[linux-audio-user] Re: Decent reverb

[Steve Harris]

On Wed, Feb 02, 2005 at 12:33:17 -0800, davidrclark at earthlink.net wrote:
> Hi Steve,
> 
> Thanks for your comments on impulses, etc.
> 
> My main concern was that, and I'm sure you know this perfectly well, that
> mathematical physicists are fond of saying about impulses, in the context
> of integration, that the shape of the impulse doesn't matter too much.
> It's a handy way to sweep away a difficult derivation!

Sure. They can still sound good though, and thats what were after, right?
Obviously its goo to have other techniques too.
 
> (The following is more specific, hopefully of interest to at least  some
> LAUer's.)
> 
> On my web page is a song "latest" that uses calculated IR's.  Some software
> is there to produce them, also.  But I know you're a busy guy!  The song
> "latest" is for headphones, as usual.  Long ago you and some others 
> encouraged me to post the IR generators.  They were so user unfriendly
> that I took some time to "put some lipstick" on them.  Hopefully they're
> not too bad now.

I havent looked at your software yet, but I'l download it and give it a go
when I have time. You didnt post your URL BTW :)
 
> Regarding synthetic space --- ironically a problem with the Green's function
> technique that I'm using, the calculated IR's are a little too accurate.
> They have extremely sharp spikes, and the timing is very accurate.  You can
> hear echos where you might actually hear more of a reverb (with actual
> diffuse reflections).  Amplitudes can also become very large, yet the
> sound have very little power.  Here again, I think that diffusion and diffuse
> reflections need to be incorporated, or something mimicing them.  However,
> this accuracy produces crystal clear sound, and I find more and more that
> I like it compared to the mushy sound that a lot of audio software produces.
> Some reverb models sound hilarious to me because they're so physically
> erroneous.  I can't hear the music over the sound of my own laughter.

Reverb is largly a matter of taste I think.
 
> I'm not a big fan of ray-tracing at this time.  It just seems to me that
> it's equivalent to a sparse grid without some sort of optimization or
> pruning method.  But I have no experience other than reading technical
> articles.

I've not heard to output of ray traced impulses, it just seemed like an
interesting method.

- Steve