How to sample a room and use it as a reverb - Impulse Response Tutorial 

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You've shared a lot of wisdom throughout the years so I want to return the favor, earplugs my dude

Thank you for letting your mistakes in the video, so we don't do the same! This was super helpful!

>waking up late at night >going thru corridor to the toilet >passing parents room >4:16

Wow, this is pure gold! Thank you for this. Probably one of the most valuable tutorials out there. We owe you some drinks for this

I think a good demonstration for a use for these impulses would be well recording dialogue. When doing ADR for movies, you often have to take pristine studio audio and make it sound like it was recorded in the street, or a kids bedroom. I think some of your close mic audio running through one of those impulses would have benn pretty interesting for most.

One of the coolest videos, I’ve seen in a while. Thanks for making.

excellent video! i never thought about trying this myself at all! probably i won‘t get all the new universal reverb sound this way, but for some unconventional sound effects, this might be a creative way to go to.

Thank you so much! Been trying to figure out how to do this for months and you laid it out so well!

great video as always! makes me want to make my own IR's again...

Dat thumbnail, while being absolutely real and resonable, destroyed me. Good job.

If you combined the first hand clap IR with the first balloon IR and merge with one or two choice transients you can make a unique sounding kick.

Super informative and interesting video! I'ma try making my own soon 👏

Awesome tutorial - thank you so much!

I learned a lot from this video.... Thanks!!!

Nice. I remember making IR's several years ago of this little set of laptop speakers. Why? Just something to do and wanted to see how authentic I could get it. Some info that may or may not be useful for capturing speakers: try a sine spike from 10 to 20000 hz instead of the pink noise or whatnot then going into a convolver. You get more brightness that way, perhaps even brrighter than the OG source which could be a problem. Anyway, I hipassed at 100hz to get rid of any unwanted lows and it worked pretty well. I think convolutions have to be one of the coolest finds and creative tools I use. Guitar cabinets, adding warmth to a synth track, sky's the limit. I hope eventually we can get acoustic rattle tech that allows you to capture resonance points and the sound of, say, a speaker cab with a buzzing screw or something. Talk about acoustic simulation madness fun! Cheers man. Take care of those ears, transients all day is no fun lol. Thx for all the great content!

fantastic stuff

That belt transported me to my childhood 😬😬😬

Wow, standing waves are very prominent. Cool study, Jon.

You are killing me. Haha! Pure comedy. Thanks for this.

sound good thanks

Cool, didn't know you could do that! Thanks for sharing

Pretty cool to know.

Very cool 😊😊😊

I've found that a single spark from a high voltage generator (like the type used in stun-guns) creates what is potentially a good impulse source in it being a sharp and loud (90dB-ish) crack. Just need to find a nice reverb-y space to try it out in.

I wonder if the balloon managed to compress the mic. It seems like it might have. Sometimes you defo can get the mic to compress before it electrically goes into clipping. Not exactly certain how, but I have managed to do that when I used a close condencer to record a snare mic. (yes, I did refer to the specs of the mic, but I guess I may have misjudged the snare loudness at that distance)

I think there was a sws action, normalize to a specified amount, or something like that

Some years ago, there was a selling event in a local music store, and my brother accidentally popped a balloon in the acoustic guitar test room. There were a bunch of acoustic guitars hanging on the wall and they all kind of amplified this popping balloon. Watching this video, I wonder how this room would work for an IR.

impressive! never thought about using an impulse in that way! always thought the click is the only option!

I did this a couple of years ago in my spacious church. I'm a church musician, so I'm very familiar with the sound of the church. It was very easy to create the reverb file in REAPER and it turned out to be quite authentic to the real room. I used a hand clap then. I may try again with a balloon pop.

I remember some years ago i went into a big local council hall with a speaker and my portable recording equipment capturing that big room. I got kicked as soon i did the first sweep eheheh! Nice one john, people show know this stuff.

Great vid. Hope to embellish on this for my DSP project. Wouldnt shaping the frequency response with an eq as an ideal rectangle 0 to 22.5khz, or your max, provide that you have a true impulse response given the fourier of an impulse? Im not sure if artifically modifying this would work, but it may be an idea to try to clean it up

Thank you, Jon's eardrums, for your noble sacrifice.

So what impulse source will be the best? Im thinking of flat studio monitor with a some kind of short sample of pink noise. If someone tried it, please tell how short that would be, what makes a job

use "recenter" by Boom Library to get perfect centered image of any stereo stuff it works like magic

Is there anywhere you can download impulse responses of various rooms?

My understanding is that to exactly replicate the sound of the room for a convolution reverb, you'd essentially need a peak impulse of no more than a sample long. In this instance the belt snap would probably be closest to that. Of course often it is not about achieving a perfect simulation of the room, but to achieve the result that best serves the creative process.

Awesome! Very helpful. I currently have access to an empty garage with extremely high ceilings next door to where I work. May as well try making use of it while I can.

18:43 if you're dealing with a large number of files to rename, and whose name should be related to the markers in your session, i suggest everyone to use scripts that create regions for each item (whose name will be based on the marker name preceding each item). I do that when i export drum samples that i cut myself, and it saves me a ton of time.

Hi John, So I have some outboard gear setup and audio is all passing through as it should, however, I am still getting latency through the reainsert plugin? Any idea what is causing this? I have pushed the ping button and it is coming back as zero latency. Please Help

How much monitor level did you set in the microphone , did you set a limiter? I also wanna try to record some impulse response. As I known, the X-Y microphone of H5 is a condenser microphone. I'm scared of destroying that X-Y.

I think that you need to compare the emittet signal and the recorded signal with some calculation to find the true characteristics of a room. But I may be wrong.

The frequency response of the transient will be what the mic picks up on. For truly accurate impulse response, you need a perfectly ‘flat’ impulse sound.

I love how you have a Pusheen in your bedroom :D

What brand of diffuser is next to you ?.. Thx... Appreciate vids !!

After experimenting with baloons and claps I bought myself a starter revolver with ammunition rated at 102 db. Works much better, you really need this to be loud.

Hi! Many thanks for your video really clear and honest, i have just a stupid question... Do you think it would be possible to remove the reverb of a room insead to add it on a dry record. The goal is to reduce acoustic room effects at listening position by this way.

I was wondering... I use a Focusrite Scarlett Solo which has two outputs: a headphones out on the front and 2 (L/R) outputs on the back which I connect to my speakers. Is there a way to let the metronome+music play through the headphones while the speakers play only the music?

Nothing to do with making the actual IR... But at 10:03 you zoomed in on the waveform. I noticed your waveform is shaded under the wave. Is there a setting that makes it do that?

How about using white noise as impulse? Would that give response for the entire frequency spectrum. Please reply...

Thanks, Jon! This would work with a Mono mic, wouldn't it?

Please dude look after your eardrums! the explosion of a balloon must be over 100dB loud! earplugs are essential for this especially so close! I feel for you :) great as always - one note: I don't think you should balance left/right as you are changing the sound of the room in the stereo field relative to the position. It can be interesting for effect but it wouldn't be a good representation of the room. Also the thing I noticed something the weirdest samples create amazing impulse response :) love your blog big support

Very useful, but I don't understand what "glueing" is and it's not apparent what that step is or why it's there. I am definitely going to sample my kitchen.

Why not record them in mono?

Hahaha was "ow my freakin ears" a Simpsons reference?

If you pop a balloon in a room that is super echoey will your neighbors call the police on you

Earplugs?

Going to sample my toilet🤑🤑🤑🤑

Would it work if I used my girlfriend‘s bare backside? 👋 🍑. - (She has great tone BTW). 😅🤣. Ps. Great video my friend - thanks a lot 🙏🌺🎶

Thank you very much for this tutorial, awesome! :-)