ValhallaUberMod: The DRIVE Parameters

The original idea behind ValhallaÜberMod was to create a powerful chorus/multitap delay plugin, that stayed “pristine” at all feedback settings. Fortunately, my early beta testers convinced me that I needed to put some filth into ÜberMod, and so the DRIVE section was born.

The goal of the DRIVE section is to allow the user to dial in the amount of overdrive and noise they want, from subtle colorations to high amounts of grit, and to be able to switch the drive off as needed to return to the original “pristine” algorithms. The DRIVE section uses a highly optimized soft saturation algorithm, which is oversampled to reduce aliasing.

ValhallaUberModDriveSection

The DRIVE Controls:

  • DRIVE On/Off: Selects whether the DRIVE is enabled or disabled. When the DRIVE is Off, the calculations are bypassed, reducing the CPU load.
  • DRIVE InGain: The input gain for the overdrive section, in dB. Higher values result in more distortion
  • DRIVE OutGain: The output gain for the overdrive section, in dB.
    • By setting DRIVE OutGain to be the opposite (i.e. same numeric value, but with opposite sign) of the input gain, the feedback gain for low level signals will be the same. This means that the FEEDBACK slider will work in the same way.
    • If the DRIVE OutGain is set higher than the opposite of the input gain (i.e. InGain = 12 dB, OutGain = -6 dB), then the feedback gain for low level signals will be higher, and the feedback signal becomes more likely to break into oscillation.
  • DRIVE NoiseGain: Controls the gain of noise that is added to the signal, post-saturation. This is useful for emulating worn tape echos, or BBD delays. Turn the DRIVE NoiseGain all the way down if you want a less noisy delay.
  • DRIVE Pre/Post: Controls whether the overdrive happens before the outputs are taken (Pre) or after the outputs are taken (Post).
    • If DRIVE Pre/Post is set to POST, the first delay repeats that reach the outputs will be clean. The overdrive will only be heard on the feedback signal.

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