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Having Fun with Convolution Reverb NOT Doing Reverb


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I started messing around with putting loops into convolution reverb, and playing guitar through it. So far, my favorite technique is creating a loop with kick and tight hi-hat. The kick produces a low-frequency repeat and the hi-hat, a high-frequency repeat. I'll create polyrhythmic patterns that last one or two measures, and trigger the polyrhythmic patterns with guitar notes.

 

It's kind of like one-shot, polyrhythmic, delayed/reverb phrase generation :)

 

I'll be seeing what else I can use as impulses...I've already found out about the wonders of white noise, but I'm sure there's more to the story than just white noise or loops.

 

Anyone else out there sufficiently weird to try this kind of thing?

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By my definition, exploring sounds that can be easily made in a DAW is more logical than weird. So yeah, maybe I am weird.

 

This sounds like a fun way to do things.

 

I no longer remember which track it was or if I even kept it but while working on a re-mix on Metapop I once took 5 bars of drum audio, looped it. Then I used clip stretching to make one clip of the 5 bars 3 bars long and one 7 bars long - and looped those.

 

Poly-beats based on prime numbers. Parts of the beats would re-coincide at 15, 21 and 35 bars and the pattern would repeat at 105 bars except the remix was not 105 bars long.

 

The pitch shift from stretching tripled the number of voices/pitches too. I haven't pursued that further but the next step in my mind would be to start making clips of repetitive riffs and doing the same thing but maybe with different prime numbers. Blending them all in a mix could create an incongruent and irresolvable tension, that's fun.

 

Tension and release are the only factors I consider when I go off into the weeds. Some things in Nature are micro-polyphonic, why can't we make those sounds in our fun little boxes?

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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If one takes the perspective of the convolution engine as an abstract array of delays, you're not too far from attempting non-reverb effects. After all, the famous reverbs of the Eventide SP2016 came from its abstract delay array architecture, which could be configured as non-reverb effects.

 

Neat trick with white noise. I'm a fan of the short ambient effect of good size clubs, and have found that many reverbs cannot produce a short room reverb that is faithful to club ambience. Algorithm developers have admitted that short reverbs that sound convincing are the hardest to develop. My Eventide 2016 and Lexicon PCM60/Model 200 produce excellent ambient effects.

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Just read the white noise convolution reverb article - bookmarked.

 

I've played quite a smaller to medium sized clubs with interesting ambience. Big reverb puts the sound too far away sometimes.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Neat trick with white noise.

 

I released a pack of 100% synthetic Impulse Responses for convolution reverb, and they're being sold right here in the MPN shop. These days, they're pretty much all I use, especially on vocals. They have a "CGI" kind of quality that sounds surreal, but still sounds like reverb.

 

I particularly like how easy it is to create reverse reverbs, and 20-second reverbs with no periodicity, flutter, etc. I did a demo for the impulse pack that's kind of fun :)

 

[video:youtube]

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