#Valhalla shimmer review how to#
#Valhalla shimmer review full#

This is a reverb 'to be heard'.Д®ase of use - 5/5: Shimmer debuted the flat 2-D interface with clean and minimalistic (and NASA-inspired) design that would become one of Valhalla's trademark. It fills the space with its lush sound bed. This is not your subtle, natural and blended-with-the-mix reverb. I wouldn't try a room sound on it unless the definition of room is something largely loose (see? large!). In that department it sounds fantastic and really unique but I wouldn't take it anywhere else. It's basically a huge sounding 'hall' type of reverb on steroids and psychedelia. Sound Quality - 5/5: Shimmer is all about going big and long with grainy semi-eternal tails. The scope: Looking for a reverb capable of doing huge, ethereal and out of this world sounds? Then you came to the right place. I'll look back at their first commercial plugin, the unique and exquisite Shimmer. More would follow with Room, Vintage Verb and Plate, establishing Valhalla as a reference when it comes to artificial/algorithmic reverberation. Plus, you support the talents and efforts of an individual developer who is making some of the best reverbs available anywhere.Preamble: Valhalla DSP gave us Shimmer a few years ago, it was their first impact in the reverb plugin world. Each plug-in is priced at a very reasonable $50 and I would not hesitate to add one or all of these to your effects arsenal. Check it OutДetailed descriptions of all four reverbs can be found on the website as well as extensive sound examples. Many of the algorithms in Vintage emulate '80s style hardware reverbs as well giving this plug-in a unique vintage quality all its own. The reverb algorithms include some standard Halls, Plate and Rooms but also interesting setting like вЂNonlin,вЂ™ which combine gated, reverse and nonlinear into one and sound otherworldly. A вЂNOW вЂ setting is also included with clean and colorless modulation.

#Valhalla shimmer review full#

The '80s version has a brighter sound in comparison and runs at full bandwidth and sample rate, although the modulation is still dark and noisy. He reproduced this sound with custom algorithms so that the modulation is dark and noisy and artifacts are intentionally produced to give the impression of running at a lower sampling rate. In the '70s hardware version, there was a 10 kHz maximum output frequency, and the sound was down sampled internally. The way Costello recreated the '70s and '80s version of the Vintage is fascinating. Valhalla Vintage is sweet sounding reverb inspired by classic hardware digital reverbs of '70s and '80s.

#Valhalla shimmer review how to#

In the product description, Costello explains how to use Shimmer and the pitch-shifting algorithm to obtain the classic Eno/Lanois вЂshimmerвЂ™ sound.

Shimmer also has the ability to pitch shift the feedback signal and there are five different modes for that. This is a sound you can get lost in and would be interesting on any instrument. In my experience, itвЂ™s been tough with other reverbs to find that sweet spot. ItвЂ™s wonderful to have a reverb tool that is specifically tailored to big, lush sounds. The sound quality is buttery, rich and deep like landing on a soft pillow. All of the parameters can be adjusted in real time without weird artifacts or other bothersome nuances. Any fan of big cathedrals, halls or arenas will love the detail and breadth of this reverb tool. I like to use big, long tail reverbs in my music meditation recordings, especially vocal recordings, and Shimmer did not disappoint. Valhalla Shimmer is the first plug-in that intrigued me out of the fourВ available. The reverb settings are displayed in the screenshots provided. I also include an audio example of me playing flute through a setting in each reverb. In this article, I briefly cover the unique aspects of each. The four Reverbs include Plate, Room, Shimmer and Vintage, and all have wonderfully different textures depending on your needs. The Valhalla reverbs have been released for a few years, but if you somehow missed the opportunity to try and buy these fantastic plugs, hereвЂ™s a gentle reminder to go explore. And, just from a few introductory minutes on each plug-in, I saw this to be true. His work is вЂgrounded in a deep appreciation and analysis of analog and digital techniques of the past, and extending these foundations into new directions of awesome.вЂ™ His goal was to create powerful tools with simple interfaces that could be accessible to all producing musicians.

YouвЂ™ll have to look no further than his Manifesto on the website to learn how passionate he is about digital signal processing algorithms for audio. In the search for a perfect reverb I came across Valhalla DSP, founded by algorithmic wizard Sean Costello.