Valhalla Delay Digital or Soundtoys PrimalTap

[Modular Manfred]

Hi all, now that SoundToys has a sale going on I’m eyeing with PrimalTap. Can’t demo it because I’ve already used my demo ages ago but did not look at PrimalTap at the time.

I have ValhallaDelay and often use it in Digital mode to emulate 12bit vintage digital delays.
Would I gain anything from PrimalTap? Does it emulate vintage digital better? I know it’s variable sample rate emulation opposed to 12bit converter, but I’m curious about people’s opinion.

[NeonNightflyer]

IMO I would ask Soundtoys to reset your PrimalTap demo so you can do a fair comparison based on your needs. They've done that for me in the past.

[dubguy99]

PrimalTap does some funky pitch shifting tricks with the sample rate but the ValhallaDelay Digi mode sounds much better as a delay. I mean, PrimalTap doesn't sound bad but ValhallaDelay is just a generation up in terms of emulation.

[ralfrobert]

I recently reduced the number of plugins I have installed. The Valhalla stuff in general has the advantage of covering a lot of ground. 14 algorithms in the delay, that means 14 solutions in one to try with very little effort.

From my opinion, Valhalla always.

[mothra]

Get the Prime Time if you want a replica of the Prime Time, it was meant to model that particular hardware and its quirks.

Otherwise, go with the Valhalla if you just need a good old 'regular' digital delay.

[jens]

Primal Tap has got some marvellous quirky tricks up its sleeve that you simply can't replicate with Valhalla Delay, which on the other hand is quite a bit more versatile... decisions decisions...

[DMG68]

Primal Tap is unique and different from what you get with Valhalla Delay. You should do as suggested already and ask for a reset on your demo.

[revvy]

Surely, this time much more than other times, due to the excellence and differences of the two plug-ins, the correct answer is ‘both’…?

[Winstontaneous]

There are not a whole lot of delay plugins that let you change the sample rate like you can with Primal Tap (some PSP and Unfiltered Audio ones do). This gives Primal Tap a unique sound (the lower sample rates have lower bandwidth as well).

As soon as I tried Primal Tap, I realized how many things Daniel Lanois has used the Lexicon Prime Time for - check out this Tiny Desk concert to see him playing it as an instrument in a live remix context.

That said the correct answer is indeed "both", they do enough differently. Aside from being a fantastic delay, Valhalla Delay has great reverbs and pitch effects.

[whassup]

There is only one sort of plugins where I still don't have the "perfect" or "can do it all" thingy YET:
Delays
So yeah, while owning Valhalla Delay and it is pretty awesome, there are other delay plugins which do different things.
Not being tempted by Soundtoys too much I would say: Both

[fese]

I have both, and I regularly forget about both of them, for whatever reason. Don’t use much delays anyway…
The problem with VDelay that for me, it does too much, too many delay modes to chose from… a bit of option paralysis. I nowadays prefer “simpler” stuff, one trick ponies that do one job well and are quick to setup. Primal Tap fares a little bit better in that regard.
But that is just me.

[Modular Manfred]

Thank you for all the suggestions. So the elephant in the room… Does PrimalTap alias? Not the obvious sample rate reduction way, but the typical digital artefact of digital saturation due to lack of oversampling way (which we know Soundtoys suffer from in general)?

I know that Echoboy aliases when the saturation is engaged (in a way it shouldn’t). I know that Valhalla Delay doesn’t alias at all, you can crank the drive up to max and it’s clean of digital artefacts (apart from the obvious digital grit it has intended to model in Digital mode) - there was a thread about this on another forum where the developer explained this in more detail.

[paradiddle]

Have you checked permut8 from Sonic Charge? It's a 12 bit digital delay line with alternate firmware which basically transforms it into something else entirely. It's quite a unique plugin. (might be a bit over the top though)

https://soniccharge.com/permut8

Thank you for all the suggestions. So the elephant in the room… Does PrimalTap alias? Not the obvious sample rate reduction way, but the typical digital artefact of digital saturation due to lack of oversampling way (which we know Soundtoys suffer from in general)?

I know that Echoboy aliases when the saturation is engaged (in a way it shouldn’t). I know that Valhalla Delay doesn’t alias at all, you can crank the drive up to max and it’s clean of digital artefacts (apart from the obvious digital grit it has intended to model in Digital mode) - there was a thread about this on another forum where the developer explained this in more detail.

[vitocorleone123]

Valhalla Delay is the best general delay available (of all the many many I’ve tried and many I’ve purchased and since stopped using). It’s also the best $50 I’ve ever spent on a music plugin.

If you want even more specialized delays, go for those. No one delay does everything.

[Modular Manfred]

I have actually found the best alternative for a 12bit delay which is Exponential Audio Excalibur. I totally forgot that I had this. It has got a 12bit mode and for some reason it delivers better than the other two in the title, for what I need it for. Big bummer... it is now abandonware.... After all this research I have found exactly what I needed just to realise I wont be able to use it in the future anyway.