Sonic Academy - Vela (Out Now!)

[Chris Agnelli]

The fact that they can't spell chapel is not a good sign

Dave Chappelle Reverb, of course....

Or even a Chappell Roan reverb.

yeah, that's an even better one - we will go with that. Bright Chappell vocal verb !

[jamcat]

From ultra real spaces to impossibly massive soundscapes Vela is unmatched in versatility and sound. Vela gives you total control over every aspect of a reverb's architecture with its fully customizable early reflection system combined with a node based late reflection engine enabling you to finely tune density, decay and damping filter over time for a luscious, smooth tail.

To me, this would mean defining the architecture of a physical room by its dimensions and materials, and placing the sound source and the sound receiver at specific locations within that space. Can you do that in Vela?

Vela can also effortlessly emulate the sound of some of the worlds most sought after classic and modern reverbs without the limitations of captured Impulse responses. Get the famous characteristic sound from the world's top reverb algorithms like Lexicons, Bricasti, TC Electronic and more.

Can Vela analyze a recording and reconstruct the reverb though ML?

[Phil Sonic Academy]

From ultra real spaces to impossibly massive soundscapes Vela is unmatched in versatility and sound. Vela gives you total control over every aspect of a reverb's architecture with its fully customizable early reflection system combined with a node based late reflection engine enabling you to finely tune density, decay and damping filter over time for a luscious, smooth tail.

To me, this would mean defining the architecture of a physical room by its dimensions and materials, and placing the sound source and the sound receiver at specific locations within that space. Can you do that in Vela?

Vela can also effortlessly emulate the sound of some of the worlds most sought after classic and modern reverbs without the limitations of captured Impulse responses. Get the famous characteristic sound from the world's top reverb algorithms like Lexicons, Bricasti, TC Electronic and more.

Can Vela analyze a recording and reconstruct the reverb though ML?

It’s less of a room simulator and more of a highly editable musical algorithmic reverb with node based control over density / decay / filters etc. kind of the same philosophy as kick to offer lots of sound design possibilities. That being said some of the rooms and studios sound amazing. Worth giving it a try.

No Ml stuff

[Tendou]

Tried it out for a few minutes. Likes the sound of it on vocals on an trance arp not so much. didnt tweak much tho. however the interdace feels kinds cluncky to me and doesnt encourage me to really try changing the settings besides lenght snd dry/wet. Dont know to me it feels kinds unintuitive in comparison to valhalla or better pro-r2. just my opinion but i will give it another try

[JerGoertz]

To me, this would mean defining the architecture of a physical room by its dimensions and materials, and placing the sound source and the sound receiver at specific locations within that space. Can you do that in Vela?

Vela can also effortlessly emulate the sound of some of the worlds most sought after classic and modern reverbs without the limitations of captured Impulse responses. Get the famous characteristic sound from the world's top reverb algorithms like Lexicons, Bricasti, TC Electronic and more.

Can Vela analyze a recording and reconstruct the reverb though ML?

It’s less of a room simulator and more of a highly editable musical algorithmic reverb with node based control over density / decay / filters etc. kind of the same philosophy as kick to offer lots of sound design possibilities. That being said some of the rooms and studios sound amazing. Worth giving it a try.

No Ml stuff

Can Vela tell heaven from hell? Blue skies from pain?
Can Vela tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil? Do you think Vela can tell?

[Phil Sonic Academy]

Tried it out for a few minutes. Likes the sound of it on vocals on an trance arp not so much. didnt tweak much tho. however the interdace feels kinds cluncky to me and doesnt encourage me to really try changing the settings besides lenght snd dry/wet. Dont know to me it feels kinds unintuitive in comparison to valhalla or better pro-r2. just my opinion but i will give it another try

Did you try “massive trance lead” or “PCM Large Plate” ? Both great for big synths… the PCM Large Plate has been a classic sound for a over decade on trance synth leads.

On more chilled arps and keys for a big spacey sound try “Big Rainmaker” this one is a another classic sound used by loads of producers from Strymons Bigsky.

[bermudagold]

To me, this would mean defining the architecture of a physical room by its dimensions and materials, and placing the sound source and the sound receiver at specific locations within that space. Can you do that in Vela?

Can Vela analyze a recording and reconstruct the reverb though ML?

agreed...this is where rayverb and rayspace were so far ahead conceptually...i think these ideas could be refined and modernized with methods and datasets available today...a blank canvas product like these for speaker cabinets to amphitheaters might find an audience for those who prefer minimalist setups focused on capability to go find their own sound as opposed to tools that quickly get you to the established sound of some famous record

[jamcat]

From ultra real spaces to impossibly massive soundscapes Vela is unmatched in versatility and sound. Vela gives you total control over every aspect of a reverb's architecture with its fully customizable early reflection system combined with a node based late reflection engine enabling you to finely tune density, decay and damping filter over time for a luscious, smooth tail.

To me, this would mean defining the architecture of a physical room by its dimensions and materials, and placing the sound source and the sound receiver at specific locations within that space. Can you do that in Vela?

Vela can also effortlessly emulate the sound of some of the worlds most sought after classic and modern reverbs without the limitations of captured Impulse responses. Get the famous characteristic sound from the world's top reverb algorithms like Lexicons, Bricasti, TC Electronic and more.

Can Vela analyze a recording and reconstruct the reverb though ML?

It’s less of a room simulator and more of a highly editable musical algorithmic reverb with node based control over density / decay / filters etc. kind of the same philosophy as kick to offer lots of sound design possibilities. That being said some of the rooms and studios sound amazing. Worth giving it a try.

No Ml stuff

OK. I'm trying to figure out what makes it special and able to do what my 48 existing reverbs can't do. How do you recreate Lexicon or Bricasti reverbs without analysis? Are you just guessing? Does Vela at least come with an extensive preset library accurately recreating the preset banks of the most famous rack units?

[bryansonic]

From ultra real spaces to impossibly massive soundscapes Vela is unmatched in versatility and sound. Vela gives you total control over every aspect of a reverb's architecture with its fully customizable early reflection system combined with a node based late reflection engine enabling you to finely tune density, decay and damping filter over time for a luscious, smooth tail.

To me, this would mean defining the architecture of a physical room by its dimensions and materials, and placing the sound source and the sound receiver at specific locations within that space. Can you do that in Vela?

Vela can also effortlessly emulate the sound of some of the worlds most sought after classic and modern reverbs without the limitations of captured Impulse responses. Get the famous characteristic sound from the world's top reverb algorithms like Lexicons, Bricasti, TC Electronic and more.

Can Vela analyze a recording and reconstruct the reverb though ML?

It’s less of a room simulator and more of a highly editable musical algorithmic reverb with node based control over density / decay / filters etc. kind of the same philosophy as kick to offer lots of sound design possibilities. That being said some of the rooms and studios sound amazing. Worth giving it a try.

No Ml stuff

OK. I'm trying to figure out what makes it special and able to do what my 48 existing reverbs can't do. How do you recreate Lexicon or Bricasti reverbs without analysis? Are you just guessing? Does Vela at least come with an extensive preset library accurately recreating the preset banks of the most famous rack units?

You can check out a bunch of audio demos as well as a blind A/B/C comparison quiz on the page if you want to hear it and how it directly sounds against those other reverbs without taking part in the beta

https://www.sonicacademy.com/products/vela

[jens]

To me, this would mean defining the architecture of a physical room by its dimensions and materials, and placing the sound source and the sound receiver at specific locations within that space. Can you do that in Vela?

Can Vela analyze a recording and reconstruct the reverb though ML?

agreed...this is where rayverb and rayspace were so far ahead conceptually...i think these ideas could be refined and modernized with methods and datasets available today...a blank canvas product like these for speaker cabinets to amphitheaters might find an audience for those who prefer minimalist setups focused on capability to go find their own sound as opposed to tools that quickly get you to the established sound of some famous record

Most people - me included - just didn't like them all that much because this sort of concept/architecture isn't really very musical - it's much rather a lot of unintuitive tweaking in search of a useable setting that more often than not isn't really achieveable. Audio-plugin users are typically musicians after all, not acoustic designers.

Either way I think it's kind of impolite to enter a thread about a certain product and start talking about something said product is not at all and clearly never will be (but then again Jamcat drops similar posts in most threads about newly released reverb plugins these days).

[billinder33]

I spent a little time with this tonight and compared it to a couple other reverbs - bx_Aura, Minimal Swarm, NeoVerb, and Shaperbox's verbs.

I'm admittedly not much of a reverb snob. I work mostly with dense music, so verbs to me tend to be more of a tail than something to be deeply contemplated and savored like in ambient music. So I generally prefer plugins with a lot of verb models that are fast to dial in.

That said, this is a really nice reverb. I actually found it pretty quick to work with despite all the options, and having the knobs trigger their associated graph is a nice touch. I hit on all the functions and there were no noticeable bugs in my ~40 minute test drive (M1, MacOS 15). Graphics were smooth and snappy. Scaling on the width was a little heavy... i.e. I wanted to add a little width but adding even a couple % was pretty drastic. I struggled to wrap my head around the filter section (rolls highs early and lows late?). Not exactly what I was expecting.

Otherwise, brilliant reverb. Love the visual feedback. Lots of great, high-quality reverb models with a decent amount of variation. Plenty of tweakability, but the parameters are logically laid out and easy to configure. Not as fast to dial in as Swarm or Neoverb, but way more options. The deesser is a nice add. The post EQ makes a lot of sense to filter out excessive junk. This would slay for ambient music.

Wouldn't be surprised if this listed in the $125 - $150 price range. If I was a reverb junkie, I'd be all over this one for sure. I don't need another verb, but I also don't own one this deep (except for maybe Pro-R) and I'm digging the interface, so its a very compelling spacial tool.

[jamcat]

[Either way I think it's kind of impolite to enter a thread about a certain product and start talking about something said product is not at all and clearly never will be (but then again Jamcat drops similar posts in most threads about newly released reverb plugins these days).

I see a clear delineation between reverb effects and “real spaces.” So when I see a developer advertising “ultra real spaces” I have to ask, “how so?” if it doesn’t actually implement the physics of sound sources in a real space.

For the life of me I can’t understand why every developer is tripping over each other to make the same modulated reverb effects. There are enough of those already, and no new ground is being covered. And yet they all want to market their modulated reverb effects as “ultra real spaces” without actually modeling the physics of objects sounding in real spaces. Not a damn one of them. You’d think one of these developers would actually try to do that one of these days since they all think that’s what sells, according to their marketing.

I don’t think it’s ‘impolite’ to ask the people who want me to buy their product about the claims they are making about said product.

[Tendou]

Tried it out for a few minutes. Likes the sound of it on vocals on an trance arp not so much. didnt tweak much tho. however the interdace feels kinds cluncky to me and doesnt encourage me to really try changing the settings besides lenght snd dry/wet. Dont know to me it feels kinds unintuitive in comparison to valhalla or better pro-r2. just my opinion but i will give it another try

Did you try “massive trance lead” or “PCM Large Plate” ? Both great for big synths… the PCM Large Plate has been a classic sound for a over decade on trance synth leads.

On more chilled arps and keys for a big spacey sound try “Big Rainmaker” this one is a another classic sound used by loads of producers from Strymons Bigsky.

massive trance lead I tried, the others I dont remember but I will check them out on the next spin. thank you for the recommendations.

[rasmusklump]

Gamechanging..... Ultimate..... Etc
Jeeeez
Such hyperbole let me lose my interest immediately

[whassup]

You can check out a bunch of audio demos as well as a blind A/B/C comparison quiz on the page if you want to hear it and how it directly sounds against those other reverbs without taking part in the beta

https://www.sonicacademy.com/products/vela

I like blind tests. There Vela holds up for me against the big names.
Looking forward to test it out myself.