IR003 WOOD OBJECT Impulse Response

Following on from IR001 GLASS and IR002 METAL, this library of impulse responses explores the acoustics of wood objects via two specific approaches.

Following on from IR001 GLASS and IR002 METAL, this new library of impulse responses explores the acoustics of wood objects, ranging in size and scale from a pencil case to an upright piano, two double basses, two congas, a bass drum, Guzheng, Koto, two acoustic guitars, a semi-acoustic bass guitar, two ukeleles, two timbales, two toms, a violin, two toy pianos, three kalimbas, a zither, three tongue drums, a slit drum, log drum, woodblock, koto suitcase, and an antique ash box.

Empty Wood Object IRs

Sweeps were captured using Sennheiser MKH8020 mics, stereo where possible with large objects, while the very small objects were captured using DPA4060 microphones.

Wood objects varied in size and scale, from a pencil case to an upright piano, two double basses, two congas, a bass drum, Guzheng, Koto, two acoustic guitars, a Washburn semi-acoustic bass guitar, two ukeleles, two vintage timbales, two toms, a violin, two toy pianos, three kalimbas, a zither thingy, an Osi drum and two other tongue drums, a slit drum, log drum and wood block, koto suitcase and an antique fireplace ash box.

Pitch shifted IRs at half speed & quarter speed

Processed versions of each IR are included, pitch shifting and slowing the IR to half speed and quarter speed to expand its use with a wider range of source material via easy preview.

In total, this collection contains 222 24bit 96kHz Impulse Responses.

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Check out the Making Of video to get a very rapid idea of their use applied to a beat and to DX. There are also SoundCloud previews of every IR below.

Pricing and Availability

IR003 WOOD OBJECT Impulse Response is available now. For early bird discount please use coupon code ‘BONK’ for a 33% discount! Note discount expires July 11th, 2021.

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IR002 METAL OBJECT Impulse Responses

Following on from IR001 GLASS Impulse Responses by HISS and a ROAR, this library of impulse responses explores the acoustics of 43 metal objects via three specific approaches.

1. Empty Metal Object IRs
Ranging in size and scale from a tiny soda can to a huge grain silo, sweeps were captured using an MKH8020 mics, stereo where possible with the large objects, while the very small objects were captured using a DPA4060 mic.

2. Pitch shifted IRs at half speed & quarter speed.
Processed versions of each IR are included, pitch shifting and slowing the IR to half speed and quarter speed to expand its use with a wider range of source material via easy preview.

3. Iterated IRs 
As per GLASS IR001, I iterated the process by playing the captured IR back into the same object.

In total, this collection contains 275 24bit 96kHz Impulse Responses. 

Check out the Making Of video to get a very rapid idea of their use applied to a beat and to DX. There are also soundcloud previews of every IR below.

COMPATABILITY:
These IRs have been tested in the following Convolution plugins.

AudioEase Altiverb – check their great Pipe IRs video
LiquidSonics Reverberate
Avid Space
Apple Space Designer – Logic or Mainstage
Ableton Convolution Reverb
Reaper ReaVerb
Waves IR1
Melda Production MConvolutionEZ (free)
Impulse Record Convology XT (free)

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Pricing and Availability

IR002 METAL OBJECT Impulse Responses is available now.

IR001 GLASS Impulse Response Library

HISS and a ROAR’s first experience with the idea of using IRs captured from within small objects came from Claustrophobia, an IR set recorded & released by Fokk van Saane. Back in 2004 while Tim Prebble running HISS and a ROAR has been working on the horror film Boogeyman, Tim needed to create a sound for an occasionally evil plasma ball. After syncing and manipulating electrical sounds the final aspect that set Tim’s sounds into the plasma ball was the use of a small glass object IR.

The glass resonance imparted on Tim sounds really sold the reality of the sound design. Ever since Tim wanted to explore this territory further, and it was only when collecting and recording props for the glass sound FX libraries that he decided to pursue it. The result is the newly released IR001 GLASS Impulse Response Library. In total the IR001 GLASS Impulse Response Library collection contains 345 Impulse Responses.

Thanks to great plugins like Altiverb, Reveberate, TL Space, etc you will no doubt be aware of the use of Impulse Responses to apply the reverberation of acoustic spaces. But convolution can also be applied to smaller acoustic spaces, and while recording the two glass FX libraries HISS and a ROAR slowly assembled a collection of glass objects, and HISS and a ROAR just released their first IR Library.

Glass Object IR

32 Empty Glass Object IRs were captured using an MKH8020 mic. The two yard glasses (& other narrow neck bottles) were captured using a DPA4060 mic. These objects can be thought of as a tiny concert hall, with small scale room modes and peaky resonance with a glassy tone. The IRs tend to be short & high frequency, with the total volume and the size of the neck contributing to their tonality.

Pitch shifted IRs at half speed & quarter speed

As with all convolution, frequencies that are common to the source and the IR are accentuated, for example, if you convolve a sub bass sound with a violin you get nothing. So as an experiment Tim tried pitch-shifting the 32 Glass Object IRs, and at both half speed and quarter speed the spectrum of the resonance is lowered into potentially useful range, and of course elongated.

Underwater IRs

Next each of the objects were filled with water and underwater IRs were captured using a hydrophone. As water is denser than air, the speed of sound is faster which equates to higher frequency, faster reflections and strangely harmonic ringy IRs. Pitch shifted underwater IRs at half speed & quarter speed are also included.

Jelly IRs

Three of the objects were filled with jelly, and IRs were captured with the hydrophone set in three flavours of jelly. Pitch shifted Jelly IRs at half speed & quarter speed are also included. Jelly causes strange harmonic resonance.

Iterated IRs

While working on this collection Tim was reminded of the fascinating work by Alvin Lucier – I Am Sitting In A Room, where Lucier played a recording of his voice into a room, captured the room sound and then replayed it into the room, again recording it. As the process is repeated again and again, the dialogue becomes entirely unintelligible as the iterated room acoustic slowly becomes a harmonic drone.

To achieve this with an IR, Tim iterated the process of playing the captured IR back into the object. As a test, he iterated ten times and found the IRs rapidly became diffuse and accentuated tonal resonance, with blurred transients. Some iterated IRs almost sounding like harmonic feedback while others latched on to low frequencies. Based on the results Tim decided to include the first and third iterations.

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Pricing and Availability

IR001 GLASS Impulse Response Library is available now. For 33% early bird discount please use Coupon Code ‘PING’ at checkout.
This discount expires April 26th, 2021.

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