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Multiplier that’s cut-only, from 1x down to 0.25x, and a corner frequency from 200 Hz to 20 kHz. Finally, there’s a Mix control and an Infinite button to kick in endless reverb washes. And while we’re on the subject of controls, note that Eos is fully MIDI controllable, with a very simple MIDI Learn function to assign parameters to your control surface. Eos relies on your host DAW’s facilities to load and save presets rather than provide its own patch-management system. For the VST version this is seamless in pretty much every DAW; the AU may require a little bit of fiddling to get the presets to pop up for the first time. For example, a click of the Hot Swap button for an instance of Eos in Ableton Live will cause the Factory Presets folder to appear in the browser, and the Save button works as expected regardless. Eos comes with about two dozen presets that nicely showcase the plug-in’s range of capabilities. Sonically, Eos is, well... pretty. There’s just no other word for it. In these pages we’ve reviewed reverbs with much larger feature sets and much higher price tags that may have something extra in terms of detailed realism, but for reverb as a sonic coloration effect, Eos has a lovely character and richness that comes at a vanishingly small cost in CPU. Even when cranked all the way out to maximum on the Superhall algorithm, I couldn’t get Eos to top 12% on my test Mac

tabbed window on the right, and balancing between them provides a sense not only of room size but also of how close the listener is to the sound source, especially when Predelay is adjusted appropriately. The Early tab handles early reflection controls; there are controls for Early Size (which also includes reverb attack time in milliseconds), Early Cross (stereo spread), Early Send (essentially a send amount to the Late reverb), Diffusion, and Modulation Rate and Depth. The Late tab has the controls for the reverb tail: Late Size, Late Cross, Modulation Rate and Depth, and controls for Bass and High Multiplier and Crossover. The idea of the latter tone controls is that they scale the reverb time for the lows and highs by a certain amount, with a corner frequency the user can designate; the only static eq in ValhallaRoom is the High Cut. Bass Multiplier ranges from 0.5x to 2.0x, and High Multiplier from 0.1x to 1.0x (cut only); Crossover frequencies are 100 Hz–10 kHz for the Low, and 100 Hz–15 kHz for the High. There are seven Modes (algorithms) in ValhallaRoom. Originally it shipped with four: Large Room, Medium Room, Bright Room, and Large Chamber. These are all intended to be highquality room emulations; there aren’t any Plate modes per se, although with judicious tweaking of parameters the plug-in does

under Ableton Live, even when set to a fairly demanding (for this system) 128-sample buffer setting and under 4 milleseconds of output latency. That lean footprint and its rich, dense character made it a natural counterpart to virtual instruments in my rig, and it may be my new go-to favorite reverb for many of my live sounds. When we choose a ribbon mic or a vintage tube preamp, we are choosing beauty and vibe over perfect realism, and that description perfectly fits Eos. It’s affordable, easy to use, CPU-efficient, and sounds divine; check it out for yourself.

Valhalla DSP ValhallaRoom
$50; www.valhalladsp.com Valhalla DSP is new to these pages, a well-respected little software shop that offers a growing set of time-domain effects plug-ins. There’s a fun little frequency shifter/delay called ValhallaFreqEcho that’s free to download from the company website, a large-room ambience/pitchshifting plug-in called ValhallaShimmer, and the company’s newest offering, a true stereo algorithmic reverb called ValhallaRoom. ValhallaRoom provides many of the controls you’d expect on a good algorithmic reverb, with some nice extensions and tweaks to extend the plug-in’s sonic palette. The main display, as shown in both screenshots, has sliders for wet/dry Mix, Predelay (0 to 500 milliseconds), Decay Time (0.10 to 100 seconds), High Cut (this is a filter on the reverb output, from 100 Hz up to 15 kHz), and Depth, which is actually a balance between Early and Late contributions to the reverb sound. These two contributions have their own sets of controls in a
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a decently convincing plate sound, as witness the Plate presets that come with ValhallaRoom. As of the latest version of the program (1.0.7), Valhalla DSP has added three Dark Modes as well: Dark Room, Dark Chamber, and Dark Space. The Dark Modes were inspired by the old digital reverbs like the Lexicon 224, with their very long tails, somewhat grainy early reflection characteristics, and smooth dark sound (there’s bascially no top end on these Modes). They provide an interesting combination of a more “vibey” reverb with a grittier character and longer reverb times, plus a somewhat lower CPU hit when engaged. Speaking of CPU hit, ValhallaRoom isn’t the thriftiest reverb we’ve ever tested, but it’s close. On our test Mac with a 128-sample buffer and 4 millisecond output latency, the four brighter algorithms sat at about 16% CPU load, a number which dropped to about 12% for the Dark algorithms. With a maximum decay time of 100 seconds and a predelay of 500 milliseconds, you could be forgiven for thinking that ValhallaRoom could very easily have been called ValhallaInsideOfAnOilTanker. This reverb can get really, really huge; as a special effect for big endings or transitions, or even to sample reverberant textures for use elsewhere in compositions, it’s an amazing tool. But only using it for really humongous reverbs misses all the subtlety available in the Early tab, where smaller rooms with significant early-reflection content lend realism and immediacy to drum tracks and other instruments. Dial back the Diffusion for just a hint of early-slap grit and you’re in business! By the way, there’s no manual, but the user interface provides mouseover explanations for every parameter, and the company website has links to blogs with large lists of tips and tricks for a variety of room types

http://www.valhalladsp.com

Recording - September 2011

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