Convolution reverb capture

[Ducatista47]

Another level of "reality enhancement." I guess... Now Justin Bieber could record as if in the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid. Boon to the Arts or another nail in the coffin of honest music in particular and culture et all? Perhaps it is like a baseball bat. Depends on who is swinging it. A plug-in for Harmony Hall in Matsumoto, Japan would be tempting.

"They capture what are called “impulse responses,” signals that contain the acoustic characteristics of the location. The technique produces a three dimensional audio imprint—enabling us to recreate what it would sound like to sing, play the piano or guitar, or stage an entire concert in that space."


http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/mapping-the-sounds-of-greek-byzantine-churches-how-researchers-are-creating-museums-of-lost-sound.html

[Ed Zeppeli]

Yeah it's a neat concept. As far as I know the ability to do so has been around for quite some time. I was fooling around with it in Reaper as far back as six years ago.

Cheers,

Warren

[1audiohack]

Hi Clark;

First off I think this making acoustical maps of unique places is very cool.

I didn't look this up to check my fading memories for accuracy but as I recall this 3D measurement method dates back into the early days of sonar and a project called Hell's Bells that was developed for finding mines in the ocean.

Unaware of this work some years later the same method was employed for the mapping of acoustical places for the purpose of tuning and problem solving. This method requires taking six impulse responses, one in each direction with the mic capsule reoriented in the same space. The direct sound and all the reflections are mapped in time, space and spectral content as well as the frequency dependent reverberation decay. This data is used by the acoustition to calculate proper treatment for the space. Polar Energy Time or PET is about 40 years of age now. Last I checked, there were 112 PET licenses granted world wide.

The use of this precision data set for sound recreation is not to new either. I think it was Sony that did quite a bit of grand hall and classic performance space acoustical mapping in the early 90's.

A recording plug in was only a matter of time I suppose. I think you are right when you say it depends on who swings with it.

Thanks for sharing Clark.

Barry.

PS I am no historian and don't have a great memory anymore but I have been keenly interested in this technology, it is still an incredibly powerful tool.

If I missed on a memory, kindly ask for your money back. :)

[Ducatista47]

Barry, you have likely delivered off the top of your head more than I could have found researching it on the web. You seem to be channeling F. Alton Everest, and harbor some of Harry Nyquist's. genes. I am impressed, and thankful not for the first time for your kindness and interest.

I am not entirely surprised to see Sony in the mix. Their technological approach to investigating sound and improving its reproduction must have yielded a staggering body of knowledge, and I hope it is safely archived somewhere. I would not like to see it vanish like JBL's production records in a sprinkler system incident.

Thanks to Warren as well - what was the result of your hands on experience with these technologies, if I may be too curious?

[Radley]

Sony made the DRE-S777. It got great reviews but it was priced at something like $6,000. so few got to use it.70420