ValhallaRoom is a versatile, true stereo algorithmic reverb that features twelve original reverberation algorithms, including the latest Dark reverb modes, Nostromo, Narcissus, and more. It offers seven different flavors of echo and is designed to be used with a wide range of global controls. The Early section can be heard in isolation by setting the DEPTH slider to 0. Valhalla Delay is a delay plugin that can produce some reverbs but its layout is targeted at delays. It can set up single, dual, ratio, ping pong, and quad modes.
The MODE Control in Valhalla Delay allows users to switch between different echo and delay algorithms. Reverse delays are commonly achieved by two or more parallel delay lines filling their buffers in quiet and then playing them. Some Supermassive sounds will spin around your head from left to right, so setting WIDTH to -100 will reverse this direction.
Valhalla Delay is impressive for its ability to transform a piano sound into a pad. To achieve this, it is recommended to reverse the sample and bounce it out with reverb at 50 wet and reverse that reverb tail again. Two new delay modes, Quartz and PhaserDDL, are also available. Native Intel/ARM builds are available for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, and VST3 improvements have been made.
In summary, ValhallaRoom is a versatile delay plug-in that offers a wide range of features and is highly recommended for those looking for a versatile and versatile reverb.
📹 Vocal Trick They All Use
WHO AM I: I’m Streaky, a YouTuber and professional audio engineer from Henley, UK. I make videos sharing my knowledge of …
What technique do you use when reversing slowly?
To perform a safe and precise reversing task, grip the steering wheel correctly at 12 o’clock and keep your other hand on the gearshift or handbrake. Reverse slowly, maintaining a steady pace for safety and accurate steering adjustments. Practice and perfect straight-line reversing to develop control and precision. Bay parking requires precision, control, and understanding of vehicle dimensions. Follow these steps for successful bay parking:
How does the reverse method work?
The reverse() method is a generic function that transposes elements of an array object, mutating it, and returning a reference to the original array. It preserves empty slots and deletes corresponding new indices if the source array is sparse. This method is not suitable for strings, which are immutable. An example is to create an array items with three elements and reverse it, returning a reference to the reversed array items.
What is ducking delay?
The effect gently deflects the echo behind the initial signal, thereby providing a distinct and discernible delay. When the playing is halted, the echo gradually builds in intensity before gradually receding.
How does reverse motion work?
Reverse motion, also known as reverse motion photography or reverse action, is a cinematography technique where the action is shown backwards on screen. It can be an in-camera effect or an optical printer effect. It can be used for comedic effects or safety reasons, such as filming a car stopping just in time.
There are several uses for reverse action, including artistic purposes, such as bringing things back to life by filming a process of destruction or decay in reverse. Actors may have to perform their actions and dialogue backwards during shooting to achieve the desired effect. For example, Chris Martin in the Coldplay song “The Scientist” had to memorize the song’s lyrics in reverse to achieve a realistic effect.
Reverse-motion music videos have been a prime medium for this technique, with The Beatles’ 1967 single “Strawberry Fields Forever” being one of the first examples. Other notable examples include “Typical” by Mutemath, “Breezeblocks” by Alt-J, and “Drop” by The Pharcyde.
Jean Cocteau’s films often feature reverse action, as seen in Beauty and the Beast and “Le Testament d’Orphée”. In Beauty and the Beast, an actor placing a piece of paper in a fire and walking backwards away was filmed in reverse motion, causing it to appear as though the character walked up to a fire and pulled the paper out.
How does a reverse delay work?
The reverse delay effect is a technique where an input signal is delayed in a memory buffer and then sent back to the output. This results in a single repeat of the original sound, but a repeating echo effect is produced by feedbacking a percentage of the delayed signal back to the input. If the feedback gain is more than unity, the echoes build up in level, creating an uncontrollable psychedelic howl. An example of this operation is using a sawtooth signal as a guitar input signal.
What is delayed reversing?
Transmission problems, whether manual or automatic, can cause a delay or lag when shifting gears, putting strain on the vehicle. If the reverse gear becomes sluggish, unresponsive, or delayed, it may be time for transmission work. Transmission problems are not uncommon and should be addressed promptly to prevent serious road hazards.
To identify the issue, gather as much information as possible about the delay, such as whether it is more pronounced when starting the vehicle, after it has been running for a while, or during hotter or colder weather. In some cases, the delay may be caused by a problem with the transmission’s valve body or computer issues, such as a faulty shift solenoid.
It is generally recommended to have your vehicle serviced professionally rather than attempting to address the problem yourself.
What causes reverse delay?
Delay in putting a vehicle in reverse can be caused by a problem with the transmission’s valve body or computer issues like a faulty shift solenoid. It’s advisable to have the vehicle serviced professionally rather than attempting to fix the issue yourself. Do’s and Don’ts:
- Do not mishandle the vehicle, as this can further damage the transmission.
- Avoid revving the engine to force the vehicle to work, as this can compound the damage.
- Check if the transmission fluid levels are adequate, as topping off fluid can be a temporary solution.
Is dual-wielding worth it AC Valhalla?
In Valhalla, having two weapons does not increase damage or attack speed, but some lighter weapons have less stamina for dodging. The primary attack button only swings the primary weapon, meaning the bread-and-butter combo remains the same regardless of using a second axe or a shield. The equipment system is simple, with a weapon or shield placed in the main hand and a secondary hand. The light attack and heavy attack are performed with the left mouse button, while the secondary hand trigger allows for aiming or using an Ability. The equipment system is simple and straightforward.
What is the dual delay in Valhalla?
The Dual Style is a multi-head tape echoes device with separate delay controls for left and right channels, DELAY L and DELAY R. Each channel feeds back on itself, ensuring no cross-feedback. The modulation waveform differs between the two channels, resulting in a unique ping-pong delay sound. The DELAY knob controls the delay time of the left channel, while the right channel’s delay time is set using the RATIO control. The feedback paths of the left and right channels are combined via a unitary matrix.
Setting RATIO to 61. 8 results in a pseudo-reverb sound. The left and right inputs are summed, sent into the left delay, and the feedback goes into the right delay. The WIDTH control can be set to -100 for different ping-pong rhythms. The device also features TAP A/B/C/D buttons to switch on/off individual tape heads, and the SPACING control to adjust the spacing between channels. The REPEAT/SWELL button changes the feedback behavior of the Quad mode.
Does Valhalla delay have ducking?
The ValhallaDelay update introduces a 1-knob ducking control, eliminating the need for threshold, attack, or release controls. The new Mac installers are notarized and stapled for Catalina, allowing users to run Catalina on new Macs. The update includes customer-requested features like a tape echo with less noise, a brighter BBD mode, and ducking. The 1. 5. 2 installers are available in user accounts of all ValhallaDelay owners, and demos are available. The update is a result of extensive research and development.
How does a reverser work?
Internal thrust reversers redirect airflow through openings in the engine shroud, while some turbojet and mixed-flow bypass turbofan engines use pneumatically operated clamshell deflectors. Reverser ducts can be fitted with cascade vanes to further redirect airflow forward. High-bypass turbofan engines often use a cold-stream reverser, which redirects only the portion of airflow from the engine’s fan section that bypasses the combustion chamber. Engines like the A320 and A340 versions of the CFM56 direct airflow forward with a pivoting-door reverser similar to the internal clamshell used in some turbojets.
Cascade reversers use a vane cascade uncovered by a sleeve around the perimeter of the engine nacelle that slides aft by means of an air motor. During normal operation, the reverse thrust vanes are blocked, but when selected, the system folds the doors to block off the cold stream final nozzle and redirect airflow to the cascade vanes. Cold-stream reversers are less effective as the exhaust from the combustion chamber continues to generate forward thrust. They can also redirect core exhaust flow if equipped with a hot stream spoiler.
📹 Valhalla VintageVerb: Why is everyone in love with this thing??
In this video we explore the most popular reverb on the planet right now: Valhalla VintageVerb. Valhalla DSP describes it as a …
Live and studio guy here 40+ years- You’re standing in a large room, first thing you hear is a delay slap from the back wall (with much less highs than the original), then that delay bounces around and decays into reverb. I put a delay on the vox (250-450 ms, depending on tempo), roll off everything above 5k, then feed that delay into the reverb, the reverb having a bit more pre-delay. This is how delay and reverb develop in a room. Using this live also puts distance between the original and the effect, warms up the DDL and verb, and reduces the chance of feedback, as effects in a live mix will destabilize an otherwise stable vocal mix. This also makes the original very clean as there are no immediate effects to clash. I do like your suggestion here ‘tho, as it does emulate that distance between the original and the effect, and also cleans up the vocal as it’s happening.
What I hear is different styles. One is more reverb and spacey, the other one is less reverb and more in the face with a little not pleasantly compressed sounding, that indeed sound like dua lipa’s. I personally liked the reverb one. But that’s just my preference. As a producer I have to know how they do it and understand it more. I appreciate the tutorial.
Yep. Really old trick. And pre-delay on the reverb. You can also set up two identical reverbs but set one to early reflections and the other to tail only. And get depth that way by putting different vocals and other stuff into different percentages of early reflections and reverb tail. Using both trucks at once create a lot of perceived depth in the ‘room’.
This definitely cleans up the vocal really nicely, but the original tone is also really fun. I don’t think either is better, it just depends stylistically what you’re going for. The superwashed vocals on the original is really nostalgic and messy, the sidechain compressed vocals are very The Weeknd and sound fantastic and clean.
This has given me an idea to do this for lead guitar work too! When playing huge flurries of notes the delay and reverb can turn everything into a bit of a blur, but you still want that added sustain of the reverb and delay when the notes are ringing out – I think I can do this in real-time with my Fractal Audio AXE FX II unit. Cheers from sunny old (for once this year) Cambridge!
I record my vocals and guitar parts at home on logic to a guide drum and click track before sending to my producer who does all the amazing magic that guys like you bring to make my average vocals sound far too good haha. Love this trick though – so utterly noticeable the change in clarity that putting the compressor in front on the vocals via buses. This is why I “stay in my lane” and know my place is to write and perform the song and let someone who understands my music and has the experience and skills to mix and produce it to the highest level. Music is a collaborative artform and without dedicated, talented people like Streaky and thousands more, I would just make rough demos instead of deeply satisfying finished tracks I, and everyone involved, can feel proud of making. What I’m saying is, as much as I find what you wizards do fascinating and need to know the basics to get a decent recording of my tracks done, once I have done my job I need to let the pros take over and offer my input when it comes to the final mix. I think too many people try to be jack of all trades and master of none these days. Gawd bless you sir and all other who sail the high seas of mixing and producing. Us howlers and twangers would be nothing without you 😎😎😎😎
Brilliant, clear example. I watched, then immediately jumped over to my DAW to pull up my last mix. I went to sidechain and … very unfortunately it doesn’t have side-chaining (Vegas Pro). But still, when I send 100% of my dry vocal signal to a bus, put 100% wet reverb on it, and then quickly and heavily compress the reverb effect before blending it back in, this does the trick pretty damn well. Still gives me the clean yet lush result you hype, way better results than a straight reverb blend, and a big improvement even without the sidechain. Thanks so much for the brilliant insight!!
This is really cool thanks for the demo. An add on to the trick for singers who throw away the last note on a line or go flat is to bring the full reverb back at those instances. That brings up a whole new continuity issue with the mix as a whole but it can be useful. Especially when working with indie singers.
Thank you so much for another a banger article you truly are one of the gems on YouTubes when it comes to producing and mixing I’ve been doing this for years and years and I’ve seen a lot of crap articles 20 minute long articles and there’s only maybe two minutes of gold and I had to sit through it to get to it. Blah lol Anyways thanks for cutting through the fluff! Much love from Detroit! Streaky!
This is a really great tutorial, thank you! I’ve been ramping up to upgrade my home studio techniques and there is just so much information out there, it can be a bit of an overload, which can lead to production paralysis (& me in a corner with an acoustic guitar, not actually recording anything). I’ll be keeping an eye on this website!
My 2° time in a professional record studio i was astonished by the signal processing of one of my guitar solos, the tech guy just mentioned something about a room reverb “closing” a previous big hall reverb, but tonight u’ve exposed what really happened that afternoon there. I’ll start right now to dive into this deep field, thx a lot!!!
Oh, ok. So you can either add too much reverb to the track and then automated to come up in the Empty spaces Or you can automate automated by ducking it with a compressor So you don’t have to change your automation if you change your vocals later And you get the right amount of reverb over the vocal And extra river tail after the vocal. Nice
I’ve been doing this for decades but these days I use Sonible Smart Comp 2 in Full spectral Mode, it makes the ducking far more transparent and the (sometimes) pumping effect disappears completely, methinks I wrote a similar comment to your kick/bass ducking „trick”, I don’t see it so much of a trick as just using the tools you have properly, but I suppose many of your viewers want there to be some kind of „Magik” to mixing and mastering instead of good engineering and physics….😂😂😂😮
Hpf. band passing. Predelay control. Blending og vocal back in.. Adding overdrive.. Checking phase alignment.. Doubling.. All good things.. But over producing sounds like ass.. Extra live mics in the room.. Is good for widening your sound.. Good production.. Means just fixing the problems.. simple layering.. And mastering
Great trick indeed. Sidechaining is the most important step to get extremely loud EDM mixes. Now this is a nice sorta Nu-Disco track and that in your face agression isn’t that important but still. Multiband-sidechaining just the lowend forexample is a really great tool to get some extra loudness out of the mix, but you’ve probably covered that in a article already. Kids have no idea how blessed they are to get articles like this for free. I had to work and experiment to learn these things back in 2006. When i started doing some EDM stuff! This specific vocal/reverb trick was very common for lead sounds back then in Hard Dance songs!
Yeah Streaky pro as ever. In fact I know alot too now and using fl studio i got a sidechained reverb preset for patcher that uses way more less cpu!? So if i put a compresor like this after that, isnt it somehow the same!? One thing I Noted for myself while reading others coments, is that well I lack and dont know to much, working with sends like delay to reverb etc. You shall make e article for sends😅
Heard about this before, but no one explained it as well as you! Thank you! Immediately tried it out and ran into a little problem: When sending different vocal tracks to the same reverb bus, it obviously only reacts to the one that’s sidechained. How would I best fix that? Set up a different compressor for each track on the reverb bus? I’d have 3 compressors stacked and it each would only react if needed. That the best option?!
I’ve been doing this sidechain trick for a while now (and also with kick and bass). One of the issue with this is that if the vocal source of the compressor is louder on a word or a syllable, the reverb will be ducked harder than with a softer sang note. This in turn sometimes yield a reverb that is more present on softer sang words and less present on louder words. That can be annoying. Playing with threshold and ratio does help, but it’s not easy to get it to work flawlessly. Same goes for kick and bass I find…
Nice tip! I’m trying it in Studio 1, I got it to work but it’s pretty fussy to get it just right. I suppose you could manually draw envelopes too. Edit Okay so I gave this some thought, besides your technique you can manually draw envelopes which gives you more control but takes more time, you can also carve out your effects with EQ in the sweet spot for vocals, like male vocals 1500 to 2200 Khz range. All three will give slightly different results.
“Vocal trick they ALL use” Well thank you for telling me what I shouldn’t use then. I definitely don’t want my vocal track sounding like every other song out there. The industry has had enough “standards”. It’s time for people to start thinking outside the box. I’ll go first… then you can all copy what I do 😂
Loudness in all new commercial songs make these more distorted and also the gain that is at 98-99. Older songs from cds had gain 95-96 and not clipping. Also new songs have more low frequencies and hard bass, some of these are lofi. New vinyls that they are very expensive are listened like mp3s even in expensive stereo systems.
‘Secret trick’ wtaf are you talking about? There are no ‘tricks’ in music, making out that there are tricks, secrets and hacks is ridiculous. There is theory and technique. Imagine being new to the world of music production and being told you can’t do something because you don’t know the ‘Secret trick’ 25+ years of expirence and you’re calling it a trick. Sad, very sad.
Back in my prehistoric days of the 50’s/60’s/70’s, there was all this space echo, or at least some sort of reverb on the vocals…then suddenly, there was this horrible ‘dead’ sound on the vocals. Now I see singers are starting to use more reverb or echo again. Thank heavens. The dead sound is so annoying and so boring.
I need more info on the side chaining part. You go up to the drop down menu and side chain to a vocal side chain that seems to have been set up prior to adding these compressors or something. How do I set it up to be able to do this? Also, can I assign this side chain to multiple vocal tracks on the same buses? If anyone can help thanks for the info!
Or you could just setup buses to the reverb and to the delay, reduce the amount of both on the track, and increase the bus levels where you want more of each to be heard (draw in the sections where you want them on the bus levels). Personally, I compress the vocals before I do anything else. No sidechain. Then I apply EQ on the track and bus effects sends…
Honestly? Miley’s vocals have turned into weird noises lately, does she have issues with her vocal cords? Like it’s been so estranged from itself and she now sounds completely generated and not like a human being. Specifically the song “Midnight Sky”. Of course there is just a ridiculous and comicly large amount of autotune, but the timbre of her voice in that song sometimes sounds like she’s pathologically trying to strain or clench her voice box, it’s especially annoying when played on small speakers.
I watched this in the hope of getting answers to why, on Heart fm there is lots of songs with really whiny female vocals. IE Rhianna, switch disco, loreen, pink panthress. They all sound the same to me. it must be a sound that only women like to get them hooked on that crap because i hate it. Probably excessive autotune but what do i know. 😊
Good trick, but it sounds a bit unnatural, because this would never be possible in a real reverb hall. So the ducking of the compressor should not be too much I think. Another possibility that a lot of reverbs and delays offer is to use a longer pre-delay phase. Depends on the vocals if this could be a good alternative or supplement.
Auto tune. Live it does not sound the same. Just like now the singers n sows are pre recorded but not lips sync- and they all claim it was not honest for milly Vanille to lip sync. No wonder music is dying. Just like every new song is not new just over produce sample from when there was creativity, ingenuity, emotion, the love of music( not money)and true artists.
Great tip. I am using Relab LX480 dual engine V4 with twin delay ping pong and Random Hall HD stereo configuration. I used a preset that was similar to what I wanted, did some edits like adding that Random Hall HD, changing some timing, and EQ. It’s on a send website with compression sidechain. For me, this LX480 is then easy to blend in.
This is my go to reverb. Interestingly enough, all the cons you listed are actually pros for me. I do have reverbs like FabFilter Pro-R which has all those parametric controls that you list, but I hardly ever use it, simply because I just prefer the sound of Valhalla. For further shaping, I usually insert an EQ before and after the reverb (I tend to do this with other plugins on the send FX bus as well). I feel like NOT having those things built in, allows me to use the right tools for what I want to do, tonal shaping, compression, ducking, maybe even distortion, pitch shifters etc. So yeah, the simplicity in itself is a forte as you don’t get bogged down with constant tinkering, get the stuff done and move on. That’s my take. Love their ethos and I have all their plugins.
To the developers defense I would say most of the downsides you listed can be solved while using the verb on return track and I would say with all these additional features the plugin would get too clustered, I kinda like the way it is now,it’s clean and it stands out. Just my opinion. I really like your voice btw
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do more articles in this series!!! I love this series!! it is so informational and it really helps people get a better understanding!! I am such a huge fan of this series and I am so glad something like this exists. I love that you cover plugins that beginner engineers like me want. Decap, Q-3 and stuff! This is a great review of the program and also an overview and use of the plugins. I love it so much!!
I use this plugin all the time. The fact that a $50 plugin completely out performed my $300 guitar pedal really opened my eyes to the quality of this current generation of DSP. Ableton Live 11’s new convolution reverb is also a stellar stock effect. Between the two it’s all I need (except maybe a real spring reverb).
You’re right about the BassFreq and BassMult, Freq is a crossover point and Mult is a multiplier on the set decay time. those are important because, in general, in real rooms your bass frequencies will linger on for longer than everything else (higher frequencies lose energy quicker, etc… a bunch of physics reasons for that).
I can see why this is so popular. It sounds great, has lots of different algorithms and extensive controls in a simple interface, and isn’t expensive. I like convolution reverbs myself, as they’re even simpler to use with just a few parameters once you find an IR you like, but not really an experimental tool like the VintageVerb. Thanks for the demo.
Valhalla makes some of the sweetest plugins. Great sound and super light on the cpu. I have their delay. Vintage and plate reverbs. I also have their amazing free plugin reverb/Delay which is what led me to buy a bunch of their products. I have other reverbs i also use depending on the sound im looking for but these have become go to verbs and delays for me. I actually hadn’t realized there wasn’t any documentation since i rarely RTFM any more and just stumble my way through the features. It would be nice to have for a deeper dive which I occasionally do if i cant figure something out. I also tend to find presets i like and tweak to get the reverb i want. I don’t t often build one from scratch.
Enjoyed the depth of the review… I can tell you love reverbs. This plugin sounds fantastic. It’s sometimes a little harsh on the high end but can be tamed (usually). I think any more parameters would be overwhelm. I also EQ separately anyway. But I agree with you it’s a shame that it doesn’t have tempo sync – my biggest wish! I’ll also add that I’d love to see you do a article that focuses on more practical application of the delay (on vox and other things), as well as shorter length times… The long decays are amazing to hear the quality but something most wouldn’t use often in a mix. Thanks!
You are right about the bass freq and bass multiple. The power of the old verbs from Lexicon is that you can control the length of the decay for bass, mid and high frequencies. This can create spaces close to the real thing,but also spaces you would never hear in the real world. I actually won’t buy reverb without those parameters now.
Valhalla Vintage Verb is on all my radio singles. I purchased others, but Valhalla always does the trick. So fast do dial in the right reverb. I agree though on the missing EQ (for example a bell would be great to dip some offending frequencies) and missing ducking possibility. Many modern mixing engineers put Verbs in the insert and not only 3 sends for everything like in the old console times. So ducking would be great, not having to create a send with sidechain compression every time. The rest is just fabolous, and honestly documentation of the plugin is not really necessary, as most parameters we know and are self explainable.
Did a quick google search and found this: valhalladsp.com/2011/05/18/valhallaroom-the-late-controls/ Bass Mult: adjusts the decay time for the low frequencies, relative to the mid frequency decay time set by the DECAY slider. Examples: A Bass Mult setting of 0.5X, and a DECAY setting of 2 seconds, will result in a low frequency decay time of 1 second. A Bass Mult setting of 2.0X, and a DECAY setting of 2.0 seconds, will result in a low frequency decay time of 4 seconds. From a physical perspective, Bass Mult settings >1.0X are useful for emulating halls and other large spaces, while Bass Mult settings <1.0X can be useful in emulating smaller spaces. From a perceptual perspective, Bass Mult settings greater than 1.0X add more "warmth," while settings less than 1.0X create "clarity." Bass Xover: controls the crossover frequency, in Hertz, between the bass decay (which is controlled by Bass Mult times DECAY) and the midrange decay (which is controlled by DECAY). Generally speaking, this is most effective when set somewhere between 300 Hz and 1500 Hz, but values outside of this range are useful for special effects.
How does this compare against the Eventide Black hold Reverb plugin? I have Valhalla Vintage verb and use it a lot but I feel like I’m missing something with it…so I’m trying to find something that will fill out what Vintage Verb doesn’t do…..Blackhole is on sale for $30 right now and normally is $200.
I have a suggestion for people looking for a nice algoritmic reverb at a VERY low price, that is Phoenixverb from Exponential Audio (I’m not sponsored, I’m noone, who the hell would ever sponsor me?😂). I bought mine in offer at Plugin Boutique at 8.03£, that I guess is around 10€, and this thing sound great for me. It has such a huge amount of controls and preset that my feeling is that you can do almost anything I want with it, with a great sound quality. Maybe you could be interested in doing a review on it but first of all I suggest you try it, for me it has an AMAZING quality/price rate that makes me feel I can save my 50 bucks and have more fun. Am I wrong?
It is a very good plugin but its vintage nature is right there in the name- so I find that hard to be a complaint. I think the main drawback against it is actually the price!: I got waves H verb for less than $30 during one of their sales. And that Reverb really is a fantastic, next level plug-in with all the GUI feedback you would ever want and more features you could ever want.
Thank you for this article. It is succinct and helpful. I do use VVV and really love it. I guess I come from that era …ie the 70’s, so maybe there is a sense of comfort in that somehow. I also have Valhalla Room and I use both but I particularly like VVV. It just seems to work. The free stuff from Valahalla is pretty interesting too. They are a good company with the right attitude.
Great review ..I was at a zero interest level at first sight of interface and initially put off by the vintage nature of sound ..I actually still have PTSD, lol, from the seventies, playing in bands and using bad reverb units. I think Pink Floyd and the amazing Nektar had all the good ones . You have however shown this plugin has its own,authentic character. I loved the work with the band pass filters and the brilliant exposition involving the organ . The thing is none my reverbs can do as well as what this plugin achieves in 70’s mode. It therefore will have applications for many folks and almost certainly for many performers. I agree the lack of manual is a massive oversight, for me, unless it’s Jack zip simple to operate I will not purchase any app or library which isn’t shipped with a full manual. 🙏🙏🏿👏👍🎩🦄🎶
#1 I couldn’t get Vintageverb to sound good and I REALLY TRIED. The “now” setting is supposed to give you that modern clean clear open shimmering vibe that I love to hear on ballads, (Valhalla shimmer is great) but the VINTAGEVerb still just didn’t work for me. #2 I tried every reverb under the sun after upgrading my studio and DAW but it wasn’t until I heard the Valhalla PLATE that I was STUNNED! Vintageverb has plates but they’re not even the same animal! It’s amaaaaazing! #3 While I love my UAD Lexicon 480L & 224, they were expensive even on a massive sale with coupons and I wouldn’t have purchased them if I’d tried the plate first. I actually use Valhalla plate most because the UAD version eats lots of DSP power and Valhalla plate just works and it’s easy on your CPU power…but I usually blend them together to get a more diverse vibe and that’s cool. But I’m weird like that. My point her is If you love the vintage verb….AWESOME! But if you haven’t tried their plateverb….do it! You’ll love it!
Easy trick for the lack of the BPM locking for pre-delay / decay time: use a delay plugin with msec to note value conversion and just copy those values over to the VV plugin. For example the stock pro tools delay will just tell you how many milliseconds a 16th note is at your session BPM, even when it’s bypassed
am gonna be honest, you having an issue with it not having a parametric EQ just kinda sounds well…… whiny tbh it tells you exactly where the EQ is goin as you move em, This should not be a problem for you, if you’re unable to tell where its going, you need to learn what frequencies are where, since it actually shows you them as you move it via the numbers am Technicly still new to this, but even this i could tell was just…. no Also the host tempo thing just seems.. also odd Considering what Reverb is suppose to be that just makes actually no sense to me
I own this – I think it’s so lovely! I sounds great on my vocals and essentially almost everything I put it on. But I 100% agree about the ducking thing!! Really ducking annoying right?! 😅 it’s such a basic feature and they do have it in delay like you said. I wish they’d put it in here! Quick Q… have you tried Valhalla room? What’s your opinion on it? I’m debating whether or not to get it to add to my growing reverb collection as im such a fan of this one and shimmer too. But I wasn’t sure about it on the trial.. anyway would love to know your thoughts on it! Great article btw. You have z very calming presence and reviewing style!
Appreciate hearing the con list 1. I never bpm sync reverb. Nearly useless feature. Hardly even do it with delays. 2. With all my favorite reverbs, there is no included EQ This & others (UAD, etc). Unless you’re using Pro R for all your reverb. I prefer them not touch EQ if they are gonna put a bad stock eq & clog GUI. 3. I didn’t need a manual for this guy. Tool tips were enough. 4. I agree that the addition of ducking. Even used in subtle ways, adds useful movement. But pre delay & automation are my first defense against reverb muddiness. Ducking is the frosting on top & I wish it had it. (The delay does!) Thanks for the vid!
You know. Every youtuber at the end of their article says “Smash the Like Button and Subscribe, it really helps me out! a lot, I’d really appreciate it!” and I almost NEVER do it. But at the end of this very informative article you were just like, “thank you and….have a.. great life” as if you never expect to have your viewer to ever come back. That made me laugh enough to actually click the like button and Subscribe. Excellent website.
BassFreq sets the frequency, where below of it, the decay time is multiplied with the BassMult value. Piece of cake 🙂 You can control the decay time seperately for the “low” frequencies. Since it goes up very high, the word Bass is misleading. Give it a try, by setting BassFreq to max, Decay time to max = 70s, and the BassMult = max 😉 Or set BassFreq very low while feeding something with low end into Valhalla, BassMult = max and a playaround with the Decay. Have fun listening to the low end trail 😀
I like the Stevie Wonder song jammin, the reverb is two delays the first is hard right then the second is hard left, its such a great vocal sound on that track, really vibrant and exciting. not sure if this has the ability to do that. maybe if you have it as an aux and pan it right, then record again with longer slap back pan left, or use a ping pong delay.
I agree with the ducking totally! I don’t wanna sit there and mess with stuff tbh. I do wanna be able for any time based effect(delay and verb)to be able to sync to my song(if I desire)automatically…yeah it’s 2021! With 200 track count song’s being more common ducking is essential not to have a shit show going on, and I don’t wanna take the time to set that up when other verbs can do it for me easily, which is why I use them more! And I want my verb to be able to read the tempo of my song and have the option to sync to that if I want! Hope your DEVS are reading this Valhalla!
Very good review, thank you. Just what I was looking for. I am looking for a good reverb but couldn’t decide so far. They all have their pros and cons, but personally I like GUIs like Fabfilter R more than this, where I can see what is happening. But then again it eats up more CPU if you have it on many tracks I guess. Also I’m not a fan of graphical reproductions of Hardware gear in software. Yeah it looks nice, but as long as I cant touch it with your hands, I dont need photorealistic “knobs” on the screen (just saying in general, not the valhalla verbs). Subscribed btw! 👍🏻
Thanks for such an informative article. About the cons part, I can understand your point about all the missing functions such as parametric EQ, sidechain,…but I think since we are using parallel processing, we can add EQ and a sidechains plugin to the send website before the reverb which can fill in the missing function of this plugin.
I tried and purchased it based on this article. Sounds great. But observed in FL Studio after re-opening a project, the first time I click to view the plugin the PRESETS: incorrectly says “default.” I close then re-open the plugin and then it shows the correct saved setting. Submitted the problem. As long as second-open always works and settings are really saved, I can live with this until they fix it.
I have indeed been seeing it everywhere and it’s quite easy to understand why, just sounds super cool. As for control, it personally has pretty much everything I’d want in a reverb personally, and having heard Sean Costello (Valhalla’s algorithm designer and CEO) talk about UIs, turns out he just wants it simple, doesn’t like to have a million things to look at which I think is fair too. For ducking I don’t know of any plugin that actually has this feature built in, even Pro R doesn’t. If you want this ducking thing to me just release time wouldn’t be enough you’d also need to be able to control the ratio and the threshold, and then it basically becomes a whole compressor on its own. Which is why people often put a compressor on their reverb bus, it makes sense and it doesn’t bother me not to have that in my reverb
Concerning the lack of documentation: Couldn´t we look at documentations of the original hardware to get an idea of what these knobs might do? They seem to be really protective of this info. Probably because their stuff can´t be reverse engineered easily this way. Anyways if you like REALLY want to know what these knobs do, you should take a look at documentations of the most popular reverbs used in the 70s and 80s
Thank to so very much, Geoff! This was VERY informative. I am actually weighing the purchase of the Lexicon Native Plugins hopefully within the month so that I have referenced reverb tools which are super-familiar to the ear. Valhalla is on my “To Purchase” list. But, I am still acquiring my initial tools. so this is all being a very tricky, surgical, purchase by priority of sales/discounts based upon needs process. BUT, I do look forward to someday owning these.
Try Exponential Audio R4 if you’d like a reverb with a built-in EQ, temp synch and a whole bunch of other stuff. It’s also a model of the old Lexicon reverbs (480, 224 etc) but Michael Carnes actually worked on those 80s Lexicons (he was at Lexicon for a long time apparently) so you might even get the benefit of actual algorithms since he would have insider knowledge. I like both but I work almost entirely on electronica so realistic reverbs aren’t all that appealing to me. Valhalla is faster to work with while the R4 has the edge in terms of sound quality but is a bit more cumbersome.
With predelay you primarily choose how far away the listener receives an audio source. No predelay means far away and the more predelay the closer the source seems to be positioned in front the listener. Usually you don’t (except for special effects) need to calculate the predelay as it’s used for letting transients through or not without being affected by the wet effect. Rythmical effects are better dialed in by ear anyway to make them less static imo. If everything is synced to the host, it’s getting robotic very fast. The bass options simply are there to prolong or reduce the length of the amount of bass in the reverb tail. In a real room the bass frequencies usually have a longer tail until they fade out as their wave – cycles are much longer than the ones of higher frequencies. The bass modifiers give you the option to get a good tonal balance between high and low frequencies in the dampening section. As usually when the tone is dampened, the higher frequencies are affected much stronger and the bass multiplier helps here in balancing. It’s a great feature. I’d like to be able to switch the EQ pre or post. It’s great to have seperate ER and LR control as that is a huge part in shaping depth perception and positioning the reflection into a space you create for a mix. As the VVV is a real character reverb and I don’t like to use such noise based reverbs when needing long trails, it’s just perfect for doing dry reverb stuff with reverb times around 100ms (in this case a bit longer), as the tonal shaping qualities here are just excellent to add body and weight to a source or change the tonal balance.
It’s a decent, but unremarkable reverb plugin, IMHO. I don’t think it’s bad, but I’m not sure it’s worthy of the hype. I’ve used it on a couple tracks, but my go-to for pure sound and functionality is either Tsar-1 for vintage sounds, and Baby Audio’s “Spaced Out” which is a wonderful plugin for the $$. The latter has all the control of Valhalla with some better novel features and a killer delay section.
It got popular because of internet hype. Youtube has become a sales advocate for people doing reviews with commission BIT-LIES in the descriptions to make a buck. I don’t believe any reviews when people are trying to make a buck off the review. This reverb is basic and no better than stock. You can do a lot better if your gonna pay for a reverb. Just my opinion, but it’s almost 2023. The graphics of a plane Jane circle for adjusting parimeters is so windows 8 looking. Just my opinion, but in modern times plugins need to look good too. This looks uninterstingly horrible.
I am a 60 yo sound engineer…been there since 1984…So I got Lexicon 224, 300, 480L, 960, Bricasti, AMS, EMT, TC Electronic 6000, even an Orban spring reverb… Did not have ” parametric Eq” in those units…And if there was, we didn’t care about it 😁. So I get your downside points but as for getting good reverbs with a good source, those multiple tweaks you’re talking about are in my opinion ” outside” the realms of what is a reverb. I work with Valhalla reverbs and they sound as good as any other big names plugins…As you stated, the other ones cost 4 or 5 times more…For features not related to the sound quality. These tweaks were born under the DAW generation and they exist because they can…Not because they are needed. Do productions sound better in 2021 than they used to before those tweaks were implemented ? For $50 I personally don’t see any downsides at all…😉
So many demos only demo the plugin in solo tracks. Reverbs need to be demoed in the context in the mix. I find Valhalla’s verbs to be bit overbearing and need a lot of carving with EQ to get them to fit into a mix compared to let’s say Tai Chi, which fits pretty quickly. The modulation is also a bit heavy-handed and a little goes a loooooong way.