While the sonics are very impressive, we still think there's room for improvement in terms of functionality, so let's hope a future revision takes the niggles mentioned onboard.
![valhalla room reverb valhalla room reverb](https://d29rinwu2hi5i3.cloudfront.net/article_media/887c2824-4fb8-4d67-9624-06c25a37aebf/w768/valhalla_shimmer.jpg)
![valhalla room reverb valhalla room reverb](https://d29rinwu2hi5i3.cloudfront.net/article_media/c5c69eb7-2d67-4813-b573-308dd593bc1d/w768/valhalla_vintage.jpg)
You can even coax beautiful chorus effects from it by setting Depth to zero and increasing the modulation amounts. Even so, ValhallaRoom tends towards the hyper-real and lush, rather than gritty and realistic. Like most modern reverbs, ValhallaRoom's algorithms are of excellent quality, ranging from surreal glassy tones to darker, more realistic chamber-type sounds. This is especially impressive taking into account the enormous price difference. 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. Irritatingly, there's no way to return a control to the preset value (or reset it to a default), so you have to reload whole presets if your tweaks don't go to plan.Īs mentioned, it seems that ValhallaDSP's aim was to provide a versatile algorithmic reverb, and they've done a great job. On the upside, you can copy preset settings to your computer clipboard, enabling easy sharing and archiving of presets. A/B compare functions would also make ValhallaRoom a lot more user-friendly and facilitate easier auditioning of presets.
![valhalla room reverb valhalla room reverb](https://softjex.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Valhalla-DSP-–-Bundle-VST-crack.jpg)
The preset system follows the simple and effective dropdown menu route but would benefit from the sub-menu of the currently selected preset being highlighted. ValhallaRoom comes with a decent stack of presets, covering such reverb staples as room-style ambiences (which are great on rhythm guitars), effective gated reverbs for drums and spacious large halls, all the way up to huge, over-the-top FX patches like the Kingdome preset, which just cries out for long synth notes to be played into it.
#Valhalla room reverb update
ValhallaRoom's presets always default to 100%, which will be a bonus for some and a pain for others - an update with a mix lock option should be out by the time you read this. There's currently no manual, but all the controls have automatic tooltips which show up on mouseover, so that's not a big issue. We found the GUI a bit large and cumbersome - an option to halve it in size would be welcome, or even a selection of alternative skins. ValhallaRoom doesn't feature any kind of graphical display to represent the generated reverb, which leaves you to focus on its sound. You can tweak the modulation parameters, the decay across three frequency bands and more here. We love this plugin, you'll love this plugin, and at $50, it's an absolute steal.To the right of the sliders is a panel in which you can adjust the early and late reflections in more detail - the Early and Late buttons select which is active for editing. It kind of makes you wish the modulation could be pushed to extremes, too.Ĭlearly, a lot of time and thought has gone into Valhalla Plate, taking it way beyond simply a slavish EMT 140 emulation, but retaining the subtlety and nuance required of any quality hardware emulation.Īnd with so many models to call on, it goes some way towards recreating the inevitable variation between echo plates in the real world. That's considerably more than you'd be able to coax from a real plate, which opens it up to more creative effects uses. When you want to tweak, the EQ is powerful enough to curtail mid and low build-up and boost the top end for splashy effects, and the modulation delivers adequate (though not excessive) wobble.įinally, Valhalla Plate allows decay times up to 30 seconds. Valhalla Plate emulates all of this perfectly while giving an amazing amount of sonic variety from mode to mode.įrom the reasonably neutral and spacious Chrome and Steel modes, via the upfront and brighter Brass, to the darker Titanium and Lithium, the base options, even before you start editing them, are quite excellent.Įvery model has its own depth, resonant character (Osmium picks up snare body beautifully, for example) and stereo image, and our favourites are Unobtanium (quite bright and wide) and Radium (wonderfully unobtrusive). Plate reverbs typically have instant onset, short high-frequency decay (the mid-range usually defines the decay time), and a slightly weird but pleasant stereo image. Smaller settings typically creating a more metallic sound, and larger settings a smoother, denser sound. The Width control behaves as you'd expect (0% is mono, for example), while the Size control not only adjusts the physical size of the plate (not something you could do in reality), but is also particular to each model. There's also chorus- style modulation on tap via the Rate (0.05-5Hz) and Depth (0-100%) knobs, and two further decay controls, Size and Width, ranging from 0%-200%, with 100% being the default setting.