New Music Gear Monday: PSP Nexcellence Necklace-Style Reverb Plugin

We’re all familiar with the sound of spring reverbs, but most of the plugins available are based on units with taught springs like the ones found in Fender reverb tanks or the old AKG BX-10 and 20. There was another type of spring reverb though, known as a necklace reverb, found mostly in Hammond organs and revered for its smoothness. That necklace-style spring reverb sound is just what the new PSP Nexcellence plugin provides.

Necklace Reverb Operation – North Suburban Hammond Society

What makes a necklace reverb different is the fact that it used three springs of different lengths that hang like a necklace from a women’s neck. Because of the lengths, the signal would arrive at the transducer at different times, and since the wire used was finer than in traditional spring reverbs it had a wider frequency response as well (see the graphic on the right). What you get is a blurring of the signal that sounds more like real reverb than it’s taught string counterpart.

The PSP Nexcellence takes the necklace reverb concept and provides the same sound, but with much more versatility.

The input section is somewhat standard in that it provides Input Gain along with a Delay control, and output section provides the standard Mix and Output Gain controls.

The Spring Set section is what makes Nexcellence different from other plugins in its genre. There are three modes of spring operation – first spring set by itself, both spring sets together, or the second spring set by itself. Each spring set has its own processing engine. There’s also a Spring Set Configuration switch which allows the reverb to work in Split, MS, and Spread modes. Split sends audio from the left audio channel to the first spring set, and the right audio channel to the second spring set. MS treats the stereo output signal as a Mid/Side stereo signal, which can leave some space in the center for drier lead instruments and vocals. The Spread selection sends audio from both input channels to individual springs from both sets. This section also has a an overall Color control, and a Decay Time control.

The Advanced section on the bottom contains a opto-style limiter input  with a threshold control, and an Input Width knob, which adjusts the gain of the side signal in a Mid/Side mode and sets the stereo width of the input signal. There’s also a three way tonal selector (Shiny, Dense and Sparse), as well as a 4 band tone control. Finally there’s the ability to swap channels, and set the output width and balance.

Between the 1st and the 10th of September, PSP Nexcellence has a special introductory price of $129, after which time it will return to its regular price of $149 (all prices include any sales tax that apply). There’s also a 14 day demo available.

Check out the video below for more info and some excellent examples of how it sounds, or go to the dedicated Nexcellence page for more info.