ValhallaVintageVerb 4.0.0 Update. New Reverb Modes: Chamber1979 and Hall1984.

We are happy to announce the ValhallaVintageVerb 4.0.0 update. The big news: we’ve added two new reverb modes, Chamber1979 and Hall1984!

Elements Of The Past

Chamber1979 is inspired by the Chamber algorithm in a renowned digital reverb from the late 1970s. I’ve been messing around with this algorithm for over a decade, but it wasn’t sounding good to my ears. I figured I’d give it one more try, and found that it had its charms, but with a few faults. The original hardware algorithm had some seasick modulation that I didn’t like. In addition, my realization of the algorithm couldn’t get short decay times. It always sounded really long, even with Decay set to minimum. The algorithm also sounded kinda metallic to me. Lastly, the overall tonality and filtering of my algorithm didn’t precisely line up with the 70s hardware.

Elements Of The Future

In order to fix the issues with the Chamber algorithm, I decided to draw upon some modern reverb theory. The seasick modulation issue was something I had fixed in ValhallaRoom back in 2011, so I applied similar techniques to the Chamber algorithm. The results were much lusher, with less random pitch shifts than the original. Fixing the decay time issues and metallic sound required a bit more science. I ended up going to publications by Jean-Marc Jot (including his early 90s PhD thesis), and applying some of his reverb decay techniques to the Chamber algorithm. I had never tried these techniques with nested allpass reverb algorithms, and I don’t know if anyone else has tried them, but they WORKED. The Chamber algorithm was now able to get short decay times, and sounded much less metallic. I decided to call my version Chamber1979, as a proper “retro futurism” homage to that era.

I also revisited the schematics of the 70s hardware, and saw a strange analog circuit I had overlooked in the past – a fixed filter labeled the “aperture filter.” This filter was apparently used to make up for some of the darkness added by the sampling process. A few hours of RC equations in Excel and some late night coding, and I had the aperture filter working! This ends up adding some unexpected brightness to the reverb sound, even at low sampling rates. Chamber1979 uses this aperture filter in the 70s and 80s colors, with the appropriate cutoff for each era, and helps create a more “hardware” sound.

Revisiting The Concert Hall

After seeing how well these newer techniques worked with the Chamber algorithm, I decided to try them with the venerable Concert Hall algorithm. The results made me really happy. The new Concert Hall algorithm retained the open sound and spaciousness of the older algorithm, but with a less metallic sound, and far greater control over the reverb time. The new hall algorithm worked well for short room sounds, as well as big halls, cathedrals, and giant synth reverbs. I changed the modulation to be more distributed within the network, while retaining the coloration of the original algorithm. I also added the aperture filter in the 70s and 80s modes. I’m really happy with the results – things sound closer to the original hardware, but with some improvements to the lower decay times.

The new reverb mode is called Hall1984, to pay tribute to my favorite reverb hardware from the early 1980s. Don’t let the “1984” in the name fool you – Hall1984 is perfect for dark 70s digital halls, brighter 80s halls, and crystal clear modern reverbs.

QResque Presets For That Early 80s Room Simulator Sound

I’ve also revisited the Palace reverb mode, and created some presets that more closely emulate a famous early 80s digital room simulator. In order to more closely match the hardware, the Early Diffusion is set to 50%, the Late Diffusion to 0%, and the Attack to 100%. This replicates the “reverb from the back of the hall” sound, which pushes the reverb back behind the sound source. I’ve found that these settings in the Palace algorithm can be used for small rooms, plates, reverb chambers, halls, and huge cathedrals. The new QResque presets can be found in the Palace preset folder.

VintageVerb Is Like A Vintage Wine. It Keeps Improving With Age.

ValhallaVintageVerb was first released in December 2012, with eight reverb modes. We have continually updated VintageVerb since that time, adding fourteen new reverb modes, new GUI color schemes, new plugin formats, and compatibility for M1/M2/M3 Macs. 2023 has seen the introduction of three new reverb modes: Palace in January, and Chamber1979 and Hall1984 today, for a grand total of 22 reverb modes! I feel like these new reverb algorithms are the best ones yet in ValhallaVintageVerb. These new modes combine vintage sonics with modern updates, with the results being highly flexible reverbs that work for all styles of music.

FREE update for all Valhalla VintageVerb owners!

If you already own ValhallaVintageVerb the update is in your user account, so log in and grab the latest installer. If you don’t own Valhalla VintageVerb, feel free to grab the demo from the Demo and Downloads page, and check out Chamber1979, Hall1984, and the other 20 reverb algorithms that are unique to ValhallaVintageVerb. We hope you enjoy the ValhallaVintageVerb update, and thank you for your support!