THE PLACE FOR THE IMPULSE RESPONSES IS THE KITCHEN, I MEAN... THE CONVOLUTION REVERB!

Impulse Responses (IR) are the great sensation of the guitar world, which in recent years has been using this feature displayed, since a long time ago, by convolution reverbs, such as Wave Arts' Convology XT, this week's free plugin .

Convolution is a mathematical process where two functions, multiplied by each other, generate a third function, and this operation is useful in several fields of science, including signal processing, acoustics, statistics, image processing, probability and many others. In our practical application, convolution allows us to add the character of one signal to another signal, allowing us to recreate room acoustics in stunning detail or the timbre of a signal chain made up of guitar pedals + amplifier + microphone, a feature that has become very popular in today's multi-effects systems used by guitarists, such as the coveted systems from Fractal Design, the Profiler line from Kemper and the Line 6's HX and Helix, for example.

The Impulse Responses (IR) of a room, for example, is obtained by exciting the room with the explosion of a balloon or small explosive, sometimes through a pistol specially designed for this purpose (a starting pistol, also used in athletic competitions, to start a race). Such impulsive sounds of explosions have the ability to generate, in a very short pulse, almost all the frequencies we hear and such sound, when captured by microphones, will allow us to obtain an audio file (IR) containing the room's response to that impulse, hence the name "impulse response". With the help of a convolution processor, we can inject the dry signal of a singer's voice (without ambience), for example, to the processor that hosts a concert hall impulse response, and the result will be the voice mixed to the ambience of the concert hall, as if the singer had recorded his voice in that hall. The same concept applies to guitar processors where IR's obtained by injecting an impulse into a signal chain composed of guitar pedals + guitar amplifier(s) + speaker cabinet(s) + microphone(s) will be used in software or hardware convolution processors, allowing the guitarist to have the same sound (via this software or hardware) from an expensive guitar rig from his favorite artist, for example. This also allows the user to make his own IR's, storing in small audio files, the sound of rooms, analog (or digital) equipment and expensive signal chains, making them available in virtual reality, as long as he follows to the strict technical requirements for such a recording process. A recording with one microphone or a single signal will result in a mono IR, a recording with two microphones (or signals) in stereo will result in a stereo IR and a recording in immersive format (surround) will result in an immersive IR (surround).

The Convology XT is a reverb that offers 70 IR's of classic reverb processors and works without limitations for its users. The manufacturer also offers for a cost of $175 a library containing over 2900 IR's of various types of effect processors. On this link there are a series of videos about the various IR's available for purchase. To download the XT version for free, you need to make a $0 purchase from the manufacturer's website, give your name and some contact information to receive a permanent plugin license. To download the plugin, click on this link.

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From Jerusalem,

Tairo Arrabal

(Enginear Audio Solutions)