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This is a preset for Valhalla Vintage Verb. Load preset.

Preset 4: Canyon

In the last preset, we looked at a long reverb which is good for legato and ambient sounds, but does not work very well with drums. This is a variation on that sound which does not sound nearly as rattly with drums, and is more natural sounding.

Sound demo. This is a legato sound I made on my Roland JP-08 which is one of my reverb acid tests; many reverbs with long decays ring really badly on the tail with this sound. I also have a snare drum run through this preset in the sound demo.

This preset uses the newer “Smooth Random” algorithm for VVV.

About this preset

This is a preset which takes the last preset and makes it work better with percussive sounds and sound more natural. To wit:

• The sound has a lower cutoff, like a natural reverb wash.
• Low frequencies have a somewhat longer decay, which is more natural.
• The room size and attack were made smaller.
• Diffusion was added, mainly in the early part, so that percussion sounds do not rattle nearly as much.
• The decay was made shorter to sound (somewhat) natural.
• There is still a lot of modulation in the tail to minimize ringing and metallic artifacts.

There is still a fairly high low cut off, so the reverb does not sound muddy, but not as extreme as the one Abbey Road Studios had.

Note that while this preset does work with percussive sounds, it is not a “drum room” preset, and there is still some subtle rattling to simulate the echos a drum sound would get in a huge hall or canyon.

Load the preset

Here is the preset; on the left is the XML which Valhalla Vintage Verb loads; on the right are human-readable versions of the parameters. To load it in to VVV, copy the left side parameters, click on the preset name (to the right of “Presets”) in VVV, then choose “paste from clipboard.”

<ValhallaVintageVerb pluginVersion="1.5.0" presetName="Canyon" Mix="1" PreDelay="0.35600000619888306" Decay="0.53600001335144043" Size="0.75599998235702515" Attack="0.66399997472763062" BassMult="0.65600001811981201" BassXover="0.36399999260902405" HighShelf="0.6119999885559082" HighFreq="0.31999999284744263" EarlyDiffusion="1" LateDiffusion="0.31999999284744263" ModRate="0.48399999737739563" ModDepth="0.84399998188018799" HighCut="0.43500000238418579" LowCut="0.164000004529953" ColorMode="0.77777779102325439" ReverbMode="0.58333331346511841" />

100.0% 45.44 ms 8.79 s 75.6 % 66.4 % 1.66 x 400 Hz -9.31 db 2800 hz 100.0 % 32.0 % 4.89 Hz 84.4% 4720 Hz 250 Hz 1980s Smooth Random

Note that this preset requires Valhalla Vintage Verb 1.5.0 or higher; owners of previous versions of VVV can upgrade to 1.5.0 for free.