Adding modulation to Impulse Responses?
- Thread starter SomeGuy
- Start date
bengoss
Active Member
Finially someone!
I’ve been trying all sorts of things in the past couple of months with Altiverb.
And yes you are totally right. Most of the IRs are super static and you get the same timbre no matter what’s the amplitude of the sound. I tried playing with decay time and got some nice results. Ill post some audio samples soon.
If you’re talking about reverb IRs, you could try Reverberate. It features deep control over the IRs, including modulation. I’m currently trying it out with some microphone IRs.
https://www.liquidsonics.com/software/reverberate-2/
OP
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SomeGuy
Senior Member
This is exactly right! Would love to hear your solution when you are able.
OP
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SomeGuy
Senior Member
Thanks, will check this out! Does the modulation only work to blend between two different IR or can it modulate other aspects of the sound? Will of course demo myself as well.
averystemmler
Active Member
Reverberate has some interesting options. There are two IR slots that can be modulated between, but there is also the notion of "fusion IRs," which are single IRs containing multiple variations that modulate within themselves, kinda like a multisampled impulse. You can put one of these in each IR slot, and modulate between them.
Then, each IR has a chorus, delay, and EQ. The EQ can be set to change over the length of each impulse, which can create a dampening effect like you'd find in an algorithmic reverb. The chorus is post IR, but there's a "splitmod" for each slot as well which can modulate pitch for the ER and tail sections independently.
You can have each IR and its chain in series or parallel, followed by additional master chorus, delay, and EQ modules at the end of the chain.
Each IR also has start position, length, ADSHR, width, predelay, pan, and gain controls, the combination of which allow you to do some pretty tremendous shaping.
And, finally, you can also opt to put an algorithmic ER or tail generator in either of the slots instead, with a decent assortment of parameters to fiddle with.
If nothing else, they give you choices!
Henu
Dismember
You can also slap a modulation plugin as an insert after your reverb and use a very slight mix setting. Granted, it's not the same thing but you can get some really cool results doing that.
...or just get a Lexicon/ equivalent-sounding plugin and call it a day.
EDIT: Now I got myself really interested on Reverberate- curse you @averystemmler ! :D
...or just get a Lexicon/ equivalent-sounding plugin and call it a day.
EDIT: Now I got myself really interested on Reverberate- curse you @averystemmler ! :D
averystemmler
Active Member
If this helps your decision at all: liquidsonics gives some nice loyalty discounts on each of their plugins to owners of the others.
Living Fossil
Senior Member
I'd rather put the modulation plug in before the reverb.
fixxer49
Bouncing Consultant
+1. This.
The old Acoustica impulses actually came packaged with presets for the Mod Delay plugin in Pro Tools.
averystemmler
Active Member
I don't want to put words in his mouth, but generally speaking, I find I get much more natural results when affecting a send pre-reverb than post. It's the difference between applying vibrato to the flute and apply vibrato to the hall (to use a dumb analogy).
Which is to say, I'd put modulation in the effect slot before the reverb, but still on the send.
Living Fossil
Senior Member
Of course i do
On your bus you put the chorus (or whatever kind of modulation) before your reverb.
This way, the modulated signal gets reverberated.
Which results in a denser reverb.
Henu
Dismember
Wow, I've actually never heard about that nor have I thought about it before!
When I think of modulating reverb, my first impression would be the slightly modulated and living tail, and to be honest I still cannot comprehend completely this idea...but I've gotta try it out, haha! Thanks for the tip, one lives and learns! ^^
When I think of modulating reverb, my first impression would be the slightly modulated and living tail, and to be honest I still cannot comprehend completely this idea...but I've gotta try it out, haha! Thanks for the tip, one lives and learns! ^^
Living Fossil
Senior Member
averystemmler
Active Member
In some reverbs, that modulated and living tail is actually created by applying the modulation to the dry signal internally, before it hits the "reverb" part. You might be doing this already without realizing it.
A large part of the advantage of this is that it helps to prevent resonances from forming. Since reverbs are really just delays (upon delays upon delays upon delays... diffused with allpass filters and psychoacoustic magic that I don't claim to understand), multiple identical signals offset slightly in time will phase and ring and generally make a mess.
So changing the input signal over time is a simple way to keep those resonances from forming, since each delay tap is echoing a slightly different version of the signal.
Putting the modulation after can have a cool effect too, but it'll just be wiggling the already formed resonance around. But since a lot of plugins deal with this internally already (and maybe impulse responses are less relevant here, since they already contain some of the natural imperfections and diffusion of a real space?), my reasoning for putting modulation pre-verb would be more for the aesthetic effect it has, blurring the wobbles together.
Divico
Senior Member
Nice one. on its own it sounds bad but in context it makes the verb more credible. At least for me
Beat Kaufmann
Senior Member
HOFA IQ-Reverb
Melda’s MconvolutionMB allows you to add modulation before the IR. It also allows you to modulate between different IRs if that’s what you want.
Adding a little modulation before an IR can really add a bit of life to the sound. If you do too much it will sound like chorusing though.
Adding a little modulation before an IR can really add a bit of life to the sound. If you do too much it will sound like chorusing though.
