New Valhalla reverb in the works

[caulixtla]

While Sean did not have plans to make a new reverb, circumstances changed so he ended up creating a new reverb this week which he is currently fine tuning with Don Gunn:

https://twitter.com/valhalladsp/status/ ... 1202183168

I’m looking forward to buying this new reverb — or, if it ends up being a freebie, I look forward to holding another contest here.

[rasmusklump]

For me that does not sound like a new reverb but a new reverb-algorthm for one of the existing reverbs...

[anp27]

Either way, I'm excited!

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

For me that does not sound like a new reverb but a new reverb-algorthm for one of the existing reverbs...

I know it's highly unlikely based on Sean's prior posts on the subject, but my wish would be for a spring reverb algorithm. If not a standalone plugin, then something that can find it's way into a Valhalla Delay for a Space Echo sound. Again...not very likely, but a boy can dream can't he?

[Fleer]

Sean told me to test ValhallaRoom and VintageVerb. Couldn't choose between them. Need them both as they indeed are very compatible. Would be great if VRoom could get some new love (or modes) after all those years, as it is still up there as a Costello Classic.
With VRoom, VVV and Zynaptiq's Adaptiverb, I'm in verb heaven.

[Agility]

For me that does not sound like a new reverb but a new reverb-algorthm for one of the existing reverbs...

I know it's highly unlikely based on Sean's prior posts on the subject, but my wish would be for a spring reverb algorithm. If not a standalone plugin, then something that can find it's way into a Valhalla Delay for a Space Echo sound. Again...not very likely, but a boy can dream can't he?

Yes as unlikely as it is to be I also dream of this.

[caulixtla]

Would be great if VRoom could get some new love (or modes)

It’s not possible to give Valhalla Room any more modes — all of its slots for modes have been filled up. But, yes, Sean had an version of Valhalla Room with a better (Electric Blue) color scheme a few months ago — but ended up never releasing it.

Valhalla Vintage Verb has nine slots left, and Valhalla Plate has 12 slots left.

[sfxsound3]

It’s not possible to give Valhalla Room any more modes — all of its slots for modes have been filled up. But, yes, Sean had an version of Valhalla Room with a better (Electric Blue) color scheme a few months ago — but ended up never releasing it.

Valhalla Vintage Verb has nine slots left, and Valhalla Plate has 12 slots left.

How many 'slots' in Vroom and why is this a limitation?

[caulixtla]

It’s not possible to give Valhalla Room any more modes — all of its slots for modes have been filled up. But, yes, Sean had an version of Valhalla Room with a better (Electric Blue) color scheme a few months ago — but ended up never releasing it.

Valhalla Vintage Verb has nine slots left, and Valhalla Plate has 12 slots left.

How many 'slots' in Vroom and why is this a limitation?

VRoom has 12 slots, all of which are filled up. This is a limitation because adding more slots would break things in projects using Valhalla Room. There is no way to add more algorithms without breaking compatibility.

[rasmusklump]

But, yes, Sean had an version of Valhalla Room with a better (Electric Blue) color scheme a few months ago — but ended up never releasing it.

This will be released in the near future.

[3ee]

It’s not possible to give Valhalla Room any more modes — all of its slots for modes have been filled up. But, yes, Sean had an version of Valhalla Room with a better (Electric Blue) color scheme a few months ago — but ended up never releasing it.

Valhalla Vintage Verb has nine slots left, and Valhalla Plate has 12 slots left.

How many 'slots' in Vroom and why is this a limitation?

I heard that sometimes even the simplest things are hard to implement in software development... But, I find Sean's "excuses" on basic feature implementation hard to believe, sorry! (...nothing personal of course, he seems like a nice guy.)

Nothing should be impossible if one's really interested in doing it!

So, no one hope for any features, they are not gonna happen!

I guess that he has plenty projects and ideas for future products than to be bothered in thinking to bring new features to his current line. at least at the moment

[valhallasound]

It’s not possible to give Valhalla Room any more modes — all of its slots for modes have been filled up. But, yes, Sean had an version of Valhalla Room with a better (Electric Blue) color scheme a few months ago — but ended up never releasing it.

Valhalla Vintage Verb has nine slots left, and Valhalla Plate has 12 slots left.

How many 'slots' in Vroom and why is this a limitation?

I heard that sometimes even the simplest things are hard to implement in software development... But, I find Sean's "excuses" on basic feature implementation hard to believe, sorry! (...nothing personal of course, he seems like a nice guy.)

Nothing should be impossible if one's really interested in doing it!

So, no one hope for any features, they are not gonna happen!

I guess that he has plenty projects and ideas for future products than to be bothered in thinking to bring new features to his current line. at least at the moment

Quoting my earlier reply to one of your feature requests:

"I won't be adding any new parameters to ValhallaVintageVerb, or to any of the released plugins. Once a plugin has been out for a while, it has been used in a LOT of DAW projects. Adding parameters to a plugin will end up screwing up some of these DAW projects. There is no defined way of handling parameters beyond the existing defined parameters in a plugin, so some DAWs add "invisible" parameters in there. In general, once a plugin is released and in wide use, it is too late to add parameters."

Adding new parameters isn't "impossible." It is, however, irresponsible to my existing customer base that relies on being able to recall projects that use my plugins, and have them work correctly.

In addition, I'm a strong believer in both minimalism and modularity as design principles. A plugin exists as part of a bigger system, and is almost always used in a DAW or plugin host that has a bunch of other plugins and processors available. Instead of jamming every single feature into a plugin, I'd rather focus on the parts I'm good at, and let other processing blocks handle EQ, compression, stereo width, etc. This allows my designs to be more minimal, and act as modules within a greater system.

As far as ValhallaRoom algorithm slots: In order to add algorithms to a plugin, I do the following:

- Create a parameter for selecting different algorithms
- Subdivide this parameter into a numeric range that allows N number of algorithms to be selected
- Release the plugin with X algorithms
- The number of remaining slots is N-X

ValhallaRoom was originally released with 4 reverb algorithms, and 12 total reverb slots. In the 5 years since it was released, I've added 8 additional algorithms. Back when I designed Room, I had no idea that I would fill up the number of reverb slots. Since then, I've included more algorithm slots in the reverbs I have released.

Sean Costello

[valhallasound]

Adding new parameters isn't "impossible." It is, however, irresponsible to my existing customer base that relies on being able to recall projects that use my plugins, and have them work correctly.

Just to follow up on this:

I went over to Don Gunn's studio for a little bit today. He was working on a project for a client. The original project was recorded 1.5 years ago, and the client wanted a few minor changes.

When Don opened up his Logic Pro X project, something sounded WAY OFF. It turns out that one of the plugins (a delay, from a reputable company) had been updated since he had last worked with the project. The plugin had a "Kill" switch added to it. The addition of this new parameter ended up breaking ALL of the automation for the plugin.

Fortunately, Don's a pro. He had taken a video of the automation on his cell phone for some reason (which is a really weird coincidence, but I saw the video on his cell phone) and was able to use this to rework the automation tracks, and figure out which automation track was assigned to which parameter. But it took him a fair amount of time.

Sometimes, in order to have a successful company, one has to say "no." When I say "no" to feature requests that require adding new parameters, it's not necessarily because I think it would be a bad feature. The most important feature of a plugin update absolutely has to be that it works as well or better than the previous version for my customers.

Backwards compatibility is a hugely important feature for people with legacy audio projects, especially since the introduction of non-linear editing has evolved to a place where an audio project may never be officially "complete." When a client opens up a project from last week or 4 years ago, it needs to work. Adding parameters breaks backwards compatibility, so I can't do this once a plugin has been released.

Sean Costello

[Fleer]

Couldn't it be interesting to allow new users, who are about to start their first project with VRoom, to have an updated version with a low pass filter and keep a legacy version for those who want to work on older projects?

[valhallasound]

Couldn't it be interesting to allow new users, who are about to start their first project with VRoom, to have an updated version with a low pass filter and keep a legacy version for those who want to work on older projects?

Or, use ValhallaRoom on a send, in series with the EQ of your choice! This is how reverbs were designed to be used, as opposed to a separate instance for each track.

Honestly, I feel like ValhallaRoom has received more than its fair share of my attention in the 5+ years since I first released it. I've updated it 11 times so far, added AAX versions (which are critical to those in pro studio environments, where Pro Tools is still the de facto standard) and tripled the existing algorithm count. The new GUI will bring the look up-to-date with the other Valhalla plugins. After that, apart from the occasional maintenance update, I will consider ValhallaRoom to be DONE. I will sleep soundly, knowing that I have given those that have purchased ValhallaRoom their money's worth and then some.