TL Spaces & IR Recording

Question

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to get some advice on the subject. I just got my hands on TL Space & I'm going into my next project which is a feature that I'll be mixing, and I'd like to capture some IR's for it.

So Question 1 is : Any deconvolution software recommendations for TL Space on Mac? Cheap would be awesome, but I understand quality doesn't come cheap in most cases.

I can't seem to find a good deconvolution software to use with TL Spaces. I'd like to use a sine sweep to capture my IR's since its more accurate. I wish there was a budget to purchase Altiverb, but it's a no go. Although TL Spaces is sounding pretty good.

Question 2 : I noticed that the IR library for TL Space on avid's site is very small and impractical. Under "Post" there was just a 2 car garage, a van int, kitchen, Nuclear Cooling tower & Meadows. Am I missing something? Any recommendations for good IR libraries compatible with TL Space?

Question 3: If I go with the Transient Method for recording IR's, what have you got the best results with? I hear balloons are not so great because they lack some low end. Is a gun shot the best? If so, do you generally play back a gun shot recording through a speaker at a high volume for the best result? (depending on the speaker's frequency range I imagine. Right?)

Thanks guys! I'm really eager to dive into creating my own IR library and I really appreciate the help!

Answer 1

If you haven't already, read this:

http://designingsound.org/2012/12/recording-impulse-responses/

Some great info in there.

I don't actually use TL Space, but I believe you can load impulses into TL Space in .Wav format? At least that's what it says in the manual. OSX has the impulse response utility built into it - have a look in Applications/Utilities and you should find it. It's marketed to work with Space Designer, but actually it just creates regular IR's using the sine sweep method and then packages them into Space Designer's format and SDIR project files. Have a go with it and create an SDIR project (find the apple manual if you're not sure how it works). When you've finished, right click on the SDIRproject and choose 'show package contents' you can then get to the .Wav impulses and load them into another IR reverb plugin. So if you take a stereo impulse the files will be called 1.wav and 2.wav, one for each channel. Unfortunately, Apple do not explain this in the manual as they only want you to use Logic and Space Designer, but you can import the impulses into most IR reverb plugins.

So if you've got a soundcard, mic and OSX laptop you are pretty much ready to go.

It's worth testing this against the transient method though, as sometimes it seems to work better. If you're taking IR's on set then you pretty much have to use the transient method anyway as there's not enough time to set up speakers etc.

Answer 2

I used voxengo deconvolver to work with captured sine sweeps in tl space but think its win32, sorry. Bootcamp makes that stuff easy however.

Answer 3

Thanks Guys!!

I'll be taking Impulses on set via the Transient method (the director and producer are on board with the idea, and will try to ensure I get quite time in each location to snag the IR), since I'm using TL Spaces (Altiverb is my next purchase FOR SURE). So here's my next question :

Q : I figure the best Transient sound source will be white noise. I have a small keyboard amp and my iPod. I'm thinking of playing a quick clip of white noise on my iPod through the amp at a loud volume and recording the "room" with a large diaphragm condenser via my Sound Devices 722. Do you suppose this would work well? If not, what are your suggestions for a transient with a wide frequency range? A RECORDING of a starter pistol? Again, I'd love to use a sign sweep, but don't have the budget for a deconvolution software.

Thanks guys!!!