Bub mike_mccue I suspect the best reason that Perfect Space doesn't come with presets is that one could easily create a preset that would crash any CPU on instantiation. A convolution preset that works ok on one system might just yank another system to the ground. If I was distributing presets for Perfect Space... I'd probably stick with some real lame ones with very short IR tails just so that the first impression wasn't a Blue Screen. Whew! You ain't just whistlin' Dixie there son! Somewhere in the outer cosmo's there is the reverberation of my voice traveling through space and time screaming PERFECTSPACE!!!!!, similar to Kirk screaming KAHN!!!!! Don't even think of getting it anywhere near Bitbridge. At least on the 2 DAW's I tried it on. x86 seems to run bettererer. For me. Your personal experience may vary.
mike_mccue I suspect the best reason that Perfect Space doesn't come with presets is that one could easily create a preset that would crash any CPU on instantiation. A convolution preset that works ok on one system might just yank another system to the ground. If I was distributing presets for Perfect Space... I'd probably stick with some real lame ones with very short IR tails just so that the first impression wasn't a Blue Screen.
Paul Russell The first post in this Gearslutz thread is a great instant tutorial in setting predelay and room time to enhance your sound. I've been referring to it a lot since 'Storyville' wrote it in 2009
Paul Russell The problem with impulse reverbs is that you can't set the material for the track. By this, I mean setting the pre-delay and the room size or RT60 to complement the groove. When you're using an algo based verb, you can. The first post in this Gearslutz thread is a great instant tutorial in setting predelay and room time to enhance your sound. I've been referring to it a lot since 'Storyville' wrote it in 2009 Here are the key excerpts: Start with the predelay. This is the first rhythmic element of your reverb. Let's say your bpm is 120. That means you have one quarter note every 500ms. You have one eighth note every 250 ms. You have one sixteenth note every 125ms, you have one 32nd note every 63ms. 64th notes at 32ms. In order to have the predelay trigger the reverb in a rhythmic fashion, it needs to be at one of these measures. I'd go with 32 or 63ms, because we want the reverb to still feel attached to it's source sound. Also, you notice how I rounded up? That's to put the reverb "behind the beat." This helps create a rhythmic pocket. I might even suggest moving the predelay higher a couple ms, just to make that pocket a bit more open, and so that the hit of the reverb isn't directly overtop the next part of the music. Now move on to the Duration. Using the same time rubric, we can determine how long we want our time to be. Texturally, we want our reverb to be clean. This means a long time is going to create a wash sound, and defeat the work that we did on the pre-delay. The reverb time in a small room is very quick. A quarter of a second, give or take. But rhythmically, we want our reverb to pull us into the meter of the song. So we want our length to line up along the same rubric we found for the predelay. Let's say 250ms if we're going for a room slap effect. This way, we're moving right along to the eighth note pulses. BUT! Consider that our predelay is set to, say, 34ms. This means we have the tail of the reverb pulling us to the beginning of the next reverb, not the beginning of the next pulse. Subtract your predelay from your time, 250-34ms. Set your reverb time to 216ms. Remember, even if you don't hear the difference between 216 and 230, if the track is going to get heavily compressed, that difference WILL stand out. Now, for a lot of applications you might want a longer tail reverb - less of a room slap and more of a bigger resonance. A good meter to use for this 1 bar measurement - which at 4 beats per measure, 500ms per beat = 2 second reverb tail. EDIT: From three years in the future here. Choosing a duration for rhythmic purposes is about deciding where you want the reverb to pull the ear into. If you are doing a dance song, with a snare on 2 and 4, a short slappy reverb sound on the snare that rhythmically connects the 2 beat to the 4 beat might be good. From the example above that a 1 second duration. But let's say you have a vocal - you may want the phrases to connect which would require a longer reverb - this has a lot to do with feel because phrasing can vary a great deal - but a 1 measure reverb may in fact be better. -Side note- predelay and time are subject to taste. Use the math to get where you want. I usually find the math gets me right there. But make adjustments and go with what sounds best. Size. Size will effect the tightness of the sound. This is more creative, but here's a good starting place: Divide your time by ten, and round to the closest integer. That's a good number of ft for your room size. Adjust up or down according to tone and texture. Too large will get a spacey characterless sound. Too tight will sound almost more like a echo/delay. Decay/Density. This is somewhat ambiguous, and different processors will give you different results. Basically, I equate this to presence. Remember you have your reverb up loud now, so adjust the presence to match with the instrument that's feeding it. You probably want your reverb a nudge less present than that. Consider it like a "tone" control. If you hear a metallic oil tank sound you may want to turn the density up, but if you hear the reverb washing out or masking other sounds in the mix, you may want to turn it down. Diffusion. Diffusion is the scattering of sound waves. A highly diffuse room tends to make things sound very distant, open, or haunting, whereas a non-diffuse room makes the reflections sound more like one unified echo that washes back at you. I find diffusion can help add a sense of being "further away" without actually changing time constants. Damping. Picture the material you want your room to have. Is it metal walls? Is it oak wood? Picture your ideal room and how it sounds, then adjust the damping to meet that. Damping is how long frequencies persist during the period the reverb is presence. Basically fiddle until you get it right. Your going to eq in a moment anyway.
Start with the predelay. This is the first rhythmic element of your reverb. Let's say your bpm is 120. That means you have one quarter note every 500ms. You have one eighth note every 250 ms. You have one sixteenth note every 125ms, you have one 32nd note every 63ms. 64th notes at 32ms. In order to have the predelay trigger the reverb in a rhythmic fashion, it needs to be at one of these measures. I'd go with 32 or 63ms, because we want the reverb to still feel attached to it's source sound. Also, you notice how I rounded up? That's to put the reverb "behind the beat." This helps create a rhythmic pocket. I might even suggest moving the predelay higher a couple ms, just to make that pocket a bit more open, and so that the hit of the reverb isn't directly overtop the next part of the music. Now move on to the Duration. Using the same time rubric, we can determine how long we want our time to be. Texturally, we want our reverb to be clean. This means a long time is going to create a wash sound, and defeat the work that we did on the pre-delay. The reverb time in a small room is very quick. A quarter of a second, give or take. But rhythmically, we want our reverb to pull us into the meter of the song. So we want our length to line up along the same rubric we found for the predelay. Let's say 250ms if we're going for a room slap effect. This way, we're moving right along to the eighth note pulses. BUT! Consider that our predelay is set to, say, 34ms. This means we have the tail of the reverb pulling us to the beginning of the next reverb, not the beginning of the next pulse. Subtract your predelay from your time, 250-34ms. Set your reverb time to 216ms. Remember, even if you don't hear the difference between 216 and 230, if the track is going to get heavily compressed, that difference WILL stand out. Now, for a lot of applications you might want a longer tail reverb - less of a room slap and more of a bigger resonance. A good meter to use for this 1 bar measurement - which at 4 beats per measure, 500ms per beat = 2 second reverb tail. EDIT: From three years in the future here. Choosing a duration for rhythmic purposes is about deciding where you want the reverb to pull the ear into. If you are doing a dance song, with a snare on 2 and 4, a short slappy reverb sound on the snare that rhythmically connects the 2 beat to the 4 beat might be good. From the example above that a 1 second duration. But let's say you have a vocal - you may want the phrases to connect which would require a longer reverb - this has a lot to do with feel because phrasing can vary a great deal - but a 1 measure reverb may in fact be better. -Side note- predelay and time are subject to taste. Use the math to get where you want. I usually find the math gets me right there. But make adjustments and go with what sounds best. Size. Size will effect the tightness of the sound. This is more creative, but here's a good starting place: Divide your time by ten, and round to the closest integer. That's a good number of ft for your room size. Adjust up or down according to tone and texture. Too large will get a spacey characterless sound. Too tight will sound almost more like a echo/delay. Decay/Density. This is somewhat ambiguous, and different processors will give you different results. Basically, I equate this to presence. Remember you have your reverb up loud now, so adjust the presence to match with the instrument that's feeding it. You probably want your reverb a nudge less present than that. Consider it like a "tone" control. If you hear a metallic oil tank sound you may want to turn the density up, but if you hear the reverb washing out or masking other sounds in the mix, you may want to turn it down. Diffusion. Diffusion is the scattering of sound waves. A highly diffuse room tends to make things sound very distant, open, or haunting, whereas a non-diffuse room makes the reflections sound more like one unified echo that washes back at you. I find diffusion can help add a sense of being "further away" without actually changing time constants. Damping. Picture the material you want your room to have. Is it metal walls? Is it oak wood? Picture your ideal room and how it sounds, then adjust the damping to meet that. Damping is how long frequencies persist during the period the reverb is presence. Basically fiddle until you get it right. Your going to eq in a moment anyway.