Valhalla Settings for Metal Guitar?

[bharris22]

Hi Everyone,

I have both Valhalla Room and Valhalla Vintage Verb, and am trying to find some good settings/presets for use in distorted rhythm guitar (think '80s hair metal). Could anyone help me with some suggestions? I have cycled through many presets looking for a good starting point to tweak, but many seem to be very dense and change the character of the underlying sound, which is not what I am really looking for. I am trying to find more of a subtle ambience to take the dryness off the sound, but not make it sound like the guitar was recorded in a cave.

Thanks in advance!

[Chandlerhimself]

I don't know if I can give you the exact settings you want, but I'd try VVV with the ambiance algorithms. Try putting it on your guitar bus and either use a preset or set the decay time to some where between 0.3 -0.8 sec. Listen to them by themselves with the reverb at 100% and imgine the type of room you're trying to create. Adjust the size and predelay to to match want. After that, set VVV to 0% and listen to your guitars with the rest of the mix. Bring up the percentage of reverb up gradually and stop when you feel like you can hear the reverb. Then bring it down 1-2%. Now listen again and turn the reverb on and off. It should sound like things have a bit more depth and realism. If things sound muddy, use the highpass filter. If the reverb is too audible, bring down the lowpass filter.

Hopefully some else can give other tips, but that should give you an idea of a less effected reverb sound. I wouldn't use any reverb over 1 sec on metal rhythm guitars, unless it was a ballad or something. Hope that helps