Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
OT: Valhalla Shimmer vs Eventide Blackhole Plug-in
Anyone owned / compared these too? Eventide is on sale at $69, Valhalla $50 (reg price).
Comments
Both have their own thing going on .. so it’s not a like to like comparison ... depends what you are going for .. for ambience blackhole can’t be beat ... Valhalla you can use it with most music adjusting the mix
Haven't used both a lot, but I'd say hisdudeness nailed it. Blackhole is a black hole you can fall down into - but you can get hurt if you didn't mean to. Shimmer seems a little more versatile and more easily tuned to the music. That said, get Black Hole on sale and then soon after, get Shimmer
I wouldn't get the Eventide plugin for more more than that vs. Shimmer, since you're paying for name brand as well with Eventide, not just quality.
I use Valhalla Shimmer on this recent track:
http://udagan.bandcamp.com/track/t-kh
It's happening pretty much all the way through the track but the most prominent two spots are after 2:30ish and after 4:30ish for the entire sections happening at those points.
I like it, easy to get musical effects and tune it into a mix.
I got both and the both have their own selling points.
Shimmer to me seems to have just that little bit more power.
By the way Sean Costello the creator of Valhalla Shimmer is working on something new that sounds pretty fab.
Here’s a Soundcloud track of it in action.
I like both, shimmer is good for the pitch shifting ambience type stuff, blackhole excels at long washes and odd angles from outta space, I'd demo both before the sale ends, don't know if audiority is doing a sale, but their xenoverb is also worth a look, can do washes and pitch shifty stuff and has a few more tricks up its sleeve.
You may consider Valhalla Übermod as a more versatile alternative... it can easily do 'blackholish ambiences'. And as a VST multiple instances may be chained.
It's my standard goto if something is supposed to be washed out in space (with it's TapeEcho setting in the Reverb category), often applied after a 'regular' reverb.
https://valhalladsp.com/2012/03/09/what-is-ubermod/
ps: Valhallas never go into sales
they are very different. they are both useful. pitch shift isn't used in the Blackhole algo, at least not in the way it is used in Shimmer.
all of the Valhalla processors are very good/useful.
Though I've never spoken with Sean Costello, I believe Valhalla Shimmer was created to emulate a process that Eno and Lanois experimented with; reverb, delay, feedback, pitch shifting. Most recognise this as the sound of The Edge (U2 produced by Eno/Lanois), and refer to it as shimmer.
Sean had a blog, before the release of shimmer, describing some of his process in creating this effect. also, lots of information on very early digital processors. the blog is probably still around and is interesting if you're a fan of early reverbs, pitch shifters, digital processors, etc.
As your attorney I advise you to get blackhole for $58 from here
http://everyplugin.com/blackhole.html
And then get xenoverb for €25 from here
https://www.audiority.com/shop/xenoverb/
Then get shimmer later to save a bit of cash, as it usually is always that price, I prefer the pitch shifting reverb in xenoverb over shimmer, but that is just personal taste, feel free to ignore this message as it will self destruct in five minutes.
Blackhole is great. Playing with gravity is recommended. Hope more h9 algorithms get ported to vst
Thanks for this info! I've wanted Valhalla effects for awhile but honestly just cannot justify the expense (yes, I know they are not expensive for good reverbs) but I have so many other effects and reverbs on the desktop. I'm sure they are great but also don't know if my ears are tuned in enough to be able to spot all the differences. Maybe someday.
I once tried to spot the difference between Eventide's 1st VST release of their famous 2016 Stereo Room (implemented by Princeton Digital) and Valhalla Room.
As hard as tried to hear the Eventide in front (because I liked the GUI approach)... I entirely failed. The Valhalla Room just outperformed it - for a fifth of costs.
Sidenote: at it's release the Eventide 2016 was classified a really good (VST) reverb by the maker of the Relab Developement LX480 Lexicon emulation - Valhalla DSP didn't exist yet iirc.
The Valhalla Plugins are serious stuff at a very affordable price tag.
Eventide still rules with their 19" fx units and Pro Tools plugins (by Wavemechanics), but their VST releases haven't been that convincing (imho).
Anyway, just check the demos, if in doubt.
There is another really fecking fantastic option that has just gone on sale, for pitch shifting shimmer type o verb, luminance by sinevibes, currently £9.97.
https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/17-Reverb/4642-Luminance
I hope the start making iOS music apps would love to see that one appear on my iPad.
It would be perfect for ios, just hope he hasn't given up on the platform, was excited when sequential popped up, but it hasn't been updated for ages. The new ui's tho are much more touch friendly, especially for members of the community that have stubby dumplings for fingers.
Thread necro: Blackhole can be found for $25 USD online at JRR shop. I might have to get it for that price....
I got on board for a similar price in a previous sale. Note iLock was necessary but not too much of a hassle. Worth it.
Blackhole is my favorite reverb followed Valhalla VintageVerb. I don't use Shimmer as much.
What are the best reverbs available today, for someone looking for massive reverb. I have BlackHole and Crystalline, but looking for something Valhalla-like.
Any tips?
"As your attorney..."
I got that reference.
Blackhole, everytime. It’s the real thing. And it’s only $12 for iOS.
Valhalla is hard to beat for price/quality... Sonsig by Relab is equal (or „better“) depending on taste.
https://relabdevelopment.com/sonsig-rev-a/
(classic reverb with some „ensemble“ extensions)
If you‘re more in the modulated category Polyverse Comet may apply
https://polyversemusic.com/products/comet/
(regular price atm...)
But (ot mention) their Supermodal filter is still on sale due to beta status.
It‘s outstanding in quality, control, and features
ps: if you mean IOS... I don‘t think there‘s something comparable, but I only listened to examples and lack hands on experience
after Blackhole I stopped looking
Valhalla Supermassive is great and also free. One of my favorite time based fx for desktop
https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/valhalla-supermassive/
Supermassive is FREE on Valhalla and id say is more like Blackhole than Shimmer.
Pretty sure she means iOS!
I don't know much about Valhalla as I stick to iOS. One option would be to get a convolution reverb if you don't have one already. Thafknar is OK but I personally prefer Altispace 2 by a long way. Same sound, miles better interface. You can then look around the Internet for IRs. There are tons of interesting free ones available, many of which are HUGE. Only thing about Altispace 2 is the 15 second time limit for those wav files. Not sure offhand what the limit is for Thafknar. There will also be lots of paid IRs available. Maybe search for 'ambient impulse response' or 'long impulse responses'. The Venus Theory / Flashbulb (Benn Jordan) IR pack Underworlds would be up your street I reckon.
Alteza is a great choice for very long ambient reverb. Most of the presets use the shimmer effect, which you may not want, but that is easily turned off.
Yes. It’s epic.
very true - also for me
Ye> @MAtrixplan said:
Yeah Ando, if you already have blackhole and crystalline, both of which are superb, you might be better saving your money and buying something else than another huge reverb tbh
Thanks @Gavinski. I figure I already have the best tools.
I actually downloaded the free Valhallas for my Mac, but unfortunately there's a PKG installer bug on MacOS at the moment, so I can't install them.