My first digital reverb was a used Alesis MidiVerb II in the late ’80s. I'd previously built a Radio Shack echo kit, messed around with spring reverb tanks, and owned analog and digital delay stompboxes, but I wanted those cascading, long reverbs and gated drums I'd heard on then-current releases. Combined with my 4-track cassette recorder, the Alesis helped spice sounds up but didn’t get me very close to sonically competing with those Dead Can Dance or Cocteau Twins albums I enjoyed so much. I still have that unit, though it sees little use these days. It turns out that Temecula DSP's John Wheeler created a plug-in, MDV-II, based on the MidiVerb II, plus the MCV-1, based on the earlier Alesis MicroVerb. Both sound just like those vintage devices and are completely free, but we're here to talk about something even more important.
In Tape Op #41, we reviewed Seven Woods Audio's Ursa Major Space Station SST-206, designed and released by Christopher Moore [Tape Op #65], who had updated the SST-206 based on the original SST-282 Space Station, which he'd designed and built in 1978. Chris had been an engineer at Lexicon and left to start Ursa Major, Inc. in 1977. The original Space Station SST-282 sold for $2,000, quite a bit less than competing, studio-quality digital reverbs at that time.
Both of these reverbs are now quite rare, many artists and engineers swore by their lush sounds and usability, and the original patent expired, so John at Temecula DSP decided to engineer the SST-206 plug-in, based on Chris' updated version from 2003 but with the ability to mimic the original SST-282.
I was lucky enough to spend a little time with Christopher Moore decades ago. His digital reverb designs used some less-common techniques and concepts, and the time-modulated algorithms in the SST-282 resulted in a unique sound all its own. I was able to mess with the Ursa Major Space Station SST-206 in 2003 when it came out, and one thing I loved about it – compared to many other reverb/delay devices – was that I could control all the sound parameters via dedicated knobs. Pick a room, combo, or effect, twist some knobs, and keep twisting until you like the result. Even in plug-in form, the device works like this (though it's obviously easy to save settings). Placing the SST-206 on a vocal aux return for a current mix sent me off on a completely new path and a different sound from the reverb I had been using. It opened up some new doors for this mix, and I didn’t even know what I was doing! The high- and low-frequency decay time attenuators are especially easy to figure out and so effective at fitting a reverb/delay into a mix or making it pop out. The way Christopher's original architecture works, there's an obvious first reflection reverberation mimic going on, and that can really liven up drums when set properly compared to "washy" reverb sounds on percussion. The manual is helpful and explains a lot about how to use the plug-in, plus some history. I feel like I'm barely touching on actual usage in this review, but being that the SST-206 is so hands-on, it's hard to explain outside the context of an actual mix or tracking session. It's a re-creation of a rare classic for a reason – the reverb and effects are exciting and unique, and this homage is done with care.
John's approach with Temecula DSP is to attempt to sort out the actual circuitry of these units with bit-accurate reproduction of the original DSP algorithms, resulting in "a direct mathematical reconstruction of the original DSP architecture." Think about what that means compared to impulse response-sourced, vintage-based effects – this plug-in will behave exactly like the original units do mathematically. Original mode settings only reach 11-bit, with high end maxing out at 7 kHz, but they sound amazing and deep. The Plus mode opens up to 22 kHz in the top with 24-bit converters. Temecula DSP seems quite dedicated to respecting the people who put all this thought and effort into the early years of digital reverberation, and that dedication shows in the sheer quality of the SST-206 plug-in.
Also look for Temecula DSP's SG-626, based on Christopher Moore's Stargate 626 (his successor to the 282), and the DEEP/4, re-creating the Ensoniq DP/4 parallel effects processor. I can tell you that all of these (and even the Alesis versions!) are well worth checking out (use the demo period) and are reasonably priced.