DIY Hardware Convolution Reverb? Anyone?

[Shroomystic]

Has anybody thought about tackling the situation of a hardware convolution reverb that works with sd card loadable IR`s?
Or has anybody stumbled across a thing that does that?
Could be very cool

 

[rock soderstrom]

Has anybody thought about tackling the situation of a hardware convolution reverb that works with sd card loadable IR`s?
Or has anybody stumbled across a thing that does that?
Could be very cool

I've thought about that too.

Not so much a convolution reverb but an algorithmic reverb was my thought. But in essence it's the same idea, you need a mini-computer just big enough with a small display and an integration of your DIY user interface. Then buy an audio interface as needed. The host software with the corresponding plug-in or the stand-alone software then runs on this mini-computer. When the system is started, a self-made batch file is loaded automatically, which starts and configures everything.

Actually not that difficult and a very good solution for live operation and also studio. Today's reverb plugins and simulations are really very powerful. From my point of view, it would be advantageous to give them their own 3 to 4HU box.

Has anyone already done this?

 

[thomasdf]

Wasn't the Sony DRE 777 a similar thing ? With CDs instead of SD cards

 

[living sounds]

I own one of these:

http://acousticir.free.fr/spip.php?article22
Discontinued now, but maybe you can find a used one. Pretty cool, for longer tails it's mono impulses only, but it uses a decorrelation algorithm for surprisingly good sounding stereo. Sounds better than plugins for some reason to my ears. Very basic, but it works.

 

[Ricardus]

I like this idea.

 

[mhelin]

Sounds like a good project for a Raspberry Pi 4 computer. When using a bare metal framework like Circle (GitHub - rsta2/circle: A C++ bare metal environment for Raspberry Pi with USB (32 and 64 bit)) and partitioned convolution the latency could be also very low.

 

[Shroomystic]

I believe the Daisy Seed — Electro-Smith -> Daisy Seed DSP Platform, could also come in handy in this idea.
I just dont really know how to utilize it... Could it really be that easy as loading / installing a Convolution Reverb to it and somehow making it fillable with IR's by an SD Card Reader and some basic programming to select the IR's which are displayed on a small OLED screen or paperwhite display... That would be fantastic and also possibly at fairly low cost. And maybe even putting a few different convolution devices on it (if one would go the max for live / max8 route which are also selectable via the display and then again load whatever IR one wants and bam -> happieness ?

 

[mhelin]

I would prefer the Daisy Patch board having the PCM3060 codec which is much better than the WM8731 on Seed which would make a nice guitar (speaker) cabinet IR loader anyway.

 

[kags]

Wasn't the Sony DRE 777 a similar thing ? With CDs instead of SD cards

Exactly. We actually still have a working Yamaha SREV1 that also uses CDRoms to load IRs. What a pain!

 

[alphasnk]

I own one of these:

http://acousticir.free.fr/spip.php?article22
Discontinued now, but maybe you can find a used one. Pretty cool, for longer tails it's mono impulses only, but it uses a decorrelation algorithm for surprisingly good sounding stereo. Sounds better than plugins for some reason to my ears. Very basic, but it works.

I was always interested in these, glad to know that it works well!

In case you guys are into IRs, i just did ir sets of the yamaha D1500 delay and the apogee rosetta converter: Flo Audio, the free downloads are depleted but it should be back tomorrow!

I'd be into trying the Daisy Seed if we can come up with a way to get it to work as a convolution player.

In the same kind of products, i have used the axoloti which was pretty cool for what it could do as well, but no convolution.

 

[EthanSpaulding]

Teensy 4.1 might also be something to look at.
Here is a repository I found interesting:
https://github.com/yongyizang/Real-time-Convolution-Reverb-on-Teensy/tree/main

 

[pucho812]

Has anybody thought about tackling the situation of a hardware convolution reverb that works with sd card loadable IR`s?
Or has anybody stumbled across a thing that does that?
Could be very cool

You just described a Sony product from days gone by. In the early 2000’s Sony had the DRE777 unit. You could make your own IR’s as well as you had cd roms that had IR’s on them. It also had copy protection in the form of an sd card type thing. It sounded quite good but it had a caveat, it took upwards of 2-3 minutes to change reverbs. So let’s say I load up a hall but I want a chamber, would take a couple minutes to load.

 

[z11111]

I believe there is some sort of pedal that will do this that my friend told me about -- I'll ask about it.

Also for reference, the Line 6 Helix units can (obviously) load guitar cab IRs, so depending on the convolution length I've had some fun luck with loading verb IRs as a "guitar cab" block. I'm pretty sure the Neural units will do it, too.

edit: here is the one my friend was telling me about Integral Dual Convolver stompbox – Tasty Chips Electronics
and also heard about this one. Seems like convolution IR loaders are "in" in 2023! There was also one called the Logidy Epsi which used SD cards, but apparently the UI was a pain to navigate and they discontinued it.

edit 2: another friend just reminded me about this thing by Poly Effects. It's a wild unit; I had a guitarist in for a session earlier this year who had one but I didn't mess with it.

 

[jeremynothman]

Not so helpful because I don’t know the name, but a friend was telling me about a chip that does exactly this, essentially built for guitarists. I believe it had some kind of component modeling, and an IR loader (intended to simulate speakers), so that you could “build” a guitar amp.

 

[gyraf]

Now you're at it,

..could you please make it a multi-level interpolating convolution, like nebula..?



Jakob E.

 

[oran.outan]

Hi

I don't know more than the theory, but for people using Max/msp with the Add of RNBO you can now export your 'patch' into code (like C++, VST,...) and for 'hardware', like on a microcontroller...
I know some works are made with Raspberry PI...
A friend make a simple code with a Bela Nano and was pretty good.
I supposed if the IN/OUT part Is 'update' for "better sound before beeing digitalized" it will not make a bad device !

but that RNBO extension will probably open the digital world to hardware...

Best
0-0

 

[alphasnk]

I'm trying out Faust: Faust Programming Language integration with juce, teensy and more..

Their online IDE is great: Faust IDE

 

[Whoops]

Has anybody thought about tackling the situation of a hardware convolution reverb that works with sd card loadable IR`s?
Or has anybody stumbled across a thing that does that?
Could be very cool

I did my own DIY version of that, very easy to do and sounds great.

It's a Macbook Pro 13 from 2011 running Live Professor with Altiverb IR Reverb, for audio In/Out I got an RME Fireface 400.
I can have 4 different Altiverb Reverbs, with 4 stereo outs from the RME FF400.

It's the best Reverb Processor I ever used.

Cost me in total 350€ (200€ for the used Macbook and 150€ for the used RME FF400)

 

[iomegaman]

I did my own DIY version of that, very easy to do and sounds great.

It's a Macbook Pro 13 from 2011 running Live Professor with Altiverb IR Reverb, for audio In/Out I got an RME Fireface 400.
I can have 4 different Altiverb Reverbs, with 4 stereo outs from the RME FF400.

It's the best Reverb Processor I ever used.

Cost me in total 350€ (200€ for the used Macbook and 150€ for the used RME FF400)

This is brilliant and giving me a great idea...
We are kinda not using one of our smaller editing stations and I think I might turn it into some sort of analog emulation system...

One of my big hissy fits with Altiverb is the fact that they are still not Silicone AAX yet so I have to run it through Bluecats patch plugin...which works but is a PITA...
We might take that unused workstation (Its an M1 Mac Mini, and we have options of Apogee Element, One, or Antelope Discrete 8 interfaces to pair with it) and just use it as an ADAT insert...light pipe everything back and forth...

Never used LiveProfessor...was gonna try Gigperformer but this looks promising
I also have a Dante Lisence that is just collecting digital dust...I might be able to do this without an interface just using dante's virtual soundcard thingy...

 

[Whoops]

What I can say is,
over the years I've used Lexicon 480, Lexicon 960, TC M6000, EMT 140,EMT 240, EMT 250, Bricasti M7, plus all the other well know hi end or low end units (yamaha spx) all of them are great in their own way, but Altiverb is the best overall reverb processor of all of the ones I've used.
I can do all the Reverbs I need with Altiverb and more, I'm sorted