Eventide, leader in weird harmonics processing and otherwise king of cool sounds, has launched some new tech at this year’s AES. The first being the fourth version of their popular Eclipse hardware processor:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK-October 9, 2009 –In a much anticipated upgrade that further expands the formidable capabilities of Eventide’s best-selling Harmonizer® rack processor, Eventide announced today the release of Eclipse V4.  V4 is also downloadable as a free upgrade for registered Eclipse owners at eventide.com. This new operating system software expands the number of effects from 90 to 113, and expands the number of factory presets from 390 to over 500.  Included are all effects and presets from Eventide’s best-selling TimeFactor and ModFactor stompboxes as well as the new DynamicDistortion2™ algorithm. V4 provides users four levels of gain and distortion, enabling users to plug a guitar directly into Eclipse and record directly from its outputs with convincing crunch.  DynamicDistortion 2 also features EQ with variable Q for tone shaping, and feedback without the necessity of excessive volume.  Also, the operating system has been optimized, resulting in faster program changes and a 50% reduction in MIDI latency.

Aside from the Eclipse unit, Eventide has made some upgrades to their TimeFactor and ModFactor software (the software inside their popular FX pedals by the same name):

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, October 9, 2009 — Eventide today announced that v2.5B software has been posted to eventide.com for public beta at no charge to registered users.  New features added to both TimeFactor and ModFactor include:

Plug-and-Play MIDI remote control of Eclipse or other Factor stompboxes

Now, one stompbox can provide master tempo control, preset change, and parameter control for all connected Eventide stompboxes as well as Eclipse.

• Enhanced MIDI Clock Functionality :Improved MIDI Clock reception, and adds the ability to generate MIDI Clock for other devices to lock to.
• New Factory Presets Added :TimeFactor and ModFactor now come loaded with 100 factory presets.
• Expression Pedal: Expression Pedal programming has been simplified.
• Parameter Fine-Tuning: The Encoder can now be used to fine-tune all knob parameters.
• Bank Select via Encoder Knob: In Bank Mode, the Encoder can now be used to rapidly scroll through presets .
• TimeFactor enhancements include:
• Vintage Delay: The Bits, Filter, and Feedback controls have been improved for a more authentic sound.
• Tape Echo: The Filter and Feedback controls have been tweaked for a more authentic sound.  Plus, by popular demand, a Tape Saturation parameter has been added.
• ModFactor enhancements include:
• New Classic Phase Ninety Phaser: The classic orange phaser has been added, as well as the ability to choose between 2, 4, 6, and 8 pole filters for a wider variety of phaser sounds.
• New Chorus Type: A new classic Chorus algorithm has been added.

Output Level Knob in Rotary: In response to a common plea on our forum, Rotary now has an output level control.