type 1 includes scratches, brushes, and steady contact sounds; Type 2 covers taps, touches, and brief contact sounds; Type 3 explores breath sounds, feedback, and tonal components. They can be used individually or in combination and have their own level control.
ADDITIONAL REGULATORS:
There are a few more synth-style elements that can be plugged in: Massive noise from the beautiful Korg 770 (we said we’d use it a lot, remember?); a single-knob harmonic generator that adds a progressive amount of harmonic series overtones; sine wave Sub-osc for sound amplification; and a complete set of filter circuits, including a high-pass filter and a multi-mode resonant filter with two low-pass modes and one band pass. Connect it all to a dedicated LFO and you can get wonderful swinging, whistling drifts across the audio spectrum.
Separate Contact and Mute controls determine how much (if any) the initial contact sound and note decay is heard; they imitate the “play” of the springs by tapping on them and then manually stopping them. Finally, we have full Envelope control and the ever-popular Glitch Control for creating musically intelligent random patches with a single click. See how easy we made everything?
SpaceMan is designed for left-handed atmospheric sound design, strange howling reverberant noises, unique background textures, and synthesis with a very unusual sound signature. It sounds great when paired with regular synths, adding weirdness and complexity to the sound of paper clips; in addition, it can bring color and movement to a range of musical genres, including EDM, trance, soundtrack and ambient. Open the bay doors, HAL!