KVR Audio

mholloway · Post by **mholloway** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 8:15 pm

Hi!

The kick and snare drum of this Skinny Puppy song (One Time One Place) have a very distinct 80's style Gated Reverb effect going on. I'm trying to figure out how they did it & recreate it using Valhalla verb plugins, but so far I can't get very close. I can get the same general thing going on, but not at all the same "color" or density of it.

My basic approach so far is Ableton, 707 samples in a drum Rack, Sending (cranked high) to a Return Track with Valhalla Plate (or Vintage in Plate mode, I've tried both; 100% wet of course) and an EQ8.

The drum samples are the Roland TR-707 / 727 (It's pretty obvious if you pay close attention, and the other perc sounds really give it away). The snare is much more processed than the kick, but both have that instant, bright dense hit of verb that also clearly sounds gated. For simplicity sake, let's just talk about what's happening to that kick drum.

It sounds like a digital Plate verb to me, but I could be wrong. You'll notice that the Verb really accounts for more of the color / timbre of the overall sound than the original sample itself. The sample basically provides the low end punch, but all the color and character of the kick is that gated verb, to my ears. But I guess that's typical of most 80s style gated drum sounds.

In all of my attempts so far, I can't replicate it very well, if at all. The verb always sounds thinner, more distant, and lacking that rich coloration going on in the original. I have tried EQ'ing the verb return to emphasize the highs, but that hasn't helped add any of the actual color. It seems like whatever verb they used is adding a lot of kinda dirty sounding harmonics, for lack of better description. My attempt just adds a more generic plate shimmer that gets gated.

I know some folks think this kind of effect is dated / cheesy, but who cares: I'd like to understand better how to use my Valhalla plugins to get this sort of sound, and what's actually going on with this type of gated verb.

Ideas? Strategies or approaches to recreate this? I also own ValhallaShimmer and UberMod, so really using any Valhalla product will do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_S8JUbzpCQ

LX_Nen · Post by **LX_Nen** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 11:03 pm

It would have to be something a fairly low budget band could do in 1986... My guess would be that there's a distortion/overdrive pedal before the reverb in the effect signal chain.

valhallasound · Post by **valhallasound** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 1:02 am

You would definitely want to use a nonlin reverb program for this sound. Try the following preset in VintageVerb:

<ValhallaVintageVerb pluginVersion="1.5.0dot9" presetName="SkinnyGate" Mix="1" PreDelay="0" Decay="0.3089999854564666748" Size="0.16799999773502349854" Attack="0.5" BassMult="0.48699998855590820312" BassXover="0.3160000145435333252" HighShelf="0.31200000643730163574" HighFreq="0.75999999046325683594" EarlyDiffusion="1" LateDiffusion="0.79199999570846557617" ModRate="0.072999998927116394043" ModDepth="0.21600000560283660889" HighCut="0.65600001811981201172" LowCut="0" ColorMode="0.6666666865348815918" ReverbMode="0.625"/>

Adjust the Size parameter to get the desired gate time.

Sean Costello

valhallasound · Post by **valhallasound** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 1:07 am

Here's an ÜberMod take on this. I've added some distortion and chorusing.

<ValhallaUberMod pluginVersion="1.0.2dot9" presetName="DirtyGate" Mix="1" Depth="0.24600000679492950439" StereoWidth="0.5" Delay="0.11389999836683273315" Feedback="0" Spread="1" Slope="0.5" Skew="0" Random="1" TapGain="0.5" Diffusion="0.65600001811981201172" DiffSize="0" DiffModRate="0.049049049615859985352" DiffModDepth="0" LowCut="0" HighCut="0.27135679125785827637" SpatialXover="0.14572864770889282227" DetuneRate="0.40440440177917480469" DetuneDepth="1" VibratoRate="0.29824557900428771973" VibratoDepth="0" OverMod="0" DriveInGain="0.50416666269302368164" DriveOutGain="0.5" DriveNoiseGain="0" FeedbackRotate="0.5" SmoothingTime="0.44404405355453491211" ColorMode="0" DelaySync="0" type="0.375" DiffEnable="1" Drive="1" DrivePrePost="0" Speed="0" InputPan="0.125"/>

mholloway · Post by **mholloway** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 1:11 am

Awesome Sean, thanks a ton! Checking these out now.

-M

EDIT: Just checked out the posted presets: hell yes!

The Vintage Verb one nails it for me, especially after cranking the Size a bit as you mentioned.

The UberMod sounds good, but the "gate" feels super fast, I'll mess about with the controls to figure out how to add some length (still kind of a Newb with UberMod).

I really appreciate your time on this, Sean, thanks again!

-Michael

How to get this sound with Valhalla Plate or Vintage?