Impulse Response Tutorial

Impulse responses allow you to 'sample' your room and use it as a reverb in whichever program supports it. I personally love impulse responses for their 'set' characteristics, though they're not as versatile as some reverb plug-ins I find these limitations inspiring. Let's assume you are not stupid, you have Leopard and Logic 8. I am going to explain how to do this as quickly as possible using only a macbook with its built in microphone and horrid speakers. Of course you can substitute the hardware with something proper or you can even substitute this tutorial with a proper one from a 'professional' website, you know, a website that doesn't use the word 'pood' when describing low quality audio files. Anyways, I'm getting started:
You can find the program here: /Applications/Utilities/Impulse Response Utility.app. This is the general space of the program. If your screen does not look like this, you have opened Guitar Hero.



1. After choosing to work in Mono, I only have to press 'R' and the 'S' will automatically light up. 'R' puts the program in record mode and makes the 'Sweep' option available.


2. Before I press 'Sweep', I make sure my 'Monitor Mute' box is checked. I usually enjoy feedback but not through the already piercing 'speakers' on the macbook. I'll be sure to experiment and pull this off with the feedback on one day. So I Sweeped it!


After I have sweeped the frequencies my recorded waveform looked like this. Basically horrible low and high frequency responses because my microphone and speakers eat it.


3. At the bottom left, I will want to press 'Deconvolve' then 'Create Space Designer Setting...', I name my file accordingly and jump into Logic 8. I could 'audition' my reverb but I rather skip this entirely and go straight to logic because I get confused and discouraged at what I am hearing.


4. In Logic 8, I open space designer and see my impulse response staring right at me in its own little custom section. My impulse response looks like this. The volume is not decaying rather it is gating and sounds like pood.

This is easily customizable by grabbing the points and adjusting it to your liking. I prefer my turd room to trail like this.


You can hear quick examples of the IR's I created. Apparently my room has walls made of metal.
My loop dry
My loop wet
One shot dry
One shot wet

Or using the preset in Ultrabeat. Listen to the accentuation of the hi-hats.
Ultrabeat sample dry
Ultrabeat sample wet

To recap.
1: Press 'R'.
2. Press 'Sweep'
3. Press 'Deconvolve' and 'Create Space Designer Setting' (not sure why this is one step)
4. Get in Logic and fix your jacked volume settings in space designer
Now go get your platinum record. You know, the one you are reminded to achieve every time you open logic 8......