What would you like to see from ValhallaDSP in the future?

[valhallasound]

I am sure I am in the miniscule minority in this, but I would LOVE to see a varispeed plugin that works as well as my ADATs (not to mention tape) did. I would use it all the time to hit those high notes.

I'm not sure how to pull that off in a DAW, as this seems more like part of the DAW itself. Ableton Live has some nice varispeed options available, which makes it fun to work with if you are trying to pull off that old Ween sound.

Sean Costello

[kx.001]

I just threw a vote in for pitch shifting, but I guess my eyes are playing tricks on me because I missed the weird noise texture one. Anyway, I'd love for a pitch shifting weird noise texture plugin!

I also voted for pitch shifting, but would like weird noise texture thingies too, if you accept multiple votes!

[miedex]

Would love to see a pro level creative waveshaper with different modes.

Multi Breakpoint / Freehand / Equation

with different features like smoothing/unsmoothing, flip/reverse/mirror, multiply, random etc

People are still looking for a replacement for the waveshaper in TurboSynth from 20 years ago and nobody is doing it right plus it would give you a good excuse to implement some of the digital distortion type bugs you have found while developing other plugins.

[fceramic]

I really love the FreqEcho plugin. Would be nice if you updated that one with smoother controls like UberMod.

As for a new plugin I think there's still room for something similar to The Echo (Reason) and Echoboy (Soundtoys). Vintage delays with a smooth saturation and some really unique features. The Echo in put whatever effect you want in the feedback loop and Echoboy gives you a lot of control of the delay line and multiple style algorithms from bucket brigade to diffusion. These plugs are incredibly easy and inspiring to use with no extra tabs and nicely laid out controls.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

The Eventide H8000 has 30+ years of development expertise embodied in it, and over 1000 actual effects algorithms. To put things in perspective, ValhallaÜberMod has the equivalent of 9 effects algorithms inside of it (each of the chorus modes is a somewhat separate algorithm).

In order to replicate the H8000, I would need to:

- Own an H8000. Those are still over $5K, and I don't like spending that sort of money on gear.
- Translate every module to my own C++/SIMD assembly format. This would entail figuring out how some of the trickier modules work, like the Eventide pitch detection for pitch shifting. Don't forget that they have had this running since the H949 back in 1977.
- Figure out a way of arbitrarily plugging these modules together on the fly, using a text-based layout format. Something like Pure Data would work, assuming that I made a bunch of custom externals that replicated the H8000 functions.
- Create 1000 layouts.
- Create a user interface that would work for modern plugins. I doubt that people would be happy with a 2 line LCD plus a handful of configurable knobs.

This would take me a few years.

Sean, I'm not sure we need 1000 algorithms or anywhere near it, but I'd love a similar modular approach to your plugs. If we could get the Shimmer, Room, Ubermod, and FreqEcho algos along with some filters and pitch algorithms into an easy to use modular environment, I'm sure the results would be fantastic. When it comes to something like that, you're probably not as far away as you think. You could also build it with the ability to add new algo's in the future.

Wouldn't even need to be a "next plugin" per se, but perhaps something to think about in the future. After all, you still need to put out a pitch/harmonizer plugin, the mother of all delays, a bad ass filter, etc.

[dmbaer]

Here's what I would buy in a heartbeat if it were priced like your other plug-ins. The only thing like it currently available as far as I've been able to determine is Wave Arts Panorama VST, but at $150, that one is just too expensive for my hobbiest needs. This idea seems right up ValhallaDSP's alley and I believe it would fit nicely with your other offerings.

The idea is to offer a panning VST that does two dimensions. Parameter settings would specify a room width, ceiling height, stage depth and distance of listener from the stage front. An XY control would allow you to position a mono sound source anywhere on the stage (stereo input makes no sense for this application). The VST would return the original signal appropriately panned and four early reflections: left wall, right wall, back wall and ceiling. The arrival times and level of the reflections would be computed from the parameters mentioned above. To those parameters, I think you'd need only to add surface absorption factors (either one global or three individual ones for side walls, back wall and ceiling). Finally, a parameter to specify how omni-directional the source is makes sense. A highly omni-directional source would cause a larger back wall reflection that would a source that radiated mostly forward to the listener.

I'm not talking about anything too fancy here. I'm not suggesting Dopler shifts when the sound source moves and I'm not suggesting any kind of exotic psycho acoustic manipulation. The math required is a little tricky but hardly rocket science. Some attenuation of the dry sound based on distance to the listener would probably be effective though, at least as an option.

You could get as fancy as you wanted with source position modulations (via LFO or whatever). But as far as I'm concerned, that wouldn't even need to be supported at all just as long as the XY position is automation sensitive and the source could change position during playback. Most the applications I would want if for would require just setting the position of each sound source (track) once and leaving it at that in any case.

Frosting on the cake would be inclusion of the late reflection capabilities of ValhallaRoom. I can't see that you'd ever want to combine the early reflections of the XY panner with those of another reverb.

At a $50 price, I'm pretty sure a VST like this would have the marketplace to itself.

[S4410]

One of the most interesting plugins i've heard lately is Soundtoys Crystallizer.So something like this from Valhalla would be welcomed.

[jupiter8]

I would like to see a plugin version of the Eventide H8000. Not a direct clone obviously but your take on it. I understand that isn't quite your style and there is an appeal to simple modular plugins however a large one has possibilities a few smaller ones doesn't have, like effects on feedback loops and such (FUN) nonsense. Plus you get presets with routings you'd never think of in a million years from other users and hopefully the included library.

The Eventide H8000 has 30+ years of development expertise embodied in it, and over 1000 actual effects algorithms. To put things in perspective, ValhallaÜberMod has the equivalent of 9 effects algorithms inside of it (each of the chorus modes is a somewhat separate algorithm).

Eventide themselves are being rather conservative with how they translate their algorithms to plugins. The upcoming 2016 Stereo Room Reverb would correspond to a single algorithm for the H8000, as would the Omnipressor (I think there is an Omnipressor in the H8000).

The people behind the OS for the DSP4000 and later Eventides went on to form SoundToys. And they release their plugins as dedicated algorithms, instead of modular multi-effects. Something like EchoBoy is very powerful, but it would probably translate to a dozen or so H8000 algorithms.

In order to replicate the H8000, I would need to:

- Own an H8000. Those are still over $5K, and I don't like spending that sort of money on gear.
- Translate every module to my own C++/SIMD assembly format. This would entail figuring out how some of the trickier modules work, like the Eventide pitch detection for pitch shifting. Don't forget that they have had this running since the H949 back in 1977.
- Figure out a way of arbitrarily plugging these modules together on the fly, using a text-based layout format. Something like Pure Data would work, assuming that I made a bunch of custom externals that replicated the H8000 functions.
- Create 1000 layouts.
- Create a user interface that would work for modern plugins. I doubt that people would be happy with a 2 line LCD plus a handful of configurable knobs.

This would take me a few years. In order to justify this, the price of the plugin would not be $50. It would probably be closer to the price of the H8000.

Don't get me wrong. I'd love to have that sort of horsepower at my fingertips running in a DAW. It's just that there aren't enough hours in the day to be able to pull something like this off as a 1 person company.

Sean Costello

Don't take the H8000 literally,it was more symbolic. I was thinking more along the lines of it has delays,reverbs,flange/chorus/whatever,pitch shifters,compressors,etc and as i understand it you have all that alreay.
The idea was a huge monolithic plugin that does "everything".

A direct "clone" of the H8000 would be idiotic for the reasons you already mentioned and others.

I realize that isn't your style.For one thing it would probably have to be quite expensive. And how to do the GUI i have no idea.
But i still want it.

[whyterabbyt]

One of the most interesting plugins i've heard lately is Soundtoys Crystallizer.So something like this from Valhalla would be welcomed.

isnt freqecho already something like that?

[justin3am]

One of the most interesting plugins i've heard lately is Soundtoys Crystallizer.So something like this from Valhalla would be welcomed.

isnt freqecho already something like that?

No, Crystalizer is more similar to the Granular Delay in Kore or Guitar Rig. Freqecho uses a Bode style frequency shifter, not a granular pitch shifter.

[valhallasound]

Don't take the H8000 literally,it was more symbolic. I was thinking more along the lines of it has delays,reverbs,flange/chorus/whatever,pitch shifters,compressors,etc and as i understand it you have all that alreay.
The idea was a huge monolithic plugin that does "everything".

For the time being, I am finding that having separate plugins for each function makes sense. A lot of these things don't interact with each other well in feedback loops, except if specifically programmed that way. Honestly, if all my plugins could be as simple as Boss pedals, I'd be happy. But there's a bunch of sounds you can't get with controls that simple.

A direct "clone" of the H8000 would be idiotic for the reasons you already mentioned and others.

It would still be cool, of course. I'd probably buy it. This is what Max/MSP seemed to have the promise of becoming, but after Pluggo was discontinued, that went away. And the low level blocks in Max/MSP don't have the sophistication in the areas that the H800 covers - although Max/MSP has all sorts of other things it does well.

I realize that isn't your style.For one thing it would probably have to be quite expensive. And how to do the GUI i have no idea.
But i still want it.

Me too.

My idea of a modular plugin that does a lot of things would be closer to a Synthi. Not super complicated, with blocks that are fairly primitive, but with a matrix for routing signals that allows for complicated feedback loops to be made up. I will continue to think about this, but I don't even know if it could be on the books for 2012. It takes a while to code these things and create the GUI. Which is another reason why an H8000-esque environment in software would be nice - it would make creating new algorithms MUCH easier.

Sean Costello

[justin3am]

My idea of a modular plugin that does a lot of things would be closer to a Synthi. Not super complicated, with blocks that are fairly primitive, but with a matrix for routing signals that allows for complicated feedback loops to be made up. I will continue to think about this, but I don't even know if it could be on the books for 2012. It takes a while to code these things and create the GUI. Which is another reason why an H8000-esque environment in software would be nice - it would make creating new algorithms MUCH easier.

I think there is a lot of merit to that kind of concept. Something like Audio Damage's Ronin, with a matrix mixer for audio routing and a pin matrix for modulation routing (or make audio and modulation signals interchangeable, if you're feeling very adventurous) as the main focus. Then a number of tabs (to keep with the UI concepts of Vroom and Ubermod) where you would select algorithms for each DSP block. Maybe 4 DSP blocks for processing audio and 4 for generating modulation.

If you ran with the idea of making modulation and audio signals interchangeable, there are all sorts of math functions that could be useful for processing audio or mod signals (think Kurzweil's V.A.S.T. FUNs).

When I think of a modular effect environment, the individual components don't have to be complex to get cool results... you do need to put careful thought into how things will interact but ultimately it's the flexibility that provides the desired complexity.

Look at U-He's MFM2 for example. The components that make up each of the four channels are pretty simple; 1 delay, 1 resonant filter, 1 stereo panner and an assignable FX block (with 2 parameters for each effect). The complexity comes from the ability to route these 4 channels in any way you want (tons of modulation options don't hurt either ).

Anyway, just another $0.02 from the peanut gallery.

[Shy]

Please make a plugin that could replace PanMan so that I won't have to buy PanMan for $170 after I sell the damn SoundToys Native bundle.
P.S. no, Panstation can't replace it because it doesn't have that kind of control over the panning "smoothness" and doesn't even have random panning (ffs).

[Krakatau]

It just came to my mind...

...I remember during early eithies, trying to tune the delay line using different algo from a YAMAHA SPX90 that allowed it,

this around 20 milliseconds with deep reijection ratio that turned a delay line into a sort of sympathetic resonnance, very interesting effects often unproperly called "comb filters"
To create these wonderful sitar-like drone effect It was fun to play a guitar with a dedicated open tuning through a delay line while the delay times where roughly narrowed between 5 and 40 milliseconds as far as i remember (longer delay times resulted on separate taps, shorter delay times made their responses to signal very nervous and with a too short tail)

By experience, the better responses by far, you could get of such effect was to play with the delay line tuned to the fundamental of a major scale (very likely a pure major scale), and somehow it seems difficult to recover the same intensity using multiple delay lines in a way to help you to play on different types of scale or with modal transpositon while playing

There's a few delay FX i know (Ohmygod from Ohmforce, Dronebox and Polycomb from Oli Larkin, MFM2 from U-He) that are more or less based on such technique with sometimes very clever features but perhaps still a sound quality that could be still reheased

I'm interested in it because i remember how the hardware unit react to signal in general (and when it discreetly tend to saturates in peculiar), so i thought a hi-quality sofware emulation of similar units, with it core focused on these sitar-like drones/sympathetic resonnances could be an excellent addition to our arsenal, beeing IMO an underrated effect

[xh3rv]

I feel like I might be interested in sort of an all of the above but focused on percussion (or more generally, tight/tricky/fux0red dynamics ). Just a passing thought.