Tag Archives: ValhallaShimmer

Building complex reverbs using ValhallaÜberMod

The original ValhallaÜberMod concept had a fairly sparse Diffusion section, which was intended to smooth out feedback echos and add some density to chorus patches. Somewhere during the development process, the diffusion block was expanded into a much more powerful DIFF section, with each input channel being processed by a dense modulated diffusion block with variable size. The DIFF section proved useful in creating dense nonlinear reverbs, as well as lush ambient reverbs and decent plate simulations. The ÜberMod controls aren’t designed around creating reverbs, so I figured that any reverbs created with ÜberMod were a cool bonus with that plugin.

Flash forward to a few days ago, where I found myself experimenting with ÜberMod, mainly as a way of procrastinating before I get back to work on my next plugin. I started running multiple instances of ValhallaÜberMod in series and parallel, and using the sends of my DAW to control the routing and levels. To my surprise, I found that I was able to create some VERY complex and subtle reverbs using ÜberMod, by allocating different instances of the plugin for different stages of the reverb decay.

EXAMPLE 1: Medium Vocal Reverb, w/early reflections

The first example uses 3 instances of ÜberMod, running on 2 different sends. The first instance is running on its own send, and will cover the early reflections stage of a reverb:

<ValhallaUberMod pluginVersion="1.0.1" presetName="RandomizedEarlyReflections" Mix="1" Depth="1" StereoWidth="0.5" Delay="0.0476999991" Feedback="0" Spread="1" Slope="0.643999994" Skew="0.175999999" Random="1" TapGain="0.5" Diffusion="0.624000013" DiffSize="0.0163265299" DiffModRate="0.0490490496" DiffModDepth="0.5" LowCut="0.0351758786" HighCut="0.232160807" SpatialXover="0.145728648" DetuneRate="0.00900900923" DetuneDepth="0.851999998" VibratoRate="0.298245579" VibratoDepth="0" OverMod="0.0313131325" DriveInGain="0.375" DriveOutGain="0.75" DriveNoiseGain="0.333333343" FeedbackRotate="0.5" SmoothingTime="0.0990990996" ColorMode="1" DelaySync="0" type="0.333333343" DiffEnable="1" Drive="0" DrivePrePost="1" Speed="0" InputPan="0.125"/>

This preset uses the 16Tap mode, in conjunction with the DIFF section, to create a dense early ambience that abruptly cuts off after about 50 to 100 millseconds. The TAP Slope parameter is used to create the perception of a room with a short to medium decay, and the DELAY slider determines the point at which this decay is truncated. Some slow LFO modulation is used in conjunction with the MOD OverMod control to randomize the reflections.

The second instance of ÜberMod is running on a separate send, and provides the input diffusion of the late reverb tail:

<ValhallaUberMod pluginVersion="1.0.1" presetName="InputDiffusion" Mix="1" Depth="0.444000006" StereoWidth="0.5" Delay="0.00999999978" Feedback="0" Spread="0.5" Slope="0.5" Skew="0.5" Random="0" TapGain="0.5" Diffusion="0.703999996" DiffSize="0.0653061196" DiffModRate="0.0130130127" DiffModDepth="0.395999998" LowCut="0" HighCut="0.387939692" SpatialXover="0.145728648" DetuneRate="0.0370370373" DetuneDepth="0.5" VibratoRate="0.298245579" VibratoDepth="0" OverMod="0" DriveInGain="0.375" DriveOutGain="0.75" DriveNoiseGain="0.333333343" FeedbackRotate="1" SmoothingTime="0.0990990996" ColorMode="0" DelaySync="0" type="0.0416666679" DiffEnable="1" Drive="0" DrivePrePost="1" Speed="0" InputPan="0.125"/>

This preset uses the 2TapChorus mode, but most of the work is being done by the DIFF section. A fairly short DIFF size is used, with the idea being to turn impulsive sounds into a “puff” of diffuse energy. This will smooth out any reverb that this preset is placed in front of.

The third instance of ÜberMod is placed in series after the second instance (i.e. on the same send), and generates a reverb tail with a medium decay:

<ValhallaUberMod pluginVersion="1.0.1" presetName="MediumLateReverb" Mix="1" Depth="0.5" StereoWidth="0.5" Delay="0.00999999978" Feedback="0.612999976" Spread="0.5" Slope="0.5" Skew="0.5" Random="0" TapGain="0.5" Diffusion="0.748000026" DiffSize="0.240816325" DiffModRate="0.0290290285" DiffModDepth="0.5" LowCut="0.0954773873" HighCut="0.288442224" SpatialXover="0.145728648" DetuneRate="0.0490490496" DetuneDepth="0.5" VibratoRate="0.298245579" VibratoDepth="0" OverMod="0" DriveInGain="0.375" DriveOutGain="0.75" DriveNoiseGain="0.333333343" FeedbackRotate="1" SmoothingTime="0.0990990996" ColorMode="0" DelaySync="0" type="0.0416666679" DiffEnable="1" Drive="0" DrivePrePost="1" Speed="0" InputPan="0.125"/>

The above late reverb preset also uses the 2TapChorus mode, with most of the work being done by the DIFF section and the FEEDBACK control. The Diffusion is set to a fairly large size. The DIFF Size, in conjunction with the feedback and filtering, determines the length of the reverb decay. The WARP fBMix control is set to 100%, to create a figure-8 (ping-pong) feedback loop, as used in reverbs by Lexicon & Alesis.

Once you have the basic routing set up, experiment with the send levels being sent to the Early Reflections (instance 1) and the Late Reverb (instances 2 and 3). I have found that it sounds best with the Early Reflections set to a somewhat higher level than the Late Reverb.

EXAMPLE 2: Randomized Hall

ValhallaÜberMod is versatile enough that you can emulate many types of reverb structures, not just the Early Reflection / Late Reverb division of the more “scientific” reverbs. For example, Lexicon’s Random Hall is known for its high echo density, and the soft attack derived from the Shape and Spread controls. To emulate this soft attack using ÜberMod, we’ll use 2 instances of ÜberMod in series. The first is used to approximate the Shape/Spread section of Random Hall:

<ValhallaUberMod pluginVersion="1.0.1" presetName="ShapeSpread" Mix="1" Depth="0.444000006" StereoWidth="0.5" Delay="0.342900008" Feedback="0" Spread="1" Slope="0" Skew="1" Random="1" TapGain="0.5" Diffusion="0.791999996" DiffSize="0.134693876" DiffModRate="0.0130130127" DiffModDepth="0.395999998" LowCut="0" HighCut="0.975879371" SpatialXover="0.145728648" DetuneRate="0.0370370373" DetuneDepth="0.5" VibratoRate="0.298245579" VibratoDepth="0" OverMod="0" DriveInGain="0.375" DriveOutGain="0.75" DriveNoiseGain="0.333333343" FeedbackRotate="1" SmoothingTime="0.0990990996" ColorMode="0" DelaySync="0" type="0.375" DiffEnable="1" Drive="0" DrivePrePost="1" Speed="0" InputPan="0.125"/>

This preset uses the 32Tap mode, with a fair amount of Diffusion, and the TAP Slope set to -100%, to create a nonlinear reverb that fades in gradually over time.  The attack time is determined by the DELAY slider.
The ShapeSpread preset is used in series with a 2nd instance of ÜberMod on the same send, that adds a huge reverb tail to the slow attack:

<ValhallaUberMod pluginVersion="1.0.1" presetName="BigLateReverb" Mix="1" Depth="0.760999978" StereoWidth="0.5" Delay="0.00999999978" Feedback="0.768000007" Spread="0.5" Slope="0.5" Skew="0.5" Random="0" TapGain="0.5" Diffusion="0.843999982" DiffSize="0.448979586" DiffModRate="0.0730730742" DiffModDepth="0.495999992" LowCut="0.0502512567" HighCut="0.340703517" SpatialXover="0.145728648" DetuneRate="0.033033032" DetuneDepth="0.5" VibratoRate="0.298245579" VibratoDepth="0" OverMod="0" DriveInGain="0.375" DriveOutGain="0.75" DriveNoiseGain="0.333333343" FeedbackRotate="1" SmoothingTime="0.0990990996" ColorMode="0" DelaySync="0" type="0.0416666679" DiffEnable="1" Drive="0" DrivePrePost="1" Speed="1" InputPan="0.125"/>

This preset is very similar to the earlier late reverb preset, but with a much greater DIFF size setting. In addition, the WARP Speed is set to 1/2, which doubles the size of the diffusors, to create a HUGE reverb decay.

ROLL YOUR OWN SOUNDS

The above examples are just 2 quick demos of the complex reverb responses that can be generated with multiple instances of ValhallaÜberMod. For example, a longer gated reverb could be used in parallel with a reverb that incorporates DRIVE in the feedback loop, to create a reverb that starts off clean, then turns nasty after a certain amount of time.

ÜberMod is also useful in extending the capabilities of other reverb plugins. For example, the InputDiffusion or ShapeSpread examples from above can be used in series with ValhallaRoom, to create a super lush reverb that has more “standardized” reverb controls. The RandomizedEarlyReflections example can be added in parallel to ValhallaShimmer, to add early reflections to the modulated Shimmer late decay. Or combine ÜberMod with any other reverb plugin, algorithmic or convolution, as you see fit.  The low CPU consumption of ÜberMod makes it easy to use it in conjunction with other plugins.

It is worth noting that the same process can be used in the construction of all sorts of complicated sonic events, not just reverbs. ValhallaÜberMod excels at choruses, ensembles, multitap delays, echos, and so forth. By combining different settings of ÜberMod in series and parallel, all sorts of weird and wonderful sounds can emerge. I encourage people to use ÜberMod as a modular building block for creating all sorts of complex effects.

Valhalla DSP Press and Accolades

ValhallaRoom was recently reviewed by Computer Music Magazine. A few choice quotes:

There’s a Lexicon influence evident and we were able to achieve similar results to both Lexicon’s PCM Native Reverb Plug-in Bundle and SSL’s classy X-Verb. This is especially impressive taking into account the enormous price difference.

The fact that ValhallaRoom contains four different algorithms and is so competitively priced makes it a steal for anyone after a versatile reverb or something to complement their convolution collection.

A review of both ValhallaRoom and ValhallaShimmer has been posted to the Motion Pictures Editors Guild website. Some quotes:

VahallaRoom uses an algorithmic, rather than convolution, reverb.  The reverb marketplace has many fine competitors both in software and hardware, and so many of them sound really great.  But I have not heard anything short of upper-tier plug-ins like Avid’s Revibe perform such excellent sounding room reverbs.

The impression one gets when hearing them is a sound very much like the Lexicon classic reverbs––specifically the 224X/XL, the 300 and the 480L.  If this plug-in is piped into an upmixer, it would hold its own against anything out there regardless of price.

Costello’s first plug-in, Vahalla Shimmer, is similarly noteworthy.  Its focus is more about surreal reverbs and spaces, and it has a good deal of fun capabilities that can get you creating David Lynch-ian soundscapes in quite literally seconds.

Finally, BT had some nice things to say about ValhallaRoom in a recent tweet:

All of the above is in the public discourse, and stands alongside all the positive forum posts and private emails that I have received from Valhalla DSP customers. I appreciate your support! I feel very lucky that I am able to get my algorithms in the hands of musicians, and I am very grateful for all of Valhalla DSP’s customers.

Algorithmic Reverbs, Distortion, and Noise

Over on Gearslutz, AstralPStudios asked an interesting question:

When it comes to reverb, is there close relation to distortion in some ways? I guess when I’m listening to big verbs with high decay times it makes me wonder that because at times a big, wet verb can have some distortion-type characteristics.

The distortion observation is a good one, as this can often be heard with very long decays in algorithmic reverbs. In some cases, this is due to the high signal levels of the output. Increasing the decay time means turning up the internal feedback gains, and this often results in an output sound with a very high RMS level. However, even if the output level is reduced to a level that isn’t clipping within the DAW, sometimes various forms of distortion and noise can be heard. This can be explained as a consequence of the feedback nature of the algorithms, and how feedback causes the characteristics of the loop to be magnified exponentially.

Algorithmic reverbs tend to be made up of short delay lines, with LOTS of feedback applied. A good rule of thumb is that the average delay lines in a reverb are 0.1 seconds or shorter in length. In order to get a 30 second decay out of the reverb, the sound will be going around those loops (30.0/0.1) times…or 300 times. So any little quirk in the feedback path, like interpolation noise or fixed point distortion, will be increased on each pass through the feedback loop.

The earliest “long” electronic reverb sounds were based around tape delays, possibly running into a spring or plate reverb. Listen to “Creation du Monde” by Vangelis for an amazing “reverb” sound that comes from 3 RE-201 Space Echos:

The wow and flutter of the tape units, and the distortion added by tape saturation, results in a sound that is far more ethereal than 3 clean digital delay loops run in series or parallel.

The Lexicon 224 is an early digital reverb that was well known for its spacey, extra long decays (up to 70 seconds). Again, Vangelis was an early pioneer of the extra long decays using this unit, most famously in the Blade Runner soundtrack:

The Lexicon 224 used a fixed point processor, with a 16-bit word size, and a 20-bit saturating accumulator. Translated into English, this means that the 224 had about 24 dB of headroom internally (4X the max input volume) before things started clipping. HARD, digital clipping. The allpass delays used by the 224 also had fairly high internal gains, especially with long reverb times. This results in clipping at various points in the digital reverb network. Strangely enough, adding clipping into the nodes of a Lexicon-style reverb network doesn’t end up producing the classic tape echo runaway feedback at most settings. Instead, it tends to produce a somewhat higher noise floor with broadband audio signals (i.e. music as opposed to test signals).

The modulation in the Lexicon 224 also produced distortion, but of a different sort. The 224 had a quirky multiplier, which resulted in the linear interpolation being quantized to fairly big subsample chunks (I think it was 32 or 64 chunks per sample). This resulted in a “halo” of noise around reverbed signals, where the noise was less signal dependent than the clipping noise described above. The linear interpolation also results in attenuated high frequencies above 1/2 the sampling rate. Since the sampling rate in the 224 was pretty low in the first place, the attenuated high frequencies were quite audible with long decays. The noise and high frequency attenuation will increase every time it passes through the reverb network, and a 70 second decay time results in a few hundred passes through the allpass delays.

EDIT (1/24/2013): Since I wrote the above, I have spent a lot of time studying the Lexicon modulation. I think that the modulation source in the older Lexicons had a lot more to do with the noise performance than I had originally thought. The modulation in my PCM70 is noisy as all get out. The results of my studies can be heard in my latest plugin, ValhallaVintageVerb. In the 1970s and 1980s modes, I make use of this noisy modulation, which can really be heard on long sustained synth notes going through longer reverbs. The Concert Hall and Bright Hall algorithms are the best showcases of these “old school” artifacts.

Today, reverb plugins are usually programmed with floating point math. 32 bit floating point avoids most of the distortion issues found in the older fixed point processors, and 64-bit floating point can be used if absolute precision is desired. Generally speaking, 64-bit math is useful for very low frequency higher order filters, and for precise control of attack/decay times for dynamics processing – otherwise, 32-bit floating point has an amazingly high SNR. In addition, the last 3o+ years have seen a great deal of progress in delay interpolation techniques, so you can have modulated delay lines with lower SNR and less high frequency attenuation. If a DSP engineer wants to throw a bunch of cycles at their algorithms, they can come up with very clean reverbs, even with extremely long decays.

At Valhalla DSP, our philosophy is that a little noise isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and that the artifacts of the older reverbs often added some nice mojo to the signal. The high frequency attenuation of linear interpolation can result in a far less “glassy” high end than modern high fidelity interpolation techniques. ValhallaShimmer makes use of this in the “dark” color mode (the “bright” mode makes use of a more modern interpolation style).

The new Dark Room mode for ValhallaRoom deliberately introduces noise into the linear interpolation, and downsamples the entire reverb algorithm, to produce more audible noisy artifacts. As the noise is very signal dependent, and the algorithm is true stereo, this will result in different noise signals in the left and right channels, which increases the decorrelation of the algorithm, producing a very spacious feel. With short decays, the noise won’t be that audible, as it will only pass through the delays a few times before decaying away. With long decays, the noise floor builds up, resulting in a big, washy block of “spectral plasma,” to borrow a term from Christopher Moore. The other ValhallaRoom algorithms are fairly clean, but I felt it was important that users had the choice between modern clean and vintage dirty.

ValhallaShimmer used in cool PSA

Brian Trifon, one of the users of ValhallaShimmer, sent me a link to a PSA that uses Shimmer as part of the soundtrack:

The PSA is for the Mauli Ola Foundation, which exists to introduce surfing as a natural treatment to people with genetics disorders. The soundtrack was composed by Brian for Everstudio. Brian has his own blog that features electronic music production tips, so go check it out!

Some more ValhallaShimmer examples

A few people have posted examples of ValhallaShimmer in action on Soundcloud. The first example, by Paul Mimlitsch, uses a greatbass recorder through Shimmer, set to a long reverb with no pitch shifting:

The next example, from Simon Stockhausen, uses a solo euphonium, automating the sends to 5 differently tuned instances of Shimmer. The results are very Wagnerian:

The final example, from Bronto Scorpio, uses a Wavestation through 2 instances of ValhallaShimmer:

Happy New Year

Just a quick note of thanks to all of the readers of this blog, and all the people who supported Valhalla DSP during 2010. I love doing this work, and am thankful for everyone who bought ValhallaShimmer. I look forward to creating new tools for you in 2011. Have a safe and happy New Year!

As a token of my appreciation, I humbly submit my nomination for the Rick Roll of 2011. Thanks to some anonymous KVR poster for polluting my brain.

Giving the gift of ValhallaShimmer this holiday season

I’ve had a few requests, asking how to buy ValhallaShimmer for a friend, loved one, etc. It’s really easy:

  • Click on the PayPal button on the ValhallaShimmer page.
  • Click the “Add special instructions to the seller” button, and write the first and last name (or user name, or company, or whatever) of the person you want to send the plugin to, as well as an email address for that person.
  • Once I have that info, I can make out the keyfile to that person.

Hope y’all are having a happy holiday season. Here’s Drunk Orson Welles:

Rock Me Tonite

ValhallaShimmer just got a nice review from AudioNewsRoom:

http://www.audionewsroom.net/2010/12/valhalla-shimmer-review-thinking-of-eno.html

Not much more in terms of news or deep thoughts right now. I’m in coding mode, so I don’t have many interesting topics to write about. I could finish up that post I was working on back in June, that discussed how vuvuzelas and orchestras both share the characteristics that the individual partials are transformed into noise bands centered around the original partials, and that this relates to Mark Dolson’s Ph.D thesis on creating ensemble effects using the phase vocoder. However, I wouldn’t call vuvuzelas a “fresh” topic. So, here’s some videos.