ValhallaRoom: The Late controls

The Late reverberation controls in ValhallaRoom can be accessed by clicking the Late button under the VALHALLAROOM title at the top of the plugin. The Late button will turn red when the Late editor is active.

An overview of the Late reverb controls:

  • Late Size: adjusts the relative size of the late “room.” Larger values correspond to larger spaces, and will result in a more expansive sound. For some of the Reverb Modes, high settings of Late Size will result in audible early echos, so adjust this by ear for each reverb mode.
  • Late Cross: controls the amount of coupling between the reverberators for the left and right channels. A Late Cross setting of 0.0 corresponds to separate reverbs for the left and right channels, where a signal injected into a single channel will decay in that channel only. Increasing the Late Cross setting will cause energy to spread across the stereo image as the signal decays, at a rate determined by both the Late Cross setting and the Late Size control (with a smaller setting of Late Size corresponding to a faster spread of energy between the left and right channels). By setting Late Cross to a value less than 1.0, the input stereo image will be preserved as the sound decays away.
  • Mod Rate: controls the modulation rate of the Late reverb. This is more of an “average” rate, as there is a LOT of modulation going on in the Late reverb, with up to a few dozen LFOs, all of which are randomized and have different base frequencies. Generally speaking, rates around 0.5 Hz are useful for smoothing out any artifacts in the decay, while rates above 1 Hz are useful for adding lush chorusing artifacts.
  • Mod Depth: controls the depth of the modulation in the Late reverb. Note that this is also dependent on the Reverb Mode setting, with the Bright Room having more obvious random pitch warbles for a given Mod Depth settings than the other modes.
  • Bass Mult: adjusts the decay time for the low frequencies, relative to the mid frequency decay time set by the DECAY slider. Examples:
    • A Bass Mult setting of 0.5X, and a DECAY setting of 2 seconds, will result in a low frequency decay time of 1 second.
    • A Bass Mult setting of 2.0X, and a DECAY setting of 2.0 seconds, will result in a low frequency decay time of 4 seconds.

    From a physical perspective, Bass Mult settings >1.0X are useful for emulating halls and other large spaces, while Bass Mult settings <1.0X can be useful in emulating smaller spaces. From a perceptual perspective, Bass Mult settings greater than 1.0X add more “warmth,” while settings less than 1.0X create “clarity.”

  • Bass Xover: controls the crossover frequency, in Hertz, between the bass decay (which is controlled by Bass Mult times DECAY) and the midrange decay (which is controlled by DECAY). Generally speaking, this is most effective when set somewhere between 300 Hz and 1500 Hz, but values outside of this range are useful for special effects.
  • High Mult: adjusts the decay time for the high frequencies, relative to the mid frequency decay time set by the DECAY slider. Examples:
    • With High Mult set to 0.25X, and a DECAY setting of 2 seconds, will result in a high frequency decay time of 0.5 seconds.
    • With High Mult set to 0.5X, and a DECAY setting of 2.0 seconds, will result in a high frequency decay time of 1 second.

    From a physical perspective, high frequencies tend to be absorbed by air fairly rapidly, so setting High Mult to 0.5X or less will result in a more natural decay. From a perceptual perspective, use High Mult to control the brightness or darkness of your reverb decay to your tastes.

  • High Xover: controls the crossover frequency, in Hertz, between the the midrange decay (which is controlled by DECAY) and the bass decay (which is controlled by Bass Mult times DECAY). For normal settings, values between 3000 Hz and 8000 Hz are useful, but this is highly dependent on the High Mult factor, as well as the desired effects.

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