Music Gear Review: Eventide Blackhole Plugin – Mind Blown!

Anyone who follows this blog knows about my love for Eventide products. I was first introduced to Eventide by Steve Vai’s work on David Lee Roth’s groundbreaking album Eat ‘Em and Smile. Though Frank Zappa and Eddie VanHalen had been using Eventide processers for years, there was something about that album that made me sit up and really pay attention to Vai’s guitar tone.

Being a true devotee to the brand I now gig with an Eventide PitchFactor and Eventide Space on my pedal board. These pedals not only shape my sound but also fuel my imagination.

The one place I tend to let my imagination roam free the most is in my home studio. This is where I can try new sounds, textures and take my guitar outside of the world of terrestrial physics. Now I have the Eventide Blackhole to fuel my imagination in that world also.

The new Eventide Blackhole VST plugin is more than any home or studio engineer could hope for. The interface is very similar to Eventide’s Space stompbox making this plug in incredibly easy to use. Analog knobs and switches allow you to tweak delay and reverb in real time.

What makes Blackhole the perfect reverb is it is not a one trick pony. Many reverb plugins I have used in the past have a single reverb tone with the possibility to control the length and decay of the unit. Blackhole has a huge sonic palate of spring, plate, and natural reverbs for you to choice from. If natural reverbs are not your thing Blackhole has some ungodly settings that will absolutely blow you away.

As I said in my review of the Eventide Space “this is not your Daddy’s reverb”. Comparing the reverb built into your digital workstation to the Blackhole is like comparing a skateboard to a rocket ship, they are simply not in the same class. It is easier for me to show you than tell you so check out this video.