ValhallaShimmer

[valhallasound]

Hellpo Sean,
I am very happy with Valhalla Shimmer.
But I miss a predelay function.
Is that planned in the next version?

It would have to be in a major revision of the plugin, as adding a new parameter would break compatibility with DAW projects that are currently using Shimmer. Right now, I'm working on minor revisions (presets), as well as x64 VST for Windows, and Windows RTAS.

I'd recommend two options if you want to delay the wet signal:

- Play around with Diffusion. Settings of diffusion between 0.25 and 0.7 can cause the reverb to "fade in," which can be a better version of separating the wet and dry signal than a predelay.

- Run Shimmer on a bus, and use whatever plugin or built-in function you prefer for predelay. It was common practice to use a tape echo to add a slight amount of predelay for plate reverbs, where the compression and coloration of the tape echo added to the overall sound.

Sean Costello

[mandolarian]

There's this really cool delay that would do the trick made by ummmm...Val Somebody. But maybe it's too shifty...

[valhallasound]

There's this really cool delay that would do the trick made by ummmm...Val Somebody. But maybe it's too shifty...

I know this one! Wait, don't tell me...Valerie Perinne!

If you do use ValhallaFreqEcho with ValhallaShimmer, make sure that you use the mono mode of FreqEcho, or one of the stereo modes of Shimmer. Otherwise, when you mix the stereo outputs of FreqEcho into a mono signal, the frequency shifting collapses into straight amplitude modulation. So your nice panning just turns into a slow tremolo.

Sean Costello

[Harry_HH]

How do you load the presets?
The installation "manual" told to put the preset folder wherever you
want but I can't see any preset-load knob in the plugin (in Live8 anyway). H.

For now, you must load the presets from your host. It seems there will be a presets browser soon.

What does this "from host" mean in practise? As I write in my question,
Live8 doesn't show any walhalla presets - where the presets should be located to be shown in the Live? In the case of all the other plugins I've got (about 200) you can either choose the presets from the plugin browser or the presets appear in the Live's plugin base browser. Why there are presets if you can't use them? H.

[standalone]

How do you load the presets?
The installation "manual" told to put the preset folder wherever you
want but I can't see any preset-load knob in the plugin (in Live8 anyway). H.

For now, you must load the presets from your host. It seems there will be a presets browser soon.

What does this "from host" mean in practise? As I write in my question,
Live8 doesn't show any walhalla presets - where the presets should be located to be shown in the Live? In the case of all the other plugins I've got (about 200) you can either choose the presets from the plugin browser or the presets appear in the Live's plugin base browser. Why there are presets if you can't use them? H.

Sorry, I don't know how it works in Live. In Cubase you got the option to browse your hard drive for fxp/fxb files. That's the way to load ValhallaShimmer's presets for now. Is there any Live user that can clarify this point?.

[blurk]

EDIT: I just sent a link for the 1.0.1 Windows VST release to all Shimmer customers.

Cool. I did see that in the mail the other day. Thanks for doing that, much appreciated.

[ariston]

Sorry, I don't know how it works in Live. In Cubase you got the option to browse your hard drive for fxp/fxb files. That's the way to load ValhallaShimmer's presets for now. Is there any Live user that can clarify this point?.

same way, just load the preset from your browser - click the little "open file" icon.

[Harry_HH]

Sorry, I don't know how it works in Live. In Cubase you got the option to browse your hard drive for fxp/fxb files. That's the way to load ValhallaShimmer's presets for now. Is there any Live user that can clarify this point?.

same way, just load the preset from your browser - click the little "open file" icon.

OK, usually all the preset appear to the Live preset loading window, here
you have to open manually each preset individually. H.

[S4410]

Tested and bought
Cool plug-in this one, instant eno..

[jensa]

Tested and bought
Cool plug-in this one, instant eno..

Glad you didn't write eMo.

[valhallasound]

Tested and bought
Cool plug-in this one, instant eno..

Glad you didn't write eMo.

"ValhallaShimmer. It's Instant Elmo!" TM

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Tested and bought
Cool plug-in this one, instant eno..

Glad you didn't write eMo.

"ValhallaShimmer. It's Instant Elmo!" TM

ROFL!

[valhallasound]

Someone on another forum asked for an explanation of the Diffusion control. Since the documentation for ValhallaShimmer is a bit *cough*..."sparse"...I thought it would be worthwhile posting the explanation here:

I'll start from more of a "meta" perspective, and quote Wikipedia: Diffusion, in acoustics and architectural engineering, is the efficacy by which sound energy is spread evenly in a given environment. In the case of ValhallaShimmer, the environment is the plugin. The Diffusion control allows the user to shape how energy from an input signal leaves the plugin. At low settings of diffusion, all of the energy that enters the plugin leaves it at about the same time (i.e. a single delay line). At higher settings of diffusion, the energy is more spread out over time and frequency, with randomization of phase. This is perceived by the listener as sounding reverberant.

From a less physics oriented perspective, the Diffusion control is used to adjust the degree of echo density in ValhallaShimmer. At its lowest setting, Shimmer acts like a delay line (actually 2 delay lines, one per channel, with slightly different lengths). Turn up the feedback for the stereo modes, and the plugin acts like a ping-pong delay.

Once you turn up Diffusion beyond 0.0, the echo density starts to increase. For settings around 0.2 or lower, the increased echo density is fairly subtle for a single repeat of the delay. If you increase the Feedback setting, the first repeat will sound close to a single echo, but later repeats will sound more and more reverberant.

At Diffusion settings around 0.5, the signal will have a fairly high amount of echo density. However, the energy will still be distributed in such a way that short repeats will still have an audible repeating echo. Setting Diffusion at 0.5, and Feedback at 0.5 or greater, is a great way to get the "Bloom" sound from the Midiverb II.

A Diffusion setting of 0.618 has some very unique characteristics. 0.618 is known as Phi (Φ), or 1/goldenRatio. With diffusion set at 0.618, the attack and decay of the reverb signal have the same lengths. The reverb response looks like a Gaussian, or bell curve. This produces a neat "backwards" reverb sound.

If Diffusion is set to values greater than 0.618, the decay characteristics start becoming closer to an exponential decay. The reverb will still "fade in" to a greater or lesser extent, but the decay will be far longer than the attack. In addition, the decay time itself increases. With a Diffusion setting of 0.8 to 0.91, you can get some very long reverb decays, even with Feedback gains of 0.0. Turn up the Feedback, and the reverb decay time gets closer and closer to infinity.

Diffusion settings above 0.91 start to sound weird. The decay lasts longer and longer, but the reverb itself gets quieter and quieter. The explanation for this is that the Diffusion control doesn't add any energy to the signal - it just redistributes it. So the super long decays come at the expense of quieter signals, as the reverb is taking the same energy and spreading it too thin. This is why the Feedback control is useful for long signals, as it adds gain to the system.

A few other quirks about the Diffusion control in ValhallaShimmer:

- For higher levels of Diffusion, the sound can become somewhat more metallic, especially for smaller settings of Size. This is fairly common with reverbs that use diffusor sections as their main building blocks. Modulation is the quickest way of reducing metallic artifacts. Another way of getting a similar reverb time with less metallic coloration is to turn Diffusion down, and Feedback up.

- Higher settings of Diffusion also increase the perceived chorusing in the algorithm (as will smaller settings of Size with the same modulation speed/width).

- The Diffusion control is smoothed, in order to avoid clicks when changing the Diffusion amount.

Sean Costello

[audiot]

Bought it. Really impressing how shimmer turns simple sounds into cinematic atmospheres ... magic. Could you give us some indication of when the version with the presetmanger will be released?

[Gucky]

Hi Sean,
I found now a workaround for the missing predelay parameter.
I take now the free Voxengo sounddelay before valhalla shimmer.
That makes only a delay that I can define in miliseconds.
That seems to work.