Creating Impulses with Perfect Space?

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EtherealEntity
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2011/03/15 09:17:02 (permalink)

Creating Impulses with Perfect Space?

Hi guys. I am doing a spur of the moment project tomorrow and have never used Perfect Space before. I have used impulses in different software, but need to make my own.
I understand Perfect Space can be used to do this. Is this correct?

We have a speech clip that we are going to 'place' into a large stairwell. We are going to run it out of a speaker and rerecord it back in, which is fine, but would actually like to take an impulse of the stairwell to run anything through, too.

How would I go about this? I am thinking a sine sweep out of the speaker recorded back into my laptop, but where do we go from there to get rid of the sine and be able to use the reverb as a plugin on any sound.
Thanks!
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    bitflipper
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    Re:Creating Impulses with Perfect Space? 2011/03/15 12:21:37 (permalink)
    Here's a pretty good article from Electronic Musician on making IRs.

    Check out Voxengo's Deconvolver plugin.


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    EtherealEntity
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    Re:Creating Impulses with Perfect Space? 2011/03/15 12:50:40 (permalink)
    Thanks for the article - very useful :) I can't really be buying that right now, is it possible in Perfect Space?
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    EtherealEntity
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    Re:Creating Impulses with Perfect Space? 2011/03/15 13:16:42 (permalink)
    I think I've found out it isn't possible. Though the software you linked says "Demo version does not support batch processing and is limited to 3 deconvolution operations per program's session.
    (Demo version is authorized with a product key - no challenge/response nor dongle required)"

    From reading this I presume it will be fine for what I need?
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    bitflipper
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    Re:Creating Impulses with Perfect Space? 2011/03/15 13:16:43 (permalink)
    Here's another interesting resource, a web site of a Dutch guy who makes IRs as a hobby and offers them for download. He specializes in unusual spaces such as the inside of a van and wastebaskets. He's even made an IR of the inside of his mouth.

    AFAIK, an IR file is just a regular wave file. I have actually confirmed this by loading some IRs into SONAR and listening to them. They sound like a recording of a gunshot.

    I don't know much about swept IRs, which are purportedly more accurate but require an additional step. That's where the Voxengo Deconvolver comes in. However, I suspect that for your application the starter pistol method would be adequate for capturing a stairwell.

    I am no expert on this subject, but I think all you need to do is capture a high-quality recording of a white noise burst and you've got your IR.



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    EtherealEntity
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    Re:Creating Impulses with Perfect Space? 2011/03/15 13:28:44 (permalink)
    I think you're right :)
    I think we will go in there and record:

    1) The voice playing from a speaker, just incase the impulse idea fails for any reason.
    2) A gunshot impulse
    3) A sine sweep impulse

    That way I have plenty to play around with afterwards and see what works best :)
    Thank you for your help
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    bitflipper
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    Re:Creating Impulses with Perfect Space? 2011/03/15 13:39:12 (permalink)
    I have read about sound recordists in film making IR files for each space that had been used for movie scenes. Even though the live dialog already contained the ambiance of the space, having the IR meant that if it was subsequently necessary to add anything to the sound track (e.g. foley effects, alternate language overdubs, dialog replacement) it would sound as though it had been recorded in the same space.

    Have fun!


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    EtherealEntity
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    Re:Creating Impulses with Perfect Space? 2011/03/16 16:10:21 (permalink)
    The day went well :)

    We made impulses with balloons and trimmed them, and yes you were right you just load the regular wave file of the 'gunshot'. They sound good :)

    We also played a sinesweep and ran it through Voxengo Deconvolver to produce an impulse file there. There results are fairly different, not sure which I prefer yet :)

    I have a question on connections though - I'll ask here save opening a new thread.

    We had a portable tape recorder for the outdoor impulses, with a stereo mic that plugs in with a stereo minijack.

    At one point, working indoors with my laptop, I decided to plug this mic into my interface to bypass a step. I realised it is stereo and my inputs are mono, but just thought I'd see how the connection works. I couldn't get it to work at all. I used one of these

    A stereo one, to put the mic into the jack inputs on my interface. I couldn't get any signal at all, even with phantom power.

    Plugging the mic into the mic in on the side of my laptop did work, and produced a stereo recording. Why could I not get signal in my interface?
    #8
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