Why Valhalla?

[apunctum]

Hallo, Sean!

I wonder, why did you choose this name for your plugs?

[elxsound]

I read the title and started thinking... What did he do wrong?

Sean, do you descend from Vikings? (They are definitely in my family tree).

[Tricky-Loops]

BTW, that's the REAL Walhalla:

http://www.walhalla-regensburg.de/english/index.shtml

[valhallasound]

I came up with the Valhalla name in late 2001 or early 2002, IIRC. My wife and I were living in Ballard, which (at the time) was a predominantly Scandinavian neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. We would go on walks, where we would talk about ideas for the future, and I would discuss my plans for a plugin company. The walks would take us by a number of businesses with Nordic names and logos, so "Valhalla" seemed like a natural name.

I originally used the name "Valhalla Sound," until I found out that the name was taken by an audio services company in Arizona. I changed the name to Valhalla DSP, but my KVR name remained the same.

The helmet logo was designed by my wife in the 2001-2 timeframe. The helmet always seemed like a cool icon, but the horned helms were probably never used by the Vikings - they were introduced as part of the Romantic revival of Nordic myths, and were probably only found in paintings, operas, and "kill the wabbit."

As far as I know, I don't have any Scandinavian ancestors, other than whatever Scandinavian genes ended up being introduced into the Irish gene pool a thousand or so years ago.

Sean Costello

[ontol]

[valhallasound]

Now we know its not coding that makes your reverbs sound so great, but a spear and magic helmet.....

YES, MAGIC HELMET...AND I'LL GIVE YOU A SAAAAMMMM-PPPLLEEE!!!

[ontol]