ValhallaVintageVerb 1.7.1. Two new reverb modes (Chaotic Hall, Chaotic Chamber)

[hibidy]

I'm sure Sean has a 2001 reverb tidbit.

[valhallasound]

Anyway, I'm getting a lot of milage out all four Valhalla plug-ins that do reverb, each for different reasons. The simplicity of VS and VVV are nice, but I also like the complexity of VR and VUM. If you want really simple, I need a long delay along the lines (har) of the Lexicon Jam Man in delay mode, and a balanced modulator that can take the same signal to both inputs for that limited, but sometimes useful, octave effect.

One of these days I want to try single sidebanding one signal by a delayed version of itself. This would require more precise phase differencing networks than what I am using in FreqEcho, which means I'd have to sit down and do some math.

I should be able to make both of those in Reaktor, though. I did figure out how to crank up the decay time on that Reaktor Quantec simulation (hint for VVV, that I'm sure isn't new).

I saw that Quantec emulation in Reaktor a few years ago. I'm pretty sure that it isn't a realistic model of the actual algorithm. I have a friend send me some "degenerate" impulses from a Quantec QRS/XL about a month ago, and it gave me some insight into the structure, but not necessarily enough to emulate it exactly. The Medium Room algorithm in ValhallaRoom was based on my understanding (circa early 2011) of the Quantec algorithm, and I doubt that I got very close.

Sean Costello

[valhallasound]

I'm sure Sean has a 2001 reverb tidbit.

Nope. I'm fresh out of reverb ideas for that movie.

2001 did use the analog precursor of the Lexicon 1200/2400 Time Compressors, in order to make HAL 9000 sound more robotic. I wrote a blog post about this back in 2010:

http://valhalladsp.wordpress.com/2010/0 ... e-digital/

Man, I used to blog a lot.

Anyway, no reverb tidbits, but a pitch shifting story.

Sean Costello

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'm sure Sean has a 2001 reverb tidbit.

Nope. I'm fresh out of reverb ideas for that movie.

I would hope you'd be out of reverbs ideas in general for a while. I mean come one, your verbs already make most other things redundant. I just got Komplete Ultimate and was a little disappointed that these nice free classic reverbs I got just were no use to me at all when I already had VVV, which is more versatile and sounds better for a fraction of the cpu!

[antithesist]

Anyway, I'm getting a lot of milage out all four Valhalla plug-ins that do reverb, each for different reasons. The simplicity of VS and VVV are nice, but I also like the complexity of VR and VUM. If you want really simple, I need a long delay along the lines (har) of the Lexicon Jam Man in delay mode, and a balanced modulator that can take the same signal to both inputs for that limited, but sometimes useful, octave effect.

One of these days I want to try single sidebanding one signal by a delayed version of itself. This would require more precise phase differencing networks than what I am using in FreqEcho, which means I'd have to sit down and do some math.

I should be able to make both of those in Reaktor, though. I did figure out how to crank up the decay time on that Reaktor Quantec simulation (hint for VVV, that I'm sure isn't new).

I saw that Quantec emulation in Reaktor a few years ago. I'm pretty sure that it isn't a realistic model of the actual algorithm. I have a friend send me some "degenerate" impulses from a Quantec QRS/XL about a month ago, and it gave me some insight into the structure, but not necessarily enough to emulate it exactly. The Medium Room algorithm in ValhallaRoom was based on my understanding (circa early 2011) of the Quantec algorithm, and I doubt that I got very close.

Sean Costello

You lost me at "phase differencing networks." But, yeah, I like to sit down when I'm doing math, too. I've actually had quite a bit, up through differential equations and dropping out in mid-matrix algebra. Modern physics, fields, I think I may be aneurisming. That was a lot of "life" ago, before living in recording studios and then turning lodgings into the same. Let's just say that I lost a lot of my formal education.

Quantec: I was in touch with Steven St. Croix when he was the US distributor and used a QRS more than once at Dallas Sound Labs. We got our Marshall Time Modulator from SSC, as well. He was trying to sell us an XL for about $20K. "You hook a computer up to it to control it." What? That's crazy talk! Not so much the price, but the computer thing. Plus, we already had a 224 and an EMT 251. We also had an Eventide spectrum analyzer and a sequencer for the Prophet V and Emulator I (one) running on an Apple II, though. Anyway, I'm guessing you might be referring to Eric Beam. I read about his XL controller emulation.

Please make a new Quantec-ish algo for VVV. The Reaktor "Yardstick" is weird and kind of unstable on my rig, but it sure does sound good:

Native Yardstick Reverberator v4.0 By Guenther Fleischmann

A native implementation of the Quantec Yardstick Reverberator
"Is the sound of this instrument just similar, or is it more?" you will ask.
Well, i analyzed (optically) some authentic impulse respones of the Quantec Yardstick 2402 from echochamber.ch. After looking a while on it, i found out how this device works.
Each input channel feeds 8 Feedback-Delay-Networks, each with 3 Delays. In total there are 48 different delay lengths (2x8x3). If Roomsize is set to 100000m³ the delaylengths are SAMPLEACCURATE compared to the original. The amplitude of each generated impulse equals at least 97% with the value of the original. The other 3% may be the result of some inaccurateness concerning EXP-Functions within DSPs.
So, i can say that the basic character of the Yardstick can be reproduced with this instrument!

[hibidy]

I can't believe Sean didn't have a tidbit.

[valhallasound]

I can't believe Sean didn't have a tidbit.

I think you have just discovered a word that creeps me out. "Tidbit" seems like something that would be fed under the table to an annoying tiny dog that is constantly shaking.

In general, I don't have a lot of info for the Kubrick films that were soundtracked by "needle dropping," i.e. 2001 and almost all of The Shining. A few semireverby tidbits (shudder) from the Wendy Carlos side:

- A Clockwork Orange would have used an EMT140, assuming that Carlos had this in 1971. I definitely hear some Bode Frequency Shifter in there as well. The polyphonic swoop at the beginning of the film might be a frequency shifter sweep, and the (real) timpani sounds in the 9th symphony sound like they are being phased by the Bode.

- "Rocky Mountains" from The Shining used a really long tape loop with feedback ("Frippertronics," although the technique was pioneered by Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros long before Eno named it after his friend). The modular Moog is being controlled by a crazy rotary pitch control, to get the proper swoops.

http://soundcloud.com/tnuc/wendy-carlos ... he-shining

No reverb on that track - you don't need reverb with huge long looping delays.

Sean Costello

[egbert]

Wendy Carlos talks quite a bit about Kubrik and his "needle-dropping". I read an interview with her where she recounted how Kubrik mentioned a well known classical piece that was his idea of the sort of thing he wanted. A piece in this style/mood was composed and recorded as requested but it was insufficiently like the original for Kubrik and in the end he just used a recording of the classical piece he had mentioned in the first place.

If you listen to the space sequences in 2001 there are large chunks of Gyorgy Ligeti's music. The piccolos sustaining dissonant clusters from Atmospheres when Dave is outside the ship come to mind.

Here's Wikipedia on the subject:

Ligeti's music is best known to the general public for its use in the films of Stanley Kubrick. The soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey includes excerpts from four of his pieces: Atmosphères, Lux Aeterna (for the moon-bus scene en route to the TMA-1 monolith in the crater Tycho), Requiem (the Kyrie), and an electronically altered version of Aventures (in the cryptic final scenes). The usage and modification happened without Ligeti's knowledge and without full copyright clearance; when the film came to Ligeti's attention, he "successfully sued for having had his music distorted",[34] but settled out of court with Kubrick.[citation needed] Some of this music was used again in Peter Hyams's 1984 sequel film, 2010. Another of Kubrick's films, The Shining, uses Lontano for orchestra. In addition, the second movement of Ligeti's Musica ricercata is used at pivotal moments in Eyes Wide Shut.

I read that Ligeti sat in the cinema with a stop watch and hand-timed nearly 20 minutes of his music in the 2001 score.

[metalifuxx]

The music from that film is pretty inspiring, especially the Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss) theme, dubbed by Phish as the "2001 Theme" and their version of it.



And my hybrid interpretation of the two versions, which started out only as my friend playing some totally unrelated improvised guitar chord solo thing through some crazy effect chain in Guitar Rig. I then built the symphonic/synth elements after the fact, played on a midi keyboard controller. My main goal was to try and get vast sense of space and reverb to be heard. It was properly named in part after my friend who did the guitar part and the movie.

http://soundcloud.com/metalifuxx/a-2006-schaef-oddesy

And yes Sean , I think I later remastered it and added Valhalla Shimmer to the whole mastering chain, which you can probably distinctly hear tail off at the end with the pitch shift mode engaged

[antithesist]

For the kids: Phish is, of course, ripping Deodato.

[valhallasound]

For the kids: Phish is, of course, ripping Deodato.

I had no idea what you were talking about, until I clicked on the Phish link. Then I understood: BEING THERE.



I couldn't find the actual "Being There" scene in my 30 seconds of searching, but it was a pretty great scene. Pretty much entirely because of the soundtrack.

Sean COstello

[valhallasound]

Wendy Carlos talks quite a bit about Kubrik and his "needle-dropping". I read an interview with her where she recounted how Kubrik mentioned a well known classical piece that was his idea of the sort of thing he wanted. A piece in this style/mood was composed and recorded as requested but it was insufficiently like the original for Kubrik and in the end he just used a recording of the classical piece he had mentioned in the first place.

The classical piece was Berlioz's "Symphonie fantasique":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonie_fantastique

Apparently Kubrick became obsessed with this particular version of the "Dias Irae" theme. Carlos' rendition is played in the opening credits.

I have a disc that has most of Carlos' compositions for "The Shining":

http://www.wendycarlos.com/+rls1.html#tracks

Much of the Carlos music is good...but I feel that the needle dropping music used in "The Shining" is far superior. Apparently the soundtrack was arranged in 3 weeks, after almost the entire film had been cut and edited. Given how closely the soundtrack matches the actions on screen, this is hard to believe, but I read a pretty comprehensive article several years ago that discussed the process in depth (I can't find the link). The Carlos compositions remind me of the "Tron" score, while the Penderecki/Ligeti/Bartok mix used in "The Shining" created an awesomely terrifying atmosphere.

One of the Carlos pieces that was left out of "The Shining" was used for the original theatrical trailer, and is all kinds of awesome:



Note the use of Futura in the trailer. Which is also used in ValhallaVintageVerb. You see how I just brought things full circle?

Sean Costello

[metalifuxx]

For the kids: Phish is, of course, ripping Deodato.

Ahh, I knew it was a cover of sorts, I never looked through the Phish credits thoroughly enough to realize they do give credit to him (Deodato) as a cover song they perform (only live). I don't know if I can listen to another Phish live version of that now after hearing the awesome original studio version

[themossinator]

God that Sanctuary mode is good, im gonna say its lush as its the only word i can think of to describe it, but its much more than that, preset i was using was EMT Huge Hall - magnificent!!!

[valhallasound]

ValhallaVintageVerb got a 9/10 in the Computer Music Magazine review:

http://www.musicradar.com/gear/tech/com ... erb-574691

I appreciate their comments about the "simple, clean layout."

Sean Costello