ValhallaRoom 1.5.1 Released. New Electric Blue GUI

[valhallasound]

The Mooer ShimVerb pedal (room,spring,shimmer, in one pedal for under $100)

I'm currently in a place with poor Internet connection - it took over 3 hours to queue up the "Oppa Gangnam Style" video from YouTube. So I haven't been able to hear this video. How does the pedal sound? It has a nice form factor.

Sean Costello

[hibidy]

Sounds ok, but I'd be lost w/o a stereo option.

[valhallasound]

Sounds ok, but I'd be lost w/o a stereo option.

Stereo i/o, or just stereo outputs?

I've made no secret of the fact that I would LOVE to get into pedals someday. I don't even know if it makes economic sense. I grew up with stompboxes, and would like to put some of my algorithms into hardware form while I am still alive.

The main problem is that the existing DSP options aren't that great...

The Spin Semiconductor FV-1 is the best choice IMO for boutique reverb pedals, but it is limited. It can do Lexicon style reverbs up through the 224XL (and some of the 480L stuff), but it can't run the fully modulated version of Shimmer, and wouldn't be able to run VRoom at all.

About a month ago, I went to CCRMA/Stanford, and spent a week working with DSP running on the BeagleBoard, which is an ARM based processor. I was able to get a *simple* version of Shimmer running on there in Pd, roughly equivalent to the MediumStereo mode in the ValhallaShimmer plugin. I tried to run a larger mode, but no dice - the hardware started stuttering. I did a bit of research into if this was an issue with Pd, and found that the Medium Stereo Shimmer running in Pd on my MacBook Pro took only slightly more DSP than the Shimmer plugin itself. So either the Pd build on the BeagleBoard wasn't very optimized, or the hardware itself has some limitations. The ARM used on the BeagleBoard doesn't have a lot of cache, so this might be the limiting factor with regards to delay based algorithms. I still think ARMs are the way of the future, but from my experience, and from talking at folks at Stanford, an ARM based pedal is probably not the best idea in 2012.

Analog Devices has DSPs that could certainly run my algorithms, but the development tools are SUPER expensive ($6K for a minimal setup), the DSPs are hard to design into circuit boards, and Analog Devices has little to no support for smaller developers nowadays. I'd rather use a DSP like the FV-1, that doesn't require a huge influx of capital just to get things up and running. Many of the other semiconductor choices are similar, in that the dev tools are too expensive (TI, ADI), the assembly language is too difficult (TI, Freescale), or the DSPs are difficult to design into boards.

Sean Costello

[metalifuxx]

http://www.mooeraudio.com/en/ProductInfo.asp?id=26

[hibidy]

I need that lush stereo sound. I guess outputs would be fine but both would be ideal. But, I'm spoiled in the software world.

[urosh]

About a month ago, I went to CCRMA/Stanford, and spent a week working with DSP running on the BeagleBoard, which is an ARM based processor. I was able to get a *simple* version of Shimmer running on there in Pd, roughly equivalent to the MediumStereo mode in the ValhallaShimmer plugin.

OMAP3530 on Beagleboard is asymmetric. It has Cortex-A8 ARM and C64 DSP (and GPU). I investigated this very issue (OMAP as core of general purpose music DSP platform) about a year ago. I forgot all of the details but general run down is: Cortex will not get you far, C64 will; targeting both ARM and DSP is a bit tricky, quite a bit if you want to run modular app (I suspect Pd runs only on ARM); memory (on DSP side) is barely enough for a simple delay. Not too good for your needs, but for apps that don't need lot of delay memory it's super neat. On pure ARM side of things, systems based on A11 would be very good choice but those are usually made out of unobtanium for small devs and/or small production runs.

PS: investigation was actually triggered IIRC by your comment on Valahalla Blog that ARM is way of the future for custom/portable music apps. I found some super neat stuff for my specs (LPC4300 family from NXP, dual core asymmetric Cortex M0 and M4) but memory is always an issue.

[valhallasound]

On pure ARM side of things, systems based on A11 would be very good choice but those are usually made out of unobtanium for small devs and/or small production runs.

This is the impression I got from the instructors of the CCRMA workshop about higher powered ARM chips in general: very hard to get for smaller companies.

PS: investigation was actually triggered IIRC by your comment on Valahalla Blog that ARM is way of the future for custom/portable music apps.

I should put a disclaimer up on the blog that I don't really have a clue as to what I am doing. Valhalla DSP: A Bear Driving A Clown Car.™

My thoughts about ARMs were largely shaped by discussions with an old boss of mine, who is an actual DSP genius (the sort that has a PhD in EE from MIT). I met him while working at Analog Devices, where we were developing for SHARC and Blackfin. His current stance is that the ARMs are blazingly fast for the applications previously filled by dedicated DSPs, and that a single ARM can take the place of the DSP+uC solutions in the past. I trust him on this stuff, but I think his perspective is based on working with large companies. The ideal solution for car audio or a streaming media appliance may not be the best solution, or even attainable, for a small scale stompbox manufacturer.

I found some super neat stuff for my specs (LPC4300 family from NXP, dual core asymmetric Cortex M0 and M4) but memory is always an issue.

I don't think I realized until just recently how much of the performance of my plugins depends on fast cache, and/or on some sort of fast memory access. The vast majority of Valhalla customers will be running on Intel Core processors, or on other modern processors (AMD, G5) with a LOT of fast cache. It might be the case that the small amount of cache on the BeagleBoard ARM is what is slowing things down for me.

Meanwhile, the little Spin Semiconductor FV-1 can only process 128 instructions per sample, yet does a good job at reverbs and other delay based algorithms. Part of this is due to the specialized instruction set, where an allpass delay can be executed in 2 instructions. However, much of the performance is due to the memory architecture, where all of the delay pointers are automatically incremented every sample, and a memory read only takes one sample. This is similar to the older hardware from Lexicon and Eventide, and allows for algorithms on those boxes to be much more complicated than the relatively low CPU speed would suggest.

Sean Costello

[metalifuxx]

You mentioned car audio/streaming technology with possible low level DSP code.

Idea
streaming audio to a pedal/stomp box (receiver and effect parameter controller, which would be a wireless send and return, each with its own unique signal), the send wireless signal is routed to a USB wireless mixing/receiver box in which that signal is sent digitally into the CPU/computer/laptop/iPad, where that pedal/stompbox is signal 1 for instance, and then that could be processed through 1 or more plugins, with controls/parameters that could be set and controlled through that stomp pedal 1, and then signal 1 is sent wireless and back to the digital return of pedal 1, and then the audio is routed back to the pedal's analog output. There could be a program designed to auto start when the computer is booted up with your chosen effect configuration all set to go. The guitarist for instance could plug his normal guitar cable right into the 1/4 inch low impedance input of the pedal, the effect could also be true bypassed when needed, and maybe measures could be in place for bypass/failsafe, if for whatever reason the signal is lost or computer crashes etc. The computer would not even have to be onstage, just anywhere in range of the signal. There could be additional pedals/controllers bought and added for more of a controllable effect chain or modular approach. Certainly this kind of technology and wireless signal routing like this is possible in this day and age right? There is the Digi iStomp pedal/board thing, but this idea would make it open to third party or whatever plugin effect you want to use, instead of a closed monopolized system where you have to buy additional effects from that company and have an iPhone to even use.

[Hellfog]

ValhallaRoom 64-bit mac, can't change preset, only works with 32-bit, using Reaper 64 bit.

[valhallasound]

ValhallaRoom 64-bit mac, can't change preset, only works with 32-bit, using Reaper 64 bit.

Use the 64-bit Audio Unit. The 64-bit VST is hinky in OSX Reaper.

Sean Costello

[Hellfog]

ValhallaRoom 64-bit mac, can't change preset, only works with 32-bit, using Reaper 64 bit.

Use the 64-bit Audio Unit. The 64-bit VST is hinky in OSX Reaper.

Sean Costello

Ah ok, didn't see AU version, probably have to restart computer or daw.

[Sampleconstruct]

Came back to Narcissus mode today, boy what a beautiful reverb this is.

Bowed Vibra and some voices processed with VRoom - Narcissus mode

http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/n ... -revisited

Da preset:

<ValhallaRoom pluginVersion="1.1.0" presetName="Narcissus Revival" mix="0.681999981" predelay="0.0199999996" decay="0.285585582" HighCut="0.765100658" earlyLateMix="0.649999976" lateSize="0.930000007" lateCross="0.939999998" lateModRate="0.119191922" lateModDepth="0.209999993" RTBassMultiply="0.593333304" RTXover="0.0909090936" RTHighMultiply="0.833333313" RTHighXover="0.473825514" earlySize="0.209609613" earlyCross="0.460000008" earlyModRate="0.0909090936" earlyModDepth="0" earlySend="0.839999974" diffusion="0.540000021" type="0.75"/>

[valhallasound]

Came back to Narcissus mode today, boy what a beautiful reverb this is.

Bowed Vibra and some voices processed with VRoom - Narcissus mode

http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/n ... -revisited

Da preset:

<ValhallaRoom pluginVersion="1.1.0" presetName="Narcissus Revival" mix="0.681999981" predelay="0.0199999996" decay="0.285585582" HighCut="0.765100658" earlyLateMix="0.649999976" lateSize="0.930000007" lateCross="0.939999998" lateModRate="0.119191922" lateModDepth="0.209999993" RTBassMultiply="0.593333304" RTXover="0.0909090936" RTHighMultiply="0.833333313" RTHighXover="0.473825514" earlySize="0.209609613" earlyCross="0.460000008" earlyModRate="0.0909090936" earlyModDepth="0" earlySend="0.839999974" diffusion="0.540000021" type="0.75"/>

That sounds fantastic. Thanks for posting this, Simon!

Sean Costello

[any1particular]

I thought you and others might find this interesting Sean? This and all Strymon's pedals are verrrry interesting...their Bluesky reverberator sounds awesome to my ears... What do you think?







http://www.strymon.net/products/bluesky/

[Sampleconstruct]

LOL - another hijack...