Valley reverb questions

[apossibleworld]

Hi Eventide, could you tell us more about the new Valley reverb algorithm?  It sounds great. What architecture is it based on?  What makes it more complex than other reverbs in the H9000?  The controls are pretty straightforward so any insight about how it works would be helpful and interesting. Thank you!

[tbskoglund]

Hi there,

Glad to hear you’re liking the sound of Valley. The algorithm designer is away for a few days, but I can ask him to respond when he’s available.

In the meantime, you can find the documentation for the parameters below:

Mix – Dry/Wet mixer. 0-100.

Pre Delay – Controls the amount of time between the direct path and the first reflection. 0 to 150 ms.

Bloom – Controls the echo density growth rate between the onset and early reflections. Higher values will add echo density, at the expense of combing on more percussive material. 0 to 100.

Mode – Changes the echo density growth pattern. Hall allows for softer, more natural puffs while Plate has an unnaturally rapid echo density growth pattern like the classic digital plates of yesteryear.

Size – Adjusts the size of the reverb. 0 to 100. Smaller size can result in a brighter sounding reverb, while larger sizes will sounder warmer.

Decay – The amount of time it takes for the reverb tail to decay to one-millionth of its energy. 0.4 to 60 s.

Low – Controls bass damping (cut) or gain (boost) -4.5 to 4.5 dB.

High – Controls treble damping (cut) or gain (boost) -4.5 to 4.5 dB.

The bloom, size, and high/low damp controls will all make a very big impact on the overall sound of the reverb.

[ndeshpande]

apossibleworld wrote:

Hi Eventide, could you tell us more about the new Valley reverb algorithm? It sounds great. What architecture is it based on? What makes it more complex than other reverbs in the H9000? The controls are pretty straightforward so any insight about how it works would be helpful and interesting. Thank you!

Howdy, glad you like the sound of Valley. I’m glad you find the controls straightforward, part of the idea was to have a reverb that you can spend less time driving and more time making music with.

Valley is a brand new structure cooked up by yours truly. I spent a lot of time thinking about the echo density build-up/growth over the transition from early-to-late reflections and human perception of that reflection growth curve in real rooms, and the Bloom and Mode knobs give you control over that. This is a super reverb nerd-y thing, but… if you enjoy tweaking how reverbs transition from early to late reflections, and you want to hear how these can make a space feel wider, then Valley is an endless playground with a very small control set designed to keep you playing more than tweaking.

The late reverb uses an old optimization trick but expanded with modern hardware CPU/memory to give a much better depiction of a room, and it is tuned by ear. There are some subtle changes that I think make for a more musical reverb; for example when you change the size knob there’s a model for what happens when you have more room volume and thus more air scattering/smearing in a real space, not just the bigger modes and delay times.

The structure of Valley is also primed to move to more than two channels of reverb; the structure moves flexibly into surround or Atmos with only the addition of the Haze control. Haze blurs a reverberant image around a given speaker, which can make the total reverberant image more immersive or isolated dynamically in real time. And you can do so without changing the pre-determined decay time that you set with the main control knob, nor does the haze knob impact coloration. It’s glitch-free and guarantees the overall reverb sounds equally big regardless of the mix needs. Combine Haze with Bloom and Mode, and you’re really off to the races!

I could keep talking about it, but I think this is enough to go on for now. I’d encourage you to play with the reverb, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and ask what sounds you’re using it for!

[apossibleworld]

Thank you, this is really fascinating and helpful!  I’ve been learning more about various reverb architectures, and totally happy for any nerding out.  Valley is a great sounding algorithm and I’m sure will get used a bunch.  Hopefully some people will make videos to help spread the word.

[Author]

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