Early Stereo Effects
Stereo processing began life primarily as a tool to ‘stereo-ize’ existing mono mixes, often employing single channel processors, before evolving into the time and pitch based stereo processing and ear candy effects that virtually every mix enjoys today. Some of these effects have become go-to treatments whose ubiquity is right up there with the humble reverb, but the ways in which these effects came to be have varied greatly.
Effects In The Analogue Age
Delay effects can be traced back to the early tape and magnetic disc-based units of the mid 20th century, of which basic rock’n’roll slapback delay effects were probably the first example of an effect being associated with a particular genre. Another time based effect, tape flanging, also found its way into the psychedelic vernacular before lying dormant in-between brief rediscoveries by new artists. In terms of pitch effects, for a long time, engineers wrestled with the long-held knowledge that time and frequency are always interdependent. That changed with the Eltro machines that made ingenious use of relative tape speed manipulation.
The Digital Effects Revolution
By the 1970s, companies such as Eventide started to develop and market digital clocking technologies which found use in industries including pro audio. By manipulating sample playback rates, early digital units were able to offer sounds that up until that point required cumbersome electro-mechanical hardware to achieve. By opening up effects processing in terms of functionality and the amount of rack space needed, these new technologies introduced a whole new effects vocabulary now taken for granted. As a result, terms such as multitap, ping-pong, and detune are all firmly etched into the inventory of common mix effects.
Eventide H3000 Factory
Having developed a number of audio technologies centred around digital clocking such as the BD955 broadcast delay and H910 and H949 boxes, Eventide’s H3000 unit landed in 1986 boasting intelligent/diatonic pitch shifting for the first time. These boxes themselves introduced a number of character patches, imbuing records with memorable sounds shifted both in time and pitch.
Eventide H3000 Factory brings the legendary box in audio plugin form. Offering pairs of sweepable delays, pitch shifters, filters, mixers, amplitude modulators (or VCAs), and LFOs, custom effects can be easily manipulated in real time using its ‘big dial’ or synchronised to the session tempo.
Eventide H3000 Factory complete feature set:
• 18 effects blocks can be wired ”anything to anything.”
• Delays utilise Beat Grid, letting you easily place delays in perfect time with the music.
• Fully adjustable filters offer Band Pass, High Pass, and Low Pass types with Q factors up to 1000.
• Over 200 parameters for versatile sound design.
• Drag and drop re-ordering of effects blocks.
• Full MIDI controller support for Parameter Modulation.
• Recreation of the H3000 Function Generator and Parameter Modulations provides for dynamic sound shaping.
• Soft Keys let you customise the most important preset parameters.
• Familiar interface and original presets from the H3000, with a new graphical patch bay
Watch in the video how we employ Eventide H3000 Factory on acoustic guitar and vocal to evoke classic stereo ear candy effects. Taking in stereo delays, pitch shifting, as well as character filtering effects, we settle on a couple of trademark Eventide sounds that are hard to find elsewhere.
Classic Effects Recreated
The modern engineer is not short on choices whenever classic stereo treatments are needed on vocals and instruments, however, using combinations within one tool certainly provides an easier way of working. Although instantiating a chain of the necessary audio plugins is simple enough to get a certain sound, the right sounds need to be curated from tools that only offer these sounds in their simplest form. The advantage of using an audio plugin such as H3000 Factory is the simplified means to recreate sounds that are burnt into the musical landscape. There’s only one thing more fun than trying to recreate a particular sound, and that’s to have it there in the first place…