Even though reverb is, by definition, reflections of sound measured in time in a given space, that's not how I really think of it, and sometimes I even forget that's what it actually is. I blame it on the fact that there are so many beautiful digital reverbs simulating spaces that are impossible; the swaths of air-mutating shimmers, the endless tails and trails of sounds, the pulses from outer-space…Places where there are few, if any, actual surfaces to reflect off of.
Because of this "unrealness," which I love, and the fact that digital reverbs are so vast, versatile, easy, and quick, most of the reverb I use is in this digital realm, and has been for a long time. In fact, in all of my years of recording and playing music (other than playing live, where you're married to the space) I've rarely used an actual physical space or reverb unit to achieve reverberation, just the times I've used the spring reverbs from Space Echos and guitar amps, the reverbs of which usually feel like an afterthought.
Teaching Machines Wellspring Stereo Reverb is a different beast. An all-analog mono/stereo spring reverb that includes two separate 15" isolated shock mounted springs housed in a sturdy 3U rack mount enclosure, Wellspring shows what spring reverb can be, with a lot of love, ingenuity, and those couple of springs. Wellspring does this while staying true to the simplicity of spring reverbs past with only a single Dry/Wet control for dialing in the desired reverb amount, but adds much more in the feature department to add to, contour, and color your signal. Wellspring even comes packaged in 100% compostable mushroom and hemp-based packaging, something I hope becomes more common. Nope, this isn't your normal spring reverb.
An Input amount control, along with the ability to select between line and guitar at the signal input, gets you started, and along with those controls over the initial comings and goings, there is the main Output of the unit to get the levels right. There's a stereo PT2399-based delay with Parallel or Ping-Pong options, where the second delay line can follow the first or be free floating, a selectable triangle or sine modulating LFO that can alter both the pitch of the delay and the filter frequency cutoff, with the LFO having the ability to be synced or inverted for either/both filter and delay. There are sweepable state-variable (HP, BP, LP, Notch) OTA stereo filters for each channel (the same filter is selected for both channels), and a Wet/Dry mix control that mixes the filtered/delay section with the original input signal where it then progresses to the Spring (Wet/Dry amount) and a "Magic" part of Wellspring. As for the Magic element, it's a feedback loop that feeds each input the other's spring sound, an interesting feature that can get haywire, but is fun to experiment with. On the rear of the unit are the two inputs and outputs and also a -5 to +5V external modulation input for overriding the internal LFO.
Seeing Wellspring as an instrument and not merely an effects unit proved pivotal in how I came to view it overall. I'm a fan of the inherent beauty—both the design and the limitations—of the PT2399 delays, and the two different delay lines offer so much to Wellspring, and are as important as the spring reverbs. Or maybe it's the combination of the two that's such a winning tandem. Whether it's mutating the sound, adding depth and length, and the overall interactivity between the delay and reverb, when used with a mono input and stereo output panned hard left/right (my de facto routing for Wellspring) you can create all sorts of non-linear tapestries with any signal. So much of the tweaking felt like dimensional time travel; warping, weaving, and moving from one reality to another.
The OTA filter doesn't give pronounced humps (there's no resonance control) or drastic dropping off of frequencies, but does a great job of helping to craft and shape the sound, filtering unwanted chunks of frequency, as is necessary at times with spring reverbs as they can get a little out of control, muddy. This filtering ability is especially helpful with Wellspring’s ability to feed back into itself via the Magic control as it keeps it from being a jumbled mess of noise. Everything is so interconnected, with my penchant for wanting to crank everything, when I turned the Magic way up it was necessary to adjust the frequency cutoff of the Filter so as not to only get a springy drone, and once I realized this was one way to control some of the droning that can happen in Wellspring, it was really worthwhile to play the Frequency as a drone instrument in and of itself, adding and subtracting it to my signal. I'm a fan of acoustic (as well as electronic) drone instruments like the Tanpura and could listen to slowly mutating drones all day long. Sometimes I do this with my modular, just patching up a slow generative drone as background sound to my daily tasks.
The onboard modulation on Wellspring is a nice touch and can go into audio frequency range where you can get some pretty interesting ring mod type sounds. I sometimes found that the reverb gave the whole unit less of a spring reverb sound, and more like a room covered floor to ceiling in reverberating stainless steel sheets; really metallic.
My initial testing was of various melodic sequences with Wellspring as the only thing between my VCO and my mixer and switching over to a rhythm track via the Modbap Trinity being triggered by Five12's QV-L in various rhythmic configurations, and running that through Wellspring, and the unit became an interesting drum machine addendum (great for mixing together with an unprocessed drum sound), a colorer of cacophony, a conjurer of beeps and thuds. With the Spring turned on full and the other modulation off it reminded me of the perpetual nightmare of being strapped into a hospital bed, unable to move, listening the to hard-soled shoes of various medical personnel clambering through cavernous hallways, with only the constant (luckily!) blips of heart monitors and glucose tests sounding off all around. If only the bendy straw was long enough that it could reach my lips from its precarious perch on the edge of the sliding tray so that I could garner a sip of that sugary stale orange juice... Bring in the Delay, some Modulation, and tweak the Filter as needed, and a howling wind careened through those same empty halls making the situation much more cinematic; all is good just as long as you can reach that meds button!
Letting go of the modular for a bit, Wellspring was utterly beautiful on electric guitar. Shimmery, chorus-y, and draped in a woozy quilt made by grandma, Wellspring's dreamlike qualities paired well with my electric 6-string; springs and strings are a nice combination, after all. Still, it was with the Vongon Replay that Wellspring's full beauty showed up. It added dimensionality, eeriness, and an 80s silver screen vibe that was all-encompassing, something that would be hard to replicate in other realms. Again, being able to play and tweak the delay times, experiment with the Magic and modulation amounts, along with Replay's controls, made this a really fun pairing.
Self-patching was great for adding more feedback; taking the left channel's output and patching that into the right input, with the right output going to your mixer or wherever. You have to watch the input gain so as not to overload, but this way you're able to have your signal go through both springs and it offers up some added ambiance—extra springiness—with an ethereal padded drone underneath.
When you're ready for a change from the easy and endless shimmers, glimmers, and code masquerading as reverberant spaces, Wellspring will be there to greet you, ready to add magic and "Magic" to your sounds.

Price: $1590

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