Valhalla FutureVerb

[ere2learn]

Just what the hell is a 50% sized room, anyways? 50% of what?

Small to fairly big it says it right on the landing page, what you want dimensions for flooring

Screenshot 2025-11-13 024536.png

[jamcat]

If it is really a realistic model of an enclosed space, then there is a more meaningful metric attached to its size than "50% of fairly big."

[jamcat]

It's not a convolution reverb, you can use one of those along with an actual impulse response recorded in an actual space to give you an actual acoustic simulation if that is what you want

This is an effect that I am going to use with synthesizers to make electronic music, and unless you are recording acoustic instruments in an Anechoic Chamber. That have no acoustic reflections of any kind on your recording. That you then want to accurately place inside of a simulators acoustic space, that's based on a a actual room, your entire premise is rather silly

The problem with convolution reverb is that unless it's something like VSL MIR Pro or Inspired Acoustics' Inspirata, you have no idea or control over where in the acoustic space the sound source or mics were placed, which makes it useless for placing multiple sources in the same room, since they can't all occupy the same space.

And if you are working with more than one instrument, then having unique placement within the acoustic environment should absolutely be your concern. This is why I'm not keen on most reverbs, unless I'm using it through an amp as a guitar effect or something.

And by the way, yes, my primary use of reverb is placing physically modeled virtual instruments in a physically modeled room. So I'm always on the lookout for reverbs that bill themselves as "realistic." And I'm usually disappointed.

[bk]

There is an aggressively conformist element to KVR.

That's beautifully ironic, coming from someone who has spent the last 4 pages trying to convince reverb devs to conform to his own way of thinking.
Your comment about "serious engineers" is laughable. Serious engineers use their ears to determine if a reverb is appropriate. Depending on what's in the room, two identically sized rooms can sound completely different. Dimensions are nearly meaningless unless you know the contents, wall, floor and ceiling materials.

You've spent a ridiculous amount of time spouting off in a thread for a reverb in which you are clearly not interested. I don't get it. You clearly have more time to waste here than I do.

[crgn27]

From the Manual

"Size: Adjusts the size of the reverb networks, as a percentage ranging from 0% to 100%. This isn’t based in any physical units, but rather in the perception of attack time and modal density. Larger sizes will have slower inherent attacks, and a more “open” sound."

Thats what 50% means.

[hey212]

IMO this is on a completely different level than anything Valhalla have done to date. The reverb section sounds fantastic on its own, but the echo section running into it adds an amazing kind of halo.

[jamcat]

Serious engineers use their ears to determine if a reverb is appropriate.

If I'm placing 80 SWAM instruments in a virtual room, I want to be sure that the room could realistically hold that many players, and I want the reverb to accurately reflect a room of that size. An artificial reverb might sound good, but I value authenticity above everything in a situation like I'm describing. It is essential.

Now, I get it, this isn't the reverb you would use for my purposes. No reverb from Valhalla is. But then why call it "realistic" if it isn't?

[billinder33]

It's not a convolution reverb, you can use one of those along with an actual impulse response recorded in an actual space to give you an actual acoustic simulation if that is what you want

This is an effect that I am going to use with synthesizers to make electronic music, and unless you are recording acoustic instruments in an Anechoic Chamber. That have no acoustic reflections of any kind on your recording. That you then want to accurately place inside of a simulators acoustic space, that's based on a a actual room, your entire premise is rather silly

The problem with convolution reverb is that unless it's something like VSL MIR Pro or Inspired Acoustics' Inspirata, you have no idea or control over where in the acoustic space the sound source or mics were placed, which makes it useless for placing multiple sources in the same room, since they can't all occupy the same space.

And if you are working with more than one instrument, then having unique placement within the acoustic environment should absolutely be your concern. This is why I'm not keen on most reverbs, unless I'm using it through an amp as a guitar effect or something.

And by the way, yes, my primary use of reverb is placing physically modeled virtual instruments in a physically modeled room. So I'm always on the lookout for reverbs that bill themselves as "realistic." And I'm usually disappointed.

Any non convolution verbs you recommend? Aside from the aforementioned Ambiante?

[jamcat]

Any non convolution verbs you recommend? Aside from the aforementioned Ambiante?

For realistic reverb, no. That’s why I’m always looking for another like it.

If I’m doing an effect-style reverb like Valhalla does, I use UAD Lexicon 224, Eventide 2016, or ReLab LX480. If I want a “real” plate, I’ll use UVI’s physically modeled Plate, or UAD PurePlate. And for spring reverb, it’s always Pulsar Audio’s physically modeled Primavera.

[DCrown]

Will test it on vocals, cuz I never use rerverb on vocals, prefer dry

[kraster]

Serious engineers use their ears to determine if a reverb is appropriate.

If I'm placing 80 SWAM instruments in a virtual room, I want to be sure that the room could realistically hold that many players, and I want the reverb to accurately reflect a room of that size. An artificial reverb might sound good, but I value authenticity above everything in a situation like I'm describing. It is essential.

Now, I get it, this isn't the reverb you would use for my purposes. No reverb from Valhalla is. But then why call it "realistic" if it isn't?

This is just being really pedantic and not a way that most people would think about a reverb.

If I said Cathedral, you wouldn't be looking for the exact dimension of a Cathedral. It's more the generalised idea of a particular space.

Reverb is often more about evoking a space, not necessarily reconstructing one.

Algorithmic reverbs have been emulating this idea of space for decades.

You can emulate what happens in these spaces with great precision using algorithms. Early reflections are generally just different delay taps with different filtering using physically plausible times. The filtering can emulate the coefficients of the surface and you can optionally use diffusion (all pass filters and denser delays with varying feedback times)

Ray tracing/beam tracing is computationally more expensive and cannot easily resolve natural diffusion buildup, scattering or do phase randomisation easily. And the denser the space the more rays you'll need and the more power you need. So in practice it's often worse and more demanding than tried and true diffusion and FDN.

I think making reverbs is as much an art as a science. The level of detail a company like Bricasti go to with hand tuned algorithms, structural decorrelation borders on the obsessive but it sounds amazing.

[Puduku]

IMO this is on a completely different level than anything Valhalla have done to date. The reverb section sounds fantastic on its own, but the echo section running into it adds an amazing kind of halo.

Thank you so much for pointing that out!

I totally missed that part when I tried it. For some reason I understood "echo" as "delay" and not even tried to add some. Two basic reasons of course. Supermassive, that has delay+reverb. And classic echo pedals. Moreover, there is a big "delay" button... (that stands for "reverb delay"...)

Indeed, when you add the echo reverb part, it becomes really, really massive and complex sounding.

OK, this one is the most impressive that Valhalla has done so far.

[DCrown]

But how big is "100%"? What are the room dimensions? This is kind of important information for a serious engineer.

The algorithms may have changed a little since the 1970s, but the nonsensical parameters still haven't.

Why does it matter?
Add it on a instrument and find out whether it makes it sound better within a mix.
Don't try it or listen to it on a single track only like their demos, a wrong reverb on a single track can destroy your whole mix, so be wise!
Then buy it,cuz Valhalla needs the money, they have heen developing it for 8 years and went from steak at the beginning to breadcrumbs, so they must be hungry.

Who in the world thinks when he wants to add a reverb, well I need a room size of 15x15 feet? Use your ears and not head and eyes.
And if your workwflow is so mathematical, what about the height of room, the height is the most important thing. Where is the reverb with height settings or do you just want to choose "small" or large room, but what is small for me, might not be small for you, omg, that's so complicated, meanwhile I could have produced another hit lol

[IvyBirds]

Serious engineers use their ears to determine if a reverb is appropriate.

If I'm placing 80 SWAM instruments in a virtual room, I want to be sure that the room could realistically hold that many players, and I want the reverb to accurately reflect a room of that size. An artificial reverb might sound good, but I value authenticity above everything in a situation like I'm describing. It is essential.

Now, I get it, this isn't the reverb you would use for my purposes. No reverb from Valhalla is. But then why call it "realistic" if it isn't?

There is no reverb product that is on the market that can accurately recreate the sound of 80 instruments placed in a room. Every single physical instrument placed in a room of any given size will be closer or farther away from every reflective surface than every other instrument and that's before any diffusions created by the bodies of 80 musicians playing those 80 instruments

If you desire authenticity above all else, you should know this, and you should also know that bitching and moaning about actual room size is beyond silly as that would be just a tiny portion of what is needed

For what you claim you need you would need to have a reverb with 80 inputs and then be able to place those 80 inputs with precision in 3D space inside of that room

There is no product on the market that can do that, even high end Dolby Atmos Surround Sound reverbs used in the film industry

You would also need some kind of way to output that reverb into something significantly more sophisticated than even the highest of high end commercial surround sound speaker arrays.

Even the 128 individual speaker feeds in a Dolby Atmos Cinema System wouldn't be enough

Your arguments against this product are getting more and more silly and desperate

[DCrown]

Any non convolution verbs you recommend? Aside from the aforementioned Ambiante?

For realistic reverb, no. That’s why I’m always looking for another like it.

If I’m doing an effect-style reverb like Valhalla does, I use UAD Lexicon 224, Eventide 2016, or ReLab LX480. If I want a “real” plate, I’ll use UVI’s physically modeled Plate, or UAD PurePlate. And for spring reverb, it’s always Pulsar Audio’s physically modeled Primavera.

Really? These plugins are your choice? Would never choose any of them, cuz I know them all, I prefer other options. How different people can be when it is about choices, isn't it amazing?!
And you use plugins with physical modeling, really? Never that kind of plugin made me wanna have it, it always reminds me of a car that leaks oil, I.prefer samples, cuz they have some room already in their sound, so you don't even have to add reverb. Again! Well, amazing.