If you’ve followed me for long, you know I don’t often write reviews on my personal blog (I do it all the time for writing clients).
But, as I’ve grown my business both in music and in writing, I have occasionally come across really cool things which are also made by really cool companies. Sometimes (and this is new), I’ve even sought out an actual sponsorship relationship with them.
So today I thought I’d just quickly let you know about Valhalla DSP. They make effects plugins which are super cool, great sounding, and supremely easy to use.
Disclaimer And Background
The disclaimer – in this case, I do not have any kind of official sponsorship relationship with Valhalla DSP as of this writing.
However, they did very generously provide me with a license to their most popular product (Valhalla VintageVerb), when I was writing an article called the 5 Best Reverb Plugins Compared for Soundfly’s FlyPaper blog.
They also were kind enough find an old account I had never touched point out the other products I already licenses to, and attach Valhalla VintageVerb to that. All in response to me simply asking if they had any demos, because I was writing an article.
This may seem normal, or inconsequential – but it is NOT. This kind of friendly, helpful response to a fellow professional is rare, and when companies are great with me, I want to be great back. So, I’m writing this as a way to give an extra thank you to Valhalla.
Love At First Hearing
I was already going to write something, because I love being treated well, but then I happened to actually start USING my Valhalla plugins, and after about a session and a half, I found myself inserting Valhalla effects pretty much as a default.
“Ok I need to play with a reverb here…” *mindlessly opens Valhalla VintageVerb*
“Hmm how bout a delay?” *Inserts Valhalla FreqEcho before realizing it*
“What if…” *Valhalla SpaceModulator* “….oh..yeah…that!”
Great Sounding, Easy And Fast
The thing that makes me gravitate toward these plugins is they’re so easy, yet they sound really good. It’s not a hundred years before I find the basic sound I’m looking for. It’s – click click ah ha!
With simple interfaces and controls, it’s easy to find a preset, tweak a preset, and get a sound, and the thing always sounds great. Plus they load quickly and they have yet to jitter, drop, or crash.
And this is working with them in COVID-19 isolation on my laptop, not my monster studio desktop. (Granted, this laptop is no joke – but it’s not a full-on production machine.)
I’ve been able to quickly dial up long tail reverbs, short ambient rooms, shimmering modulation, and super important – a nice stereo vocal delay effect that I used to have to spend three times as long dialing up on another delay. I use that kind of short delay a LOT of vocals, and FreqEcho just saved me a LOT of time.
Affordable AF
Oh – and these things are affordable as hell. FreqEcho and SpaceModulator are freeish (their word – they’re free with purchase), and VintageVerb is a mere $50.
That’s sort of amazing.
That’s It, Go Try These Guys
That’s it, y’all. For now. I just wanted to sing these guys’ praises because I’m impressed. Maybe I’ll have more to say later, but for now, just go try Valhalla DSP. I recommend them!