ValhallaRoom 1.5.1 Released. New Electric Blue GUI

[valhallasound]

No point in removing existing functionality if you ask me.

You just added this point, and it is a good one. Existing users who primarily work with inserts may be used to setting the mix level with their presets for a given sound, and to break this functionality would be a bad idea. Back to work finishing up the mix lock button.

Sean Costello

[jensa]

+1 for what Funkybot's Evil Twin are saying.

[valhallasound]

+1 for what Funkybot's Evil Twin are saying.

I'm gonna go ahead and +1 it myself.

[jensa]

I hope the lock feature is set up so that it prevents preset loading from changing the wet/dry mix, but does not prevent the user from adjusting the balance. In my mind, the intention is not to prevent the user from accidentally moving the slider! The idea is to support the workflow: <load preset>, <tweak mix>, <load preset>, <tweak mix> ... etc. without the load screwing up the mix balance. I mention this because I have another reverb that locks the UI control, and I find it frustrating to work with, and I'd hate to see the 'wrongness perpetuated'. (((Unless my opinion is against all the other users)))

I've tried to convince that other company several times but to no avail.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

+1 for what Funkybot's Evil Twin are saying.

I'm gonna go ahead and +1 it myself.

Excellent! Now +1 making an Eventide-style Harmonizer as your next plugin.

[valhallasound]

I hope the lock feature is set up so that it prevents preset loading from changing the wet/dry mix, but does not prevent the user from adjusting the balance. In my mind, the intention is not to prevent the user from accidentally moving the slider! The idea is to support the workflow: <load preset>, <tweak mix>, <load preset>, <tweak mix> ... etc. without the load screwing up the mix balance. I mention this because I have another reverb that locks the UI control, and I find it frustrating to work with, and I'd hate to see the 'wrongness perpetuated'. (((Unless my opinion is against all the other users)))

I've tried to convince that other company several times but to no avail.

Honestly, once a GUI ships it becomes harder to change, so I understand where the other company may not be able to change it. Plus, other users might be used to the existing functionality. For ValhallaRoom, this is new functionality, so there won't be any users that will be expecting a previous behavior.

I've been doing a bunch of tests of the new Mix lock in Logic, and it seems to be working well:

- When MIX is locked, the presets have no effect on the Mix setting, but slider changes and entries in the text box will change the Mix level.
- When MIX is unlocked, presets can change the Mix level.
- The state of the Mix lock, and the last used Mix level, are properly stored with the project.

The new previous/next buttons are working well. I gotta admit they make testing things a lot easier.

In addition, the text editing in the Audio Unit works much better than before. The snazzy "white text on white background" color scheme has been replaced by white text against the same charcoal gray as the background color.

Sean Costello

[randy4me]

Very nice! Trying the demo now. This will be purchased on payday! I have been using nothing but freeverbs and there is no comparison. Worth every penny!! Way under priced imo. I have not really tried any high end reverbs but could not imagine them being any better for the price. This is truly something to be proud of Sean. The cream rises to the top. For the money there should be no reason for anyone that is serious about making music not to own a copy.

Cheers,

Randy

[Exhile]

Have you checked the way Aether and Breeze handle this. That is perfect for me.

How does CPU usage compare to Aether? That could be a motivating factor for me.

[TitusRaindrops]

Damn. Why haven't I purchased this earlier?
I really love it!

I've quickly thrown a beat from a track I'm currently working on through VRoom:

http://soundcloud.com/bronto-scorpio/vroom-beat

VRoom comes in after 4 bars

Cheers
Dennis

That is a VERY USEFUL demo. I like the glitchy sounds from a musical perspective. From a reverb perspective, the loops are full of ticky little impulsive sounds, that can really bring out the flaws in reverberators. So this is a great example of what ValhallaRoom sounds like on drums. Thanks!

Sean Costello

And exactly what I meant when I said that it doesn't change what it touches by adding fake, brittle, washy wind tunnel reverb, it either leaves the original tone alone (or enhances it) and realistically places it into space. I find myself first amazed by how good it sounds and then, almost as quickly, forgetting it's there because it sounds so real and...nice.

[valhallasound]

Have you checked the way Aether and Breeze handle this. That is perfect for me.

The current mix lock in ValhallaRoom (i.e. version 1.0.4, which is currently only on my laptop) will keep the Mix level at a given setting when switching between presets, and will also allow the user to adjust the Mix level without unlocking the control.

I tested Breeze real quick just now, and it seems to lock the Mix level in place, so that you have to unlock it before adjusting it. Which is what my mix lock was doing earlier today, until it was suggested on this board that this wasn't an ideal solution.

How does CPU usage compare to Aether? That could be a motivating factor for me.

From what I can tell, the CPU usage of ValhallaRoom is significantly less than Aether. I know that Aether has a lot of quality options related to interpolation mode, and I tend to bake these choices into the Reverb Mode selection (i.e. the different reverb modes in VRoom use different interpolation techniques), but none of the VRoom modes seem as high CPU as Aether when Aether is set to its lowest CPU settings. However, I don't know Aether as well as some reverbs, so others would probably be better able to answer this.

A quick test on my system shows that the ValhallaRoom CPU is closest to Breeze, when Breeze has the control under Diffusion set to "Low" and the modulation enabled (i.e. mod depth > 0). Breeze can get both lower and higher CPU usage than VRoom, depending on the settings.

Sean Costello

[jensa]

I've tried to convince that other company several times but to no avail.

Honestly, once a GUI ships it becomes harder to change, so I understand where the other company may not be able to change it. Plus, other users might be used to the existing functionality. For ValhallaRoom, this is new functionality, so there won't be any users that will be expecting a previous behavior.

In general yes but this was when I was beta testing for them. Also, this possible-to-update-value-when-locked behaviour is an addition to the existing behavior, not a change of. So it's really only bothersome for existing users if you accidentally touch the mix knob when locked. I'm really happy we could convince you about this and the prev/next button.

Thanks!

[Bronto Scorpio]

Damn. Why haven't I purchased this earlier?
I really love it!

I've quickly thrown a beat from a track I'm currently working on through VRoom:

http://soundcloud.com/bronto-scorpio/vroom-beat

VRoom comes in after 4 bars

Cheers
Dennis

That is a VERY USEFUL demo. I like the glitchy sounds from a musical perspective. From a reverb perspective, the loops are full of ticky little impulsive sounds, that can really bring out the flaws in reverberators. So this is a great example of what ValhallaRoom sounds like on drums. Thanks!

Sean Costello

And exactly what I meant when I said that it doesn't change what it touches by adding fake, brittle, washy wind tunnel reverb, it either leaves the original tone alone (or enhances it) and realistically places it into space. I find myself first amazed by how good it sounds and then, almost as quickly, forgetting it's there because it sounds so real and...nice.

+1
It doesn't simply add some noisy reverb tail. It really puts the incoming audio into a physical space.

Cheers
Dennis

[Bronto Scorpio]

It would be really nice if there would be some audio demos on the VRoom site btw

Cheers
dennis

[krankyone]

There's another plus with this design. Sometimes I'm exploring the plugin itself, so I want to see what the patch programmer liked for a starting mix level. Other times I'm adding reverb to a specific track and I already have a general mix level in mind for my purposes.

[jonahs]

So, I made a quick recording of the noise from ES2 in Logic. http://www.box.net/shared/fk3z9azp3p 1st VR then bypassed. I've never had another reverb do this. Well, I've had some reverbs that sounded crappy 100% of the time, but not in the way VR is responding to the filter of a synth being tweaked. It's just weird.. I'm actually using the noise for a project.

Let's say I create a preset that I know sounds awesome on a piano at 32.5% wet and call it "Piano Hall." Now, three months later, I'm working on a different song and want that same really sweet piano sound, so I load up Valhalla Room as an insert and load my "Piano Hall" patch, and suddenly it's 100% wet.

Yeah, I often name presets in effects after the sounds they work with and generally I'd prefer my mix settings to be remembered.