Introduction

SSL SpringVerb is a reverb plugin that emulates the sound of hardware spring reverb units. Spring reverbs create a reverb effect by passing audio down one or more springs that are suspended inside a tank. The back-and-forth motion generates echoes that create the impression of a reverb.

Spring reverbs were very popular in the 60s, due to their low cost to implement, and are still used to impart a unique color on instruments to help bring them cut through...almost the opposite of why you’d use other reverbs. They especially compliment electric guitars where the reverb's raucous, metallic sound can even extend the sound of the guitar; some guitar amps have a built-in spring reverb tank for this reason.

Due to their nature, spring reverbs often accentuate mid-range and high frequencies which can cause heavy resonances to build up, so it is often wise to cut any resonances by damping the mid and high ranges before the effect; SSL SpringVerb has damping controls, as well as a ducking system to help keep the reverb in check. It also features many tweakable parameters to allow customizations that were physically impossible with normal spring tanks.

Typical use cases for SSL SpringVerb are with sources such as amplified guitar, snare drums, vocals, and synths.

Key Features

• Three spring models: Find the texture that fits your use-case
• Spring quantity: Add more springs for more density and complexity
• Adjustable reverb characteristics: Customize time, tension, pre-delay, and stereo width for a level of control not possible with many hardware tanks.
• Tonal control: Add analog drive, ducking, and dampen frequencies to shape the reverb exactly to your needs.

Release Notes

Version 1.0.4 (December 2025)

• First release.

Supported Platforms & Hosts

For compatibility information about plug-ins, visit the Plug-in Operating System and DAW Compatibility FAQ.

When we release an SSL plug-in, we test it on all currently supported Windows and macOS operating systems that aren't End-of-Life (EOL) at the time of release. We test the plug-ins on a range of DAWs, using the latest version publicly available version of each one. It is possible our products may work on platforms outside of this list. However, if you are using a DAW not listed in the linked article, or an older DAW version (perhaps several years old), we recommend you demo the product before purchase to confirm that it works correctly. For 360°-enabled channel strip plug-ins, refer to the UC1 User Guide for tested DAWs and their integration capabilities.

Apple Silicon Support

This plug-in is provided as a universal binary for macOS and features native support for Apple Silicon.

Operating Systems

Please refer to the Plug-in OS Compatibility FAQ.

Hosts

• Logic Pro 10.7
• Pro Tools 2023
• Ableton Live 11
• Studio One 6
• Cubase 12
• REAPER 6
• FL Studio 21
• LUNA v1.5

Demo / Trial

To demo this plug-in, you can simply download it from the product page and run it up in your host - the software will guide you through the rest of the process.

1. Download and install the plug-in.
2. Open your DAW/host.
3. Insert the plug-in to commence activation (sometimes this will happen when the plug-in is scanned on startup, depending on your DAW/host).
4. When you see 'Activation is required', click 'Try'.
5. Log into your iLok account and click 'Next'.
6. Select a location to activate the license to, and click 'Next'.

Installation & Download

If you own perpetual licenses for your products, we recommend using the SSL Download Manager application to to easily manage all SSL plug-in installations all from one place, on both macOS and Windows. In addition to easily installing, uninstalling or reinstalling individual or every SSL plug-in at the click of a button, the SSL Download Manager also provides you with detailed release notes and lets you know when updates are available.

You can also download offline installers for a plug-in from here.

If you are a subscriber to Complete Access, we recommend using Complete Access Hub to download, install, and activate all of the plug-ins (SSL, Harrison, and Slate Digital) that are included in the subscription.

All SSL plug-ins are supplied in VST3, AU (macOS only) and AAX (Pro Tools) formats.

The installers provided (macOS Intel .dmg and Windows .exe) copy the plug-in binaries to the common VST3, AU and AAX directories. After this, the host DAW should recognise the plug-in automatically in most cases. Simply run the installer and you should be good to go. You can find more information about how to authorise your plug-ins below.

Licensing

Visit iLok, Licensing and Activation for guidance in activating your SSL plug-in.

Controls & Functions

Spring Type

Use this selector to switch between 3 different spring tank models:

• A: Emulates the spring tank from a famous tape delay unit.
• B: Modeled after a classic rack mount spring reverb unit.
• C: The go-to choice for dub, used by King Tubby and Lee Perry.

Spring Quantity

Smoothly fade the model between single-, double-, and triple-springs. The more springs, the more dense and complex the reverb will become.

Reverb Time

The Time knob sets the decay time for the reverb; enabling the Sync button will make the Time knob become a selector that snaps to musical quantities that follow the tempo of the host. Enabling the Freeze button (with the snowflake icon) will cut the input to the springs and will create an infinite reverb tail that will remain until the button is turned off again. The Kill button (with the X icon) will stop all input to the springs while allowing the springs to decay naturally; clicking this button while Freeze is enabled will also disable Freeze.

Spring Tension

You can further influence the sound of the reverb by adjusting the Tension of the springs. The more stretched they are, the tighter they become, making the sound move across them more quickly. Loosening the tension will add more "twanginess" that is often a characteristic of spring reverbs; you might hear more of the individual bouncing echoes when the tension is loosened.

Stereo Width

The Width knob can be rotated fully counter-clockwise to reduce the stereo image of the reverb to mono; many spring tanks were wired in mono so this can be a way to recreate a vintage sound. The stereo image can also be expanded beyond 100% to push the reverb out to the sides of the stereo field.

Spring Tank

The Spring Tank is visualized at the center of SSL SpringVerb and is actually an interactive component of the plugin. The springs visualized in the center will change width based on the Tension setting, and the number of springs shown will also change based on the Springs setting, both explained in the sections above.

For some additional fun, you can also "kick" the spring tank to create a cacophonous sound. Adjust the Strength knob and then click the Boing button to initiate the kick. You can also click right on the spring tank to trigger the sound.

Input Gain

The Gain knob adjusts the signal level entering SSL SpringVerb. The level will affect sections further along in the signal chain, such as the Drive stage (explained below).

Pre-Delay

Adding Pre-Delay on a reverb is a technique often used to help reduce the amount of signal masking that the reverb can introduce; it helps the initial input signal remain "dry" by having the reverb start slightly after it. It can also be used to introduce a rhythmic "slap-back" sound; in fact, enabling the Sync button will make the Pre-Delay knob select between musical times synchronized to the tempo of the host application.

Drive

The Drive section is used to add some saturation to the input signal; saturation could occur in hardware devices when the input signal became too loud resulting in a more harmonically rich sound being fed into the spring tank. Increasing the Level knob will drive the signal into the saturator and the neighboring LED will light up when saturation becomes strong. Turning up the To Dry knob replaces the dry signal sent to the plugin output with the saturated signal, which can be used either as an effect in its own right, or simply as a way to quickly check the qualities of the saturated sound that will be fed into the spring tank. 

Damp Knobs

The Damping Knobs are used to remove certain frequency components from the reverb. Turning up the High knob will remove high frequencies from the reverb which will make it sound darker, more lo-fi, and vintage. Turning up the Low knob will similarly remove low frequencies from the reverb, useful if the sound is getting too muddy or boomy.

Output Section

The last section is the Output section consisting of three controls. The Mix knob adjusts the balance between the dry signal (all the way counter-clockwise) vs. the wet/reverb signal (fully clockwise). When using SSL SpringVerb as an insert effect, you'll use the Mix knob to set the right amount of reverb vs the original signal. But when using SSL SpringVerb as a send effect, you'll likely want to set the Mix to the fully clockwise position so only the reverb is heard. Enabling the Lock button above the Mix knob will prevent the knob from changing position when loading different presets. Finally, the total output of SSL SpringVerb is controlled by the Gain knob in this section.

Ducking

Ducking is a feature that turns down the reverb output in response to audio input. As a spring reverb can become rather dense at times, reducing the level temporarily when the instrument is playing helps reduce the reverb's masking effects, thus allowing the original instrument to still be heard in detail (with the reverb returning to normal level whenever the instrument stops). The Ducking controls are shown in the same central area as the spring tank visualizer and are toggled by pressing the Advanced Settings button in the bottom bar:

To enable the ducking feature, slide the Ducking switch to the right—the rest of the controls will become brighter when the system is active. The settings for the Ducker remain active even if you click the Settings button to switch back to the spring tank view.

The T/Hold (threshold) value sets the level above which the reverb should start being attenuated. When set to 0.0dB, no ducking will occur. Turn this value down and, eventually, the Ducker will start responding to the input signal (the exact level where this happens depends on the volume of the input signal); if you set this too low, the Ducker may stay on constantly, so experiment with the level until you find the sweet spot where it ducks when the instrument plays and restores volume when the instrument stops.

The Atk and Rel values set the attack and release times, respectively, for the Ducker. If the attack time is too long, the reverb might not duck quickly enough in response to input audio, meaning there could still be an overlap between reverb and instrument at the start of notes. If the release time is too long, the reverb might take a noticeable amount of time to return to its normal level, leaving a sort of "gap" between the instrument and reverb; too short a time might make the reverb "snap" back to full volume too quickly. The precise settings are subjective and dependent on the characteristics of the instrument (whether it has a long or short attack and/or release, for example).

Enabling the Ext S/C switch will cause the Ducker to listen to the External Side-Chain input, meaning that the reverb can be ducked in response to a completely different signal that you route into the SSL SpringVerb side-chain. The T/Hold level will then need to be set in accordance with the level of the side-chain signal.

SSL Plug-in Engine

The 'SSL Plug-in Engine' has several features that are available across our entire plug-in range.

NOTE: the available features in a plug-in might be or look different depending on what plug-in you are using, or when the plug-in was most recently updated.

Undo/Redo

SSL plug-ins come with a built-in undo/redo stack, in case your DAW doesn't handle this.

• Undo (left arrow) undoes the current action in the history stack.
• Redo (right arrow) re-does the next action in the history stack.

Presets

All of our plug-ins ship with carefully designed presets to aid your workflow.

Factory presets are included in the plug-in installation, installed in the following locations:

macOS: /Library/Application Support/Solid State Logic/PlugIns/Presets/[Plug-in Name]

Windows: C:\ProgramData\Solid State Logic\PlugIns\Presets\[Plug-in Name]

Switching between presets can be achieved by clicking the left/right arrows in the preset management section of the plug-in GUI, and by clicking on the preset name which will open the preset management display.

The Preset Management menu reflects the folder structure of the preset folder.

Revert Changes and Delete

• Revert Changes discards any changes to the current preset.
• Delete removes the current preset from the filesystem. Factory and Producer presets cannot be deleted from the plug-in GUI, although they can be manually deleted using the filesystem (Windows Explorer or Finder).

A/B and Copy

• A/B allows you to toggle quickly between two presets. This is useful for comparing between two parameter settings.
• COPY A TO B is used to copy presets between A/B.
  

Version Number

Click the version number to display more information about the plug-in.

When logging a bug to our support team, always include the full version number e.g. v1.0.13.

Advanced Settings (not all plug-ins)

Some plug-ins have advanced functionality. Click the 'Advanced Settings' button to access advanced plug-in functionality.

This will drop the plug-in into 'Advanced Mode', exposing more settings, and allowing you to tweak the 'under-the-hood' behaviour of the plug-in.

Scale/Zoom

The scale/zoom menu allows you to resize your plug-in from 50% up to 200%. 

Note that if resizing would cause the plug-in to go offscreen, then this option will be disabled. This is designed to prevent DAW resizing bugs that exist in some DAWs.

You can also right-click anywhere on the background of the plug-in to change the scale.

HQ or ECO Mode

Some plug-ins come with a HQ or ECO mode button. When in HQ mode, we introduce extra processing such as oversampling for higher quality, at the expense of more CPU. When in ECO mode, a plug-in will drop into a lower, less CPU intensive and low-latency mode (if possible).

Built-in Help

This plug-in features built-in contextual help. To turn this feature on, click the '?' in the bottom right-hand corner. Mouse over elements of the GUI to see some information about the feature.

Click the tooltip to cycle through the pages.