I was trying to figure out why my Spectrum plugin in Ableton kept showing a bunch of (inaudible) noise, and figured out it was coming from Valhalla Vintage Verb.
This happens as long as the plugin is turned on -- it doesn't matter if nothing is playing back, the noise will still appear.
It also only happens with certain patches / modes of the plugin.
Is this normal? I assume if yes, it's some kind of hardware emulation of old units? But I guess my question is, why is it created even when my song isn't playing / no audio is passing through the plugin?
thanks,
-M
VintageVerb creating noise even with no input / sound ?
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2301 posts since 11 Jan, 2009 from Portland, OR, USA
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- KVRAF
- 3426 posts since 15 Nov, 2006 from Pacific NW
In some of the VintageVerb algorithms, the 70s and 80s modes have code that replicates the 12 bit "floating point" ADC/DACs of the RMX16. These used the 12-bit ADC and DACs that were state of the art in the early 80s, with some clever hardware that would add 3 bits of gain staging to the signal, so that the quantization noise was closer to a 16-bit convertor.
Anyway, it turns out that a 12-bit DAC, even with gain staging, sounds really quantized in the tail. The model I created sounded weird. The RMX16 itself didn't have that weird "fizzling out" of the reverb, because there was enough of a noise floor (from the analog electronics, as well as fixed point truncation noise in the recursive DSP processing) that things never decayed away to the point where you would hear the truncation. Instead, things would decay away to a noise floor.
So I added a bit of noise to my "12 bit floating point DAC" code, and things sounded correct. I think of the noise in these old digital devices as adding dithering to the DAC output, so that you don't get the weird frizzly "noise gate/Maestro Fuzz Tone" sound when the end of the reverb decay is quantized.
The modes that have the noise in the 70s mode will decay away to a fairly low level noise floor, for authenticity's sake. Turn the color to 80s or NOW, and the noise will go away.
Anyway, it turns out that a 12-bit DAC, even with gain staging, sounds really quantized in the tail. The model I created sounded weird. The RMX16 itself didn't have that weird "fizzling out" of the reverb, because there was enough of a noise floor (from the analog electronics, as well as fixed point truncation noise in the recursive DSP processing) that things never decayed away to the point where you would hear the truncation. Instead, things would decay away to a noise floor.
So I added a bit of noise to my "12 bit floating point DAC" code, and things sounded correct. I think of the noise in these old digital devices as adding dithering to the DAC output, so that you don't get the weird frizzly "noise gate/Maestro Fuzz Tone" sound when the end of the reverb decay is quantized.
The modes that have the noise in the 70s mode will decay away to a fairly low level noise floor, for authenticity's sake. Turn the color to 80s or NOW, and the noise will go away.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2301 posts since 11 Jan, 2009 from Portland, OR, USA
I see, thanks for the explanation Sean!
cheers,
-M
cheers,
-M
