Is there anything Valhalla Delay can do that EchoBoy can't?

[markadak]

I have a couple of Soundtoys plugins, but have been eyeing getting the whole bundle including EchoBoy. I realize I've had VST GAS lately and will likely want to trade/sell away redundant effects. I bought Valhalla Delay along with Vintage Verb a few months ago, and I use them on nearly everything, but since EchoBoy seems to be a really good delay as well, would I significantly lose any unique functionality/characteristics (other than the super slick UI) by getting rid of Valhalla Delay? It's a fantastic plug-in, I just want to slim down on my creative FX toolset

Does anyone have both and reach for one or the other for a particular sound? I've watched some videos and seen some examples of coloring or adding character to sounds using both. I personally like both ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[vitocorleone123]

I'd keep Valhalla Delay over Echoboy, but they do have overlap. Echoboy remains very popular for a reason.

I also have a couple Soundtoys plugins and am generally looking to sell them vs. others that I like a lot better (I'll keep MicroShift - I just like the way it sounds) I guess I'm heading the opposite direction! Heh. Philosophically, Valhalla isn't mean to be an end-all-be-all... Sean has stated that if you want saturation, compression, etc. etc. then you add them before or after. Soundtoys has more of that, in my opinion, built into their plugins. I think the UI is also a big part of it, to me, that separates them. Valhalla Delay has a modern UI, Soundtoys is old and small and harder to read and use in comparison.

Honestly, you'd gain some things and lose some things, as there's a fair degree of overlap as I remember it as mentioned earlier. You'd have to do a serious demo of Echoboy and compare it. For basic reverb duties, they're both amazing. It's at the "edges" where the differences start appearing.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I have both and it's ValhallaDelay all day every day over here. EchoBoy just doesn't get used these days. The vibe factor is just so strong with ValhallaDelay.

[alexishere]

I have done a heavy pros and cons between the two, tested extensively and decided to just use echoboy.

Things they have the other doesn’t;

Valhalladelay - pitch, ghost and reverse delay modes. Ratios and swells modes(though you can mimic on EB, it’s much easier on valhalla)

Echoboy - groove & feel adjustment(which I use A LOT), telephonic tones and compressed tones. FB mix on dual mode (SOOO useful for getting stereo imaging balanced).

With that said, the biggest reason to go for echoboy was workflow - being able to switch models really quickly on echoboy. On valhalla, You cant also do telephonic vocal fx though you could use a separate plugin after. You also have to click, drag and select repeatedly for each model as well as for each time period. Then there’s so many different algorithms behind age and mod controls with each time period that it’s really hard to keep track of what it does for each period.

I found the diffusion algo to be much more lush on valhalla, on echoboy it was mostly closer to smearing. So scattering delays / reverbs are done better on valhalla

About the tones, it’s debatable I’d say. But no doubt there’s more variety on Echoboy.

So that’s my findings

[Noumena]

The tape delay in Valhalla has a much more convincing wow, flutter and warble algorithm. It sounds just remarkably like my old Space Echo. That I sold 20 years ago. Because I was dumb... but it really sounds like I remember it sounding. The pitch modulation is just (to my ear) much more tape like and musical than EchoBoy... which makes sense to me as Echoboys modulation is controlled by a couple of controls in the interface that are common across all the models while Valhalla's models were hand tuned by the developer...

That said: I use Echoboy all the time as a color plugin. Turn the delay time and feedback the whole way down and set it to 100% wet and then cycle through the different models... There are some settings that just make things sound right to my ears. I rarely use it as a delay plugin these days but I use it this way all of the time.

[zvenx]

It really always comes down to taste.
I have tried to like VDelay at least three times, it always ends up unbought and uinstalled/deleted. Echo Boy and EBJnr still remains my go to Delay.
I just don't vibe with the sound of Vdelay.
rsp

[alexishere]

The tape delay in Valhalla has a much more convincing wow, flutter and warble algorithm. It sounds just remarkably like my old Space Echo. That I sold 20 years ago. Because I was dumb... but it really sounds like I remember it sounding. The pitch modulation is just (to my ear) much more tape like and musical than EchoBoy... which makes sense to me as Echoboys modulation is controlled by a couple of controls in the interface that are common across all the models while Valhalla's models were hand tuned by the developer...

That said: I use Echoboy all the time as a color plugin. Turn the delay time and feedback the whole way down and set it to 100% wet and then cycle through the different models... There are some settings that just make things sound right to my ears. I rarely use it as a delay plugin these days but I use it this way all of the time.

I definitely agree about the wow & flutter being more convincing in valhalla. It’s a difficult decision since I don’t like having too much overlap in my plugin folder

[alexishere]

It really always comes down to taste.
I have tried to like VDelay at least three times, it always ends up unbought and uinstalled/deleted. Echo Boy and EBJnr still remains my go to Delay.
I just don't vibe with the sound of Vdelay.
rsp

Just curious from having seen your posts from time to time, what does rsp mean? Your initials? Is S for your middle name then? Or respect? I always wondered every single time I read your post

[zvenx]

It really always comes down to taste.
I have tried to like VDelay at least three times, it always ends up unbought and uinstalled/deleted. Echo Boy and EBJnr still remains my go to Delay.
I just don't vibe with the sound of Vdelay.
rsp

Just curious from having seen your posts from time to time, what does rsp mean? Your initials? Is S for your middle name then? Or respect? I always wondered every single time I read your post

it is my initials.
but hmmm jamaica, respect. I could go with that one too
lol

Now you guys have me off to try Vdelay for a fourth time. Must be missing something the previous times.
rsp

[alexishere]

It really always comes down to taste.
I have tried to like VDelay at least three times, it always ends up unbought and uinstalled/deleted. Echo Boy and EBJnr still remains my go to Delay.
I just don't vibe with the sound of Vdelay.
rsp

Just curious from having seen your posts from time to time, what does rsp mean? Your initials? Is S for your middle name then? Or respect? I always wondered every single time I read your post

it is my initials.
but hmmm jamaica, respect. I could go with that one too
lol

Now you guys have me off to try Vdelay for a fourth time. Must be missing something the previous times.
rsp

Haha it reads like respect which is not bad indeed! I also probably demoed valhalla 3-4 times, same conclusion every time - EB. I love the scatter delays you can make on VD using ratios and diffusion so I recreated a bunch on EB and called it a day.

[zvenx]

I think I will buy it this time.
But I think for me, it is more for sound design than anything else.
I still definitely prefer the vibe of EchoBoy with vocals, keys and guitars (which is mostly how I use Delays), for my regular everyday sounds but if once in awhile I want something 'out there' I believe V Delay will come in handy.
rsp

[Jet Set]

Could be wrong - but don’t believe the EchoBoy does ducking which Valhalla now does.

[schpaeckulum]

They're totally different, only thing in common is both are delays. VDelay actually emulates tape and analog delays, although not 1:1 but the overall behaviour, while EchoBoy doesn't. It's just a rough approximation of that sound, but behaviour is not the same. The way to tell there's a big difference is to just listen to the repeats in both. In VDelay every repeat is further degraded/modulated, etc., while Echoboy doesn't work like that, it's just repeats.

[digitalboytn]

The best part about Valhalla Delay ?

No iLok

[4damind]

I do not like ValhallaDelay that much. It sounds different than I expected, even the PingPong Delay always sounded strange to me. I tried it several times but in the end I always uninstalled it disappointed.

Echoboy still has the best combination of simplicity and customisation and sounds fantastic. If you want it to be even simpler, there is also Echoboy Jnr. The only thing I don't like is the rather small and not scalable GUI.
ReplikaXT and Echoboy are still the best delays for me. ValhallaDelay has not convinced me here.